Minnesota DWI Defense Blog : Roseville DUI Defense Lawyer & Attorney : Ramsay Law Firm : Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minnesota

Defense Attorney Charles Ramsay and others have been diligently fighting in hopes to obtain the source code for the Intoxilyer 5000EN, the breath test machine currently used in the state of Minnesota by law enforcement to test suspected drunken drivers.   On Friday June 19th, 2009 Charles Ramsay, on behalf of Plantiffs-Intervenor and other defense attorneys, argued their position at a Motion Hearing regarding the Source Code Litigation before the Honorable Judge Frank.

As reported in the Star Tribune, Judge Frank will issue a decision in regards to a proposed federal settlement for Minnesota drivers to gain access ...This decision may end three years of litigation over the source code that runs the Intoxilyzer 5000EN.

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Starting Tuesday, June 9, 2009 Minnesota has a new seat belt law.  The old seat beat law, which has been in effect for quite some time now, was that a cop could only give you a ticket for a seat belt violation, only  if you were originally involved in some other kind of traffic violation that lead to your stop by the police.

But... the new law is that no matter what and no matter where, you HAVE to wear your seat belt, otherwise a cop can pull you over and ticket you.  You do not have to be doing anything wrong, except not wearing your seat belt now.

Also, the old law stated that adults in the front seat needed to wear their seat belt.  But adults in the back seat, were not required to.  With the new law, EVERYONE in the car, needs to have their seat belts on, too.

The fines for the violation of wearing yoru seat belt start at $25 and can go up, depending on the county.  The DPS believes that this will drastically reduce the amount of serious injuries and even deaths due to car crashes.  This law ties in with the other new law that is going to go into effect on July 1, 2009 that all children under the age of 8, or under 4' 9" need to be in a booster seat so that the seat belt falls across them correctly.

So from now on, do not ignore the flashing, red seat belt guy, that always dings when you do not put your seat belt on right away.  Now he is there to not only save your life, in case of a crash, but to save you time and money from getting pulled over and ticketed.

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On Friday, May 29th, 2009 the attorney's for CMI and the attorney's from the Attorney General's office met privately, and secretly for about six hours and determined a mutual settlement agreement on the Source Code issue.  But the odd thing was that no one from the Plantiff-Intervenors were present or made aware of this meeting until THIS morning.  Even though it was indicated in the minutes, from this private meeting, that the plaintiff-intervenors were in attendance.  That is a bona fide lie.

The State triumphantly sent a copy of the Mutual Release and Settlement Agreement, theConsent Judgment and Permanent Injuction, and a cover letter to Judge Donovan Frank today making him aware that the State and CMI had reached an agreement.  They stated that the settlement is contingent upon's the Court's approval.  The State also filed a Joint Motion For Entry of Consent Judgement and Permanent Injuction.

Mr. Ramsay was quoted by the Pioneer Press in the article; Minnesota U.S. District Court / Breath test maker offers new deal, stating: "It's not a paper version of the source code.  It's actually a decompiled version of the machine language, which strips the source code of key aspects."   The article further reads,"Ramsay also objected to the hearing date, calling it too early. He said that in federal court in Minnesota, parties are given 45 days to review motions to settle a case. The June 11 hearing "violates the local federal rules," he said. "

So why is the Minnesota Attorney General so Desperate?  Perhaps this is the reason:

Judge Anderson whispers: the state doesn’t have the source code

or this,

Breathalyzers: May Be Inadmissible in Court

or finally, it may be because of this,

Open Letter to the Minnesota Bench

Then again the mention of BIG dollar signs, never hurts when reaching an understanding, either.  This "agreement" is not yet settled.

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