METH TEST BACKLOG FORCING JUDGES TO DISMISS CASES

TULSA -- 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 cases
for lack of evidence.

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

The dismissed street offenders 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 methamphetamine cases, particularly in
northeast Oklahoma, OSBI spokeswoman Kym Koch said.

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.