2nd Guilty Verdict Issued in Test DUI Case

In a test case for the fight over 300 drunk-driving cases handled by the Ventura County crime laboratory, the jury dropped the other shoe on Wednesday, finding an Oxnard man guilty of driving under the influence of alcohol.

The jury returned the second verdict a day after it found Rey David Diaz guilty of the secondary count of driving with a blood-alcohol level higher than the legal limit of .08%.

Diaz now faces a probable penalty of 48 hours in jail, three years’ probation and several hundred dollars in fines, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin Suh.

Prosecutors have argued that rulings in the Diaz case should carry some weight in a bid by defense attorneys to have some 300 drunk-driving cases dismissed because they were handled by an improperly-run crime lab.

The crime lab was operating without a forensic alcohol supervisor for about six months, from Nov. 16--the day then-supervisor Norm Fort retired--until May 23, the day Dea Boehme officially took over.

But in the Diaz case, Judge Edward Brodie has ruled that the lab never operated without a license, although it did violate some rules on staffing and procedures.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter Kossoris has asked Judge Steven Perren to take judicial notice of Brodie’s ruling in considering the larger question--whether those violations can color the breath-test evidence in the 300 questioned cases.

But defense attorney Bob Huber, who represents several of those defendants, said that Brodie’s ruling and the Diaz verdicts should have no bearing on the larger case. Prosecutors are still turning over evidence to the defense in the larger case, while Brodie’s refusal to order a prosecutor to testify may be grounds for appeal, he said.

“My clients’ rights can’t be foreclosed because of some case that has no standing before [Perren],” he said.

Diaz is to be sentenced Friday afternoon. Perren’s next hearing will be on Aug. 19, to hear a defense motion to have the district attorney’s office recused from the case and replaced by the attorney general’s office.