Defense attorneys question lab panel makeup

Nassau defense attorneys complained Thursday that they are not represented on a new forensic advisory board appointed by County Executive Edward Mangano to oversee the restoration of the shuttered police crime lab at a new site in New Cassel.

Spokesmen for Nassau's two bar associations noted not a single defense lawyer had been named to the board headed by Michael Balboni, a former New York State homeland security czar and Republican state senator and assemblyman from Long Island.

Marc Gann, immediate past president of the Nassau Bar Association, applauded the idea of the board.

"But if we're really talking about creating a state-of-the-art lab that restores confidence in the justice system, they should appoint someone who represents the defense bar," Gann said.

Other than Balboni, the current appointees are a former Nassau deputy medical examiner, a chief assistant district attorney, the head of a human identification lab at the University of Florida and a former FBI senior executive.

A year ago this month, a national accrediting agency placed the lab on probation for serious evidence testing errors that could affect criminal cases. On Feb. 18, Mangano closed the police lab and transferred oversight to the medical examiner.

Joseph Lo Piccolo, president of the Nassau County Criminal Courts Bar Association, also questioned the board's composition.

"There's no evidence of defense attorneys," Lo Piccolo said. "We're available to help in the formation of the new lab with absolutely no ulterior motive or agenda."

Gann and Lo Piccolo say defense lawyers should be included because they represent those most likely to be affected by lab mistakes -- defendants who could end up in prison because of evidence-testing errors related to their cases.

Balboni, 52, of East Williston, said he had already spoken to several defense lawyers and plans to remedy the situation by adding defense attorneys and experts in lab training and management to the board.

"I agree that constituents of the crime lab product should be involved in how this is established," Balboni said.

Still, Marvin Schechter, a defense lawyer on the New York Commission on Forensic Science, which oversees crime labs, said: "Such a formation [of the board] signals that the process of reform is already tainted."

Daniel Medwed, a University of Utah professor who is a wrongful conviction expert, suggested the board should also include "ideally, some retired judge -- people who understand the rules of the admissibility of forensic evidence in court."

And Garden City lawyer Brian Griffin, who represented a Hicksville woman whose drunken driving conviction was thrown out because of lab problems, said, "The board is fundamentally missing the necessary parties."Balboni has a $25,000 consulting contract with the county, but other board members are volunteers who will receive only expense reimbursements.