SHERIFF, LAPD PLEAD FOR NEW LAB.

Byline: Orith Goldberg Staff Writer

A new crime lab to serve both the Los Angeles Police Department and the Sheriff's Department in most of Los Angeles County is the big-ticket item for local voters pondering Proposition 15.

Area law enforcement agencies will seek about $95 million from the $220 million bond measure on the March 7 ballot toward a state-of-the-art laboratory to replace aging, crowded facilities with backlogs of about 4,000 cases.

``We're cramped,'' said Michelle Kestler, director of the LAPD's crime lab at Piper Technical Center in Los Angeles. ``People don't even have a separate desk to write on.''

Harley Sagara, assistant director of the Los Angeles County sheriff's crime lab, said its 182 employees are crowded, and there is no room to put more people to work.

``Evidence occupies a finite space, and each individual needs their own work space to prevent contamination,'' Sagara said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said passage of the measure would allow construction of the best municipal police crime lab in the nation: the proposed Forensic Science Center at California State University, Los Angeles.

``It's a better way to make sure justice gets met,'' Baca said.

Earlier this month, the Santa Clarita City Council voted unanimously to support the measure.

``We thought supporting L.A. County is important, and there is a great need to put money in these crime labs,'' said Maria Rountree, the intergovernmental-relations officer for the city.

Critics of the proposition dislike borrowing money through bonds, which must be repaid with interest, to build crime labs. The Libertarian Party of California, with 87,000 registered voters, opposes Proposition 15, saying there is a state budget surplus and that the Legislature should appropriate crime laboratory funding.

Juan Ros, executive director of the state Libertarian Party, said law enforcement agencies also should consider contracting with private companies that already have high-tech forensics equipment. Private companies would be motivated to provide top lab work to keep their contracts, Ros said.

If bonds for $220 million were sold at the current interest rate - about 5.5 percent - repayment would cost about $377 million over 25 years, according to a summary by the state attorney general. That breaks down to about $15 million a year.

Baca said the $220 million bond proposal is still a bargain. He said a government audit had indicated that $430 million was needed to upgrade crime labs statewide.

Steven A. Day, an area commander at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, said the measure is critical for criminal prosecution in Los Angeles County.

``I look back at the O.J. Simpson case, which became a joke in the public's eyes because of how the evidence was handled,'' he said.

If approved, officials from the 19 crime labs in the state would submit applications to an independent Forensics Laboratories Authority that would allocate funding according to need.

The authority would be composed of seven members, including the attorney general and the state director of crime laboratories.

The local crime labs vying for funds perform almost 80 percent of such work in California, said Hannah McNeil, spokeswoman for the Yes on Proposition 15 Campaign.

The proposed new laboratory at California State University, Los Angeles, would serve the LAPD, the Sheriff's Department, the California Highway Patrol and other law enforcement agencies. It would double as a teaching facility.

Kestler said the 320,000-square-foot location would be patrolled by campus police.

Local governments would supplement state bond money to finance the lab, whose cost is now estimated at $132 million

The statewide bond proposal was jointly authored by Assemblyman Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, and state Sen. Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, who say local crime laboratories are struggling with lack of space and outmoded equipment.