Former Nassau lab chief may take stand

The former head of the Nassau police crime laboratory may take the stand Thursday to answer questions about the history of problems there.

Det. Lt. James Granelle is set to testify at the first hearing on whether a Hicksville woman's conviction of aggravated vehicular assault while driving drunk should be thrown out because of violations at the Mineola lab, which was placed on probation by a national accreditation agency in December.

Pasquale Buffolino, the current lab director, and Margaret Fisher, the forensic scientist who in recent years has tested blood for alcohol at the lab, also were subpoenaed.

Garden City defense lawyer Brian Griffin is seeking to have set aside Erin Marino's conviction stemming from a June 2009 crash in Glen Cove in a hearing set to begin today before Nassau County Judge George Peck.

Griffin said evidence that police or prosecutors knew about problems with equipment and did not hand it over to the defense could be grounds to set aside Marino's guilty verdict. Prosecutors said his client had about three times the legal limit of .08 in her system at the time of the crash, which seriously hurt a Hempstead woman.

"If high-ranking police officials have information that is favorable to the defense and they sit on it, any verdict is compromised and should be set aside," Griffin said.

In December, members of the Nassau Legislature's public safety committee asked Granelle to testify. At the time, a representative from the Nassau Superior Officer's Union said legislators would have to subpoena Granelle to appear. They never subpoenaed him.

Tom Krumpter, who will serve as acting commissioner of the Nassau Police Department after Commissioner James Mulvey retires in April, said Granelle, Buffolino and Fisher will all be available to testify.

"We have a high level of confidence in our blood-alcohol results," Krumpter said in a phone interview Wednesday.

The hearing will begin about a week after lab officials revealed that incorrect testing of the drugs ketamine and ecstasy in nine cases may have meant some defendants faced stiffer charges than they should have. Drug testing at the lab has since been suspended, and samples in new cases will be sent to a private lab in Pennsylvania, Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice has said.

Wednesday, Carole Trottere, a Rice spokeswoman, said in a statement Buffolino told Rice about the ketamine and ecstasy testing problems in December.

"This office was informed by Lab Director Pasquale Buffolino in December 2010 that there could be potential problems with the crime lab's drug testing of Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and Ketamine," the statement said.

Buffolino said Monday that a few days after he took over as lab director in December, a lab supervisor informed him of problems in the testing of drug samples retrieved in nine criminal cases. The supervisor said he had discovered in August that mistakes were made in drug testing, Buffolino said. He sent the samples to the Suffolk County crime lab, which confirmed the problems.

With Kathleen Kerr