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On December 11, 2009, the City of Colorado Springs issued a press release that the Metro Crime Lab had identified "a problem" with blood alcohol test results in some DUI cases. According to the release, after the problem was detected, the lab conducted an internal investigation and identified 82 tests since January, 2009 where the results were reported as higher than the actual result. The lab is continuing to investigate and there may be more problem results identified. According to the release, these samples are being re-analyzed and the crime lab is issuing an amended report with the corrected results. The District Attorney's office has a list of the cases that have been affected by these incorrect test results. We have examined the list and have not found any of our client's cases on the list. We have been told that only about 1/3 of the blood samples have been retested and additional information is expected in the next month. Our review of the list showed that 55 of the problem tests occurred in a period from late September to the end of November. At this time, the cause of the problem has not been identified. In our practice, we routinely retest the blood that was taken from our clients at an independent lab. Although the crime lab's results have usually been slightly higher than our retested results, they have been within the margin of error that is scientifically accepted by the experts. For a link to the press release go to: http://www.springsgov.com/News.aspx?NewsID=256
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