Blog

Following the discovery of misconduct from the Office of Alcohol Testing in Massachusetts, defense counsel and prosecutors have filed a negotiated agreement with the court for sanctions proposing the exclusion of at least 36,500 breath tests from evidence.

Have you been convicted of an OUI in Massachusetts between June 2011 and September 14, 2014? If so, did you submit to a breathalyzer during this time? If you answered yes to either of these two questions, you might be eligible to have your plea withdrawn, or you can request a new trial due to co...

Attorney Bernard will be attending the Leaders in the Law Awards event tonight from 5:30-8:00 p.m. in the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel as an honoree. This event is presented by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly, and New England In-House. Click here to learn more.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is scheduled to hear arguments regarding conditional pleas on April 2, 2018 in Commonwealth v. Gomez, SJC-12437. In the federal system and in many states, a defendant may condition his plea to preserve his right to appeal the denial of a  pretrial motion. ...

Last week, Attorney Bernard was at the Concord District Court for Commonwealth v. Ananias. The case has been continued to March 26, 2018, at 2:00 p.m. for a better determination of the discovery. 

For the first time in Massachusetts, a hospital blood test result has been found scientifically unreliable in an OUI case! In many cases where a citizen is in an accident and taken to a hospital, blood is drawn and tested to determine the citizens blood alcohol content. Attorney Bernard has been...

Our office wanted to congratulate Attorney Bernard for being awarded Massachusetts Lawyer of the Year in 2017! We are so proud of everything he has accomplished. As most know, Attorney Bernard has been one of the lead attorneys in Commonwealth v. Ananias. While being involved in that case, he has...

At the status hearing on January 18, 2018, at 2:00 p.m. in the Concord District Court for Commonwealth v. Ananias, the Judge ruled that the Commonwealth committed discovery violations and scheduled the case for final status to complete all discovery. The case has been rescheduled to February 15, ...

The other week, Attorney Bruno took part in an online webinar involving crime laboratory accreditation process. There were three panelists who led the discussion: Kenneth E. Melson, Laurel J. Farrell, and Detective Lieutenant Robert J. Garrett. Kenneth E. Melson is the former acting director of t...

On December 8, 2017, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued its decision in Commonwealth v. Camblin II, holding that the breath test results from the Draeger 7110 Breathalyzer are reliable based on the devices source code and ability to identify interfering substances. The original case...

On November 15, 2017, Attorney Erica M. Bruno attended a Continuing Legal Education Seminar, Motor Vehicle Stops: A View from the Bench, at her alma mater Western New England University School of Law. The seminar presented a panel of judges, including district court Judge Charles Groce, William H...

Spending time in a real gas chromatograph laboratory is one of the best learning experiences I have ever had. The entire nation is moving away from the archaic breath test to measure an individuals blood alcohol and Massachusetts will eventually start utilizing with more frequency gas chromatogr...

The Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPPS) has concluded its investigation in the Office of Alcohol Testing and issued a report validating Attorney Bernards allegations of serious discovery violations. The report concluded that the Office of Alcohol Testing routinely withheld d...

The Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (“EOPPS”) has released its report regarding its investigation into the Office of Alcohol Testing (“OAT”). In response to the motion filed by Attorney Bernard alleging serious discovery violations in the consolidated litigation of Commonwealth v. ...

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has decided that a jury should not be given a specific instruction regarding the absence of a breathalyzer test or other alcohol-test evidence in an OUI case unless the defendant requests the instruction. In a criminal trial, a defendants refusal to su...

Yesterday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued its decision in Commonwealth v. Gerhardt, a case challenging whether field sobriety tests can be admitted into evidence against a individual charged with operating under the influence of marijuana. Field sobriety tests were developed to a...

Today, the Secretary of Public Safety, Daniel Bennett, issued a letter recognizing that the Office of Alcohol Testing failed to apprise fully the District Attorneys Offices of the existence of certain documents relating to the testing of the Alcotest 9510... This letter confirms the issues des...

The District Attorneys Office has issued a statewide moratorium on the use of breath test results in OUI cases as a result of a motion filed by Attorney Bernard. The motion describes serious discovery violations by the Office of Alcohol Testing, potentially affecting 58,000 cases. Read more abo...

Withholding materials that would prove that a defendant was innocent of a crime is a serious matter. In one of the longest hearings in memory, over a two-year period, hearings on the reliability of the Draeger 9510 breath-testing device were conducted in Concord, Massachusetts. The Judge did n...

In many OUI cases involving accidents, citizens have been taken to the hospital where their blood was improperly taken at the request of a police officer. Because it often not possible for an officer to perform field sobriety tests or request a breath test in a case involving an accident, an offi...

Attorney Bernard is proud to announce that the Law Offices of Joseph D. Bernard now has an office in downtown Northampton! Attorney Bernard will be joining the Law Offices of Terrence A. Low and Anthony J. Canata at 4 Market Street, Northampton, MA 01060. The office is just a short walk to the No...

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (SJC) issued a decision today, June 30, 2017, in Commonwealth v. Herb holding that the Commonwealth can move forward with a retrial of a defendant for OUI by prosecuting under the per se theory of the statute even though the defendant had been acquitted...

Clients facing a charge of OUI beyond a first offense may have a new means of challenging their prior convictions if they submitted to a breath test in prior cases. Judge Brennan held in Commonwealth v. Ananias that breath test results obtained from the Draeger Alcotest 9510 breathalyzer devices ...