A Warren woman's challenge to a breath-alcohol test could have put the state's new breath-testing instrument on the stand, but it won't.

The Ohio Supreme Court threw out a case brought last week by Jessica Derov of Warren, who disputed the validity of a breath test that found her to be driving under the influence. Derov's case could have had implications for the state's new breath-testing device, the Intoxilyzer 8000, which has drawn challenges even before it's used in the state.

The Supreme Court decided against even considering that question.

In its decision to throw out Derov's case, the court said there wasn't enough information for it to weigh the validity of the test used on Derov -- much less the Intoxilyzer, which is a different instrument.

The Intoxilyzer 8000 was supposed to debut in a pilot program in Clermont County early this year, but it's still not in use, said Tom Hunter, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Public Safety.

-- James Nash jnash@dispatch.com