SLOPPY POLICE LAB WORK LEADS TO RETESTING

The New York Police Department has begun to test thousands of drug
evidence samples, as a review by the state's inspector general has
found that sloppy work by analysts in the department's crime
laboratory could have skewed drug evidence used by prosecutors.

But since the mistakes in the laboratory, the nation's busiest, were
found to have been made in 2002, some of the evidence has been
destroyed, making any new tests very difficult, according to the
review, which was released yesterday. Legal experts said this could
open the door to appeals by those who want to have their convictions
overturned or their sentences shortened.

The slipshod drug testing -- which may have involved "dry-labbing,"
or failing to test all the bags when many were seized -- has been
acknowledged by the Police Department, which transferred or
disciplined three technicians who failed internal tests of their
accuracy in 2002. Since 2002, the lab has been revamped and restaffed.

The department has said that the errors did not rise to the level of
a criminal offense. But in March, the office of the state inspector
general, Kristine Hamann, began its own investigation, and has now
come to a different conclusion.

"The integrity of evidence is a cornerstone of law enforcement," Ms.
Hamann said yesterday. "These lapses were a threat not only to the
prosecution of drug crimes, but to the public's trust in our criminal
justice system."

She recommended that the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown,
consider criminal charges against the three former analysts, known as
criminalists, and against W. Mark Dale, a former director of the
criminal laboratory who retired in 2004. Attempts to reach Mr. Dale
by phone last night were unsuccessful.

The drugs seized by the police are often the most important evidence
in prosecutions, which can also involve witness testimony, often from
undercover police officers who made drug purchases. The amount seized
usually affects the severity of sentencing.

Since May, the report said, the Police Department has recalled for
review evidence from 3,000 drug testing cases, including those
performed by the three former criminalists and others who worked in
the laboratory in 2002. Five analysts and a supervisor have been
assigned to the review.

But by late September, the investigation hit a roadblock, after a
property clerk determined that evidence for 709 of the 3,000 cases
had been destroyed. So far, the report said, 413 cases have been
reviewed, and "the laboratory states that no significant
discrepancies have been discovered that would compromise the original
findings."

The inspector general's report said that the 2002 drug testing errors
were not brought to the attention of state officials until March
2007, and that the five intervening years had left a cold trail of
evidence that had been destroyed or contaminated, making it difficult
to determine how accurate the original testing had been.

It said officials of the crime laboratory also failed to inform the
Laboratory Accreditation Board of the American Society of Crime
Laboratory Directors, an oversight group it had pledged to keep
informed of any lapses in testing procedures.

Ms. Hamann said yesterday that the five-year lapse made it impossible
to tell if others at the city laboratory, which employs 100
criminalists, had taken shortcuts in the sometimes tedious process of
drug testing.

"If there had been a thorough investigation at the time, we might
know," she said. "The N.Y.P.D. is now valiantly trying to catch up,
but I don't think anyone can know" the extent to which erroneous drug
test may have been used in prosecutions.

Peter Neufeld, a lawyer and co-founder of the Innocence Project, a
legal group based in New York that uses DNA evidence to represent
people it thinks have been wrongly convicted, said the inspector
general's findings "undermine God knows how many convictions" in drug
cases. He said he expected many motions to dismiss or to amend the
severity of sentences that are based on the amount or weight of the
illegal substance tied to a defendant.

Both the police and Ms. Hamann said yesterday that major strides had
been made by the crime laboratory since 2002, which was the first
year of Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly's current tenure as the
head of the department. (He also was police commissioner for slightly
more than 14 months under former Mayor David N. Dinkins.)

Paul J. Browne, a spokesman for the department, said the laboratory's
management had been revamped and a committee of police officials and
civilian forensic scientists had been set up to review its
procedures. An inspection in October by the Laboratory Accreditation
Board found that the lab satisfied more than 98 percent of the
board's criteria, including quality assurance, staffing and evidence storage.

But the report said senior officials in charge of the laboratory had
been far too slow to respond when evidence of inaccurate drug testing
was found in 2002, and allowed the same criminalists who failed
internal tests to remain on the job. One was suspended after she
failed a second internal test, but was responsible for 23 drug cases
after she failed the first time, the report said, and another worked
on 11 tests between his first and second internal tests, both of
which he failed. Both criminalists should have been removed after
failing a single test, the report said.

"The lab cannot conclusively state that no incorrect reports were
issued by the three employees," the report said.

Mr. Browne said advanced technology was being used to analyze the old
drug evidence, even where the evidence had been destroyed or
contaminated. In some cases, he said, the laboratory is taking
scrapings from envelopes in which the now-discarded powder had been sealed.

The department has also changed its methods to avoid similar problems
in the future, Mr. Browne said.