New York county closes crime lab over drug test errors

MINEOLA, N.Y. — New York county officials shut down their crime lab Friday because, they said, police officials knew that examiners were producing inaccurate measurements in drug cases even before a national accrediting agency placed the lab on probation.

Nearly 9,000 drug cases dating to late 2007 are currently being reviewed for signs of errors after a spot check last week of nine cases involving ketamine or ecstasy revealed that six of them were inaccurately analyzed.

Officials immediately closed the drug section. On Friday, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice and County Executive Edward Mangano said new revelations that police supervisors were aware of problems with ecstasy testing as far back as September prompted the closure of the entire lab.

Det. Michael Bitsko, a police department spokesman, said county police are conducting an internal investigation "of the forensic evidence bureau, including the potential of supervisory awareness related to the testing inaccuracies."

Besides analyzing drugs, the lab handles ballistics, blood alcohol and other police evidence, ranging from homicide investigations to larcenies. Rice said evidence in all current cases will be sent to an independent lab for analysis, but contended there has been no finding of wrongdoing or that evidence outside the drug section had been compromised.

She said the decision was being made "out of an abundance of caution."

Defense attorneys have filed motions in more than a dozen cases questioning whether their clients received fair treatment, and Rice conceded that it is possible that some convictions could be overturned.

"Possibly," Rice said earlier this week. "We don't know."

Problems first surfaced in December when a national accrediting group placed the lab on probation — the only lab in the country facing that sanction. The American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board cited 15 failures of the lab to comply with nationally recognized standards, including improper maintenance of equipment and instruments, failure to properly mark evidence, failure to properly store evidence, failure to secure the lab and inadequate record-keeping.

After that, lab supervision was transferred from the police department to the county medical examiner's office, which began investigating where the problems lie.