S.F. Dismisses 25 Drug Cases, Orders Shut Down of Crime Lab

By Jeralyn, Section Misconduct
Posted on Thu Mar 11, 2010 at 07:08:11 PM EST
Tags: lab fraud (all tags)

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If you're going to be a police crime lab technician whose drug-testing work can put people in jail, it's probably not a good idea to be stealing and sampling the merchandise, i.e., the seized drugs.

Deborah Madden, age 60, a San Francisco crime lab tech for 29 years, has not been charged with a crime. But suspicions she stole and used cocaine from drug evidence have caused
San Francisco to dismiss 25 drug cases.

Madden abruptly retired Dec. 8 after 29 years on the job and has been in treatment recently for drug and alcohol use, officials said. She left the crime lab shortly after an audit discovered that drug evidence was missing, officials said.

[More...]

While not charged with crimes from the alleged lab misconduct, Madden is facing charges in San Mateo County resulting from a search of her home.

Madden was not supposed to possess a weapon because of a 2008 misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence, authorities said.

As to why so many cases were dismissed:

With evidence in cases Madden handled called into question and no technicians available in the now-closed crime lab to test drugs in new cases, prosecutors felt they had no choice but to free Belton and other defendants Wednesday.

However, the defendants may not get a permanent get-out-of-jail-free card.

The remaining drugs will probably be retested with a different analyst, he said, and the cases will be refiled. "Nothing will change," [Madden's attorney Paul ]DeMeester said. District Attorney Kamala Harris' office confirmed that it would seek to refile some of the cases once the drugs can be retested.

I wonder, if the cases are refiled, and the defense moves to have their expert do a quantitative analysis, and the weight of the drugs in the newly filed case doesn't match the weight of the drugs in the police reports from the date of seizure, how will the state prove the drugs in the new case are the substance seized from the defendant? If the weight is different, doesn't that create a reasonable doubt as to whether the tech didn't merely remove drugs from one case to use, but mixed and matched drugs from multiple seizures to cover up her actions?

DA Harris' spokesman says:

"We all acknowledge the right of defendants to be free of evidence that has been tampered with," Buckelew said. "We want to assure that a thorough investigation is conducted and we identify all cases of potential tamperi