In the second appellate decision in two weeks, the Minnesota Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling denying the source code to a Minnesota driver in Bowen v. Commissioner of Public Safety. Specifically, it held:
“[T]he district court abused it discretion when it concluded that appellant’s discovery motion was not reasonably calculate to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence….|
The court remanded the case to the district court for further proceedings.
After the recent State v. Brunner decision, we wondered how much discretion the appellate courts would give judges in deciding the DWI Intoxilyzer source code issue. Now know: almost none.
Bottom line: If the driver includes any document that indicates how the source code is relevant to the Intoxilyzer breath test machine, the judge must order the state to produce it.
