Friday, October 24, 2008

Fraud by DPS tech in DWI cases

Reports the Dallas News:
At least 2,600 Houston-area DWI arrests are now in question, after a Department of Public Safety contractor failed to inspect breath analysis equipment – and faked records to show that she had
MORE: Here's a longer story from the Houston Chronicle, which informs us that:
The Texas Department of Public Safety announced Friday that it suspended the certification for a woman who contracted to keep the breath test machines accurate for the Clute, Friendswood, Galveston, League City, Pearland, Seabrook, South Houston and Webster police departments. ...

DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said the problem was discovered in a routine audit last week; the inspector was suspended on Thursday; and DPS met with the prosecutors in Harris, Galveston and Brazoria counties Friday to discuss the next steps.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

lies and corruption from government paid companies? Oh grits, say it isn't so!

Anonymous said...

I hope you are planning to keep us posted on this one. This is monumental!

Anonymous said...

Did she work for TYC before.....20 to 1000 odds.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone noticed some of the posters who assume to be elite/intellects? They seem to be far above the average posters and provide the rest of us with their superior insight. Are they PSY-types, who gained their MSW-PHD congrediantials from a Mexican - brothel approved program? I hope most of us can keep up with these wizards of CJ, that caused most of the mess in he first place; possible we can clean up their mess.

Anonymous said...

Kind of like Fitzgerald in Bexar County with his UA lab that finds everyone positive?

Who is looking out for the public?

Anonymous said...

Aren't these machines rather prone to error anyway? Does certification on a monthly basis, regardless of usage, just mean 'good enough for govt work?

Anonymous said...

Grits,

In Bexar we found out that the ua lab was using below SAMASHA levels. There were positives that were from over the counter cold meds. The whistleblower continues to find more each day. This whole thing blows my mind.

I would like to know as the last blogger are certifications an easy pass or is it more detailed. Could it be likely that people were falsly charged?

If people could have been falsly charged then lets see what comes next. How will this be fixed? Who will step up?

In Bexar, Fitzgerald and Kathy Kline continue to cover up the bad results. Kind of like hiding under a blanket and the blanket has been pulled away. I see these two just sitting there thinking no one sees them and what they have done.

I hope if all this is true that this DPS tech can have a cell near Fitzgerald and Kline. We hold people of the law to higher standards the higher up the pay scale they go in Bexar the more they seem to break the law.

I hope for the dawn of a brighter day where people in field remember they are not above the law.

Anonymous said...

I'll bet this turns out to be a lazy employee who didn't feel like actually calibrating, so he/she just checked off that it had been done. I have seen this happen with folks who are supposed to test vital safety equipment (say, fire extinguishers), so it's not that surprising.

FleaStiff said...

The certification is boring work and its so easy to simply check off a box on a form. Thats all most supervisors want anyway.

Decades ago one nursing home called 911 about an eloped patient and during the several hours it took to find him frozen to death on the back porch, a form was signed every half hour that his room was checked and he was fine.

You pay low wages, you get low quality employees.

Don said...

I'm with Anon 10:06. From a practical standpoint, it doesn't really matter much if they're calibrated or not, they're such a crap shoot anyway. But the matter of principal is important. They need to at least go through the motions, and rise to the level of junk science, which is what they are at best.

Anonymous said...

If Texans really understood how these laws were enforced there would be more outrage. No one wants to take on MADD, yet this is a very subjective crime based on suspect science. If we all went to jail for an opinion crime a lot more of us might understand how bad these laws are. We need a program similar to New mexico that helps to reduce reticisim among those that have the true root of these problems the chronic alcolholic.