COUNTY SHERIFF PLANS OVERHAUL OF CRIME LAB; OVERSIGHT BY CIVILIAN SOUGHT.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

Concerned with potential loss of public confidence following sloppy and unlicensed alcohol evidence testing by the Ventura County crime lab, Sheriff Larry Carpenter said Monday his department will send blood and urine samples to another facility, and hire a civilian manager and two supervising criminalists.

The move comes nearly a year after the county Sheriff's Department crime lab's problems began, prompting state regulators to suspend the facility's license for more than two months and providing the basis for defense challenges to more than 600 drunk-driving cases.

Ventura Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren ruled last month that the lab did not deliberately or systematically withhold information or infringe on defendants' constitutional rights. But the judge found the lab conducted unlicensed breath tests from November 1996 to May and that defense attorneys could use that to bolster clients' cases and appeals.

Carpenter acknowledged in a prepared statement that ``a number of procedural and compliance errors were discovered'' that the crime lab's management was addressing. ``Despite these ongoing corrective efforts by lab staff, I remain concerned about the potential loss of public confidence in the competency of the crime lab.''

Defense attorneys said the sheriff's decision to have blood and urine samples tested at another licensed facility and hire a civilian manager marks the first public admission that the lab has serious problems.

``I think it's just an acknowledgment that the machine is broken and putting a Band-Aid on it didn't work,'' said Deputy Public Defender Steve Lipson, one of the defense attorneys who led the court challenge. ``Finally someone's saying there is a problem. It's not just Chicken Little saying the sky is falling.''

Sheriff's officials have contacted several licensed labs but arrangements for blood and urine sample testing had not been completed, said Capt. Keith Parks, the department's spokesman.

The recruitment of a civilian lab manager and two supervising criminalists had been discussed for the past year and the sheriff has ordered those moves expedited, Parks said.

The site currently is managed by Capt. Leslie Warren. Cmdr. William Wade, who remains on a disability leave that began during the lab crisis, oversees the Special Services Bureau that includes the facility.

``These are additional supervising positions. We're bringing in people with more expertise and more experience in managing a crime lab,'' Parks said.

``This will give her additional support as far as overseeing the operations of the criminalists,'' Parks said of Warren. ``She's got the management experience. They're going to certainly have the scientific experience.''

The crime lab last was managed by a civilian in 1992, when Norm Wade left and was not replaced by Carpenter's predecessor, Sheriff John Gillespie, Parks said. The crime lab manager's salary range is $55,000 to $78,000, which is similar to a department captain, Parks said.

Defense attorneys called for a civilian manager during their court challenge, a move prosecutors said they also favored.

``They need someone whose not a cop in charge. They need a scientist,'' Lipson said.

``The way the lab was being run just ensured that the public wouldn't have any confidence in it,'' Lipson said. ``If you do it once, then it's a mistake, and if you do it a number of times, it's an epidemic.''