CHEMIST'S HEROIN USE TAINTS DRUG CASES; HUNDREDS COULD BE THROWN OUT

MOUNT VERNON - A dozen Skagit County drug cases have been dismissed and
scores more are being reviewed here and elsewhere after a State Patrol
crime-lab chemist admitted taking heroin from lab samples to ease his back
pain.

Prosecutors have said the problem could taint hundreds of drug cases in
Snohomish, Island, Whatcom, Jefferson and Clallam counties as well, because
legal rules require strict accounting of evidence from the time it is seized.

Michael Hoover, 51, an 11-year veteran of the Patrol's Marysville lab, was
one of the forensic scientists responsible for testing evidence samples
from the six counties for the presence of illegal drugs.

Hoover pleaded not guilty last month in Snohomish County Superior Court to
charges of evidence tampering and official misconduct, both gross
misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

A plea agreement is likely, defense attorney Steve Garvey said yesterday .

Hoover resigned earlier this month after being on paid leave since late
last year.

Unless investigators can positively establish, without Hoover's lab work,
that a substance was an illegal drug, prosecutors are dismissing ongoing
cases or are declining to file charges, Skagit County Prosecutor Tom Verge
said.

"This is not a man we want testifying on behalf of the state of
Washington," Verge said. "It is a very disturbing and discouraging issue."

Three of the 12 cases dismissed so far in Skagit County involved people
serving prison time. Without Hoover, Verge said, prosecutors can't
establish a clear chain of evidence possession, a key factor in proving
evidence could not have been tainted, planted or otherwise tampered with
while in police custody.

Anyone with a case that might have been affected by Hoover's work, dating
to Jan. 1, 1998, is being notified. That could result in some defense moves
to overturn convictions, Verge said.

"Its very disappointing," said Lt. Jerry Dodd, head of the Skagit County
Inter-local Drug Enforcement Unit. "A person of trust let us down."

Hoover admitted taking heroin from lab files as early as September 2000.
But co-workers and lab technicians told investigators they'd noticed
oddities in his behavior since January 1998.

When fellow workers became concerned about Hoover's insistence on handling
heroin cases, State Patrol detectives installed a hidden camera where he
worked and allegedly filmed him taking heroin from evidence samples.

When confronted with the tapes Dec. 22, Hoover told detectives that when he
had accidentally sniffed heroin dust left over from an evidence test, he
noticed immediate relief from his chronic back pain.