JUDGE REJECTS EVIDENCE PUSH IN LAB CASE.Byline: Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writer Defense attorneys were stymied Wednesday in their attempt to pry more information from prosecutors regarding the Ventura County crime lab and its troubled alcohol-testing unit. Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren denied a motion to compel A motion to compel asks the court to order either the opposing party or a third party to take some action. This sort of motion most commonly deals with discovery disputes, when a party who has propounded discovery to either the opposing party or a third party believes that the the District Attorney's Office to turn over documents now, saying he believes that prosecutors are providing information in a timely manner. ``If you need something and don't thing you're getting it - that you're being sandbagged The word sandbagged is a colloquial expression used to describe a situation in which one is publicly rejected or corrected in the presence of peers, often causing embarrassment. - then let me know,'' Perren told 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. ``I don't think (the prosecution) is playing that way.'' Deputy District Attorney Pete Kossoris said his office has been turning over the information as quickly as possible. ``We've provided 500 pages (already) and are copying 1,000 pages that will be handed over in the next few days, most of which relates to the crime lab,'' Kossoris said. Still, Vogel and other defense attorneys insist that the District Attorney's Office is withholding documents that could help their efforts to challenge drunk-driving cases. ``We're not getting everything,'' said attorney Robert Huber For the U.S. Representative from Michigan, see Robert J. Huber. Robert Huber is a German biochemist and Nobel laureate. He was born 20 February 1937 in Munich where his father, Sebastian, was a bank cashier. , who is among 20 lawyers who are challenging some 200 DUI cases on grounds the lab did sloppy slop·py adj. slop·pi·er, slop·pi·est 1. Marked by a lack of neatness or order; untidy: a sloppy room. 2. or unlicensed alcohol testing. The lab lost its license to test blood, urine and breath samples March 19, after a supervisor retired and a technician failed a routine proficiency test proficiency test n → prueba de capacitación . Questions about dozens of other samples analyzed by that technician, as well as breath tests conducted when the lab was unlicensed, have cast doubt on a growing number of DUI cases. In court Wednesday, Vogel argued that documents are needed before July 11, when the defense plans to ask Perren to disqualify To deprive of eligibility or render unfit; to disable or incapacitate. To be disqualified is to be stripped of legal capacity. A wife would be disqualified as a juror in her husband's trial for murder due to the nature of their relationship. the District Attorney's Office from handling the contested drunk-driving cases. Defense attorneys believe prosecutors have a conflict of interest because of their close relationship with the crime lab. |
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