Lawyer: Leyritz blood test 'unreliable'

Defense attorney David Bogenschutz said Leyritz sustained a concussion in the crash that killed a mother of two that affected the accuracy of his blood-alcohol test, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Monday.

In his opening statement, Bogenschutz said he would present medical testimony that Leyritz, 46, suffered a "traumatic brain injury" in the Dec. 28, 2007, collision.

The injury, Bogenschutz said, caused Leyritz's digestive system to slow down, which would make a subsequent blood test untrustworthy.

"You should discard that blood-alcohol reading as being unreliable," he told jurors.

A toxicologist testified that a blood test administered three hours after the crash showed an alcohol level of .19, more than twice Florida's legal limit of .08.

Leyritz could be sentenced to four to 15 years in prison if found guilty of drunken driving and running a red light in Fort Lauderdale and causing the crash that killed Fredia Ann Veitch, a 30-year-old Plantation, Fla., resident.

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