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JONES v. CITY OF FOREST CITY3/29/1965
g picked up the bottle and delivered it to a police chemist. The testimony reflected that the witness' wife, mother, and father-in-law lived with him at the home, where the bottle had been kept all night. The case was reversed on this point and another, and the court said:
"Identify and unchanged condition must be first established before a specimen may be allowed in evidence together with the chemist's testimony or his report. Where material evidence for a conviction of driving while intoxicated is the alcoholic content of a blood or urine specimen, it is essential to show the chain of possession of the sample and the unchanged condition of the container from the time it is taken from the defendant until it is delivered to the chemist."
In Novak v. District of Columbia, 160 F.2d 588, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed the trial court judgment, holding that the evidence of a chemist, as to an analysis of a sample of urine taken from a defendant, was inadmissible. The court stated:
"At the trial the officer testified that after he obtained the, sample he labeled the flask containing it with appellant's name, the time and place of taking it; that he wrote his own initials on the label and the next day turned the specimen over to the District Health Department laboratories.
"The court then accepted in evidence, over appellant's objections, laboratory records of the Health Department of an analysis made by a chemist formerly employed by the department, and the testimony of another Health Department chemist concerning his later analysis, both made of a sample of urine taken from a bottle labeled with appellant's name. The chemist, at the time of his testimony, had beside him a small bottle, labeled, and containing a liquid which appeared to be urine. His testimony was that he made his analysis from a specimen which he withdrew from the bottle which he had beside him. The bottle was never identified or offered in evidence. According to the laboratory records, both analyses showed an alcoholic content of .24 of 1 per cent.
"The District of Columbia then called an expert witness who testified that in his opinion, a chemical analysis of the sample of urine showing .24 of 1 per cent alcohol indicated that the defendant was under the influence of intoxicating beverage at the time of his arrest.
"It is our holding that the laboratory records and the chemist's testimony respecting the analysis were not properly admissible in evidence because the District of Columbia failed sufficiently to identify the sample from which the analyses were made as being that sample taken from appellant. The police officer who secured the sample was present in court and testified to the manner in which he labeled the flask containing appellant's urine and how he
placed his initials on the label. The chemist, when he testified, had beside him the bottle of urine on which he had made an analysis. But no effort was made to hand to the police officer, who was present in court, the bottle and chemist had used to see if he could identify it as the bottle he had labeled and initialed. There is missing a necessary link in the chain of identification. The judgment is reversed and the case remanded * * * "
In the instant case, let us summarize the evidence as to whether it firmly establishes that the analysis was made from the specimen taken from appellant. Officer Jones testified that the specimen was taken in the bathroom of the jail, and that he placed a cap on it, labeled it with the name of the appellant, and left it in the room; that no other specimens were in the room at the time. He then took appellant Jones back to th
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