Court Opinion

ID: 9610106
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:36:41.841147+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:56.384277
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
dissenting.
Once again this Court is asked to evaluate the reliability of the Intoximeter 3000 with its Taguchi cell removed. The majority points to State v. Wilson, 116 Idaho 771, 780 P.2d 93 (1989), and State v. Hartwig, 112 Idaho 370, 732 P.2d 339 (Ct.App.1987), to support its view that the Intoximeter 3000 has gained scientific acceptance in Idaho. In a separate opinion in Wilson, I discussed some of the problems with using the Intoximeter 3000 without the Taguchi cell, and rather than repeat those points any interested reader is directed to that opinion. Wilson, 116 Idaho at 774, 780 P.2d at 96 (Bistline, J. dissenting). It is also worth noting that the breath test used in the Hartwig case was obtained by use of the Intoximeter 3000 before the Taguchi cell was removed; therefore, the Hartwig opinion is no longer relevant.
The importance of the removal of the Taguchi cell from the Intoximeter 3000 was well illustrated in People v. Jones, 118 Misc.2d 687, 461 N.Y.S.2d 962 (1983):
The Intoximeter 3000 is a breath-testing device which utilizes infrared energy and electrical current to detect the presence of ethyl alcohol (ethanol) in the breath of a driver.
The device gives a reading of the amount of interfering substance in the subject’s breath by comparing the amount of infrared energy striking the detector after the two beams pass through the chambers.
At this point, it is impossible to conclude that the absorbing substance is ethyl alcohol, because in addition to ethyl alcohol, there are other substances which absorb radiation at 3.39 microns.
In order to enable the Intoximeter 3000 to give a specific reading for ethyl alcohol, another device is necessary. Thus, the Intoximeter 3000, in addition to its infrared analysis of breath based on the Beer-Lambert Law of Absorption, also contains a semi-conductor (a Taguchi sensor) by which it is able to distinguish ethyl alcohol from other substances which absorb infrared radiation in the area of 3.39 microns.
If infrared analysis were the only process incorporated in the Intoximeter 3000, the results of the test would be inadmissable because the test would lack specificity in light of the numerous substances in addition to ethyl alcohol, which absorb infrared energy at the wavelength of 3.39 microns.
461 N.Y.S.2d at 963-67.
By removing the Taguchi cell from the Intoximeter 3000 the state has created seri*357ous doubts as to the reliability of the device. Consequently, Intoximeter 3000 test results which were obtained with the Taguchi cell disconnected should not be admissible as evidence in a criminal prosecution.