Pubdate: Fri, 04 Mar 2016
Source: Trentonian, The (NJ)
Copyright: 2016 The Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.trentonian.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1006

TECH'S LAX ANALYSIS RAISES QUESTIONS ON HIS 7,800 DRUG CASES

LITTLE FALLS, N.J. (AP) - The New Jersey attorney general's office 
has notified prosecutors that a lab technician failed to properly 
analyze evidence in a drug case, calling into question more than 
7,800 criminal cases he's worked on over the last decade.

Division of Criminal Justice director Elie Honig wrote in a memo last 
week that Kamal Shah was observed spending insufficient time 
analyzing a substance to determine if it was marijuana.

In a memo dated Monday, Passaic County Deputy Public Defender Judy 
Fallon said Shahwas basically "observed writing 'test results' for 
suspected marijuana that was never tested."

"Obviously, all his results have been called into question."

Shah worked in the drug unit of the state police's North Regional 
Laboratory. He was removed from lab work in December, said Peter 
Aseltine, spokesman for the Office of the Attorney General.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom