State panel rejects crime lab proposals

In an unexpected move Thursday, the commission that oversaw the Nassau County crime lab during its decline rejected proposals by New York Inspector General Ellen Biben to improve such facilities statewide.

The New York State Commission on Forensic Science -- criticized by Biben in a Nov. 10 report for lax oversight of the now-shuttered Nassau lab -- voted 9-3 to defeat a motion to adopt the recommendations.

Biben and her staff sat quietly in the commission's Manhattan meeting room. The commission had invited Biben to answer questions, but none was asked.

Some commission members who voted down Biben's recommendations -- including one calling for stricter accrediting standards for New York forensic labs -- said they needed more input from lab directors and wanted to know where the money would come from to pay for lab reform.

Some suggested revisiting Biben's report at a later date.

"I really don't think the commission members have the technical expertise to be drafting standards," said commission member Ann Willey, a former state health department lab policy director.

Commission member Marvin Schechter, a Manhattan defense attorney who made the motion to accept Biben's proposals, said after the vote: "It's upsetting. The inspector general's recommendations are recommendations the commission clearly needs to adopt. The commission has once again decided to kick the can down the road."

Before the vote, commission member Peter Neufeld, an attorney with expertise in wrongful convictions, implored his colleagues to adopt Biben's proposals and said, "This is what we should be doing, and hopefully we will get the money" to do it.

Another commission member, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, objected to the blame Biben placed on the commission in her report, saying the panel abdicated its responsibilities.

Fitzpatrick said the report appeared to indicate "nobody here told the Nassau County DA what was going on" with the crime lab, but he said he gave updates on the situation at statewide prosecutors meetings.

Biben said in her report that Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice should have kept herself better informed about the police lab.

Biben will continue to push for reform at crime labs across the state, according to her spokesman, John Milgrim.

"The office looks forward to working with county and state officials to adopt the needed reform, and we're going to continue to monitor the commission's reform efforts," he said.

Milgrim said Biben would have no comment on the commission's vote.

Soon after officials closed the Nassau crime lab last February, following disclosures of slipshod evidence handling and analysis, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo appointed Biben to investigate.

In a stinging Nov. 10 report, Biben blasted the forensic commission for abdicating its oversight of the Nassau lab to a private accrediting agency, ASCLD/LAB.

Among her proposals, Biben recommends that the commission adopt stricter operating standards and more demanding inspections for crime labs. The Nassau lab is now run by the medical examiner instead of the police department.