ANDOVER, MASS. (WHDH) - Tens of thousands of drivers involved in drunk driving cases in Massachusetts could get a second chance thanks to a decision from Massachusetts’ highest court this week that ruled nearly 30,000 cases are compromised due to issues with breathalyzers and alleged misconduct by the state Office of Alcohol Testing.
The ruling centers around one woman who decided to appeal her case.
The woman’s attorney, Murat Erkan, spoke with 7NEWS, saying his client took a breathalyzer test when she was stopped at a sobriety checkpoint in Beverly roughly 10 years ago. The test, Erkan said, returned a result three times over the legal blood alcohol limit in Massachusetts.
“My view was that her case was not winnable with the breathalyzer test,” Erkan said.
Erkan said he advised the woman to plead guilty.
Years later, they tried to appeal after learning of alleged wrongdoing in the state Office of Alcohol Testing.
A judge denied the appeal. So, the case went before the state Supreme Judicial Court, which issued its ruling on Wednesday.
The court ruled that breathalyzers used in Massachusetts since 2011 weren’t reliable. It also found what it called “egregious misconduct,” by the Office of Alcohol Testing, ruling that this “undermined the criminal justice system in the Commonwealth, compromised thousands of prosecutions for OUI offenses and potentially resulted in inaccurate convictions.”
Farid Ennagi is among those now planning to appeal his case in the wake of this decision a matter of years after he pleaded guilty to an OUI offense in 2019.
“When this happened to me, everything changed,” he said. “No work. No job. No money.”
Wednesday’s ruling gives Ennagi and 27,000 others the ability to appeal, applying to anyone who was convicted or who pleaded guilty because of the breath tests involved in this case between 2011 and 2019.
“They know now that the door is open to them too, if they felt the evidence was incorrect in their case, to litigate that issue in the court and potentially be exonerated for a crime that they maybe never committed,” Erkan said.
“We made a plea based on what was represented to us,” said Farid Ennagi’s attorney Peter Marano. “Had we known there was misconduct and egregious conduct, the majority of those 27,000 people wouldn’t have pled.”
“If not for this case, people like Farid wouldn’t have the chance to clear his record,” Marano later said.
Marano said he and Ennagi plan to file a motion for a new trial.
Erkan said his client didn’t know the ruling would come down on Wednesday but said she was pleased and grateful.
The Office of Alcohol Testing falls under the Massachusetts State Police. Contacted on Wednesday, state police said they are reviewing the court’s ruling, adding that the office has made significant improvements in recent years.
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