Hundreds of Jacksonville DUI cases could lose their breathalyzer evidence after a three-judge Duval County panel ruled that the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement performed unauthorized repairs on the machines used to test drivers.

The ruling, first reported by Action News Jax on Aug. 13, stems from the 2025 DUI arrest of Sergio Rosario Cruz Lopez on Beach Boulevard. Cruz Lopez failed a breath test administered on an Intoxilyzer 8000, the machine used by law enforcement agencies across Florida.

Jacksonville attorney David Robbins, whose firm represents Cruz Lopez, argued that both FDLE and JSO violated state guidelines by replacing O-rings on the machines themselves rather than sending them to authorized third-party repair facilities.

How the O-ring maintenance issue came to light

The Intoxilyzer 8000 contains five O-rings. According to court testimony, FDLE admitted it replaces only four of the five during annual maintenance. JSO conceded it replaced O-rings but never kept records of when those replacements occurred and acknowledged the practice could affect accuracy.

The state also acknowledged that neither FDLE nor JSO qualifies as an authorized repair facility under state guidelines.

"Does anyone have their oil replaced in their car and only replaces 80%? No, it doesn't work that way," Robbins told Action News Jax.

Why this ruling reaches further than past challenges

Unlike earlier Intoxilyzer 8000 lawsuits that targeted individual machines, this ruling covers all such devices in Florida.

That breadth could affect thousands of DUI cases statewide and hundreds in Jacksonville, according to Action News Jax's reporting. Florida averages nearly 45,000 DUI arrests per year, according to the Ticket Clinic, a statewide law firm that handles traffic and DUI cases. The state reports more than 400 alcohol-related traffic deaths annually.

Robbins said the Intoxilyzer 8000 technology dates to the era of the iPhone 5, introduced in 2012, making the machines roughly 14 years old.

What a thrown-out breath test means for a DUI case

A thrown-out breath test does not end a DUI case. Prosecutors can still pursue charges using field sobriety tests, body camera footage and physical evidence.

As of Aug. 13, FDLE, JSO and the State Attorney's Office had not responded to requests for comment about the ruling's impact on pending cases.

The State Attorney's Office has not announced how it will handle affected cases going forward.