COURT THREATENS TO FINE CRIME LAB

Graves Circuit Judge Cites Delays Back To 2001, Says State Could Provide
Adequate Staffing

MAYFIELD - A judge's frustration with state crime lab delays boiled over
when he warned the regional lab director that the agency could be fined
$100 a day for contempt of court.

Graves Circuit Judge John Daughaday said the state can afford to adequately
staff the labs, "it's a question of allocating the money." He did not
specify how he might enforce his threat.

"It's time. Somebody is going to have to take some action," Daughaday told
state police officials ordered to attend a hearing Tuesday.

Enforcement of the fine would be through a contempt-of-court citation, but
fining the state or sending a law enforcement officer to make an arrest at
the lab in Madisonville might be difficult.

Asked how enforcement would work, Commonwealth's Attorney David Hargrove
said, "I don't know. I hope it doesn't come to that."

Money collected from the fine would be used to pay a private lab to do the
work.

In Graves County, which has been inundated with methamphetamine cases, the
delays are routinely several months. Hargrove said he has cases dating to
2001 in which evidence has not been tested.

"To get results in six, seven or eight months is almost unheard of," he said.

Daughaday told Lt. Bradley Pratt, who is in charge of the Madi-sonville
lab, and his attorney, Roger Wright, that the delays have become critical
in the past year.

"It's seriously interfering with the court's ability to conduct its
docket," Daughaday said.

The delays also raise legal issues, including the right to a speedy trial
for people who may have to wait in jail because they cannot pay bond.
Delays also are a concern for prosecutors who find it harder to find
witnesses the longer the testing is delayed.

About a dozen cases have been dismissed this year because of the delays,
Hargrove said.

Most of the drug testing for Western Kentucky cases is done at the lab in
Madisonville. DNA testing is done at a lab in Frankfort, and ballistics
testing is done at a lab in Louisville.

Pratt told Daughaday that delays have worsened in the past year. People
have left the lab for other jobs or because of the stress, he said.
Although there are six chemist positions, the lab was recently down to two,
he said. Two others have almost completed training, and three people are
just beginning training, Pratt said.