DEFENSE CONCLUDES ARGUMENT; DUIS DISMISSAL URGED.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writer

Defense attorneys implored a judge Wednesday to dismiss 600 drunk driving cases because of flawed alcohol tests - a move they said would restore the credibility of the local justice system.

During three hours of closing arguments, defense attorneys said their clients' constitutional rights had been violated when the crime lab conducted unlicensed or sloppy alcohol tests, from November 1996 to May 1997.

``What the crime lab did in this matter is essentially destroy trust on a magnitude and level that raises it to a constitutional dimension,'' said Deputy Public Defender Steve Lipson.

``If law enforcement isn't willing to follow the law, what's the point of any of us following the law? The crime lab needs to be held accountable for its actions or the whole system suffers,'' he said.

Prosecutors, whose closing arguments are scheduled for today, have conceded problems with lab management but say dismissal of the cases is too harsh a sanction.

Lipson summarized the hearing's two weeks of testimony from lab managers, technicians and state regulators.

He told how the lab's manager in the fall of 1996, Capt. Leslie Warren, was warned that there could be problems if the Ventura County's forensic alcohol supervisor retired and a successor wasn't in place. State law requires that a qualified supervisor oversee all alcohol tests.

But when the supervisor retired Nov. 16, Warren ignored the warning and put an unqualified technician in charge of the alcohol unit and ordered the alcohol tests continued, Lipson said. That technician later failed a routine proficiency test.

``It's our position that this decision to keep testing in violation of the law was to stall - a decision not to care about poor test quality and poor test results,'' Lipson said.

As it turned out, 80 percent of blood and urine alcohol tests conducted from Nov. 20 to March 13 overstated the amount of alcohol in a suspect's system by up to .04 percent, a review of the tests said. The legal limit to drive in California is .08 percent.

Lipson also said it was appalling that the technician being trained as the alcohol supervisor found out about the flawed tests March 3, but did nothing about it for 10 days.

``This was going to be swept under the rug,'' Lipson said. ``It's a very callous disregard for the law and people's rights.''

Judge Steven Z. Perren twice interrupted the defense argument to suggest an outright dismissal of these cases may not be likely.

Perren said he may issue a ruling giving defendants a choice: suppress the alcohol analysis and face prosecution using a new alcohol test; or challenge the accuracy of lab tests and let a jury decide whether that warrants an acquittal.