Who will pay for crime lab's mistakes?

Nassau County lawyers say pervasive problems with drug testing at the county crime lab are raising questions about who will pay for people with convictions seeking to reopen their cases who can't afford legal bills.

Last week, a former client of attorney Greg Madey called his office to say he wanted his own case -- a conviction for selling crack two years ago -- re-examined. Madey had been originally assigned the case through the county's Assigned Counsel Defender Plan, which, together with the Legal Aid Society, uses public funds to pay lawyers for people who can't afford representation.

"I didn't know what to do," Madey said. "From a professional standpoint, what are my obligations to this man? Do I represent him without compensation?"

Last week, Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced plans to have all felony drug evidence collected over the past three years -- as many as 3,000 cases -- retested because of foul-ups at the county's crime lab. Now, as questions have been raised about whether the retesting could affect pending cases as well as convictions, lawyers for indigent clients are asking: Who will pick up the bill?

So far, Robert Nigro, the administrator for the Assigned Counsel program, commonly known in the courts as 18B, says he's not sure.

"The matter is under intense and exhaustive study," Nigro said. He's researching if the county-funded program is legally bound to represent people who are filing motions to vacate verdicts against them.

Ultimately, it seems likely that most lawyers for the indigent will be paid for by Nassau County -- the same cash-strapped government that will pay for prosecutors to retry cases, evidence to be retested and the setting up of a new, state-of-the-art lab to replace the one that was shuttered on Feb. 18. The county's Legal Aid Society handles cases for most people who cannot afford attorneys. The Assigned Counsel plan handles the most serious cases, like murders.

"It's uncharted territory," said Marc Gann, president of the Nassau County Bar Association. Gann said as long as a case is still in the appeals process, indigent defendants should still be represented by Legal Aid Society or 18B lawyers. It's when a defendant's case has ended and must be reopened that the questions arise.

Kent Moston, attorney-in-chief for the Legal Aid Society, said there are 20 motions to vacate verdicts based on lab evidence on his desk ready to be filed.

Moston said for now, it looks like his current budget will cover the extra work.

But Madey, who gets about 60 percent of his cases through 18B referrals, says the potential for old cases to come back is overwhelming.

"Whenever I go see a client in the jail these days, I pass three other people saying, 'Mr. Madey! I want to talk to you about my case!' " he said.