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NEWS : 6.6.09 - Forensic lab row threatens drug prosecutions

kingpin007

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NEWS : 6.7.09 - Forensic lab row threatens drug prosecutions

Forensic lab row threatens drug prosecutions

retrievemedia.asp


Richard Baker
July 6, 2009

Key staff at Victoria Police's troubled forensic science laboratory are locked in a dispute that threatens its ability to supply essential prosecution evidence in serious crime cases.

Professional mediators have given up trying to resolve the festering row between officers who handle drug evidence and scientists who analyse it.

The mediators withdrew from a police dispute resolution program in March, after failing to ease tensions between unsworn staff in the drug and alcohol branch and sworn officers in the laboratory's forensic exhibit management unit.

The dispute centres on allegations made by one or more officers against civilian members of the drug and alcohol branch.

The Victorian Ombudsman, George Brouwer, for 10 months has been investigating police claims that seized drugs worth million of dollars have gone missing from the laboratory due to poor practices by the drug and alcohol branch.

It is believed officers have also raised concerns about alleged past relationships between drug and alcohol branch staff and a corrupt former detective.

A spokeswoman for Mr Brouwer declined to comment on the inquiry, which involves the protection of a police whistleblower.

In a report on the dispute, a mediator from Peacemaker Solutions wrote: "As you will be aware … our efforts to bring about a successful resolution of issues of conflict between DAB (drug and alcohol branch) and FEMU (forensic exhibit management unit) are not presently capable of success."

The police forensic centre at Macleod is crucial for successful drug prosecutions. Staff give court evidence and analyse seized items.

The row is the latest in several controversies to dog the section. Last year, an embarrassing DNA bungle forced police to drop a double-murder charge. And magistrates have blamed the laboratory for delaying court cases because of slow drug analysis procedures.

The Community and Public Sector Union and at least 25 scientists in the drug and alcohol branch are furious at how long Mr Brouwer's inquiry is taking, given his promise last year it would be a high priority.

The union is also locked in a broader battle with Chief Commissioner Simon Overland, threatening legal action over his refusal to grant paid leave to the head of the laboratory's drug and alcohol branch to attend a United States Drug Enforcement Agency-sponsored meeting in America.

This is despite his predecessor, Christine Nixon, this year granting paid leave and incidental expenses to the same woman, Catherine Quinn, to attend a January meeting of an international drug analysis working group to which she belongs.

In May, Mr Overland rejected Ms Quinn's application for paid leave to travel to the US, saying it was not appropriate while the inquiry was continuing.

But the union and law firm Maurice Blackburn, representing Ms Quinn, have argued that the Ombudsman's inquiry was under way when Ms Nixon approved the overseas travel in January.

Mr Overland told The Age last week he stood by his decision while the Ombudsman's probe was happening.

It is believed he recently granted Ms Quinn unpaid leave to travel to the meeting following the union's threat of legal action under the Workplace Relations Act.

CPSU state secretary Karen Batt this week accused Victoria Police of damaging Ms Quinn's reputation.

The Quinn row is the latest example of friction between the forensic scientists and police command.

Victoria Police took legal action against 35 forensic scientists last year, after they threatened to set work bans that would disrupt court proceedings.

The scientists had sought a statement of support from senior police rebutting allegations they had mismanaged drug exhibits.

Police command refused to do so while the Ombudsman was investigating.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/forensic-lab-row-threatens-drug-prosecutions-20090705-d971.html
 
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Forensic Services Department

retrievemedia.asp


The Victoria Police Forensic Services Department employs about 300 staff and is one of the largest providers of forensic science services in the world. It delivers an integrated forensic science service committed to quality, integrity and accountability to all sections of Victoria Police, the justice system and the community.

The Department is staffed by scientists, sworn police members and other specialists, as well as a range of support staff. It examines more than 27,500 items of evidence a year, including glass, paint and fibre trace evidence, blood and urine samples, firearms, gunshot residues, drugs, explosives, fingerprints, biological material such as blood, semen and hair, suspect documents and audio recordings.

