The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is currently involved in quite a scandal because of video evidence showing the breath test inspectors are unplugging the machines (or otherwise causing unexplained “power outages”) which effectively erase any evidence that the machine is not working properly during routine monthly inspections.

A departmental inspector with the FDLE was fired over her involvement in teaching employees with the Miami Police Department how to avoid sending the machine out for needed repairs by “unplugging the machines” after failing routine monthly inspections. Considerable evidence shows that this FDLE Departmental Inspector was actually unplugging the machine in order to pass departmental inspections. A judge in another jurisdiction concluded that an employee with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office can be seen unplugging the machines in several routine monthly inspections. That judge concluded that the videotapes from Hillsborough County are evidence of a larger statewide problem in the way the machines are used and maintained.

HCSO’s Response to Finding Out it Maintains Videos of the Intoxilyzer 8000 Being Unplugged in Hillsborough County, FL?

Amazingly, in response to these serious allegations the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office recently destroyed more than four years of video evidence of agency and departmental inspections in the Central Breath Testing facility at the Orient Road Jail. We believe this destruction of evidence violated our client’s right to due process and right to confront the witnesses against them. We are arguing that the only appropriate remedy for this flagerent due process violation is the dismissal of the charges against our clients.

One could argue that the actions of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in destroying this important evidence seems to be obviously inconsistent with what is right or proper as it appears to be a “flouting of law and morality.”