San FranciscoMarch 29, 2010
By Blogonaut
The San Francisco Police Department is in the midst of a colossal drug lab scandal that threatens to cause the dismissal of as many as 1,900 drug cases, and the investigation against SFPD criminalist Deborah Madden—whose tested cocaine samples are “missing” weight—as widened to implicate several more crime lab employees.
No drug lab employees, including Madden, have yet been arrested.
We became aware of the story today when a friend late for jury duty was told not to bother—the case had been dismissed.
That case, against accused cocaine dealer Mario Bell, precipitated the dismissal of at least 45 more drug cases last Friday (including Bell’s), after his attorney, James Senal, asked Judge Anne-Christine Massullo earlier this week to release the internal police investigation into Madden—who is suspected of taking small amounts from cocaine samples she processed for testing.
The judge ordered the release of the 1,000 page internal affairs report last Tuesday to Bell’s attorney, but gave the District Attorney’s Office until last Friday to review the report. After doing so, and determining that other criminalists in addition to Madden were implicated, the DA dismissed 45 additional cases including Bell’s.
Bell was charged with three separate cocaine sales transactions, but the evidence from only one of the sales was tested by Madden.
According to the San Francisco Examiner, the San Francisco District Attorneys Office is considering the dismissal of 750 additional pending drug cases.
In addition to the 445 pending cases already dismissed because of the scandal and the 750 cases reported by the Examiner that are facing dismissal, an unknown quantity of defendants arrested for drug offenses who have not even been charged never will be.
Meanwhile, the number of drug cases that the District Attorney’s Office estimates may be dismissed grows by the day. USA Today reported today—March 29, 2010—that the number of cases facing dismissal or that have been dismissed has grown to 1,900 cases total—a staggering number.
Read more: Drug lab scandal jeopardizes hundreds of cases (SF Chron.)
10 comments:
Oh, for the love of god, doesn't the SFPC employ a compliance auditor who's employed by the Police Commission and who ONLY reports to the Police Commission? Yes, I said ONLY reports to the police commission--if the compliance auditor reports to the director of the crime lab, the chief of police, or the mayor, the compliance auditor is not performing his/her job independently. If the compliance auditor is not independent from the crime lab, chief of police, or mayor, then the auditor, in need of his/her job, MAY be under undue pressure to skew audit results.
Currently, and on behalf of the Police Commission, who audits the employee training, employee and supervisor schedules, employee certifications, lab certifications and re-certifications, chain of custody, evidence log, and weights and measures? After evidence is no longer useful or of any need (sentence served or RX recovered from a non-suspicious death scene), who audits the destruction of evidence? I don't know if there are any audit reports--or if the SFPD or Police Commission publicly acknowledge such records--but there MUST be a paper trail that answers my questions. Fortunately, the audit report/paper trail is a matter of public record; and as public records, they are available under the Freedom of Information Act. Hopefully, an inquisitive CA poster will post a link to these reports!
You're hired.
Reading between the lines, I think the criminalists are suspected of a variation of the scam where a bank employee steals ten cents from every account--individual amounts that escape notice but that add up to a tidy sum—only in this case white powder.
They are talking about removing the lab from the jurisdiction of the SFPD entirely.
Law enforcement in SF is not like other cities.
We were awakened at 3:00 am by the SFPD—a man was spotted on our balcony on the top floor. After climbing a 14’ wall, scaling a pipe, and then the fire escape this freak, high on meth, with a hypodermic needle and drugs on him, was separated from the interior of the home by a glass paneled balcony door.
He was in possession of a knife, duct tape and rope and he was on not one but two felony probations for burglary (which is defined as ENTERING a dwelling with the intent to commit a felony).
It does not take much imagination to figure out what he intended to do with the knife, the duct tape, and the rope.
Our building was surrounded. It took an entire shift of police officers to take him into custody. (This took several hours.)
Because the guy threatened to jump a fire engine company and paramedics were also standing by, and a hostage negotiator was dispatched to the scene.
District Attorney Kamala Harris dismissed all charges, his two probations were revoked and he was sentenced to 6 months in jail. (He is back out on the street now.)
Kamala Harris is now running for California Attorney General.
Kind of explains why the bad guys are winning in this country. And what better help than the criminal justice system itself to keep them on the winning track. In Milwaukee this week a guy who is considered a "kingpin" drug dealer, had 18 arrests over 16 years, was arrested for murder (the charges specified that he executed the victim by shooting him 5 times while he was restrained), then was able to plead to a lesser charge and walked out of court only having to serve probation. Now the DA and the judge in the case are falling all over themselves trying to convince the public that they did the right thing. I just don't understand...
