He sentenced Grimes to 30 days in jail and ordered him to pay a $500 fine. Given the fact that a lie by a police officer can deprive a person of their liberty, this seems like a reasonable sentence. Only the use of monitoring in patrol cars revealed that the tests were not performed. Members of the public must trust officers, not technology alone, to ensure that officers do not lie in court and that citizen's rights are protected. That is why Grimes' sentence is reasonable. According to court records, Grimes has more than 160 pending cases within the courts system which are now in doubt. If Grimes testified inaccurately and innocent defendants were convicted in the past, he has breached the public's trust. His proven lie also calls into question many successful prosecutions,...

And much bureaucracy and legal wrangling lie ahead for the prosecutors and the defendants in the cases where he is an official witness.
Grimes' case illustrates that it is never 'okay' for an officer to lie under oath. His lie also seems to be due to sloppy police work, rather than a desire to see justice done. Officers must obey the full range of expected protocols when conducting their business, otherwise the guilty may go free and the innocent may be convicted.

References

Barone, Patrick. (2011, May). Police lies lead to dismissal of possibly 100 DUI cases.

Retrieved July 13, 2011 at http://www.drunkdrivinginmichigan.com/police-lies-lead-to-dismissal-of-possibly-100-dui-cases/