Pеtitioner, William Don Bush, Jr., was convicted in the Circuit Court of Pike County of driving under the influence; from that conviction he sought review in the Court of Criminal Appeals. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed.
The facts are fully set forth in the opinion of Court of Criminal Appeals,
Officer Vance Ventress of the Troy Police Department administered the PEI test. Officer Ventress testified he was сertified by the State Board of Health to operate the PEI machine and that in conducting the test he had followed the procedurеs set by the State Board of Health. He also stated that the Troy Police Department had designated the PEI test as its means of testing. Ventress further testified that the machine was functioning properly and that the machine had been checked or calibrated the day before the test was given. Officer Ventress presented a copy of the log sheet showing that the machine had been checked by Sergeant Merritt of the Department of Public Safety on January 25, 1984. Ventress also testified that the result of the PEI test showed Bush's blood alcohol content to be .14 grams percent. Bush was convicted of driving under the influence and was sentenced to six months in the municipal jail.
Bush argues two things as error: (1) that the results of the PEI test were improperly admitted into evidence, since the person who calibrated the machine the day before the test was given was not shown to be certified by the State Board of Health; and (2) that the PEI log sheet was improperly admitted into evidence because it was not properly qualified as a business record. *170
All three requirements for the admission of the test results were satisfied at trial. Bush, however, urges that another element must be shown to establish the predicate for admissibility of the PEI test results: that the person who calibrates the PEI instrument be shown to have been certified by the State Board of Health and that such calibration was conducted or performed according to methods adopted by the State Board of Health. Bush argues that the failure to show the qualifications of Sergeant Merritt, who calibrated the machine, was reversible error. The Court оf Criminal Appeals held that there is no requirement that the State prove that the person who checked and calibrated the machine was certified to do so by the Board of Health. We agree.
Nowhere in Alabama Code 1975, §
The methods and procedures set by the State Board of Health require the certified operator who administers the PEI test to follow a checklist evеry time the test is given. This checklist includes the procedure for calibration of the photoelectric intoximeter. Rules of State Boаrd of Health Administration, Rule
In its opinion, the Court of Criminal Appeals held that testimony that the PEI log sheet was notarized and stayed with the PEI machine at all times gave rise to an inference that this record was made and kept in the regular course of business. We do not agree. We hold it was error to admit the log sheet into evidence.
However, testimony apparently illegal upon admission may be rendered prejudicially innocuous by subsequent legal testimony to the same effect or from which the same facts can be inferred. Childress v. City of Huntsville,
AFFIRMED.
TORBERT, C.J., and MADDOX, JONES, ALMON, SHORES, EMBRY, BEATTY, and ADAMS, JJ., concur.
