Lawyers: Many waiting to file challenge

Three months after Nassau County officials shuttered the police crime laboratory, citing botched testing, 59 people accused of felonies have filed legal challenges seeking to throw out charges based on potentially tainted evidence, prosecutors said.

But lawyers say far more of their clients are waiting for things to play out. That includes reviews of the paperwork in their cases, retesting of drugs they are accused of having, or for the findings of the state inspector general's investigation of the lab.

"Everyone is waiting with bated breath for someone to pull the curtain back and tell us what happened," said Bill Kephart, president of the Nassau Criminal Courts Bar Association.

Prosecutors announced in March that they will retest thousands of samples used in felony drug cases collected over the past three years and re-evaluate blood-alcohol testing in drunken-driving cases going back to 2006. They say they are prevented by Inspector General Ellen Biben's investigation from saying what the results of those retests have shown so far.

A spokesman for Biben said the investigation is continuing, but would not comment further.

Marc Gann, president of the Nassau Bar Association, said he was told that the retest results have not revealed many serious errors so far.

Prosecutors have also said in the past that early reviews of paperwork in drunken driving cases did not reveal significant errors. Gann said he does not know what percentage of the reviews and retests are complete, or how long it will take to finish them all.