SF DA DISMISSES 445 DRUG CASES IN POLICE LAB SCANDAL—1,500 MORE CASES FACING DISMISSAL

San Francisco
March 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.)