DOVER, Del. (AP) - A second employee of the Delaware medical examiner’s office has been suspended amid an investigation of evidence tampering in the state drug-testing lab, state officials said Wednesday.
Chief medical examiner Richard Callery had already been suspended with pay as officials investigate possible misuse of state resources.
Health and Social Services Secretary Rita Landgraf said Wednesday that a second employee, James Woodson, also has been suspended.
“He was an evidence specialist,” said Landgraf, who did not provide further details.
Woodson, who has an unlisted phone number, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Meanwhile Wednesday, the Delaware public defender’s office filed motions in Superior Court seeking to dismiss convictions in 112 drug cases because of problems at the drug lab dating to 2010.
“While the petitioner’s case was pending, crime lab employees were illegally tampering with and/or stealing drug evidence from the lab,” the defense motions assert. “Evidence of the misconduct would have been material to petitioner’s case.”
State police closed down the lab in February amid a criminal investigation of evidence being tampered with or missing.
The investigation began after evidence to be used in a drug trial in Kent County was replaced with blood pressure pills.
Authorities have since discovered 63 cases in which drug evidence has apparently been tampered with or is missing, resulting in several criminal cases being delayed, dismissed or plea bargained.
“Obviously this has a significant impact on our legal system,” said state Sen. Robert Marshall, who invited Landgraf and Safety and Homeland Security Secretary Lew Schiliro to brief members of a Senate committee Wednesday on issues surrounding the drug lab.
Schiliro told lawmakers that a criminal investigation “remains very much active,” but there have been no arrests.
Schiliro said state police and other law enforcement agencies have examined more than 8,000 evidence envelopes during their investigation and have about 500 more to inspect for tampering.
Meanwhile, state officials are sending drug evidence to a Pennsylvania lab for testing, and chemists within Delaware’s drug lab have been reassigned to administrative duties.
Landgraf said her department has hired Andrews International, a security consulting firm, to review operations within the medical examiner’s office and make recommendations for improvements. Landgraf said steps to improve physical security and video surveillance already are underway.
Landgraf also said employees in the medical examiner’s office will be subject to full criminal background checks, financial background checks and drug testing, which goes far beyond what is required now.
“They’re limited to fingerprints, basically,” she told the committee.
Landgraf also said a key short-term goal for her is revising a state law that gives the medical examiner far more autonomy and job security than other division heads within her department.
Most division heads serve at the pleasure of the administration, but the medical examiner is appointed to 10-year terms and can be dismissed only for cause.
“The office is in a world of itself,” Landgraf told lawmakers. “The office as a whole is not as responsive as it could be to either my department or the criminal justice system.”
Schiliro said that his immediate concern is to get the lab back up and running, but that changes need to be made first.
“I don’t think we can reopen under the existing structure,” he said.
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