Nassau police chief, pols to talk crime lab

The Nassau County police commissioner has been called before a special meeting of legislators to address widespread failures by the police crime lab to adhere to national standards on evidence handling and documentation.

"We want full disclosure," said Legis. Dennis Dunne (R-Levittown), chair of the Public Safety Committee, which will hold a special meeting Wednesday. "We want this never to happen again. And we want to know who knew what, where, and when."

Problems at the lab first became public last week, days after a national lab accrediting agency informed the department that the crime lab's accreditation was on probation. The unusual move was triggered by a November inspection that found 25 failures of "essential" and "important" protocols.

The lab, at police headquarters in Mineola, is the only one of nearly 400 accredited forensic labs in the nation currently on probation.

"The police commissioner will be open and forthcoming," said department spokesman Det. Lt. Kevin Smith. A spokesman for Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano did not respond to Newsday inquiries.

On Friday, Mulvey reassigned the lab director, Det. Lt. James Granelle. He also formed a committee, with Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice, of department heads and prosecutors to address the problems and hire an outside consultant to investigate the lab's history and ready a move to a new facility.

Rice spokeswoman Carole Trottere said someone from that office would attend the public safety commission meeting, but it hadn't been decided if Rice would go. Rice will meet this week with members of the Nassau criminal bar association to discuss details of the lab report, she said.

A longtime member of the state committee with oversight powers over crime labs, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, said yesterday that the lab's problems are "very similar" to those found by the accrediting agency there five years ago, which triggered the lab's first probation. The agency, the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board, later lifted that probation and reaccredited the lab in 2008.

Fitzpatrick said the state Commission on Forensic Science has never voted to close a lab, but that such a move would likely happen if Nassau officials do not respond quickly.

Closing the lab is "the nuclear option, and obviously we would take such an action very, very, seriously because you're endangering the outcome of criminal cases, and therefore the public's safety," he said.

The number of current violations "is a lot, but it's not the first time we've ever seen it," Fitzpatrick said. "It is the first time we've seen it twice, and that's what raised the red flag."

The latest inspection of the lab found 15 violations of "essential" protocols, many of which outline strict standards for handling and labeling evidence gathered at crime scenes, such as hair, blood, drugs, and firearms, as well as rules for lab instruments, chemicals and documentation. With Ann Givens