HPD'S TOXICOLOGY LAB SHUT DOWN

Division Testing On Hold After Supervisor Fails Competency Exam

The Houston Police Department closed a second division of its troubled
crime lab Wednesday, less than a year after DNA testing was suspended amid
questions about the accuracy of work to prosecute criminal cases.

Acting Police Chief Joe Breshears said he shut down the toxicology section,
which tests blood and urine for drugs and alcohol, after the division
supervisor failed a competency test administered as HPD attempts to earn
national accreditation for its troubled crime lab.

Pauline Louie, a 28-year HPD veteran, was one of the crime lab's
highest-ranking analysts, working directly below the crime lab director.
Louie was the only analyst currently performing toxicology tests and she
managed the staff of the narcotics division, Breshears said. She also
calibrated machines to test the breath of suspected drunken drivers,
District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said.

He said prosecutors will review cases that include her toxicology work.

"We have an obligation to go back and take a look at any criminal case she
has worked on," Rosenthal said. "There is a possibility of reporting a drug
that was in fact not there, which could contribute to a plea or improper
evidence being introduced at trial. We have to go back and relook at her
cases."

Police could not say how many cases Louie worked on during her at least
three years in the division, but Assistant District Attorney Marie Munier
said the type of problem that arose on Louie's competency test could affect
about 170 of the tests she performed.

Munier could not say how many of those cases resulted in criminal charges,
adding that is it too early to determine how many cases will be affected by
questions about Louie.

Evidence Louie analyzed could have been used in cases involving offenses
such as intoxication manslaughter, intoxication assault and driving while
intoxicated, Rosenthal said.

Stanley Schneider, a defense lawyer who has been an outspoken critic of the
crime lab, said questions about Louie's work could have far-reaching effects.

"She was the one HPD used to uphold their methodology in everything they
did with toxicology," he said. "DWIs are tried every day of the week. If
she hasn't calibrated the machines correctly in a case where a person is
prosecuted with a 0.09, is that a valid test?"

The legal blood-alcohol limit is 0.08 percent.

Rosenthal said it is frustrating to learn of problems in another division
of the crime lab and to be forced to review more cases.

"It is extremely disappointing," he said.

HPD shuttered the DNA division of its crime lab last year after an
independent audit exposed problems that included an undertrained staff,
shoddy scientific technique and conditions ripe for evidence contamination.
That closure led to a review of 1,300 criminal cases and plans to retest
evidence in nearly 400.

Schneider also cited questions about HPD's ballistics work in two capital
murder cases, saying the number of divisions with problems demonstrates the
need for an independent review of the lab.

"How far does the incompetence spread?" he asked.

The crime lab's divisions include: trace evidence, drugs, biology (which
includes DNA), firearms and toxicology.

Breshears and Irma Rios, who joined HPD as crime lab director last week,
said the department and the public should view the latest revelation as a
necessary step on the path toward rehabilitating the lab and as a sign of
its now-higher standards.

"This is a blow to the crime lab right now, but I think it is something
that is good for our growth," Breshears said. "I don't believe this problem
is anywhere near the problems DNA brought us."

The deficiencies in the DNA division also prompted efforts to earn national
accreditation for the entire HPD crime lab -- the largest in the country
without such certification. The Legislature this year mandated
accreditation for all crime labs.

Louie was administered a lab competency test as part of the accreditation
process, Breshears said. He declined to say why Louie failed the test,
citing an internal affairs investigation that was launched after she was
suspended with pay Tuesday. Attempts to reach Louie on Wednesday were
unsuccessful.

Louie made errors on three tests in one portion of her competency test,
Rosenthal said, identifying a drug that did not exist in two samples and
failing to find a drug that was present in a third sample. Rosenthal said
there may have been a problem with Louie's using the wrong instrument for
the test.

"Apparently the problem was that she was using a machine that tested for
large amounts of drugs to do the same kinds of things on small samples, so
that there was potentially a contamination effect on some of the sample,"
Rosenthal said. "There should be two machines, and HPD was using one.

"Anybody that should know lab technology ought to know that you don't use
the same machine. It's like running clean laundry after putting sand in a
washing machine."

Breshears could not say what other crime lab positions Louie held during
her 28 years with the department, though he said her toxicology work is his
immediate concern.

The internal investigation will include a look at the toxicology division's
procedures, Breshears said, as well as Louie's other work. Louie was
suspended for seven days in June as part of another investigation of
problems at the crime lab. She was cited for failing to inspect equipment
and failing to complete an inspection checklist. Louie was also disciplined
for misconduct in 1985, according to department records, but no details
were available Wednesday.

Louie is one of many crime lab employees who have taken competency tests to
date.

"A number of people have already passed, which is a good indicator,"
Breshears said.

HPD plans to send evidence in need of toxicology tests to the Harris County
medical examiner's office and other outside labs while it conducts its
internal investigation of the toxicology division.