State of Maine v. Graydon E. Adams Jr., 106 A.3d 413

On Sept. 11, 2012, Adams’s employer used a portable, uncertified breath-alcohol device at work after smelling alcohol; the employer placed Adams on unpaid leave and reported seeing him drive.
A police officer later stopped Adams, conducted field sobriety tests, and an intoxilyzer test was administered at the police station.
The workplace device was not certified by the Department of Health and Human Services under 29-A M.R.S. § 2524(5).
The State moved in limine to exclude the workplace breath test results as inadmissible under § 2524(5); the trial court granted the motion and barred any foundational evidence about the workplace device’s reliability.
Adams entered a conditional guilty plea and appealed the evidentiary ruling; the trial court’s sentence and license suspension were stayed pending appeal.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether § 2524(5)’s certification requirement bars admissibility of an independently administered workplace breath test offered by a defendant to challenge the State’s intoxilyzer result	Adams: § 2524(5) governs implied-consent tests by police and does not preclude a defendant from offering an independent, reliable breath test as rebuttal	State: The statute requires Department approval; uncertified breath tests are inadmissible (citing prior cases)	Court: § 2524(5) does not categorically bar a defendant from offering an independent test to challenge the State’s test; the statute applies to state-administered implied-consent testing, not independently obtained rebuttal evidence
Whether Adams waived appellate review by failing to make a formal offer of proof under M.R. Evid. 103(a)(2)	Adams: He sought leave to lay foundation; the court denied opportunity, so he could not make an offer of proof	State: Adams failed to preserve the issue because no formal offer of proof was made	Court: Although Adams did not make a formal offer, the trial court’s erroneous statutory ruling prevented him from doing so; he must be allowed on remand to lay foundational evidence

State v. Ifill, 560 A.2d 1075 (Me. 1989) (refusal to admit uncertified state-administered portable ALERT test results)
State v. McConvey, 459 A.2d 562 (Me. 1983) (blood-alcohol test results may be admissible as reliable rebuttal evidence)