Pubdate: Mon, 28 Jan 2002
Source: Charleston Gazette (WV)
Copyright: 2002 Charleston Gazette
Contact:  http://www.wvgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/77
Author: Lawrence Messina
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption)

AFTER TESTING SCANDAL, STATE POLICE LAB CHANGES

It was mid-1994, and Todd Owen McDaniel felt that his life was 
beginning to unravel.

Barely two years into his job as a civilian chemist at the State 
Police Drug Identification Section, his caseload had begun to stack 
up. His wife's pregnancy, meanwhile, was breaking up their marriage.

"A big strain existed," he would later tell an FBI agent.

A once-secret FBI report reveals the ways McDaniel and others in his 
section tried to whittle down their daunting caseloads: They skipped 
required tests of suspected drug evidence.

McDaniel, 33, has since pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges for 
his crime lab misdeeds. The FBI probe found sloppy work by others at 
the drug section, but no other criminal wrongdoing.

The report, obtained by the Gazette, includes interviews with current 
and former lab chemists. They help explain McDaniel's misdeeds, which 
went undetected for years.

Backlogs and Video Games

McDaniel had left a job in the Valley's chemical industry for a post 
at the State Police crime lab. At the time, the crime lab's civilian 
chemists were paid more than troopers, who had a pension plan and 
their own cruisers.

But that changed. McDaniel would tell the FBI that by 1999, the crime 
lab brimmed with tension.

"A lot of resentment, which continues to this day, developed between 
trooper[s] and civilian personnel," the interviewing FBI agent would 
later report. "Troopers assigned to the laboratory are treated as 
second-class individuals, and McDaniel claims that civilian personnel 
were treated worse."

Former section co-workers blamed McDaniel for his case backlog. At 
least three described McDaniel as "lazy," their FBI interview reports 
said.

One worked at the lab for less than a year before going to medical 
school in 2000. He called McDaniel a complainer who spent little time 
testing evidence.

"When McDaniel was on the job, he was generally in his cubicle 
playing video games or conducting Civil War research," the FBI report 
from his interview said.

McDaniel separated from his wife in 1996. The ensuing custody battle 
over their son transformed him into a high-profile "father's rights" 
advocate at the Legislature. Co-workers said he often dwelt on his 
custody battle or his lobbying when he should have been testing 
evidence.

The FBI report indicates that section workers began skipping 
mandatory tests as early as 1993. But the misdeeds that resulted in 
criminal charges against McDaniel came shortly before he was caught 
in September 2000.

The FBI interviews may explain why McDaniel's cutting of corners 
worsened at that time. His ex-wife planned to move to New Jersey with 
their son. Despite the skipped testing, his backlog had grown to 158 
cases. His supervisors yanked his overtime until he pared down his 
caseload.

"McDaniel has been under a lot of stress, both professionally and 
personally," the FBI report from his September 2000 interview said. 
"McDaniel is behind in his caseload work and describes his personal 
life as being in shambles."

McDaniel increased the number and type of tests he skipped. Shortly 
before he was found out, he knocked down his backlog to 30 cases.

LearningFrom Mistakes

Discovery of McDaniel's wrongdoing shut down both the lab section and 
state and federal drug prosecutions throughout West Virginia. The 
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration re-tested the section's entire 
evidence caseload. McDaniel and the section's other civilian chemist 
resigned. The State Police replaced the section's remaining staffers 
before it re-opened.

"We've done a lot, actually, to make the lab a lot more professional, 
to identify the weaknesses that the FBI found in the lab," State 
Police chief legal counsel Kelly Ambrose said Friday.

Perhaps most importantly, Ambrose said, the State Police scrutinized 
why McDaniel and others began skipping required tests.

"One of the big problems the lab had been faced with at that time was 
the sheer volume of the work that it had to do," she said.

"It's a very burdensome process. Regardless of whether the case is a 
felony case or a misdemeanor case, it takes the same amount of time 
to test the evidence."

The lab shed tests deemed "self-imposed requirements," and retained 
or adopted tests that ensured the lab's national accreditation.

Ambrose said the State Police have also sent troopers to Kentucky, 
where suspected marijuana is tested "in the field," to learn those 
methods to use in West Virginia.

"You don't have to send it in to the lab. It's not a highly 
sophisticated drug," she said. "That's going to save us a lot of 
time."

All told, the State Police want to learn from the McDaniel episode, 
Ambrose said.

"We've taken these steps to make sure that we're not overburdening 
the lab," Ambrose said. "So, in a way, all this was a very good 
experience."
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