Pubdate: Thu, 19 Oct 2000
Source: Charleston Gazette (WV)
Copyright: 2000 Charleston Gazette
Contact:  1001 Virginia St. E., Charleston, WV 25301
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Author: Lawrence Messina

CHEMIST PLEADS GUILTY TO FRAUD IN STATE POLICE DRUG LAB CASE

The State Police chemist blamed for last month's shutdown of the crime lab's
drug section was examining marijuana in 1998 when he skipped a test that is
now considered "unnecessary and cumbersome," a federal judge heard
Wednesday.

Todd Owen McDaniel sought to explain his conduct to U.S. District Judge John
T. Copenhaver Jr. while pleading guilty to a mail fraud charge.

McDaniel, 31, admitted that he sent out a report in the 1998 case that
falsely implied that he conducted all three tests then required for
marijuana evidence.

"I knew when I did it that it was wrong," McDaniel said, his voice cracking.

McDaniel did not say why he failed to perform the test, called Thin Layer
Chromatography. But the civilian chemist did say that the test has since
been phased out because it "became unnecessary and cumbersome."

That prompted Copenhaver to quiz McDaniel and prosecutor Michael O.
Callaghan about the exact nature of McDaniel's crime. Given that the skipped
test is no longer required, Copenhaver asked Callaghan to "focus for a
moment on the materiality of the breach."

Callaghan, chief of the U.S. Attorney's criminal division, said McDaniel
schemed "to defraud the state of West Virginia and its citizens of his
loyal, honest and faithful services" by cutting corners and violating lab
policy.

The chemist failed to perform the marijuana test when it was required in at
least one other instance, Callaghan said. He also skipped a test, still
required, on suspected crack cocaine evidence in at least five instances.

"Mr. McDaniel knew those requirements, he knew what they were," Callaghan
said. "We prosecutors rely on the word of the chemists that they have
conducted the necessary tests. We prosecutors surely don't know when
shortcuts have been taken."

McDaniel's plea hearing shed some light on why the Drug Identification
Section was closed last month. The shutdown disrupted both federal and state
drug prosecutions throughout West Virginia. The State Police and the FBI
have since been separately investigating the section's work.

Callaghan said McDaniel's work fell under scrutiny in early September. A
colleague noticed that McDaniel had attached the wrong pages to a series of
lab reports on crack cocaine evidence. McDaniel now admits that he purposely
added those pages, to cover up the fact that he had failed to perform one of
the necessary tests in those cases.

Those false lab reports were never mailed, and the evidence in those five
cases was retested, Callaghan said.

McDaniel was placed on paid leave following the discovery. The section's
four other chemists, three troopers and another civilian, were also placed
on paid leave when the section was closed.

A State Police spokesman was unavailable for comment Wednesday about the
current status of McDaniel, a chemist at the lab since 1993. Neither the
State Police nor the FBI have comments about the findings, if any, of their
parallel investigations.

McDaniel, of Charleston, remains free on an unsecured bond pending a Jan. 4
sentencing. He potentially faces a prison sentence, a fine and an order of
restitution.

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