Source: https://www.swangolaw.com/custom141/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 16:06:46+00:00

Document:
Virginia Beach DUI Attorney – Norfolk DUI Lawyer : § 18.2-268.5. Qualifications and liability of persons authorized to take blood sample; procedure for taking samples. | Swango Law P.C.
Where the statute requires that when the Commonwealth draws blood for the purposes of an alcohol or drug test, the part of the body from which the blood is taken must be cleaned with “soap and water, polyvinylpyrrolidone iodine or benzalkonium chloride,” but the record stated that “benadine” was used to clean appellant’s arm, and nothing in the record supported the argument that using “benadine” substantially complied with the statute, then a finding of substantial compliance could not be supported. Hudon v. Commonwealth, 21 Va. App. 184, 462 S.E.2d 913 (1995).
Given substantial compliance by Commonwealth with procedures for blood extraction, absence of evidence establishing whether a solution was used to prepare defendant’s arm goes to the weight of the evidence, not to its admissibility; therefore, trial judge did not abuse his discretion by admitting in evidence certificate of blood analysis showing defendant to have been intoxicated, there being no evidence in the record to prove that nurse’s failure to cleanse defendant’s arm caused a contamination which affected the accuracy of the test. Snider v. Commonwealth, 26 Va. App. 729, 496 S.E.2d 665 (1998).
REASONABLE PROOF THAT THE INSTRUMENT WAS PROPERLY STERILIZED IS ESSENTIAL in establishing the reliability of the test itself. Brush v. Commonwealth, 205 Va. 312, 136 S.E.2d 864 (1964) (decided under former § 18.2-268).
In the absence of proof showing that the instrument used to withdraw defendant’s blood was sterilized pursuant to the requirements of this section, the Commonwealth has not met the burden imposed upon it, and the certificates setting forth the alcoholic content of defendant’s blood are not admissible. Brush v. Commonwealth, 205 Va. 312, 136 S.E.2d 864 (1964) (decided under former § 18.2-268).

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