DUIS UNDER MICROSCOPE; CRIME LAB WOES PROMPT REVIEW OF CASES.Byline: Jesse Hiestand and Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writers Defense attorneys are reviewing hundreds of DUI cases for potentially tainted evidence tainted evidence n. in a criminal trial, information which has been obtained by illegal means or has been traced through evidence acquired by illegal search and/or seizure. This evidence is called "the fruit of the poisonous tree," and is not admissible in court. after an internal investigation by the Ventura County Sheriff's Department The Ventura County Sheriff's Department (VCSD) provides law enforcement for the unincorporated areas of Ventura County, California, USA, as well as several cities within the county. The cities that VCSD serves are Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark, Ojai, and Thousand Oaks. determined that a criminalist crim·i·nal·ist n. A specialist in the collection and examination of the physical evidence of crime. crim had overstated o·ver·state tr.v. o·ver·stat·ed, o·ver·stat·ing, o·ver·states To state in exaggerated terms. See Synonyms at exaggerate. o the results of nearly three dozen blood-alcohol samples. A memo shows the botched botch tr.v. botched, botch·ing, botch·es 1. To ruin through clumsiness. 2. To make or perform clumsily; bungle. 3. To repair or mend clumsily. n. 1. results were discussed April 17 by representatives of the Sheriff's Department and the District Attorney's Office, as they met to discuss the suspension of the crime lab's license to conduct blood, urine and breath tests. Because the county crime lab continued to analyze breath samples even after its license was suspended, prosecutors are facing challenges to hundreds of drunk-driving cases. A hearing is scheduled for today to discuss the crime lab evidence, and the issue of the flawed blood tests could add another layer of confusion to the complex situation. ``I dread what we're going to be facing - it's just daunting daunt tr.v. daunt·ed, daunt·ing, daunts To abate the courage of; discourage. See Synonyms at dismay. [Middle English daunten, from Old French danter, from Latin ,'' Judge Steven Z. Perren, who will preside pre·side intr.v. pre·sid·ed, pre·sid·ing, pre·sides 1. To hold the position of authority; act as chairperson or president. 2. To possess or exercise authority or control. 3. over the hearing, said in court Wednesday. ``Apparently every drunk-driving case from the past six months will be here.'' Deputy Public Defender public defender, governmental official who represents indigent persons accused of crime. U.S. Supreme Court decisions expanding the right to counsel to pretrial proceedings and holding that a person cannot be sentenced to even one day in jail unless a lawyer was Brian Vogel said he has been frantically preparing for today's hearing, reviewing hundreds of cases to see which ones were based on evidence analyzed after the lab's license was suspended March 19. However, with questions being raised about fluid tests, all cases dating back to mid-November will be scrutinized, Vogel said. ``It's just a gigantic process,'' he said. Officials have identified the criminalist who conducted the faulty analyses as Vincent Vitale, whose failure of a routine proficiency test proficiency test n → prueba de capacitación in February contributed to the suspension of the lab's license. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. an April 21 memo summarizing the April 17 meeting, Vitale incorrectly reported blood-alcohol levels of .01 percent to .02 percent over their actual levels in 30 cases. Three other tests were inflated by .03 percent and another was determined to be .04 percent higher. The results were determined to be incorrect after the samples were retested by another criminalist, the memo said. In light of the faulty results, Cmdr. William Wade
tr.v. re·test·ed, re·test·ing, re·tests To test again. n. A second or repeated test. all fluid and breath samples analyzed by the county technician. A state lab official said the lab could not immediately determine how many blood, urine or breath tests it had completed for the Ventura County lab. Wade is out on stress-related disability leave, and lab officials have been instructed not to comment about the testing issue. But Capt. Mark Ball said the Sheriff's Department had conducted an internal investigation dating to Nov. 16, when forensic alcohol supervisor Norm Fort retired. Ball would not say what the investigation found or whether Vitale was disciplined. ``We've conducted an internal investigation into our own methods and procedures,'' Ball said. ``The errors are errors that our office has found. We're not going to go into those issues. The specifics will come out in court.'' Ball, however, said sheriff's officials are confident those test results will not affect cases brought by county prosecutors. ``The defense attorneys are not going to make the decisions in these cases. That's up to the courts to decide. That's the bottom line with all this,'' Ball said. ``We