STORY: "Drug-tampering probe creates legal logjam," by reporter Andrew Amelinckx published in the Berkshire Eagle on April 4, 2013.
GIST: "Statewide, the Farak case is being overshadowed by an earlier one involving Annie Dookhan, a former chemist at the now-shuttered Jamaica Plain facility, in which as many as 34,000 criminal cases may be affected. But here in the Berkshires and the rest of Western Massachusetts, the fallout from the Farak case is becoming costly in both time and money as district attorneys and defense attorneys scramble to determine whether their cases could have been tainted by bad evidence. It likely will end up costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars due to overtime and staffing expenses on the prosecutorial and defense ends. It's also slowing the judicial process in cases that include drugs allegedly tested by Farak. Beyond this, it's slowing new -- and unrelated -- cases in which evidence is waiting to be tested due to backlogs at the labs that have had to scramble to take up the slack of the two closed facilities......... Alicia M. Hilton, an attorney, former special FBI agent and law professor, goes much further in her assessment of what's needed to maintain the integrity of the state's drug labs. In "Guilty Until Proven Innocent: Evidence Tampering, Drug and Crime Lab Misconduct and Law Enforcement Ethics," which appeared in the November 2012 online version of the Rutgers University Law Review, Hilton writes that lab employees should be given random drug tests, periodic background checks and stress-management counseling. "Ethical lab personnel who previously followed guidelines may begin committing misconduct when experiencing stress," she writes, which "can contribute to illegal drug use, prescription drug abuse, and alcohol abuse." Hilton warns that these types of incidents can have "dire consequences," because when "justice is perverted, people are more fearful of false arrest. When citizens do not trust police, it is more difficult for officers to conduct interviews and develop informants. Old-fashioned policing techniques like these, not science, often are the best way to solve crimes."
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_23022004/drug-tampering-probe-creates-legal-logjam
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
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 found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
GIST: "Statewide, the Farak case is being overshadowed by an earlier one involving Annie Dookhan, a former chemist at the now-shuttered Jamaica Plain facility, in which as many as 34,000 criminal cases may be affected. But here in the Berkshires and the rest of Western Massachusetts, the fallout from the Farak case is becoming costly in both time and money as district attorneys and defense attorneys scramble to determine whether their cases could have been tainted by bad evidence. It likely will end up costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars due to overtime and staffing expenses on the prosecutorial and defense ends. It's also slowing the judicial process in cases that include drugs allegedly tested by Farak. Beyond this, it's slowing new -- and unrelated -- cases in which evidence is waiting to be tested due to backlogs at the labs that have had to scramble to take up the slack of the two closed facilities......... Alicia M. Hilton, an attorney, former special FBI agent and law professor, goes much further in her assessment of what's needed to maintain the integrity of the state's drug labs. In "Guilty Until Proven Innocent: Evidence Tampering, Drug and Crime Lab Misconduct and Law Enforcement Ethics," which appeared in the November 2012 online version of the Rutgers University Law Review, Hilton writes that lab employees should be given random drug tests, periodic background checks and stress-management counseling. "Ethical lab personnel who previously followed guidelines may begin committing misconduct when experiencing stress," she writes, which "can contribute to illegal drug use, prescription drug abuse, and alcohol abuse." Hilton warns that these types of incidents can have "dire consequences," because when "justice is perverted, people are more fearful of false arrest. When citizens do not trust police, it is more difficult for officers to conduct interviews and develop informants. Old-fashioned policing techniques like these, not science, often are the best way to solve crimes."
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_23022004/drug-tampering-probe-creates-legal-logjam
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
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 found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
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