(12-01) 18:00 PST SAN FRANCISCO --
A former civilian technician at the San Francisco Police Department's crime laboratory was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday on charges she skimmed cocaine from the lab.
Deborah Madden, 61, of San Mateo was charged with a felony count of acquiring a controlled substance by subterfuge in the indictment handed down by a grand jury in San Francisco.
Madden obtained cocaine by "misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception and subterfuge" from October to December 2009, the indictment said.
Madden is to be arraigned in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Wednesday.
Her attorney, Paul DeMeester said, "The first question that comes to mind is, where is the federal jurisdiction? In other words, what is the federal crime? The Constitution limits the power of the federal government. This is reaching."
The federal case comes nearly a year after state prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to show that Madden was stealing drugs she was supposed to be testing.
The allegations rocked the Police Department and led to the closure of its drug lab and prosecutors' dismissal of hundreds of drug cases.
Madden left the department in late 2009 just as lab supervisors began to suspect she was stealing drugs. In June, she pleaded guilty to an unrelated felony cocaine possession charge in San Mateo County.
