State v. Dyal

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

POLLOCK, J.

The main issue on this appeal is whether the patient-physician privilege created by N.J.S.A. 2A:84A-22.2 precludes admission of results of a blood test into evidence in the prosecution of a death-by-auto case. A second issue is whether the prosecutor’s reference during summation to a .10% blood alcohol reading as the “legal threshold” constitutes reversible error.

In this case, a hospital employee took a blood sample for medical diagnosis, not for police investigative purposes. The employee told the defendant, who had operated a motor vehicle…