SAN FRANCISCO CRIME LAB: PROSECUTORS FIGHT BACK AGAINST RULING THAT THEY KEPT BACK INFORMATION ABOUT DYSFUNCTIONAL LAB FROM DEFENCE LAWYERS;

"At issue is San Francisco Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo's ruling in May that found prosecutors at the "highest levels" kept information about the dysfunctional crime lab from defense attorneys, a move that violated defendants' rights.

Attorneys for Francisco Hernandez, 32 - who has been jailed since last year on charges of possessing methamphetamine and marijuana for sale and other gang charges - went to court armed with that ruling. They said former lab technician Deborah Madden, who is accused of skimming drugs at the lab, reviewed the test results in his case. They said that evidence she handled was unreliable and that Hernandez's case should be dismissed.

Prosecutors countered in a legal filing to another judge that Massullo's ruling was "contrary to law" and asked that the Hernandez case be spared because there was no basis to find the defendant's rights were violated.

But last week, before any judge could rule, prosecutors took a new approach: They dropped the charges against Hernandez and immediately refiled them."
S.F. D.A.'s office drops bid to scrap judge's ruling

REPORTER JAXON VAN DERBEKEN; SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE; Wikipedia informs us that, "The San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California, from the Sacramento area and Emerald Triangle south to San Luis Obispo County."

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"San Francisco prosecutors have essentially scuttled an effort to persuade one San Francisco judge to undermine another's scathing opinion against District Attorney Kamala Harris in a case related to the city's drug lab scandal," the San Francisco Chronicle story by reporter Jaxon Van Derbeken published earlier today under the heading, "S.F. D.A.'s office drops bid to scrap judge's ruling," begins.

"At issue is San Francisco Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo's ruling in May that found prosecutors at the "highest levels" kept information about the dysfunctional crime lab from defense attorneys, a move that violated defendants' rights," the story continues.

"Attorneys for Francisco Hernandez, 32 - who has been jailed since last year on charges of possessing methamphetamine and marijuana for sale and other gang charges - went to court armed with that ruling. They said former lab technician Deborah Madden, who is accused of skimming drugs at the lab, reviewed the test results in his case. They said that evidence she handled was unreliable and that Hernandez's case should be dismissed.

Prosecutors countered in a legal filing to another judge that Massullo's ruling was "contrary to law" and asked that the Hernandez case be spared because there was no basis to find the defendant's rights were violated.

But last week, before any judge could rule, prosecutors took a new approach: They dropped the charges against Hernandez and immediately refiled them.

That means Massullo's ruling now has no bearing on the new case and prosecutors no longer need to press their effort to undermine her decision.

District Attorney spokeswoman Erica Derryck said the decision to drop the case and refile it was made because a gang expert needed to testify went on vacation. Prosecutors had no choice but to start over again, she said.

The district attorney's office has dropped about two-thirds of the more than 60 cases affected by Massullo's ruling."

The story can be found at:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/13/BA8B1ED6SQ.DTL

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be accessed at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-feature-cases-issues-and.html

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;