STORY: "
Former SFPD drug lab tech sentenced to a year of home confinement," published by
GIST: "A
former San Francisco police crime laboratory technician avoided a
prison sentence Friday when a federal judge sentenced her to one year of
home confinement and five years of probation for misdemeanor cocaine
possession. Deborah Madden, 63, of San Mateo, told U.S. District
Judge Susan Illston, "I'm not proud of the way I ended my career. I
ended it in a shameful way. "I apologize to the people of San
Francisco and to the criminal justice system," Madden said at the
sentencing at the federal courthouse in San Francisco......Madden did not testify at the federal
trials, but in a taped interview used as evidence, she admitted to
police investigators in 2010 that she took trace amounts of cocaine
from her office in late 2009 and said she had been trying to control an
alcohol problem. In her written plea agreement, she admitted she
"knowingly possessed cocaine outside the scope of my employment" within
San Francisco on Dec. 3, 2009, but did not say where she possessed the
drug. Madden's actions and other problems at the laboratory led
to the temporary closure of the drug analysis unit and the district
attorney's dismissal of hundreds of criminal cases that depended on
evidence analyzed there. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Caputo,
who said that more 700 cases were dismissed, unsuccessfully argued that
that factor and the need for deterrence would justify a prison
sentence. Caputo argued that unlike some drug defendants, Madden
had the resources to seek substance abuse treatment, but "instead, she
tampered with evidence." He said, "How she came to possess the cocaine is important." Defense
attorney Paul DeMeester contended in a sentencing brief that the drug
lab's problems resulted from severe understaffing and management
problems that preceded Madden's actions. ........In a separate state
case, Madden was convicted in San Mateo County Superior Court in 2011
of possessing 0.09 grams of cocaine found in a search of her home in
March 2010 and was sentenced to undergo drug counseling."
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/crime-law/former-sfpd-drug-lab-tech-sentenced-year-home-conf/nYxQb/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear reader: Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following
developments relating to this case.
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/charlessmith
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
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.
