State v. Cioch, 79S05-0902-CR-00092
07-01-09, Ind. 908 N.E.2d 1154
Attorney: Matthew S. Sandy; Teri A. Cummins
Holding: Trial court erred in suppressing breath test results merely because of an inaccurate timestamp on breath test printout. The breath test machine had not yet been adjusted to reflect daylight savings time and police officer wrote the actual time of day by hand on test results printed by the machine. 260 I.A.C. 1.1-4-8(6) provides: “[w]hen the printer stops, remove the EVIDENCE TICKET from the instrument and check the EVIDENCE TICKET for the numerical alcohol SUBJECT SAMPLE and correct date and time.” The administrative regulations are silent as to what course of action the operator should take if an anomaly occur. Court relied on Missouri Court of Appeals’ decisions holding that the wrong time and date on the breath machine print-out is not evidence of malfunction. See, e.g., Stuhr v. State, 766 S.W.2d 466, 469 (Mo.Ct.App. 1989) (“time and date component of the machine is a separate component from that of the sample collection portion of the unit”). Officer in this case followed each of required steps of procedure and did not do anything that calls into question the reliability of the instrument or the evidence ticket when he noticed the erroneous timestamp and wrote the actual time of day on it. Held, transfer granted, Court of Appeals’ memorandum opinion vacated, suppression order reversed
