 DA's control of crime lab raises questions BY STEVEN MAYER, Californian staff writer smayer@bakersfield.com | Friday, Jul 25 2008 Jul 28 2008 The cocaine trial seemed pretty routine — except for one detail. The defense attorneys argued that the Kern County crime lab was on trial right alongside their clients. If that’s true, jurors may have exonerated the lab — even as they convicted the two defendants on drug charges earlier this month. But defense attorneys Fred Gagliardini and Arturo Revelo say their loss at trial was just the opening salvo in a 15-round heavyweight bout with an 800-pound gorilla — the Kern County District Attorney’s office. “This was just the opening shot,” Revelo said after the trial. “The crime lab should not be run by the district attorney’s office.”
Willsey, who works as an attorney in Southern California, has pleaded not guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving under the influence of methamphetamine and other charges. Lab tests indicated Willsey had meth in his system at the time of the crash. Gagliardini, Willsey’s attorney, argued that the handling of critical evidence by a close family friend of the deceased raises questions of conflict and presents a direct challenge to the credibility of evidence processed at the downtown crime lab. But Gagliardini’s concerns go deeper, he says, down to the very foundation of the lab as an investigative arm of the District Attorney’s office. PROSECUTION AND SCIENCE In May testimony revealed that the crime lab employee had been written up for the Willsey incident and a copy of the admonition had been placed in her personnel file. But that narrative was removed when she appealed to a higher-up, Dan Sparks. All county employees have the right to appeal critical language placed in their file, Sparks said. The criticism of the employee “was removed because I found it to be unfounded and unfair,” Sparks said. Revelo and Gagliardini said employees should be treated fairly. But they balk at a prosecutor — who relies on the impeccable reputation of the crime lab to win cases — being allowed to “cleanse” the record of employees. Why not simply privatize the management of crime labs? they ask. The funding could continue to come from government sources, but the science would be performed and overseen by neutral parties with no vested interest in the outcome. WHO CARES? In his closing arguments in the cocaine trial, prosecutor Nick Lackie was straight with the jury. Sure the crime lab is run by the DA’s office, he said. So what. “Law enforcement cooperates,” Lackie told the jury. “It’s hardly a bombshell.” The jury apparently agreed. Following the verdicts, jury forewoman Melissa Perkins said jurors talked about the defense argument regarding the credibility of the crime lab. “We considered it,” she said. “But none of us really thought that was relevant to the case.” They did settle on a lesser charge for one of the co-defendants, but that decision had nothing to do with lab evidence. A second juror, Francisco Tamayo, agreed, noting that he viewed the lab’s results as credible. THE 'CSI EFFECT' Brent E. Turvey, a forensic scientist and co-author of “Crime Reconstruction” and several other textbooks in the criminal science field, says American juries place a lot of faith in science-based police testimony. That faith has grown even stronger following the popularity of TV cop shows such as “CSI: Miami.” “In Bakersfield, you have a particular problem,” Turvey said. Kern County is home to one of just three crime labs in California operated by a local district attorney’s office. Turvey doesn’t spout conspiracy theories or accuse DAs of being in league with unethical lab technicians. Rather, it’s simple human nature he’s worried about. “In the best of circumstances, there’s a tendency of crime lab personnel to work toward a common goal with the agency they work for,” he said. “They (prosecutors and lab analysts) should not be even close to being on the same team.” Turvey believes forensic science labs that are not independent entities are more likely to make their results — or the way they interpret those results — match the needs of the team to which they belong. The phrase that has been used to describe this occurrence is “cops in lab coats,” Turvey said. But Sparks reiterates: The incident in question was reported, not swept under the rug. And any lab, whether public or private, must remain vigilant to prevent problems that could threaten the impartiality of the work. Finally, he said, the justice system allows defense attorneys to challenge in court any evidence presented by the prosecution. That’s the beauty of the adversarial system, he said. In the meantime, Gagliardini has filed a discovery motion in the Willsey case requesting all e-mails, memos and other correspondence from inside the DA’s office and the crime lab related to the handling of Willsey’s blood sample and the response to it by supervisors and administrators. |
| Junk Science |
Police/Prosecutor
Misconduct |
