Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jan 2001
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2001 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact:  P.O. Box 2378, Boston, MA 02107-2378
Feedback: http://extranet.globe.com/LettersEditor/default.asp
Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/
Author: Ralph Ranalli

DRUG LAB BACKLOGS HANDCUFF CASES

Increased Seizures Overwhelm System

It took the combined might of the Lawrence Police, the State Police, the 
Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, and the Essex County Sheriff's 
Department to get suspected heroin traffickers Luis Cotto of Lowell and 
Carlos Vargas of Lawrence off the street, but just one tardy drug analysis 
report to put them back out.

Understaffed and overwhelmed by a flood of designer-drug seizures, the two 
state laboratories that analyze seized drugs for local police have seen 
their backlog of unprocessed samples quadruple over the last six months, 
leading to suspected drug dealers being released on bail and charges being 
dropped in some cases.

Arrested on Aug. 31 by a multi-agency drug and gang task force with 675 
bags of white powder, Cotto and Vargas, both 27, were ordered held on 
$25,000 cash bail by a Lawrence District Court judge.

''This was a signficant amount of drugs,'' Lawrence police Captain Michael 
Molchan said. ''These guys were not street dealers.''

Essex County prosecutors appeared in court five times over the next four 
months to report that a probable cause hearing could not go forward because 
police were still waiting for the seized substances to be analyzed by the 
state drug laboratory in Jamaica Plain.

The lab report finally arrived last week, confirming that the bags seized 
from Cotto and Vargas did indeed contain heroin. But it came too late; the 
frustrated judge had already reduced their bail to $10,000, which the two 
quickly posted.

Prosecutors say the case is an example of the problems created by a 
fast-growing backlog at the two laboratories that analyze most of the 
illegal drugs seized in the state.

The delay in drug analysis is resulting in cases being dismissed, said 
Essex District Attorney Kevin Burke.

All drugs seized in criminal cases must be tested to make sure that 
defendants are being prosecuted for selling heroin, cocaine or ecstasy, not 
talcum powder or baby laxative.

Officials at the state Drug Analysis Laboratories in Jamaica Plain and 
Amherst admit that, beginning last summer, the number of drug samples began 
exceeding the number its staff and equipment could process.

In November, for instance, the lab received 3,372 samples from local police 
departments for analysis but only managed to analyze 2,647, falling 725 
samples behind in that month alone.

In one year, officials said, the backlog has grown from about 1,500 samples 
and a two-week delay, to 6,200 samples and a 71-day average delay.

More than two-thirds of the samples analyzed in December had been sitting 
around for more than 50 days, according to a report sent to state judges 
last month.

Last month showed some improvement, but only because there was a signficant 
decrease in the number of samples submitted for testing. If those levels 
return to what they were in the second half of 2000, the backlog could 
start growing even worse, said Ralph Timperi, director of the State 
Laboratory Institute.

''Our staffing is obviously not ideal,'' Timperi said. ''There is no margin 
for error at this point.''

The two Department of Public Health laboratories analyze drugs mostly 
seized by local police officers for cases. Both the State Police and Boston 
police have their own laboratories, which handle seizures from large drug 
conspiracy cases.

After years of problems caused by antiquated equipment and understaffing, 
Timperi said, the labs received a much-needed influx of new funding for 
personnel and $1 million in state-of-the-art drug analysis equipment in the 
mid-1990s. Until recently, they had almost always lived up to an agreement 
that DPH officials worked out with the state judiciary - that the labs 
would have an average backlog of no more than 1,500 samples and an average 
processing time of two weeks.

But there has been an increase in both drug use and drug arrests in 
Massachusetts, according to law enforcement officials, driven by new 
designer drugs such as ecstasy.

At maximum output, the lab can handle about 2,900 samples a month. It 
received more than 3,200 a month last year, Timperi said. Temporary staff 
problems and the need to develop tests for ecstasy and gamma 
hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, known as the date-rape drug, put the lab even 
further behind, he said.

DPH officials have asked the Legislature to fund two more positions at the 
lab next year to help deal with the backlog, Timperi said.

So far, according to state court spokesman Joan Kenney, the state's judges 
don't view the growing backlog as a ''big problem.'' But that view is not 
shared by many prosecutors and defense lawyers.

''It is particularly frustrating when you know you have the goods, and you 
know you are going to get a positive drug certification back from the lab, 
and you sit there and watch the case erode like sand under your feet,'' 
said veteran Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Gerald Fitzgerald. ''It 
lets the defense lawyers chip away at the bail or the turn up the pressure 
for a better deal.''

But Boston defense lawyer Charles Rankin said that, for defendants whose 
bail requests are denied, delays mean they are kept in jail unfairly. 
Negative drug tests are rare, he acknowledged, but they do happen.

''It's inexcusable,'' Rankin said. ''The state knows how many cases they 
are going to have in a given year, so if they don't have the personnel to 
handle the work, there's no excuse.''

Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley agrees that the state labs need 
more funding to do their job properly.

''I don't think the courts want people to get a free ride because the 
Commonwealth won't spare the resources,'' she said. ''But they have to be 
fair to the defendants as well as the public. The public wants quick action 
and they want their streets safe. But that comes with a price tag.''
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens