More than 20,000 people accused of drunken driving in New Jersey could have their cases tossed based on a Tuesday ruling of the state's Supreme Court. 
 
 In a unanimous decision, the high court found criminal charges against a State Police sergeant who was in charge of calibrating breath-testing devices made the test results from five counties inadmissible as evidence. 
 
 The court vacated the conviction of a woman who pleaded guilty to drunken driving based on a result from one of those machines - and then died while waiting for the legal fight to finish. 
 
 It also ordered state authorities to notify anyone whose case involved results from machines Sgt. Marc Dennis handled that those results weren't scientifically sound. 
 
 The decision opens the floodgates for thousands of people to challenge DWI convictions that occurred over nearly a decade. 
 
 20K DWI cases now in jeopardy 
 
 In 2016, Dennis was accused of lying on official documents about performing a legally required temperature check while calibrating just three machines, known as Alcotest devices, which gauge the blood-alcohol level of accused drunken drivers. 
 
 The criminal case against Dennis is still pending. Reached Tuesday, his attorney said the sergeant maintains his innocence. 
 
 The accusations called into question any test result involving a machine Dennis handled, including devices used by local police in Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Somerset, and Union counties between 2008 and 2016. 
 
 The disclosure prompted a New Jersey woman, Eileen Cassidy, to seek to withdraw a guilty plea she entered in Spring Lake Municipal Court based on the results of a breath test. Cassidy died of a terminal illness in March, but the justices still ruled on the case because of the "significant public importance" of the issue. 
 
 State authorities maintained that the temperature check Dennis was accused of skipping was one of several "redundancies and fail-safes" to ensure the readings are accurate and that omitting that one step did not invalidate the results. New Jersey is the only state that requires the step, they argued. 
 
 But the Supreme Court, siding with Judge Joseph Lisa, who was appointed as a "special master" to handle the issue, found the omission of the step raised "substantial doubts" about the reliability of the machines. 
 
 County prosecutors began notifying defendants in 2016 that their cases could be thrown out, but those cases had been on hold pending the Supreme Court's ruling. On Tuesday, the court ordered state authorities to "notify all affected defendants of our decision ... so that they may take appropriate action." 
 
 Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said at an unrelated event Tuesday that his office was reviewing the decision. 
 
 "We're still coming up with guidance for our county prosecutors and municipal prosecutors who handle many of these cases," he said. 
 
 It's unclear how many cases will ultimately be tossed. Breath tests are an important part of DWI cases, but a person can still be convicted of drunken driving without one. 
 
 Michael Hobbie, the Eatontown attorney who represented Cassidy, said the pool of 20,667 includes an unknown number of people who may have been found not guilty at trial, or were convicted on the observation of the officers at the scene rather than a breathalyzer result. 
 
 What's more, Hobbie said, defendants have to come forward to challenge their conviction, and because the pool of cases goes back years, many of them may have already served their license suspensions and other punishments in the time that has passed. 
 
 "Are you going to want to go out and hire a lawyer and go prosecute this case again?" he said. 
 
 S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook. ||||| TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A ruling issued Tuesday by the New Jersey Supreme Court could cause more than 20,000 drunken driving convictions to be vacated. 
 
 The justices unanimously found that criminal charges pending against a state police sergeant made breath-testing device test results from five counties inadmissible as evidence. 
 
 Sgt. Marc Dennis was in charge of calibrating the devices, and authorities have alleged that he skipped a required step in the calibration process. Dennis has denied any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to records tampering and other charges. 
 
 The court's decision means that as many as 20,667 DWI convictions could now be challenged, according to state authorities and the lawyer for the now-dead plaintiff who brought the case that the court ruled on. 
 
 The accusations against Dennis called into question any test result involving a machine he handled, including devices used by local police in Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Somerset, and Union counties between 2008 and 2016. 
 
 State authorities have maintained that the step Dennis allegedly skipped was one of several redundancies and fail-safes meant to ensure the readings are accurate. They claim that omitting that one step didn't invalidate the results, noting New Jersey is the only state that requires the step. 
 
 The Supreme Court, though, sided with Judge Joseph Lisa, who was appointed as a special master to handle the issue. He found the step omission raised substantial doubts about the reliability of the machines. 
 
 As part of their decision, the justices ordered state authorities to notify anyone whose case involved results from machines Dennis calibrated. They must tell them that those results were not scientifically sound, so they can decide whether they want to go to court and seek to have their convictions vacated. ||||| "What's going on here?" Roadside asked the trooper, according to the report. "I'm not drunk." 
 
 TRENTON -- The on-duty state trooper accused of driving drunk and crashing into another car at a rest stop last month allegedly had a blood alcohol content that was twice the legal limit, documents show. 
 
 Sgt. First Class Michael Roadside, 51, emerged from his troop car looking "disheveled" and attempted to pay the driver whose car he struck $1,000 if she agreed not to report the incident, according to the woman's account in police records obtained by NJ Advance Media Tuesday under an Open Public Records Act request. 
 
 Roadside also claimed to troopers that his slurred speech and impaired walking were the result of a recent surgery, the reports show. He was later found to have a blood alcohol content of 0.16 percent, according to the police records. 
 
 Roadside remains suspended without pay after the Oct. 26 crash, which resulted in minor damage to the car and no injuries. He was charged with driving while intoxicated, careless driving, and having an open alcohol container in a vehicle. 
 
