Another California Crime Lab Analyst Suspected of Skimming Drugs

Apparently things have changed since I stopped doing drug chem­istry. Back when I did it, peo­ple did their best not to in any way come into con­tact with ille­gal drugs. Now appar­ently it’s party-time, and the arrested sus­pects are buying…

Stanislaus County’s dis­trict attor­ney said Wednesday that she plans to seek judi­cial orders to keep under wraps the name of a Ripon crime lab ana­lyst who is being inves­ti­gated for tam­per­ing with drug evidence.

Birgit Fladager said her staff will ask to notify defense attor­neys of the analyst’s name, who is on paid leave, in the pri­vacy of a judge’s cham­bers out­side of the courtroom.

Then, pros­e­cu­tors will seek a gag order pro­hibit­ing attor­neys from releas­ing the analyst’s name pub­licly, Fladager said.

She esti­mated 2,400 cases in Stanislaus County may have been tainted by the ana­lyst, who has tested drug evi­dence at the Central Valley Crime Lab in Ripon since 2006.

The breach also could affect hun­dreds of cases in Merced County, along with oth­ers in Tuolumne, San Joaquin and Calaveras counties.

Read more in the Fresno Bee Online.