About James Nesci

James Nesci, retired, is the Fellow of the National College for DUI Defense. He served as the College’s Dean during the 2016-2017 academic year and was a regent of the College from 2006 to 2017. Board-certified in 2001, Mr. Nesci has been board-certified longer than anyone in the State of Arizona. James has been such an incredible part of our team, but he has recently retired. We wish him the best as he continues to receive accolades for his life’s work, and as he continues to speak at legal seminars and write books on DUI defense.

Mr. Nesci often defended cases well into the .30 blood-alcohol range. He has caught more than one police officer lying during cross-examination and some police officers even refused to grant pretrial interviews to him without a prosecutor or their own counsel present. He was one of the lead attorneys on the Intoximeters® RBT-IV breath-testing issue in Southern Arizona which resulted in the suppression of breath tests in over 7,000 cases and the removal of the RBT-IV from the streets of Arizona. He also spearheaded the effort to obtain the manufacturer’s source code and software for the CMI Intoxilyzer 8000. Although the source code was never obtained, he almost single-handedly ground 90% of all DUI prosecutions within the City of Tucson to a halt for nearly three years and obtained breath test suppressions and dismissals in hundreds of DUI cases.

In addition to “traditional” DUI cases involving alcohol, Mr. Nesci is a recognized expert on the defense of DUI/Drugs cases. Whether they are legal-over-the-counter-medications, prescription medications, or illicit drugs, such DUI cases are far more complex and present cutting-edge issues for the courts.

Mr. Nesci was always a team-player within the Southern Arizona DUI Defense Community. He was often involved in large-scale challenges to DUI investigative methods and chemical testing. His opinion is still sought by DUI Attorneys across the nation on various issues.

He is one of only a handful of attorneys in the country who has ever held a DOT-Compliant Permit to operate an Intoxilyzer® 8000. He owns both an Intoxilyzer® 8000 & 8000 which are used for in-court demonstrations and for research purposes. He is qualified to administer Standardized Field Sobriety Tests under the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration & International Association of Chiefs of Police Guidelines.