As a Fort Lauderdale DUI Attorney I have the opportunity to display recent images I took of the Intoxilyzer 8000 featured at the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers "Blood, Breath & Tears," seminar in Orlando last month. It is interesting to note that CMI, the manufacturer of the Intoxilyzer, has made it nearly impossible for DUI defense lawyers, such as myself, to purchase this device. In fact, CMI has continually made enormous efforts to keep its machine as secret as possible. It was only after many years in use in Florida that CMI allowed some DUI defense attorneys to purchase the previous incarnation of the Intoxilyzer, known as the "5000."
This company does not hide the fact that it is engaged in legal warfare with the criminal defense bar throughout the country. They are extemely proud of the fact that they can keep their machine and how it works a secret from those who suffer the most from its effects. To me, it is no suprise that they resort to such extremes. I can safely say that it is not very well designed and is prone to bugs and glitches. Particularly disturbing is the little money the company has consistently spent on some of the Intoxilyzers' most important components. I personally showed in 2005, in a Courtroom full of lawyers and judges, that the shabby and cheaply manufactured infrared lens used in this machine consistently misidentified common volatile organic compounds as alcohol. That meant that the machine could not tell the difference between alcohol molecules and other volative organic molcules found in human beings.
That has always been a major flaw in the design of this device. The company says that the newest model is free from such problems. However, no one outside the company can test this claim because the company keeps the machine out of the hands of those of us who have never believed a word anyone from CMI has ever said about its products.
I have practiced DUI defense in South Florida, including Miami-Dade County, Ft. Lauderdale in Broward County and Boca Raton and West Palm Beach in Palm Beach County for 25 years. The last twenty of those years have been spent dealing with CMI and its outlandish statments concerning its products. My experience has shown me clearly, that this company, despite its lofty and somewhat self-righteous assertions concerning its motives, is in the business of making money. And, like any other mid-sized business it must do what it must to keep its people employed and continue to pay its executives nice bonuses. That means, lots of cloak and dagger and mystery and as little as possible of actual disclosure concerning the product it produces. A product that has resulted in so much dissapointment.
