Mangano, Suozzi subpoenaed in lab probe

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and his predecessor Thomas Suozzi have been subpoenaed in the state inspector general's investigation into botched testing at the county police crime laboratory, said sources close to the probe.

Mangano, who took office in January 2010, was asked to report to Inspector General Ellen Biben's Manhattan offices next week, the sources said. Mangano, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment. Suozzi, who is a consultant for Cablevision, which owns Newsday, also declined to comment.

The two subpoenas are part of what county sources say is an aggressive and wide-reaching investigation by Biben. More than 100 subpoenas have been issued since she launched her probe in February, compelling people to testify and demanding documents related the lab, sources said.

Biben has assigned four attorneys and six investigators, as well as support staff, to the investigation, sources said.

Her team has secured the former lab, which is at police headquarters in Mineola, with a lock that only they and the head of police Internal Affairs have the key to, and a camera is aimed at the door, the sources said.

Lab employees, police officials, other county employees and members of the national laboratory that provides accreditation to police labs have already been interviewed, sources close to the investigation said.

Documents have been subpoenaed from the district attorney's office, but no employees there have been called to testify, the sources said. A spokesman for District Attorney Kathleen Rice declined to comment.

Biben's investigators have also seized lab computers and have sent them to the U.S. Secret Service for analysis, a source said.

Nassau police spokesman Det. Lt. Kevin Smith confirmed Tuesday that several department employees and a large number of documents have been subpoenaed by the inspector general.

Also Tuesday, Margaret Fisher, a scientist who tested blood alcohol at the lab, testified in Nassau County Court that the state inspector general's office has questioned her about the facility. She said she has also been subpoenaed.

Fisher, a prosecution witness in a drunken-driving case, testified that she made paperwork mistakes in nine misdemeanor drunken-driving cases. She was responding to questions from defense attorney Joseph A. Lo Piccolo of Garden City, who pointed to her errors in an attempt to discredit her testimony.

When Lo Piccolo asked whether Fisher knew county officials had concerns about "possible criminal conduct" at the lab, she testified, "I have been interviewed by the inspector general's office. I don't know what they're looking at."

The police crime laboratory was put on probation in December by a national lab accreditation agency for the second time since 2006. Rice and Mangano closed the lab about two months later, following revelations about police managers possibly failing to disclose the inaccurate testing.

If an investigation shows police knew evidence was mishandled, hundreds of cases could be challenged through the courts, lawyers and experts have said.