CHEMIST SKIPPED MORE-INVOLVED DRUG TESTS, FEDS ALLEGE

A civilian State Police crime lab chemist cut corners when he was supposed
to determine whether evidence he tested was actually drugs, charges filed
amid investigations into his now-closed lab said.

Todd Owen McDaniel was supposed to perform three tests on both suspected
marijuana and suspected crack cocaine at the Drug Identification Section of
the State Police crime lab in South Charleston.

McDaniel, 31, skipped one of the tests necessary for each type of suspected
drug, the federal charge filed against him Thursday said. But that didn't
stop him from listing results for the tests in his lab notes, or in reports
requested by investigators from across the state who had sent him evidence
from their drug cases, prosecutors contend.

McDaniel is expected to plead guilty to mailing one such lab report to State
Police in Hamlin for a marijuana case in February 1998. If convicted, he
faces up to five years in prison.

McDaniel and the four other chemists in his section were required to follow
a procedures manual specifically written for drug identification. The
section needs such a manual, as do the crime lab's other sections, to earn
accreditation from the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors. The
State Police lab is the only crime lab in the state with credentials from
the group's Lab Accreditation Board.

With suspected marijuana, chemists first eyeball a sample under a
microscope. Prosecutors allege McDaniel blew off the second, more involved
test called Thin Layer Chromatography.

For this test, the sample is dabbed onto a heated plate coated with a
special gel. The plate is then dipped in chemicals. As the chemicals soak
into the plate, the resulting trail left by the sample betrays any presence
of marijuana's active ingredient.

A third test treats a sample with chemicals. The sample turns purple if
marijuana is present.

Chemists employ similar color tests to initially identify crack cocaine. It
is, again, the more involved of the three tests for crack that McDaniel
skipped, investigators allege. Bathing a sample with infrared light creates
a particular, unique pattern if crack is present.

According to the drug section's procedures manual, the sample must test
positive for all three steps before a chemist declares the evidence to be
drugs.

McDaniel remains on paid leave, as do the drug section's other four
staffers. Both the State Police and the FBI continue to investigate the
lab's work. A grand jury is also scheduled to meet next week, with at least
some lab staff subpoenaed to testify, the Gazette has learned.

The nature of the charge filed against McDaniel indicates that he has
reached a plea agreement with prosecutors, who have also asked a judge to
set a plea hearing in the case.

Federal and county drug prosecutions screeched to a temporary halt when the
lab was closed Sept. 14, as it tests most of the drug evidence seized in
West Virginia. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has since lent the
State Police several agents to resume testing at the South Charleston lab.
Federal prosecutors have also offered evidence retesting at an independent
lab for their pending drug cases.