QUESTIONS FOR THE FLSB FORENSIC SCIENTIST
1. Please introduce yourself.
2. Where do you work?
3. Who do you work for?
4. What is your profession?
5. How long have you been employed by the Forensic Toxicology Laboratory of WSP?
6. What duties does that include?
7. What education and training have you had to qualify you as a forensic scientist?
a. Optional: [if relevant to witness]
i. Have you written any articles (lectures, etc.)?
ii. Are you a member of any societies or organizations in this field?
iii. Have you ever been qualified as an expert witness in any matter?
iv. How many times?
Foundation
8. Are you familiar with the requirements for a valid breath test?
9. Does this include knowledge regarding state law, administrative rules, and the internal procedures of the state toxicologist’s office?
10. Have you had an opportunity to review the facts of this case?
11. Do you have an opinion whether the breath test in this case was conducted in accord with those restrictions?
12. What is that opinion? [yes, assuming operator did his job at onset]
13. You mentioned your job include testing and certification of simulator solutions?
14. What is the simulator solution?
15. How is it used in relation to the BAC Datamaster?
16. Did you test and certify simulator solution # ?
17. Briefly describe the protocol followed for testing and certification of the simulator solution.
18. Is this procedure approved by the State toxicologist?
19. Was the approved procedure followed in preparing simulator solution batch # ?
20. When was batch # prepared?
21. Was the simulator solution # tested following its preparation?
22. Did the results of this procedure conform to the toxicologist’s requirements?
23. Does the reading obtained for the solution on the Datamaster agree with the requirements of the state toxicologist?
24. Is simulator solution batch # acceptable for use on the DM to give an external standard test?
25. Handing you what has been marked as State's exhibit # can you identify what it is?
26.
27. [If not admitted - Move to admit the breath test result]
Offer the BAC Ticket into Evidence
18. What are the results of the Defendant's breath test as shown in exhibit #1?
19. Are these results expressed in Grams of Alcohol per 210 liters of breath?
RETROGRADE EXTRAPOLATION
IF YOU WANT TO USE RETROGRADE, GET ALL PERTINENT DATA ABOUT THE DEFENDANT FROM THE ARRESTING OFFICER AT THE TIME HE TESTIFIES (Defendant's weight, age, time of first drink, # of drinks Defendant admits to, time of last drink)
If you are using retrograde to get BAC back to within two hours of driving need to allow time of absorption of alcohol into system (1 hour is very safe), it helps to know the time of the last drink, and is necessary to have the person's BAC.
1. Are you familiar with Widmarks Formula?
2. Can you please give a brief description of what it is and how it is used?
3. Do you have experience/training with Widmark's Formula?
4. Have you participated in drinking lab experiments? Describe?
5. Are there limits to this calculation?
6. Are there assumptions that you have to make in performing this calculation?
7. Would the result of this calculation apply to all people?
8. How would you account for a variation? (Express an average and a range)
9. Are there circumstances in which this calculation should not be performed?
10. What are these?
11. Given the sex, weight, drinking period and type of alcohol used by a person and if you knew that person's BAC at an earlier time, could you perform that calculation?
12. Are there additional assumptions you would need to make? (Average and range of absorption and elimination/burn off rates)
Tox will need to assume the Defendant was post absortive for retrograde to be accurate.
13. Would your calculation include the average burn off rate of a person and the range of burn off rates within the general population?
14. Given the BAC of per 210 liters of breath and using the average range of burn off rates, could you calculate what a person's BAC would have been hours earlier? (Can use retrograde to determine how many drinks a person would have had to reach a certain BAC, just ask tox what info they need for this calculation)
15. Please do so.
Affected by element
1. Have you had training on the effects of alcohol on the human body?
2. Have you conducted any studies or research on the effects of alcohol on the human body?
3. From your training, studies and research can you draw general conclusions about the effects of alcohol on the human body?
4. How, in general, does alcohol affect the central nervous system? (Depressant, judgment even at low levels is affected, muscle coordination, less balance, problems with eye muscles in particular night vision)
5. Does a person have to be a .08 to be affected (no, symptoms manifest in an individual as Iow a level as .04)
6. Is everyone affected in the same way by all of these symptoms?
7. Given your experience and training would you be able to give an opinion as to whether a person with a BAC of grams of alcohol per 210 liters of breath would have an impaired ability to drive. (If objection, lay foundation for important of effects of alcohol on central nervous system with respect for one's ability to have divided attention skills necessary to drive a car)
8. What is that opinion?
9. What is a tolerance level?
10. How does that affect a person's impairment by alcohol?
LEADING QUESTIONS ARE PERMITTED IN ORDER TO LAY THE FOUNDATION FOR ADMISSIBLE EVIDENCE.
ER 104 and 1101 - ER 104, 703, 1101 c1, foundational documents do not have to be admissible for expert to rely on.