DEA TACKLING BACKLOG OF EVIDENCE AT DRUG LAB

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrived in Charleston
Monday to help tackle the growing pile of drug evidence left untested
since investigations prompted the State Police to shut down the drug
section of its crime lab.

A U.S. District Court judge, meanwhile, has unfrozen the nine federal
drug cases which were suspended just before the Drug Identification
Section was closed amid allegations of "certain inconsistencies"
involving its work.

State Police Superintendent Gary Edgell told the state's 55 county
prosecutors last week that a team of DEA agents would partly re-open
the closed section to temporarily help with the backlog of drug
evidence. Details regarding the agents' exact role were still being
worked out Monday, according to the U.S. Attorney's office, which
fielded questions about the agents' offer of help.

For thousands of state and federal drug cases in West Virginia, the
crime lab section tests for whether seized evidence contains a
controlled substance, and assesses the purity and weight of the drugs.

County and federal prosecutors had nowhere to go with their evidence
when the lab was closed and its five staff members placed on paid
leave earlier this month.

The State Police shut down the section after Judge Charles H. Haden II
postponed hearings in nine different drug cases. U.S. Attorney Rebecca
Betts asked that action be suspended in the cases in a court
memorandum that was then sealed.

State Police initially said that "certain inconsistencies" in the
section's work, discovered internally, prompted the shutdown. State
officials have since said that a worker in the lab complained about
the work of another.

The Gazette has learned that one of the section's three troopers
complained that one of its civilian employees was logging in more
tests than reasonably could be done.

The civilian, Todd Owen McDaniel, 31, has not responded to repeated
requests for comment.