OFFICIALS PUSH FOR POLICE LAB

BG Site Would Reduce Backlog at Madisonville Facility Serving Warren

Warren County officials are leading an effort to get a state crime
lab in Bowling Green to speed up the process of getting results
because delays have caused problems in some counties in the region. In
Warren County, as many as 50 or so cases may have to be dropped due to
a backlog. In Graves County, a judge has summoned crime lab officials
to court to explain the delay there.

The Kentucky State Police operate six crime labs. The Madisonville
lab, the one used by Warren and Graves counties, is the lab in question.

Warren County Coroner Kevin Kirby said he is waiting three to four
months in some cases to get blood work back from the lab on autopsies.

"I think it would be a great benefit to Warren County and surrounding
counties if we could get a lab here, but with the state budget
problems, I don't know," Kirby said. "Maybe with some federal help in
a couple of years we could get a lab here."

Kirby said slow lab results are causing problems throughout the
state.

"Every coroner's office that I talk to complains about the backlog,"
he said. "They have a huge workload and they're understaffed."

State police are aware of the problem. Spokeswoman Lt. Lisa Rudzinski
said the state has a backlog of 7,000 drug cases. Rudzinski said
understaffing problems should be helped when 10 new hires begin
working in August at the Madisonville facility.

Warren Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Wilson said it's an ongoing
problem.

"It would be hard to tell how many cases that are waiting for
results," Wilson said. "We're waiting six months to a year in some
cases for drug tests to come back."

Wilson said state law dictates that people charged with felonies can
be held 60 days before an indictment is required. If no indictment is
issued, those charged must be released. He said there are currently 50
cases in the county that may be dropped due to the backlog.

"The only way I know how to prove a drug case is to have the lab test
that proves an illegal drug was used," Wilson said. "When you don't
have that, you have to let people go. The Kentucky legislature
approved $1 million for lab support this last session, so that could
bring some help."

Graves Circuit Judge John Daughaday issued an order Monday for state
crime lab officials to be in his court Aug. 12 to explain the enormous
backlog in drug and DNA results.

He said cases have been dismissed because of delayed test
results.

Daughaday, who said that he has some cases that are nearly a year old,
wants the lab to explain each pending case that is over three months
old.

Wilson said 40 percent to 50 percent of his office's cases have some
drug element involved.

"The fundamental flow over the past 20 years has been to put more
officers on the streets, but they haven't put more judges and
prosecutors to deal with the increased crime. More importantly, they
haven't supplied more chemists to take care of the growing increase of
cases," Wilson said. "It would be more ideal to have the lab in
Owensboro or Bowling Green where we could service the western part of
the state."

The crime lab deals with 40,000 cases a year - 80 percent from local
agencies and 20 percent from state police.