JUDGE GETS RESULTS AFTER PRODDING STATE POLICE TO SPEED UP LAB TESTS

Graves County Drug Evidence Was Causing Backlog

MAYFIELD (AP) - State police have met a judge's order to complete almost 50
lab tests in 90 days or face contempt charges and large fines.

Frustrated with delays in several cases, Graves County Circuit Judge John
Daughaday warned the regional crime lab director in August that the agency
could be fined $100 a day for contempt of court if his order wasn't met.

"We are doing better," Daughaday said Monday. "I think they understand we
are serious."

Graves County has been inundated with methamphetamine cases, and delays in
testing evidence were routinely several months. Daughaday said it was
interfering with the court's ability to conduct its docket.

When the order was issued, Commonwealth's Attorney David Hargrove said he
had cases dating to 2001 in which evidence had not been tested. About a
dozen cases were dismissed this year because of the delays, he said.

Most of the drug testing for Western Kentucky cases is done at a lab in
Madisonville. DNA testing is done at a lab in Frankfort, and ballistics
testing is done at a lab in Louisville.

Lt. Bradley Pratt, who is in charge of the Madisonville lab, blamed the
delays on a staff shortage.

Although the order was met, it caused further delays in other counties,
said Sgt. Phil Crumpton, a spokesman for Kentucky State Police in Frankfort.

"We had to put somebody else on hold," Crumpton said Monday. "It's not a
good way to do business."

Besides the older cases, Daughaday also has ordered that lab results in new
cases be delivered within 90 days of receiving the evidence.