If police don't cite BAC level is there no proof of intoxication?

Answer 1

In most states a BAC level is not proof of intoxication in any case. It normally creates a 'rebuttable presumption' of impairment. Essentially that means that the court has decided that MOST people are impaired at .xx bac, but you have the opportunity to prove (somehow) that you were not impaired. A BAC may also not be available for many reasons, ranging from the defendant refusing to take a breath test to a breath analyzer that fails to work or is improperly certified. The arrest would not have been (or should not have been made) unless the officer had enough evidence before he made the arrest to prove his case, because people often refuse a BAC test after calling their attorney from the jail. What this means is that a BAC/Intoxilyzer test is only one piece or evidence for the trial, and a cop who looses a DUI case because he doesn't have a BAC reading did an awful lot of things wrong.