Mobile | RSS
You choose, we deliver
If you are interested in this story, you might be interested in others from The Journal Gazette. Go to www.journalgazette.net/newsletter and pick the subjects you care most about. We'll deliver your customized daily news report at 3 a.m. Fort Wayne time, right to your email.

Indiana

  • Teen stuck in Mexico may still address classmates
    FRANKFORT — A star student at a central Indiana high school who's stuck in Mexico due to an immigration technicality could still be part of her graduation ceremony.Today 5:04 am
  • New rule may save lives for trauma patients
    INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana health officials say a new rule may save the lives of trauma patients.Today 5:02 am
  • Heads rolled after wiretap breach
    The mayor says he demoted the city’s police chief in March and fired the police communications director two weeks later after federal authorities notified him that the department had violated the Federal Wiretap Act.Today 3:00 am
Advertisement
Published: February 16, 2012 3:00 a.m.

Officer probed in deadly crash

New blood test may help prove DWI suspicion

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS – Prosecutors are taking another shot at proving drunken-driving charges against an Indianapolis police officer who crashed his patrol car into two motorcycles, killing one person and seriously injuring two others.

Marion County prosecutors have filed a motion seeking to test a second vial of David Bisard’s blood drawn after the 2010 crash, WRTV-TV and WISH-TV reported Wednesday.

A blood test administered about two hours after the crash showed Bisard, 37, who was on duty at the time, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.19 percent when he struck the two motorcycles stopped at a red light, prosecutors have said. That’s more than twice the legal limit.

However, Judge Grant Hawkins ruled last May that the test could not be used to support a drunken-driving charge against Bisard because no clear medical protocol was followed and the blood was drawn by a medical assistant, a profession not included among those state law lists as allowed to draw blood in drunken-driving cases. Hawkins ruled in October that the initial blood test could be used to support a charge of criminal recklessness against Bisard.

Prosecutors now want to test a second vial of blood for alcohol and DNA.

“The state believes that testing the second vial of the defendant’s blood to determine the ethyl alcohol content is necessary to affirm the accuracy and authenticity of the initial blood alcohol content results,” the motion says.

Bisard’s attorney, John Kautzman, said he had no comment on the motion.

The Aug. 6, 2010, crash killed Eric Wells, 30, and injured Kurt Weekly and Mary Mills.

An internal police investigation found Bisard was driving 73 mph in a 40-mph zone and typing, sending and receiving messages on a laptop computer in his car that were not related to police business.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. Neither this material nor its presentation may be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Share