EX-STATE CHEMIST DOES TIME FOR THEFT

MONTGOMERY - A former chemist at the state's crime lab in Auburn is serving
time in the Lee County jail after pleading guilty to charges of cocaine
possession and stealing drugs from the lab.

Lee County District Attorney Nick Abbett said Charlie Holcomb, a former
chemist for the state Department of Forensic Sciences, has been in jail in
Lee County since Feb. 13, when he pleaded guilty to two felonies.

As part of a plea bargain, Holcomb agreed to plead guilty to possession of
cocaine and to theft of oxycodone from evidence in criminal cases that was
being analyzed at the lab, Abbett said.

Holcomb was sentenced to 10 years on each of the two counts, but was given
a split sentence of one year in the Lee County jail on each of the cases,
after which on good behavior he could be considered for release on
probation for five years, Abbett said.

Taylor Noggle, director of the state Department of Forensic Sciences, said
Holcomb was hired in early 2003, completed about five months of on-the-job
training, and had been working cases for about four months when he was
fired at the end of October 2003.

"We started to identify some problems through our quality system," said Noggle.

Holcomb's supervisor noticed that he appeared sleepy at work and that there
was a drop in the number of cases he was handling. He finally told the
supervisor, "I have a problem," Noggle said.

An audit showed discrepancies in the amount of drugs that were supposed to
be in evidence in five or six cases, so Holcomb was fired and entered a
drug rehabilitation program, Noggle said.

Charges haven't been dropped in the cases where Holcomb admitted stealing
some of the evidence, Abbett said.