Caught with her hand in the cokie jar, if you will, Deborah Madden, a 60-year-old lab technician who stole and indulged in some of the disco dust she was supposed to analyze, forced city officials to shutdown all drug testing at the SFPD crime lab.
SF Chronicle reports:
Officials discovered that the evidence was missing during a crime lab audit conducted in December, police said. That review was triggered when other technicians suspected someone had been stealing evidence and a supervisor noticed apparent tampering with the packaging of drug evidence, San Francisco Police Chief George Gascón said at a news conference Tuesday evening.
After retiring in December, Madden has received treatment for drugs "and other unspecified health issues." Madden's job duties included vouching for "the weight and purity of seized drugs." Which: yes, that's one way to go about it. Anwyay, she was working as a criminalist for San Francisco for 29 years, earning $122,000 last year in salary and overtime.
San Francisco Police Chief George Gascón, who admitted to being "disappointed" in the recent revelation, will bring in outside agencies to investigate whether or not this was an isolated incident.
District Attorney Kamala Harris explained to the Chronicle that "at least 20 drug cases could be dismissed immediately as a result of the shutdown of the crime lab's drug section."