LAB BACKLOG SLOWING PROSECUTIONS

Meth Cases May Take Two Years to Resolve

The intrusion of methamphetamine into western Kentucky began to
skyrocket in 1999 and has since been fought with federal grants for
police, increased public education and new state laws.

But the time between an arrest and a conviction is seriously hampered
by the wait -- sometimes up to two years -- for test results to return
from the Kentucky State Police laboratories.

Meanwhile, the number of indictments handled by the Daviess County
Commonwealth's Attorney's Office has reached an all-time high, which
is mostly attributed to meth violations and the new laws that prohibit
possessing precursors and tampering with or possessing anhydrous ammonia.

"We're indicting more people than we are resolving cases," said Mike
VanMeter, assistant commonwealth's attorney.

Federal, city and county grants have allowed for the funding of an
additional prosecutor, but it remains uncertain whether Gov. Ernie
Fletcher's mandated hiring freeze on state employees will prevent that
position from being filled.

This year, Daviess County grand jurors returned 605 indictments, which
was a dramatic increase from the average of 432 a year from 1996
through 2000. Meth is pointed to for the increase, in addition to new
felony laws for meth violations, beginning in 2000.

Uphill battle

The Daviess County drug cases previously were sent to the state police
lab in Madi-sonville, which was staffed with a meth-certified
technician. That technician has since left the job and a 1,500 case
backlog.

Evidence from Daviess County meth labs is now transported to Frankfort
instead of Madisonville, said Ken Nall, assistant commonwealth's
attorney who prosecutes drug crimes. The labs still have Daviess
County cases from 2001 awaiting testing, he said.

"We have a good relationship with the Madisonville lab," Nall said.
"But it's a matter of staffing. There's only so much someone can do."

A fairly simple felony charge of possessing crack cocaine or meth is
complicated by a typical wait of six months to a year for the state
lab to return the test results, VanMeter said. Often the attorneys are
prepared to resolve the case but cannot until the results are returned.

An entire meth lab consists of at least nine substances that take an
average of two weeks to test, according to November court testimony
from a state police laboratory technician. The Frankfort state police
lab, which has two of the state's three technicians certified to test
meth labs, receives between four to 12 new meth lab cases each week.

So far in Daviess County, the backlog at the state labs has not
resulted in any felony cases being thrown out, but often defendants
awaiting trial are released on bond because they may face a yearlong
wait on the test results.

Typically, if a drug case takes longer than six months to resolve,
then a defendant's case must either be dismissed or the defendant must
be released on bond, VanMeter said. Cases are not dismissed. Often the
people released on bond would otherwise not be considered candidates
for pretrial release, he said.

One such case involved Ted Willis of Owensboro. Willis, 49, had three
previous convictions for meth-related crimes in 1998, 1999 and 2000.
He received a 15-year sentence but was paroled in early 2002. Willis
was out of jail for about five months before the Daviess County
Sheriff's Department arrested him in June 2002 on a meth charge.

The test results on the meth lab did not return until October 2003 --
a 16-month wait. During the wait, Willis was released on bond pending
trial. While free, Willis was again arrested in July during a drug
sting by federal and local authorities at the Wal-Mart parking lot.
That charge is pending.

A jury recommended a sentence of 69 years for Willis during a November
jury trial stemming from the June 2002 charges.

Legal limbo

Prosecutors and defense attorneys are trying hard to keep cases moving
despite the wait imposed by the state labs. Prosecutors will offer a
plea agreement to a defendant before the results return, Nall said. If
the defendant fails to accept an agreement, then the prison time in
the plea agreement is stiffened after the results return.

A defendant knows what the results of the lab test will reveal, Nall
said, and a smart defendant will take the deal while avoiding the wait
and a harsher penalty.

Owensboro defense attorney Kevin Laumas said that releasing a
defendant while awaiting drug test results from the labs can have a
positive or, more often, a negative affect on the defendant.

Being released from jail may allow some defendants to begin receiving
treatment or rehabilitation. Other people will be released from jail
and find their way into additional scrapes with the law, placing them
in further legal limbo, he said.

"Oftentimes that is when people get in trouble," Laumas said. "They
are given that release, and they can't help themselves sometimes."

Prosecutors are also taking advantage of other options. The
commonwealth's attorney's office began using "Project Backfire" in
June 2002. The program offers prosecutors the option of sending
felonies involving guns to the less congested federal courts where no
parole exists.

Plus, prosecutors have transferred one case thus far using "Operation:
Speedway" which offers federal prosecutions for repeat meth offenders.

Prosecutors in Bowling Green have teamed up to fund a state lab
technician who gives priority to Warren County cases. That agreement
keeps cases moving quickly and makes justice more efficient, VanMeter
said.

"If there could be a way to fund or partially fund Daviess County
cases that would certainly expedite things," VanMeter said.

State police do not foresee any immediate changes regarding additional
lab technicians or funding for the labs, said state police Sgt. Phil
Crumpton.

A state police lab employee must work for a year before being eligible
to test meth labs, Crumpton said. Then, additional training is
required, he said.

If the state labs hired additional chemists to facilitate testing,
then the chemists would ultimately save money, and precious time, for
people in the judicial system, Laumas said.

"The state government spends so much on things we don't need," Laumas
said. "Here's a need we genuinely do have and it's not being
addressed. If you're not in trouble with the law, it's something you
don't care about."