20K DWI Cases Tainted In Scandal: What NJ Drivers Should Know

NEW JERSEY — Thousands of people who were charged with drunk driving in New Jersey can now challenge their cases, after a falsifying-records scandal involving the State Police.

Attorney General Matthew Platkin's office has released records connected to 20,000 DWI cases between 2008 and 2016, as the breath test samples used in those cases could be invalid.

Former New Jersey State Police sergeant Marc Dennis, a coordinator in the State Police Alcohol Drug Testing Unit, was accused of falsifying records by not properly calibrating three Alcotest breath-testing devices. The NJSP provides certification training and oversees the calibration of breath-testing devices for law enforcement agencies across the state.

Dennis was suspended by State Police in September 2016, and later sentenced to five years in state prison for using his NJSP identification card to get out of traffic stops post-suspension.

The New Jersey Supreme Court found that any results from those Alcotest instruments he calibrated were unreliable, and could not be used in criminal or municipal proceedings, in the 2018 State v. Cassidy ruling.

"Any time there is a result where he calibrated that machine, it's inadmissible," explained Jeffrey Gold, an attorney who has represented the New Jersey State Bar Association in a number of Supreme Court cases involving DWI cases and Alcotest.

Gold said that after Cassidy, the Court mandated that a notice be sent to every person whose DWI case was based on a Dennis-calibrated test. But at least 20 percent of those people didn't get the notification, Gold said.

A 2024 Supreme Court decision, State v. Zingis, ordered the publication of thousands of public records containing Alcotest results during Dennis's tenure, and certifications he signed off on after calibrating over 1,000 machines.

"This will allow everyone in the state to research it themselves if they have a question, and then they can make their application to reopen an old case," Gold explained.

But the Zingis decision will also affect future DWI cases, Gold said — if someone is charged with a second or third offense, and their previous charge happened during Dennis's tenure, prosecutors have to prove that the blood alcohol test was not affected by one of the improperly calibrated machines.

"Now, the question is, 'was that old one something that can be used against you in a new case?'" he said. "The burden is on the state now in all those cases."

The state published a spreadsheet of every breath sample given on Alcotest instruments between November 5, 2008, and April 9, 2016 — more than 236,000 of them. Not all of these test machines were calibrated by Dennis, but the tests were given during his tenure.

The spreadsheet does not include defendants' first and last names, but has other relevant information from DWI cases and traffic stops where a breath alcohol test was used.

Another database called the "Dennis Calibration Repository" is also available, containing PDFs of every Alcotest calibration that Dennis performed. Those Alcotest machines were used by police departments in Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Somerset, and Union county towns, according to the state Attorney General's office.

"Now you can determine whether Dennis was involved or not, and every calibration he ever did, the actual PDF that'll show you he signed it," Gold said, adding that it was his idea to create that repository.

Residents may compare the two records to see if their case may be affected, and apply for post-conviction relief with the municipal court administrator where they were convicted.