‘I asked for a breathalyzer. They refused one’: Sober drivers arrested for DUI outraged

LAVERGNE, Tenn. (WSMV) - As Shelli Hoover arrived in her driveway last November 19, having just picked up her young son from his visit with his father, she noticed La Vergne police officers approaching.

An affidavit of the incident reads Hoover’s ex had called the police, saying that he had smelled alcohol on her breath.

“I told them I was not drunk, I was perfectly fine,” Hoover told WSMV4 Investigates.

Hoover admitted to taking one shot of liquor hours earlier, and that was why police smelled alcohol. Still, she insisted, she was sober.

When she went to perform the field sobriety test, she said the officer asked her to remove her glasses.

“And from what I gather, that was the part of the test that I failed,” she said.

When police informed her she would be arrested for DUI, she made a request.

“I wasn’t drunk, and I asked for a breathalyzer. And they said they didn’t do breathalyzers,” Hoover said.

It’s a similar story to William Rose, who also insisted to Murfreesboro police that he was sober when they arrested him for DUI.

He, too, made the same request as Hoover.

“I asked for a breathalyzer. They refused one. (Police said) we don’t do them in Murfreesboro,” Rose said.

To make matters worse for Hoover, because her son was in the vehicle, she was also charged with felony child neglect, separated from her son for 19 days, and was required to install, and pay for, an alcohol detection device in her car.

“I was treated guilty and had to prove myself innocent,” Hoover said.

Because of a backlog in alcohol and drug tests at the TBI first uncovered by WSMV4 Investigates, it took Hoover four months to get the results back on her sobriety.

The tests showed she was negative for alcohol and there was no detection of drugs.

Rose waited six months for the test results that showed he was also sober when he was arrested. WSMV4 Investigates asked both La Vergne and Murfreesboro police for explanations as to why breathalyzers aren’t used by their departments.

In an email statement, La Vergne police’s public information officer wrote that the department hasn’t used breathalyzers for years “as blood draws have become the accepted and preferred practice in suspected DUI cases. Blood draws allow investigators to not only check blood alcohol levels, but also to check for drug use that can also impair a driver.”

A spokesman for Murfreesboro police wrote in part, “Our department has found that blood analysis is more reliable.”

Jenifer Hall, regional director of the TBI crime lab, said she is aware of some departments no longer using breathalyzers, even though her agency provide the devices for free.

When asked why departments are opting not to use the devices, Hall said that the TBI is hearing from some police forces that they don’t trust the result.

“But where is that coming from? You’re the scientist, you would know this,” asked WSMV4 Investigates.

“I have no idea,” Hall said.

“Why is there a perception in law enforcement that it’s not as accurate as a blood test?” asked WSMV4 Investigates.

“I have no idea,” Hall said.

Hall said they rely on the results from breathalyzers as much as blood draws, and if more police departments used breathalyzers, it would cut down on the number of alcohol tests they’d have to perform.

“Using more breathalyzers would appear to help the backlog,” asked WSMV4 Investigates.

“Yes,” Hall said.

To further complicate matters, if a blood test comes back negative for alcohol in a DUI case, then the TBI automatically has to have it tested for drugs.

Due to the backlog, means drivers have to wait at least two more additional months.

Hoover says if she’d been given a breathalyzer, it would have at least sped up the process of proving her innocence.

“It was heartbreaking. I never wish for this to happen to anybody else. Ever,” Hoover said.

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