believe the court will decide in our favor.'' But defense attorney Ron Huber, who already is seeking dismissal of several DUI cases because of the crime lab's license suspension, said he has serious doubts about the results produced by county technicians. ``This additional contempt is a tragedy for the citizens of Ventura County and further shades the credibility of the Ventura County crime lab,'' Huber said. Defense attorneys are questioning whether their clients'l rights were violated when they were not told that their alcohol levels would be tested by a lab that had lost its license to analyze the samples. Prosecutors have said they were unaware the crime lab wasn't licensed to test breath samples - a statement the Sheriff's Department contests - but that they expect the cases to stand up in court. The District Attorney's Office did not return phone calls. While defense attorneys contend the laboratory conducted tests while operating without a license, a spokesman for the state agency that licenses the lab said the license was not formally suspended. ``They conducted tests without our approval to do so,'' said Scott Lewis Scott Edwin Lewis (born September 26, 1983 in Washington Court House, Ohio) is an American baseball player on the 40-man roster of the Cleveland Indians. Since being drafted by the organization in 2004, Lewis has played Minor League Baseball as a member of the Mahoning Valley , spokesman for the California Department of Health Services Department of Health Services may refer to:
Whether the lab therefore knowingly conducted forensic alcohol tests out of compliance with state law, Lewis said, is ``up to the courts to decide.'' DA's memo The following is the text of an April 17 memo from District Attorney's Office investigator Danny M. Miller to John Cardoza, supervisor of misdemeanor prosecutions, regarding blood and alcohol analysis by the county crime lab. On April 17, 1997, at approximately 9:37 a.m., we attended a meeting with personnel from the Sheriff's Crime Lab. The Sheriff's staff in attendance were: Commander William Wade (the supervisor of the crime lab, now on stress-related disability leave) Captain Leslie Warren (the lab manager) Forensic Services Unit Manager - Rene Hartman Criminalist - Dea Boehme During the meeting the Sheriff's staff discussed the problems with the loss of the lab licensing to perform blood-alcohol analysis. The crime lab's forensic alcohol license requires each operator to successfully pass a proficiency test. The operator performing the blood-alcohol test at the crime lab had failed his set of proficiencies. The crime lab identified the cases that this operator had conducted and determined there was a discrepancy in the blood-alcohol levels of .01 lto .02%. Criminalist Boehme presented us with a list of 34 cases that the operator in question had performed. Criminalist Boehme re-tested these cases utilizing a different methodology and confirmed that almost every case had a lower blood-alcohol concentration of approximately .01 to .02%. Three of the samples re-tested to a lower blood-alcohol concentration of .03% and one sample re-tested to a lower blood-alcohol concentration of .04%. Commander Wade volunteered to re-test all of the samples that this particular operator completed. The samples will be sent to the State's Department of Justice Crime Laboratory located in Santa Barbara Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. . CAPTION(S): Box: (ran in SIMI SIMI Sea Ice Mechanics Initiative SIMI Search for Intelligent Monkeys on the Internet SIMI Students Islamic Movement in India SIMI Society of Irish Motor Industry SIMI Smallholder Irrigation Markets Initiative and CONEJO editions only) DA's memo (see text) 
L. Rat (Member): Vitale cleared by federal court & successfully sued for unspecified damages 2/27/2008 5:13 PM
William Wade "the supervisor of the crime lab, now on stress-related disability leave" was there as a direct result of the federal investigation & trial that followed where criminalist Vitale was cleared of any & all wrong-doing, and successfully sued the county in federal court. The witch-hunt was started when the then ballistics expert, Vitale, was asked by the County of Ventura DA's office to puposefully inaccurately report results under oath on a case, for which he refused.
The details of the federal proceedings where Vitale was cleared and awarded unspecified damages (estimated in the millions of dollars, as the press was reportedly deliberately used by the DA's office to damage his reputation as well as his career) were under a gag-order, although this part of the report is available. The lab supervisor, William Wade, was likely not on "stress-related disability leave", but likely was ordered to step down during the federal investigation and may have played a part in destroying Vitale's career because he refused to lie about evidence. Apparently Wade was quietly dismissed from his postion as lab supervisor as a result of the investigation. |
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