Following on the heels of our Indiana Law Blog report earlier this week (March 30th, access it here or scroll down) on whether or not chewing tobacco renders breathalyzer results inadmissible is a Court of Appeals ruling (unfortunately not yet available on line) being reported by the AP, that a tongue stud "renders breath test inadmissible." Some quotes:
The 2-1 decision said the tongue stud was a "foreign substance" that should have been removed at least 20 minutes before the Breathalyzer test was conducted.Posted by Marcia Oddi at April 2, 2004 03:39 PMUnder state guidelines for the alcohol tests, people must not have had anything to eat or drink, put any foreign substance in their mouth or respiratory tract, and must not smoke within 20 minutes before the breath sample being taken. * * *
Judge Robert Staton dissented, saying the statutory definition of "foreign substance" could not reasonably include every possible item in someone's mouth. "The metal object in Guy's mouth, a stainless steel tongue stud, was part of her persona," Staton wrote.