Sounds to us like they flpped the guy--unless their witnesses had a last minute change of heart about testifying.
They said the witnesses were too scared to testify. What makes it even worse is that the guys wife runs a day-care center through which the drugs were channeled. Not a pretty picture at all...
Sydney:
OK, I can understand that witnesses are to frightened to testify against an exectioneer. Nevertheless, what happened in Milwaukee is outrageous; and only criminals, DA’s, and judges can justify what happened in that courtroom. I don’t care if the executioner flipped, an execution style murder cannot be rewarded with only probation. I’m sure the judge and DA are saying that he’s sentenced to a severe probation—no booze or drugs, electronic monitoring and home confinement, no cavorting with other known or convicted felons. After the home confinement period ends, he’ll, most likely, be ordered to get a job. Hmm…what kind of job is suitable for a convicted felonious drug dealing executioner? I’ll bet he’s a perfect candidate to work in a family owned daycare center.
If the drugs were channeled through the wife’s daycare center, why hasn’t she been charged? Can't she be charged with, oh I don’t know, facilitating a drug operation, money laundering, endangering the welfare of children, child neglect, perhaps even RICO violations. I’ll bet the most outrageous part of this case has yet to be made public. What are the odds that her family daycare center is receiving boatloads of cash from the State of Wisconsin? Most likely, she claims she provides daycare services for only low income families; consequently, we, the tax payers of Wisconsin, are funding the entire operation—drugs and daycare, all on the dime of we foolish taxpayers. How very enterprising of them.
Yes, her day-care center is funded by the State and has been cut off for the time being. If memory serves, the wife was arrested but I don't remember if she's come to trial yet. The most horrific part of the murder is that they found the victim's body buried under several feet of concrete - poured in the killers backyard to serve as a patio. Can you imagine going to a BBQ at his house?
Well, Blogonaut, I’ll certainly take that as a compliment! Now, do you pay moving expenses?
Undoubtedly, it’s necessary for the SFPD to become affiliated with a credentialed independent lab. While I’m sure there are some well-qualified, honest, and highly respected professional employees at the crime lab, they are, most likely, now tainted from their affiliation with the SFPD. Simply put, just from their affiliation with the crime lab, these well-qualified, honest, and highly respected employees are now, unfortunately, collateral damage.
Law enforcement in SF sounds surreal—an armed stoner gets all charges dismissed? WTF??? What a boon for felons. You report this stoner was on two felony probations—how can that be? One felony probation may be acceptable, but two? Why wasn’t his first felony probation revoked when he was arrested and/or charged with the second felony? But I’m sure those 6 months in jail gave him great moments of clarity—perhaps while incarcerated the stoner had the opportunity for an epiphany. Wait--doesn’t 6 months in a CA jail really equal no more than 4 hours of incarceration; and after those long 4 hours of incarceration, isn’t the felons “card” stamped TIME SERVED? Or do those sweetheart deals only apply for celebrities? No wonder California is a haven for felons.
And Kamala Harris wants to be the chief law enforcement official for the entire State of California? Well, using California reasoning and logic, it makes perfect sense that Harris will be elected Attorney General.
Sydney, buried under the patio—let me guess, we taxpayers had the privilege of paying for that patio. Is this the same woman who raked in $$millions from the state all while operating her li’ll ‘ol family daycare center? Honestly, I’d prefer my tax dollars go to incarcerating her and her executioner husband. I guess that’s why the state never asks for my opinion!
Among other thing, what the taxpayers had to pay for was breaking up and removing all that concrete to locate the body (the information came from and CI). Yes, that's the one who got millions from the state. She had mothers of the children in attendance working for her and she was paid twice, once for each child and again for each mother working there. This went on for years before anyone did anything about it. Thankfully, the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel isn't letting this die. Just about every Sunday there is something on the front page related to this case. Maybe DA John Chisholm can come out to SF and be the new DA after Harris becomes AG... just sayin'
If you scroll to the bottom of any page, you will see our Kelley Lynch lawsuit countdown wiget--listing the dwindeling days, hours, minutes, and seconds remaining until (lynch now says) she will sue this blog for for defamation! Yikes!!!!!!
Post a Comment