Challenging a Blood Sample Left Unsecured After Collection

Attorney Answer

A blood sample that blew off a police car with a torn, unreplaced seal is a genuine problem for the Commonwealth's evidence — but do not assume it gets thrown out. Handling failures more often become a fight over how much the result is worth than an automatic exclusion.

75 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 1547 governs implied consent and chemical testing following a DUI stop, and it is the framework within which a broken-seal or chain-of-custody challenge to your blood draw gets raised. What it does not do is decide whether a mishandled sample comes into evidence. That turns on the record your lawyer builds about what happened to that vial between the draw and the laboratory — and on whether the challenge is presented in the right form, at the right time.

Which means the value of what you personally witnessed depends almost entirely on whether it gets documented before the paperwork and the video disappear. Right now you are the only person who says the seal was torn and never replaced and that the vial went off the hood. In three months, without documentation, that becomes your word against a report.

A separate point worth raising with counsel: your account is that the stop was for brake lights, that you denied drinking, and that a "green tongue" observation was the stated basis for suspecting marijuana. Whether there was a lawful basis for the draw at all is a distinct question from whether the sample was contaminated afterward, and both can be litigated.

What you can do

1. Write out tonight, dated and signed, exactly what you saw: where the vial and paperwork were placed, that the officer tore the seal, that no new seal was affixed, that both blew off the vehicle, how long they were on the ground, and who handled them afterward. 2. Retain a lawyer before your preliminary hearing, and certainly before the court's pretrial motion deadline. 3. Have counsel send a written preservation demand immediately for MVR and body-worn camera video covering the stop, the transport, the draw and the return to the vehicle. This footage is what proves your account, and agencies overwrite it on a schedule. 4. Demand in discovery the blood collection kit paperwork, the seal and chain-of-custody form, the transport log, the laboratory's receipt record, and any laboratory notes on the condition of the sample when it arrived. 5. Get the name of the person who drew the blood and the exact time of the draw. 6. Ask counsel whether the custody and contamination challenge belongs in a pretrial motion, at trial, or both in your county. Getting that choice wrong can waive the issue. 7. Do not discuss the case with the officer, the department, or anyone else outside your lawyer's office.

⏱ Time limits apply. Any challenge to the blood evidence has to be raised by your court's pretrial motion deadline, which is set early in the case and is not extended because you were still looking for a lawyer. Separately, the video that would corroborate your account has its own clock — police agencies routinely overwrite recordings within weeks, so a written preservation demand cannot wait for your first court date. Both timelines depend on your specific facts and on your county's practice, so get counsel engaged now rather than calculating anything yourself.