Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Yengeni wasn’t intoxicated, says expert in drink driving case
FORMER ANC veteran Tony Yengeni apparently showed no sign of intoxication when he gave police his warning statement, even though a blood sample taken less than two hours before indicated a startling blood-alcohol level of 0.25g/ 100ml, the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court heard.
Yengeni should have been stumbling and showing other signs of heavy intoxication if the blood sample was correctly taken and analysed, an expert witness testified in the former ANC chief whip’s drink driving trial yesterday.
Claire Lewis of ForScight Forensics, reviewed the biochemical and physiological aspects of the case.
From documents supplied to her, she testified a police constable who took down Yengeni’s warning statement observed the accused was “seemingly of sound mind and did not seem to be under the influence of liquor or any other intoxicating substance, or in a state of shock”.
She did not have the time the statement was taken, but from documents supplied to her, she estimated that it was one and a half hours after the blood sample was drawn.
If the level of alcohol present in that sample was correctly recorded, Yengeni should have stumbled and showed other signs of heavy intoxication when he was with the constable, Lewis told the court.
Along with her colleague Dr Cesarina Edmonds- Smith, she presented a report in which they concluded the blood- alcohol level detected in the analysis should be queried. They submitted that:
Yengeni was described as “seemingly of sound mind” when he should have showed signs of heavy intoxication.
His arm was not cleaned before the needle was inserted, creating a risk of contamination which could affect the outcome of results.
The expiry date of the blood sample was not recorded.
The seal of the blood sample was broken on August 23, 2013, but the actual analysis was conducted on August 26.
There were no logbooks showing who had access to the controlled area where Yengeni’s blood sample was kept.
Edmonds-Smith, who dealt with the chemical analysis of the sample, has not yet testified.
But prosecutor Leon Snyman accused Lewis of being biased, saying that she did not take the trouble to find out the precise time Yengeni gave his warning statement to the constable, so that her entire theory was based on an assumption of that time.
“I am putting it to you that you didn’t care enough about it because what you had seen favoured the accused,” he said.
Snyman said the warning statement was taken more than four hours after Yengeni’s blood was drawn.
He also pointed out Lewis’s findings were based on the rate of alcohol elimination which was contained in a 1993 textbook.
A 2006 edition of that book indicated more research was conducted to show the rate of metabolism of alcohol was significantly higher for some people, particularly those who were habitual drinkers.
Lewis said the information she received from the defence was that Yengeni drank a few glasses of wine once or twice a week, which placed him in the category of an occasional drinker.
Yengeni was arrested in Green Point in August 2013 after he was pulled over for driving erratically.
Yengeni denies he was drunk, and has hinted at a political plot.
fatima.schroeder@inl.co.za