 His attorney, Robert Ebberup, said Tuesday Roadside was "a dedicated trooper for about 29 years of loyal service without any problems." 
 
 Ebberup said his client had not yet entered a plea in court and declined to comment on the allegations. 
 
 State trooper charged with drunken driving after on-duty crash 
 
 'HE WAS SCARING ME' 
 
 Roadside had been working a construction detail before he rear-ended a white Audi in his marked cruiser in the Monmouth service area on the Garden State Parkway in Wall Township around 2 p.m. that day, police said. 
 
 A state trooper wrote in a report released Tuesday that he "immediately noticed a very strong smell of an alcoholic beverage" when he approached Roadside's vehicle. 
 
 The trooper, Sgt. Matthew J. Durak, also wrote that Roadside was "only partly dressed in uniform," his speech was slurred, and his shirt "was unbuttoned and appeared to have vomit on it." 
 
 Roadside told the trooper that the woman driving the Audi "stopped short and I hit her." 
 
 But the driver, Kimberly Wilson, of Lincroft, said in a written statement that she had been stopped at a stop sign when Roadside rear-ended her. A diagram of the accident scene released Tuesday backed up her account. 
 
 Wilson claimed that when she asked Roadside whether she should call 911, he "said he would take care of it," offering to "give you a check right now for $1,000." 
 
 The woman declined the offer. 
 
 "I asked him if he was a police officer because he was a mess," she wrote. "His shirt was inside-out, his hair was disheveled, his belly and back were exposed." 
 
 Wilson wrote that she asked Roadside where his uniform and weapon were, at which point he opened his shirt, and a Bud Light cap and a loaded magazine fell to the ground. 
 
 "I yelled at him to get in his car right away because he was scaring me," Wilson wrote. She later called 911. 
 
 Wilson could not be reached for comment Tuesday. 
 
 TROOPER BLAMED HOSPITAL VISIT 
 
 Durak wrote in his report that another trooper arrived at the scene before him and that Roadside told him, "I am not drunk. I had a prostate surgery. I'm on anesthesia right now." 
 
 Durak said that when he told Roadside he was taking him to the State Police Holmdel station, Roadside put his vehicle in reverse, and Durak ordered him to put the vehicle back into park. 
 
 "What's going on here?" Roadside asked the trooper, according to the report. "I'm not drunk." 
 
 Durak walked Roadside to another troop car, and observed him "swaying," the report said. Roadside had blue sweatpants pulled over his uniform pants and his duty belt wasn't properly secured, the trooper wrote. 
 
 Durak asked Roadside for his drivers license, the report said, but Roadside said he had "no idea where it is." 
 
 After he secured Roadside in the vehicle, Durak wrote, the veteran trooper asked him, "Are you going to look through all the car? Where we going with this?" 
 
 Police later found two open plastic containers of Coors Light and several other sealed beers still in their cardboard case, the report said. Police confiscated Roadside's duty weapon and performed a breath alcohol test at the station. 
 
 When he told Roadside the results, Durak wrote, Roadside responded, "I've been way more drunk than that." 
 
 Roadside later wrote in an "operator questionnaire" he last drank alcohol at his house, but that he had nine beers between noon and 2:30. He also wrote in the report that "I did not eat today." 
 
 Because the DWI charges are motor vehicle violations, and not criminal in nature, Roadside was processed and released, according to State Police spokesman Capt. Stephen Jones. 
 
 An internal affairs investigation is ongoing, State Police said Tuesday. 
 
 It's unclear whether the state Division of Criminal Justice, which handles investigations involving State Police, was considering bringing additional charges. A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office declined to comment this week. 
 
 State Police said at the time of his arrest that Roadside had been working a "supplemental detail" at a construction site in the area. 
 
 He is normally assigned to a Statehouse security unit, which provides security at the Capitol Complex in Trenton. He makes an annual salary of $110,423, according to state payroll data. 
 
 A union representative declined to comment Tuesday because the matter is still pending in court. A November court date was postponed, and Ebberup said Tuesday it had not yet been rescheduled. 
 
 In response to a records request filed by NJ Advance Media in October, State Police wrote that dashboard video and audio recordings would also be released, but they were not available Tuesday evening. 
 
 UPDATE, 11/19: Below is an excerpt of the video released by State Police: 
 
 S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
– A lot of drunk drivers in New Jersey could end up getting away with it because one police officer allegedly failed to do his job properly. The state's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that some 20,667 people accused of drunk driving could have their cases tossed because of Sgt. Marc Dennis, who allegedly failed to perform a temperature check while calibrating machines used to check blood-alcohol levels, NJ.com reports. The ruling means that test results from five of New Jersey's 21 counties—Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Somerset, and Union—are inadmissible as evidence if they involve "Alcotest" machines that Dennis handled. A criminal case against the officer, who denies wrongdoing, is still pending. It's not clear how many convictions will actually be vacated—some defendants will have been found not guilty, while others could have been convicted on other evidence. State authorities told the top court that the step Dennis allegedly skipped is only required in New Jersey, the AP reports. The judges ordered the state to notify people who could seek to have DWI convictions vacated because of the ruling, though lawyer Matthew W. Reisig predicts a "hornets' nest" lies ahead in the courts. "The state at some point is going to notify people, but we don’t know if they are notifying the correct people," he tells the New York Times. "I have zero confidence that the state knows who the affected people are." (This driver was involved in a fatal DUI crash 90 minutes after police let him go.)