Massachusetts DUI Attorney Blog

Prosecutors in the Florida DUI manslaughter trial of former Yankee star Jim Leyritz were barred this week from using an illegally obtained blood test, the Associated Press reported.

Massachusetts OUI defense lawyers have been monitoring the trial, which is being followed by CourtTV and other national media. Leyritz faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the December 2007 drunk driving accident. He was returning home from his 44th birthday party when he allegedly ran a red light and smashed into a vehicle driven by a 30-year-old mother of two.

She had just gotten off work as a bartender, was even drunker than Leyritz, was not wearing her seat belt and was receiving telephone calls and text messages in the moments before the fatal crash. The judge has ruled most of that cannot be entered into evidence before the jury. But Leyritz's drunk driving defense lawyers have not been without their fare share of victories.

Leyritz refused a breath test and had a blood test drawn about three hours after the crash. That test showed a level of .14, above Florida's legal limit of .08 under Florida law. Investigators drew a second blood test, which is not authorized by state law, the results of which were thrown out.

It is the latest setback for prosecutors, who told jurors a passenger in Leyritz's vehicle would testify the former baseball player ran the red light in the moments before the accident. Instead, the passenger testified he remembered the vehicle entering the intersection on a yellow light.

Leyritz, 46, who reportedly has sought financial assistance from a baseball charity established to help former players in need, settled a wrongful death lawsuit earlier this year for the $250,000 policy limits of his auto insurance policy and $1,000 a month for 100 months. Mainly a catcher during his 11 seasons in the majors, he is best known for hitting a home run for the Yankees in the 1996 World Series.