Experts evaluate and analyse evidence that they, crime scene officers, or other police have recovered from crime scenes. They interpret results and provide impartial expert testimony in court. The Department also maintains a number of intelligence databases (for example the DNA and fingerprints databases) that are used to identify links between crimes and offenders.
Examination of evidence

To obtain the information from the exhibits, there are four main types of examinations that are performed at the Department:

* Analysis that identifies a substance such as drugs.
* Quantification which establishes the quantity of the substance present, such as the amount of alcohol in the blood of a driver.
* Comparisons of objects, particles, substances or impressions. Most forensic examinations are of this type. Some examples are comparisons of writing, footprints, paints, bullets, biological matter, fingerprints, and soil. These results can then be given as evidence in a case such as a hit-run where paint on the victim's clothing was compared to paint on a suspect's car, or when a bullet from a victim is compared to a bullet the firearms expert fired from a suspect gun.
* Enhancement of impressions, signals or images, such as fingerprints on certain surfaces or shoe impressions in blood.

The results of the examination can then be used either to give information to the investigators or it may be used in court. Sometimes the forensic science evidence is a large part of a case or it may just form part of the evidence along with interviews and witnesses and is not conclusive on its own.

It can also be the situation that no single piece of evidence is conclusive as to what has occurred, but there are many pieces of evidence that, when taken as a whole, can be conclusive.

Many people believe that forensic science is only to help police but in fact, the scientific results can give a more complete picture as to what may or may not have occurred. This often can exclude a suspect.
Contact us:

Forensic Services Department
Forensic Drive
Macleod, VIC, 3085

Phone: (03) 9450 3444
Fax: (03) 9459 0477

http://www.police.vic.gov.au/content.asp?Document_ID=695
 
This should be thoroughly entertaining... a whole new avenue for attacking chain of custody.
 
The Victorian Ombudsman, George Brouwer, for 10 months has been investigating police claims that seized drugs worth million of dollars have gone missing from the laboratory due to poor practices by the drug and alcohol branch.

This comment doesn't really surprise me. Sounds like fringe benefits to me. HAHA
 
And magistrates have blamed the laboratory for delaying court cases because of slow drug analysis procedures.

This problem has been worsening for years and is but another arugment towards the establishing of independant labs that can do forensic work.

As it currently stands, if a defendent wants to independently check amounts, purity etc as claimed by the prosecution, or even dispute charges of possession of illicit substances, he/she needs to employ the services of a properly authorised laboratory for an independent assessment. At present, other than through an existing state run Forensics Lab, where can such work be done?
 
LOL

I always wondered what exactly happened to those drugs.

The visibly good drugs aint gonna get sent off to labs :p FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!
 
Problems mount for Vic justice system

r319578_1421698.jpg


By Simon Lauder for PM

Posted 1 hour 21 minutes ago
Updated 1 hour 7 minutes ago

A day after Victoria Police announced they can no longer rely enough on DNA evidence to use it in court, a report from the state ombudsman has raised serious doubts about the handling of evidence in drug cases.

Ombudsman George Brouwer says he has no confidence that drugs have not gone missing from the police forensic services centre.

New South Wales Police have also expressed concern that delays in Victoria are affecting the crime rate in their state.

The head of the Police forensics Drug and Alcohol Branch has been suspended, but she says it has been a witch-hunt and the real problem is under-resourcing.

A senior lawyer says the ombudsman's report could be the catalyst for legal challenges to drug convictions.

Yesterday, Chief Commissioner Simon Overland announced Victoria Police would stop using DNA evidence in court until they bring their system up to date.

Today, he is in damage control over the handling of drug exhibits.

"No-one wants to have these sorts of issues being highlighted," he said.

"I think it would be naive of me to suggest that it doesn't in some way damage our reputation."

Independent audit needed

The ombudsman has found the drugs evidence stored at the Victoria Police Forensic Services Centre cannot be accounted for and that mismanagement and lack of accountability open the way for corruption.

The courts require drugs held as evidence to be destroyed within 28 days of a court order or at the conclusion of any appeal, but that has not been happening - just a few months ago, there were still about 4,000 items awaiting sampling and destruction.

There has been no proper attempt to keep track of the drugs. The report found there has been no formal audit process at the Forensic Services Centre for at least 15 years.

Despite the massive delays, backlog and the ad hoc management, the Chief Commissioner is not accepting any suggestion that large amounts of drugs are missing.

"We need to do a full audit and we need to do that independently, we need to do that urgently," Chief Commissioner Overland said.

