'Drylabbing' in Houston

Jacob Sullum | June 8, 2005

The Houston Chronicle reports that problems at the city's crime lab extend to its busiest division, the one dealing with illegal drugs. One analyst faked a 1998 test that supposedly identified a tablet as a "date rape" drug. A supervisor discovered the fraud, leading to a reduction in charges against the defendant. "Two years later," the Chronicle reports, "the same analyst printed out a co-worker's test results from another case and put them in his own case file...The analyst resigned after a supervisor discovered the misconduct and the police chief considered termination." Note that the guy was still working at the lab even after he deliberately falsified an incriminating test result, which you might think would be cause for dismissal, if not prosecution.

Wait, it gets worse. Another analyst

was accused of falsifying results in two 1999 cases. In one, the analyst identified tablets as a controlled substance without performing tests and falsified data to support the incorrect conclusion, according to the report.

The analyst received a written reprimand in that instance.

In the second case, the analyst tested only one of two tablets from an evidence sample and used the data from the first tablet for the second. The analyst was suspended for three days.

He (or she) is still working at the lab.

[Thanks to Derek Ashworth for the link.]

Comments

Timothy|6.8.05 @ 12:00PM|#

Further reasons to move out of Texas ASAP.

|6.8.05 @ 12:00PM|#

Hate to say it, but to those involved in the system, the only thing that makes this news is that someone caught them at it. Government run scientific labs (which are considered part of the police force, no less) have a strong incentive to find 'positive' results, and so they do - whether or not that is the truth of the matter. There's astonishingly little in the way of institutional controls in place to prevent faked data, or just as bad, sloppy sample handling technique.

On a related note - DryLab was great software(/sarcasm). We ran a comparison for a while and determined that flipping a coin was slightly more accurate in predicting results than the software.

Of course, that was a long time ago, so maybe it's gotten better.

|6.8.05 @ 12:02PM|#

Timothy -

I've been saying it for a long time - you couldn't pay me enough to get me to move to TX. Their 'justice' system makes Kafkaesque look like a compliment.

|6.8.05 @ 12:34PM|#

These kinds of cases, along with political corruption, are the onlyones that really deserve the death penalty.

It makes EVERYONE assume the government is lying, and so is a crime againt society.

|6.8.05 @ 12:53PM|#

Since one can use the number of false positives a drug dog has as evidence in a court of law to defend against such a search (IANAL, but I have heard this to be true). Is it possible to find out who did your lab work and if they had any reprimands similar to this and use that evidence to get off? One thing that may prevent assholes like this from keeping their jobs is if their dishonesty was used as evidence for people to go free. Either that or perhaps one could ask for an independent lab to do the analysis and present that evidence.

|6.8.05 @ 1:03PM|#

Finally, a lab where Jan Hendrik Schon can get hired!

(He's the Bell Labs researcher who faked a whole bunch of supposedly breakthrough data.)

|6.8.05 @ 1:34PM|#

So, no CSI: Houston, then?

Kevin

Jeff|6.8.05 @ 2:06PM|#

CSI Houston would be a comedy, similar to Reno 911.

|6.8.05 @ 2:23PM|#

Let's just say that in Reno our biggest problem isn't evidence that gets faked, it's evidence that disappears at 4:20 pm, near the end of the shift.

|6.8.05 @ 3:06PM|#

Yep, there is nothing to worry about when it comes to the Patriot Act. Let me just reiterate, we have not faked any lab analys....er, looked into library records of the general public. No wrong doing here, afterall, we are the government and we are here to protect you!

|6.9.05 @ 2:45AM|#

What's disconcerting is that as scientific tests get more and more cutting edge, accurate, etc. they become almost "accepted truth from on high" and everyone forgets the old cop movies where the bad cop shoots the unarmed guy and plants a throwaway spare gun on him.

DNA evidence is super-accurate, so its a super-great way to frame someone. Just root around in the garbage for a used condom. Or for fingerprints, just get them to use a glass at a restaurant or a party and take it.

Everyone's wowed by the gadgets and the "experts" and forgets that while technology has advanced, human nature hasn't.