The 2020 Missouri DWI Institute

With plenary lectures and breakout sessions, this conference is geared toward improving both the experienced and inexperienced lawyer's skill and practice of DWI law.

Plenary lectures will update attendees on current DWI law and explore probable cause standards. Faculty will help you gain an understanding of how to cross-examine law enforcement officers with purpose. Students will hear from the DWI Magician himself, Travis Noble, learning from his tried and true courtroom methods.

Breakout sessions include options that explore the basic criminal aspects of a DWI, creative plea negotiation tactics, Missouri's BAC admissibility standards, PBT admissibility and reliability, challenging DRE investigations, the basics of DOR cases, how to keep your client driving, and how to challenge search warrants. 

Did you know there is only one tube certified for blood alcohol testing? Do you know how a gas chromatograph processes a blood sample? Do you know how to read a gas chromatogram? Have you even seen a gas chromatogram, pictured at left?

Janine is an ASQ Certified Quality Auditor with more than 30 years of experience in laboratory quality assurance. Besides being a trained ISO Lead Auditor, she has extensive experience in the quality assessment of laboratories and analytical data. For more than 15 years, Janine has conducted independent quality assessments of forensic results, helped lawyers understand laboratory testing, and testified as a laboratory quality expert about the reliability of forensic results including toxicology, controlled substances, DNA, gunshot residue, trace, firearms and fingerprints in state, federal, and international courts. Janine has given expert testimony in countless trials, including that of Steven Avery, featured in the 2015 Netflix Docuseries, "Making a Murderer."

In Janine's plenary lecture, you will learn about the blood draw itself, including the importance of site cleaning and the risks of contamination. Janine will explain the lab testing itself, including how a blood sample is prepared for testing, lab standards for testing, how the gas chromatograph processes the sample, and how to read a chromatogram. Janine will discuss problems with blood testing, including sample contamination and fermentation. 

What is a wet lab? To be NHTSA certified, officers must complete a proficiency exam wherein they administer the standardized field sobriety tests on subjects. Testing proficiency of administration can be done on a sober individual, but clue interpretation and scoring cannot because the sober individual, in theory, should exhibit no clues. A wet lab is a tool used in law enforcement training to test the officers' proficiency in administering, interpreting, and scoring standardized field sobriety tests on individuals dosed with alcohol in a controlled environment.

The Missouri DWI Institute will be conducting such a wet lab to give its attendees an opportunity to observe proper administration, interpretation, and scoring of NHTSA testing on alcohol-intoxicated individuals. This year, we will also be introducing a high lab, broadcast from our neighboring state, Illinois, where recreational marijuana is legal. Our expert will dose individuals with marijuana and administer, interpret, and score NHTSA testing on those high individuals for comparison with their drunk counter parts.

Attendees are expected to learn proper administration, explore what clues of intoxication are expected, and observe just what those clues look like in drug- and alcohol-intoxicated individuals. The Wet & High Lab will utilize high-tech methods to allow attendees to observe the eyes close-up on their computer screens at home to see just what the involuntary jerking of the eyes, or "nystagmus," looks like. This way, you won't need to worry about snagging a seat close to the projector!