DataMaster Defendant Sentenced Following Guilty Verdicts

LANSING – One of the men charged with creating fictitious documents while contracted to service law enforcement alcohol testing instruments will spend the first part of his sentence behind bars, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced today.

The instrument, DataMaster DMT (DataMaster Transportable), is more commonly referred to as a breathalyzer and measures the driver’s breath alcohol concentration after they have been arrested for suspicion of drunk driving.

In 2020, Nessel filed charges against Andrew Clark and David John for falsifying service records related to certain diagnostic tests and repairs on DataMaster DMTs. A four-month investigation led by the Attorney General’s Public Integrity Unit and the Michigan State Police led to the criminal cases. Specifically, the investigation found the defendants, who worked as technicians, created fictitious documents to show they completed certain diagnostic tests and repairs on two DataMaster instruments for which they had responsibility for calibration and performance.

A jury convicted Clark last month on the following:

two counts, forgery of a public record, a 14-year felony charge;
two counts, uttering and publishing, a 14-year felony charge; and
two counts, use of a computer to commit a crime, a 10-year felony charge.

Thursday afternoon, Judge Janice Cunningham sentenced Clark to serve 36 months' probation with the first nine months served in the Eaton County Jail.

“Our public integrity team continues to demonstrate the great importance of pursuing bad actors who subvert the criminal justice system and threaten the integrity of our judicial process,” Nessel said. “We must show that those who undermine the public trust risk jail time in doing so.”

Defendant John pleaded guilty to all nine charges he faced and was sentenced to 36 months’ probation, with the first nine months served in the Kalamazoo County Jail.

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