METH CASE BACKLOG FORCING DISMISSALS

A testing backlog at a state laboratory is forcing judges in northeast
Oklahoma to toss out some methamphetamine cases, often only to see the
accused returned on new drug charges.

Prosecutors in rural counties served by the Oklahoma State Bureau of
Investigation's Tahlequah laboratory report waits of six months to a
year for test results on seized substances.

After repeated delays, judges say they are forced to dismiss the case
for lack of evidence.

"It's been terribly frustrating," said Wagoner County Associate
District Judge Darrell Shepherd, who estimates that he has thrown out
at least a dozen such cases in the past year.

The dismissals have returned to the street offenders who have later
been arrested on new drug-making complaints, said Dianne Barker
Harrold, district attorney for four northeast Oklahoma counties.

"We can't keep these people on long-term bond," she said Monday. "If
they're a habitual manufacturer, we'll probably get them three times
before we finally get them convicted" because of the backlog.

The problem is a deluge of new methamphetamine cases, particularly in
northeast Oklahoma, said OSBI spokeswoman Kym Koch.

Two weeks ago, the Tahlequah facility had a backlog of 1,200 cases,
most of them alleged clandestine methamphetamine labs, she said. The
bureau's Oklahoma City laboratory took on some of those cases, but 600
still await testing.

The three criminalists in Tahlequah not only test seized substances
but also process the suspected laboratories and testify in court.
Because of that, Koch said it's unclear if the shifting of cases will
do anything to alleviate the delays.

The OSBI, which earlier this month received emergency funding to clean
up methamphetamine laboratories, has asked the Legislature to fund 23
more employees, 15 of whom would deal with methamphetamine cases, Koch
said. Some of them would be assigned to Tahlequah.

But "that will only take us up to where we need to be right now," she
said.

The number of meth cases handled by OSBI grew from 34 in 1995 to 721
in 1999, ranking the state third in the nation for methamphetamine
cases, she said.

The Tahlequah laboratory serves Washington, Nowata, Rogers, Wagoner,
Muskogee, Craig, Mayes, Cherokee, Ottawa, Delaware, Adair, Sequoyah
and Tulsa counties.

In Muskogee County, Special District Judge Robin Adair estimates that
he dismisses a case a month in which test results were not available.

Judge Shepherd said the defendant's right to a speedy trial and due
process require action. He has told prosecutors he will permit one
delay if a lab report is not available. "If it's more than that, it's
dismissed."

Gene Haynes, district attorney in Rogers, Mayes and Craig counties,
estimates that about a dozen cases have been dismissed in the past
nine months in those counties because of a lack of test results. He
doesn't blame OSBI, though.

"I think it's the fact they are just overwhelmed with the number of
cases," he said.