"We will be moving to do that. If we get to a point where we find drugs are missing, we'll account for that, but at this stage I don't have any evidence that says drugs are missing from the Forensic Services Centre."

The report makes many criticisms of the manager of the Drug and Alcohol Branch of the centre, Cate Quinn.

It says she kept poor records and failed to ensure accountability and transparency in the management of drug exhibits.

Chief Commissioner Overland has been quick to act.

"This morning I have moved to suspend Ms Quinn on full pay pending an investigation into allegations of serious misconduct," he said.

The ombudsman partly blames an industrial dispute between two wings of the organisation for the delays in managing drug evidence.

But the state secretary of the Public Sector Union, Karen Batt, says the problem is more to do with under-staffing.

"Of concern has been the failure of the Victorian government to provide adequate resources to actually deal with the growth of the clandestine labs in the drugs that are currently infiltrating Victoria," she said.

"To have had no resources allocated for the last 10 years, other than small allocations of staff, predominantly in DNA - not in drug and alcohol - has been I believe indicating the poor management of the command of Victoria Police."

Stood down manager Cate Quinn manager says she is a scapegoat.

She says in 24 years she has never had a negative performance review and she will take legal action to challenge her dismissal.

"Unfortunately some of the things I'd like to do differently weren't in my control," she said.

"I went to management at every point to ask for resolutions and we weren't offered that process; the process of sitting down and talking about what the issues were and resolving what they were. It was very much, from the beginning, a witch-hunt."

Another blow

Whatever the cause of the delays in processing drug evidence in Victoria, it has even had an effect north of the border.

NSW police have been concerned that defendants who are let out on bail in Victoria while the evidence is assessed are making their way interstate to set up more illegal drug labs.

Today's report is another major blow to Victoria Police, just as their handling of DNA evidence has led to major turmoil.

Senior Counsel at the Victorian Bar, Ian Freckelton, says the uncertainty over DNA evidence could open the way for legal challenges and retrials and today's developments may provide even more work for lawyers.

"This kind of security and integrity of exhibit retention is fundamental in forensic science," he said.

"It's very troubling that the ombudsman has found instances where there could be the potential for corruption, the potential for contamination and just plain mix-ups.

"It's most unfortunate because we're all entitled to have confidence in the criminal justice system and that depends substantially upon how forensic science is undertaken and if there's the potential for things for instance to have been mixed up or to have gone missing, or to have been substituted, then that detracts from the confidence which all of us can have in the way in which the system works.

"Undoubtedly this is going to be played out in many cases over the next few years."

The Chief Commissioner has asked the head of corporate strategy and governance at Victoria Police, Graham Ashton, to take charge of forensics from Monday.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/10/2768140.htm
 
Why cant the dog bastards just admit that the drugs are being sold back on the street or up the nose of high up police ..

Anyone who is in process of fighting a drugs charge should make sure their lawyer reads this as it can only help strengthen your case ..whats not to say the drugs ( evidence ) have been tampered with which would make the evidence void ..


stupid piggy wiggys ..
 
Why cant the dog bastards just admit that the drugs are being sold back on the street or up the nose of high up police ..

Anyone who is in process of fighting a drugs charge should make sure their lawyer reads this as it can only help strengthen your case ..whats not to say the drugs ( evidence ) have been tampered with which would make the evidence void ..


stupid piggy wiggys ..

This misconception that all, or even a majority of police, are corrupt, or using drugs is exactly that; a misconception. Just like the idea that all drug users are junkie scum stealing to pay for their habits.

I don't think an overwhelming majority of police are corrupt and I'd find it hard to believe that there are many senior police in the bureaucracy who use let alone do so from evidence.
 
Stood down manager Cate Quinn manager says she is a scapegoat.

She says in 24 years she has never had a negative performance review and she will take legal action to challenge her dismissal.

Anyone involved in the HR scene in Victoria over the last ten years and has dealt with VicPol would know who Cate Quinn is... even a search of our archives returns quite a few results.



=45&childforums=1]Search for Cate Quinn in Aus DD & archive
 
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This should be thoroughly entertaining... a whole new avenue for attacking chain of custody.

Chain of custody has always been a problem witg Vicpol.

"Your honour the pills I had were green hearts not blue cupids!!!!!!"

=D
 
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