Three D.C. police officers are suing the city’s top law enforcement officials, claiming their reputations and careers were damaged when they testified that the Attorney General’s Office relied on faulty breath analyzers to obtain drunk driving convictions. In the complaint filed this month, Officers Jose Rodriguez, Andrew Zabavsky and Benjamin Fetting say they were instructed last year by prosecutors to not answer questions when giving testimony in court regarding the accuracy of alcohol breath-analysis equipment used by the Metropolitan Police Department.
After they ignored the request last July, Zabavsky and Rodriguez learned they had been placed under investigation for following improper procedures during a prior DUI arrest, according to the complaint. It also said they were placed on an internal list of officers whose testimony would not be supported by the Attorney Generals Office.
Both officers were later cleared of wrongdoing, internal documents show.
Fetting testified in a September 2010 trial, and afterward prosecutor Tamara Barnett “berated Officer Fetting about his testimony and told him that he should not have answered questions about the [breath-analysis] devices,” the complaint said. The following month he was barred from training for and a promotion to the department’s DUI Program, according to the complaint.
A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office said Tuesday he had no comment.
The officers are asking for disciplinary actions — including dismissal proceedings and fines up to $10,000 — against the officials responsible. Attorney General Irvin Nathan, Deputy Attorney General Robert Hildum and Police Chief Cathy Lanier are among those named in the suit.
The officers also ask for compensatory damages on lost wages for their denied promotions and for the money and vacation time they spent on police training.
The suit follows a rocky 20 months for the city’s alcohol breath-analysis program. In February 2010, it was found that the breath analyzers were producing inaccurate results, a problem internal police documents suggest could extend back a decade.
Last March, the District replaced the breath analyzers, however documents show the chief toxicologist refused to sign off on their validity. The Attorney General’s Office stopped using the results as evidence during trial, but they were still used in the field and prosecutors used their results during plea bargaining.
