(San Francisco) DA on verge of mass drug-case dismissals [View All]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(03-26) 13:04 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco prosecutors told judges today that they could not "ethically go forward" with 46 narcotics trials because of evidence problems arising out of the scandal at the Police Department's drug lab - signaling that the district attorney is likely to dismiss nearly all 750 pending drug cases in the city.

"Based on what the district attorney's office knows about the issues within the narcotics division of the crime lab, we cannot ethically go forward with this prosecution," Assistant District Attorney Nancy Tung told a judge overseeing a case that was serving as a test of how much police and prosecutors had to disclose to defense attorneys about problems at the drug lab.

Prosecutors dropped that test case, a cocaine-sales trial, after having been deluged with 1,500 pages of police investigative documents about the lab. Prosecutors are required to give up any evidence that could clear a defendant, and the judge in Mario Bell's cocaine-dealing case said Thursday that much of the police investigation could be relevant in Bell's trial.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/26/BAA31CLQU6.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea

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One technician, Deborah Madden, is accused of stealing narc evidence. When the police perform a complete moral turnaround once suspected dealer goes to jail, credibility erodes from the War on Drugs.