Pubdate: Sat, 25 May 2002
Source: Charleston Gazette (WV)
Copyright: 2002 Charleston Gazette
Contact:  http://www.wvgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/77
Author: Lawrence Messina, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption)

ANOTHER SHAKE-UP AT STATE POLICE LAB

Sergeant Fired; Captain Resigns

The State Police on Friday fired the sergeant whose testing of suspected 
drug evidence prompted internal and FBI investigations of the crime lab's work.

Timothy Grant White had been on paid leave since March, when Superintendent 
Howard Hill ordered the retesting of four months' worth of White's lab results.

The chief of the entire crime lab, meanwhile, has resigned.

Capt. Rick Theis also had been placed on paid leave for failing to tell 
Hill of a June 2001 lab report "discrepancy" that first raised suspicions 
about White's work.

The State Police has completed its internal probe of the lab's Drug 
Identification Section, but has not yet released any findings, general 
counsel Kelly Ambrose said.

"That investigation is over," she said Friday. "The FBI continues to 
examine aspects of this."

Ambrose did say that the decision to fire White, 35, arose from the 
internal review.

White's firing is but the latest shake-up at the South Charleston lab. The 
state's only facility for testing criminal evidence has been repeatedly 
buffeted by allegations of sloppiness and worse since the early 1990s.

White was initially given credit in 2000 after tipping off superiors to 
shoddy lab work by a civilian co-worker, Todd Owen McDaniel.

McDaniel, 33, later pleaded guilty to a fraud charge for falsely reporting 
results for drug analysis tests he never conducted.

The discovery of McDaniel's wrongdoing shut down the drug section and 
forced the retesting of all of its evidence. Both state and federal drug 
cases pending throughout West Virginia were thrown into turmoil.

The section was reopened and declared trouble-free in 2001. Though a 
problem with White's test results was discovered that June, Hill said he 
was not informed of it until March.

When the FBI investigated McDaniel, it also reviewed the work of others in 
the drug section. The FBI's confidential report of that probe said White 
had periodically failed to conduct "preliminary testing" then required by 
lab policy.

The report, obtained by The Charleston Gazette earlier this year, also said 
that White showed signs of deception during a lie detector test.

The State Police revamped the entire crime lab in 1994, amid a scandal 
involving one of its former section chiefs. Exaggerated tests, altered lab 
reports and false testimony by Fred Zain have been blamed for at least a 
half-dozen wrongful convictions.

The State Police has repeatedly maintained that no one has been wrongly 
accused, convicted or imprisoned because of misconduct at the Drug 
Identification Section.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom