STATE TOXICOLOGY AUDIT COVERS THOUSANDS OF CASES

An auditor hired by the state Department of Toxicology is reviewing
all of the department's drug test results from 2007-09 -- including
those used for criminal convictions -- because of concerns about accuracy.

The tests cover thousands of cases. Most Indiana law enforcement
agencies, including the Indiana State Police, use the lab for blood
testing. Marion County, which has its own lab, does not.

Former Marion County Prosecutor Scott Newman, hired in August to fix
problems at the troubled agency, stressed that he doesn't know yet
whether any results are inaccurate. But he said the situation was such
that "a person who is responsible would not feel comfortable and would
feel the need to investigate."

Newman said he would be able to announce the first findings of the
audit within 30 days.

"If a single case arrives at a point where I have a reasonable
certainty either that it's not right or I can't prove that it's
right," he said, "I will immediately notify the attorneys in that case."

Newman called the extensive audit "pretty ambitious" but necessary for
finding the truth.

"If you open that box," he said, "then you must deal with whatever
genie comes out."

That "genie" could be a mess: wrongful convictions, challenges from
defense attorneys or guilty people not having been prosecuted.

Steve Johnson, executive director of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys
Council, said prosecutors statewide are concerned about how the
situation might affect current and past cases. He said it's essential
that prosecutors can trust lab results.

"We need something that we can present to a judge or a jury," Johnson
said, "and say, 'This is the truth.' "

The tests in question involved analysis of blood and urine. The vast
majority of cases for such tests are impaired driving, he said.

Denise Harmening, author of Laboratory Management Principles and
Processes, said it's not a good sign that all of the tests for three
years are being reviewed.

"That's really admitting that they are not adhering to proper
standards," she said. "That's pretty troubling."

She's also troubled that the lab isn't accredited. Although it isn't
required by courts, it is a status Newman wants to seek.

"Accreditation shows that they have gone through rigorous inspections
and adhere to standards," Harmening said. "I would not send samples to
a lab that is not accredited."

No test samples from 2007 to 2009 have been destroyed, Newman said.
But all of the auditing so far has been of paper records. Anomalies
can be found by examining printouts from testing machines.

Newman said some of the actual blood and urine samples could be
re-examined "for testing a conclusion."

Indiana University manages the toxicology department by state statute,
but because of recent problems, legislation is expected in next year's
session that would take the department away from the school and place
it under another state agency.

Earlier this month, a committee that assessed problems with the state
Department of Toxicology unanimously recommended that it be removed
from IU. The five-person committee included two state
legislators.

IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said the school is being proactive. He
said Newman was hired "because IU recognized there were some problems
that needed to be dealt with."

Newman said the audit of drug test results began when former
toxicology department head Michael Wagner had questions about lab
results from looking at paper documentation of the tests.

That prompted Wagner in December to hire Forensic Consultants, of
Centennial, Colo., to analyze test results from 2007 and 2008. The
contract was for $40,000.

Forensic Consultants suspended its work in May while the toxicology
department awaited guidance from the Governor's Council on Impaired &
Dangerous Driving. The council appointed the committee that examined
problems at the toxicology department.

Amid that quiet inquiry, and as The Indianapolis Star began
investigating, Wagner resigned in May. He remained as a faculty member
in IU's medical school.

The Star and the committee found problems in Wagner's agency that went
beyond questions about blood tests. Prosecutors were frustrated by a
long backlog of blood tests that they said hurt their ability to
prosecute impaired driving cases.

There also were questions about Wagner's purchase of $2 million in new
breath alcohol testing equipment that was sitting in storage while
seemingly little was being done to implement the machines.

When Newman was hired full time in August -- as special assistant to
the dean of the medical school -- he met with Forensic Consultants in
Colorado.

Based on what the consultant learned from relatively few cases, Newman
said he couldn't get "firm answers" to whether he could be confident
in the IU lab's work. So he restarted and expanded the consultant's
audit. The amount being paid beyond the original contract is unclear.

Newman said he has found nothing that makes him suspect criminal
conduct.

The toxicology department did have quality assurance measures in
place, but they did not include retesting of old samples.

Newman said the Illinois State Police, for example, retest 5 percent
of cases.

Indiana also lacked "blind controls," where a known sample is
submitted as if it were an actual case.

Newman would not speculate on who should be accountable for the
current situation.

"Until we know whether there's something wrong and what it is," he
said, "I can't draw any conclusions about who should have known about
it."

The person with oversight responsibility of the Department of
Toxicology is Michael Vasko, dean of the IU Medical School's
department of pharmacology and toxicology.

The review of drug test results also will include an examination of
procedures used by the lab. Newman knows there are issues regardless
of what happens with the audit.

"Looking at this lab," he said, "people who know forensic laboratories
would say there are things that need to be improved, and they need to
be improved right now."