Manthei pleaded no contest to charges of DWI in Alaska in 1989, 1991 and 1992. He had another conviction out of state, said Kenai assistant district attorney June Stein. Had Manthei been found guilty of two or more DWI offenses since Jan. 1, 1996, he could have been charged with felony DWI. The jury was not told of his prior DWI convictions.
The jury started deliberations at about 7:30 p.m. Friday, Stein said, and returned its verdict at 10 p.m.
Manthei was arrested by Alaska State Trooper Bryan Barlow in May 2002 after Barlow stopped him for operating a Suzuki King Quad 300 all-terrain vehicle on the roadway near Mile .5 North Fork Road. According to his criminal complaint, Barlow saw Manthei driving the Suzuki on the road for about 500 feet at 8:35 p.m. Barlow said he smelled alcohol on and about Manthei and that he had bloodshot and watery eyes. Barlow said Manthei's speech was slurred. He said Manthei first admitted to having a couple of beers, but later said he had been drinking on and off all day.
Barlow administered field-sobriety tests to Manthei. Manthei said he had a back injury and could not do the one-leg stand and walk-and-turn parts of the test. He did the horizontal-gaze nystagmus, or HGN test, and failed the three phases of that test for each eye. Manthei took a preliminary breath test and blew a breath-alcohol level of .117, Barlow said. At the Homer trooper post, Manthei took a Datamaster CDM test and had a breath-alcohol level of .110, or .03 above the legal limit of .08.
Manthei chose not to have an independent blood test, Barlow said.
At his trial, Manthei's attorney, Daniel O'Phelan of Anchorage, presented an expert witness challenging the accuracy of Datamaster breath-alcohol tests. Michael Hlastala, a professor of physiology at the University of Washington, Seattle, Medical School, testified about studies he has done asserting the levels of alcohol in exhaled breath are highly variable. In a PowerPoint presentation, Hlastala showed graphs contrasting the differences between blood-alcohol levels and breath-alcohol levels as measured by a Datamaster breath-analysis machine. He said the levels are different, and that a breath-alcohol level showing intoxication could be wrong when compared with actual blood-alcohol levels.
Hlastala also presented himself as an expert in field sobriety tests. He said he took National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration training in field-sobriety tests. Hlastala questioned Barlow's administration of field-sobriety tests.
The HGN test looks for twitches in the eyes of a subject as a pen is passed before the subject.
Hlastala criticized one part of Barlow's HGN test for Manthei, the 45-degree angle phase. In this part, a pen is passed in front of the subject's eyes and then held at a 45-degree angle to the eyes. Hlastala said it would be hard to measure this angle in the field. Hlastala also noted Manthei did not do the one-leg stand and walk-and-turn field sobriety tests, and that this would make all the tests invalid.
On cross-examination, Stein pointed out Manthei said he could not do those tests because of an injury. Hlastala admitted the tests could then be valid if such an excuse was given.
He also said he was paid $1,200 to testify at Manthei's trial.
"You can hire expert witnesses all day," Hibpshman said. "Obviously, the jury didn't buy it."
Stein said Alaska law accepts the Datamaster as a valid device for measuring breath-alcohol levels. She said the jury can presume the test is valid. She said defense attorneys sometimes challenge the accuracy of breath-alcohol tests.
Every state in the United States uses breath-testing equipment, she said, and the Datamaster is widely accepted.
Manthei will face sentencing next Tuesday. Under the laws at the time of his arrest, he could be sentenced to 240 days in jail, fined $1,500 and have his driver's license suspended for three years.
A message was left with O'Phelan's assistant asking if he wanted to comment. At press time, he had not returned a call to the Homer News.
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