P FOR PATIENCE IN COURT CRISIS

Accused drug manufacturers may walk free if a crisis at ESR (the
Institute of Environmental Science and Research) is not soon resolved.

The P epidemic hitting the country has resulted in a huge backlog in
processing evidence gathered from clandestine laboratories discovered
by police.

Some cases were waiting 18 months to be heard in court.

Criminal lawyers are now arguing that the wait for their clients is
breaching the Bill of Rights, which requires people to be tried
without undue delay.

In Taranaki there are three cases held up by the backlog.

One man, Phillip Brian Marriner (44), was remanded in jail last July
when a laboratory was allegedly uncovered at his Rahotu home.

Last Wednesday, Marriner's depositions hearing in the New Plymouth
District Court had to be postponed because the ESR had not completed
analysing the forensic evidence.

Judge Bidois told the court it was extremely worrying because
Marriner's case was considered minor compared with others waiting to
proceed.

"It is certainly a problem when you consider what is going to happen
when we get to the big cases," Judge Bidois said.

Outside court, Marriner's lawyer, Paul Keegan, said the wait was of
concern and was happening across the country.

The analysis was crucial to the case, he said.

"It is very, very unsatisfactory that after nine months we still don't
know what was found there."

The delay was of even more concern because his client had been in jail
all that time.

"The police are estimating it will be another 12 months before what
was seized at the Rahotu house can be analysed and some sort of case
can be established to put him on trial.

"If the Government wants to enforce laws they need to properly
resource the ESR so that the processing and analysis of clandestine
labs don't conflict with the Bill of Rights."

Section 25 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights 1990 states everyone has
the right to be tried without undue delay, Mr Keegan said.

New Plymouth CIB's drug squad head, Detective Sergeant Greg Gray
agreed the delays were frustrating for everyone.

There was now a real possibility charges could be withdrawn.

"ESR do a great job. It's just the sheer weight of numbers has put the
pressure on.

"There's not a lot we can do. We've done our part, it's that ESR just
don't have sufficient numbers of trained people."

The ESR and police hierachy were aware of the concerns and looking
into ways of attacking the problem, he said.

"I just hope that serious cases don't get away scot free. It has to be
a combined effort from everyone."

ESR's job started when a lab was uncovered. They took the samples on
site, went back to the ESR forensic laboratory, started processing -
and were called out to yet another clan lab.

One way lengthy delays could be avoided was only charging alleged
offenders after the ESR had completed their reports, Mr Gray said.

ESR confirmed this week it currently had 170 cases to deal
with.

This number was expected to grow to 300 by June.

Each case takes about a week to complete for the eight ESR forensic
scientists.