CRIME LAB STAGGERS UNDER LOAD OF CASES

Crucial Evidence Supporting Drug Charges Languishes As Lawyers Wait Months
For Results

LOUISA -- His mother and her boyfriend were smoking marijuana in front of
him, the juvenile said, so he called the Lawrence County sheriff's office,
according to court records.

Deputy Sheriff Scott Randall found what he described in court papers as a
"bag of green substance" that looked like pot, so he charged the boyfriend,
James D. Mann Sr., with possession.

Last month, however, the misdemeanor charge against Mann, 49, was
dismissed, after a prosecutor cited the Kentucky State Police Forensic
Laboratory's "failure to analyze evidence."

The state-police crime lab, struggling under a backlog of about 7,000 cases
that involve suspected drugs, is hampering drug-related prosecutions across
Eastern Kentucky. In some counties, where drug-related DUI cases are
outstripping alcohol-related cases, defendants have won dismissals because
of delays in lab results.

State police do not maintain a separate budget for their half-dozen crime
laboratories, but lab officials say they could make headway if the current
General Assembly produces the extra $1 million budgeted a year ago to pay
for some new staff and equipment.

"I think it's a legislative problem at this point," said Rick Bartley,
commonwealth's attorney for Pike County. "I don't blame the labs. It's the
legislature's job to give us the funding to protect us from drug dealers."

But in the current General Assembly, that protection might be hard to come by.

House Majority Leader Greg Stumbo said it will be hard to find money for
any program expansion during a budget crunch that has officials predicting
a $400 million shortfall in the next fiscal year.

"There's a real problem," said Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg. "I'm hopeful we'll
be able to carve out that money. With the drug problems we have, the
Kentucky State Police really need money across the board."

40,000 New Cases A Year

The crime lab's drug-case backlog involves pills, pot and powders that, in
some instances, have taken chemists six months to a year to analyze and
return to prosecutors.

State law does not specify the time in which the crime lab must return
results to prosecutors, but the state Constitution guarantees defendants
the right to a speedy trial. The state Supreme Court recommends that DUI
cases be resolved in 90 days.

In Lawrence County, District Judge Susan M. Johnson agreed to dismiss the
case against Mann after County Attorney Michael Hogan cited the lab's
failure. The charge had been pending about 4 1/2 months.

Johnson declined to discuss the case. But she said, speaking generally,
"Six months is a reasonable length of time to have results back from the lab."

What's reasonable to judges, however, is not always possible.

The state police operate six crime labs -- a large, central facility in
Frankfort and five smaller regional labs. They handle criminal cases from
every law-enforcement agency in the state, generally on a first-come,
first-served basis, manager Jeff Warnecke said.

In the past five years, the labs have been receiving about 40,000 new cases
a year, about half of which have been drug-identification cases, agency
charts show. The labs still have 9,000 overall cases left over from 2002,
Warnecke said.

(The labs also deal with trace evidence from crimes; arson evidence;
firearms examinations; lie-detector tests; and DNA analysis, although some
of this is contracted to independent labs.)

At a time of nationwide budget deficits and rising drug problems, "lab
backlogs are not unique to Kentucky," said Ralph Keaton, executive director
of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors Accreditation Board.

Some state labs have tried to expedite results by such techniques as
limiting the amount of evidence they examine in a particular case, Keaton
said. Kentucky officials say they already try to work as efficiently as
possible.

"Sometimes," Keaton said, "the only solution is to get more help."

Because of the backlog, it takes an average of four months to produce
results from toxicology tests, which have increased 144 percent since 1998,
state police say.

Help Wanted

Currently, the state-police forensic labs have a total of 73 lab workers,
including 37 in Frankfort, 11 in Louisville, six in London, nine in
Madisonville, five in Campbell County and five in Ashland.

The 2002 General Assembly approved the hiring of 26 new lab employees over
two years, but provided just $500,000 to hire 11 workers before last year's
job freeze.

Lt. Col. Linda Mayberry, a former post commander who now heads the agency's
laboratory division, said the 15 unfilled jobs include five chemists, who
could each process about 800 cases a year.

Excluding other positions, the salary and benefits for five new chemists
would cost about $31,800 each, or a total of $159,000 a year, she said.
Additional equipment would total about $350,000 a year, she said.

"I think if we could be a full staff, that would make a significant impact
on the backlog," Mayberry said.

The sooner the better, as far as some court officials are concerned.

"We've had other drug cases dismissed," said Hogan, the Lawrence County
attorney who took office last month. "But we've been talking about how it
may get worse, especially if there are more budget cuts."