St. Paul Crime Lab: What's Next?
In July we blogged about two public defenders who exposed serious scientific flaws at the St. Paul Crime Laboratory. Christine Funk and Laurie Traub elicited testimony at a pre-trial hearing revealing widespread problems at the lab, including poor documentation of testing procedures, lack of standard operating procedures and contamination of evidence. Several counties agreed not to use the drug test results from the lab, but stopped short of admitting the results were unreliable.
Now the Office of the Public Defender has consolidated its cases in preparation for future litigation. Veteran Assistant Public Defender Jenny Chaplinski has been assigned to handle the task. Attorneys challenging St. Paul Crime Laboratory tests are encouraged to contact Ms. Chaplinski, Jennifer.Chaplinski@pubdef.state.mn.us, to share information and coordinate efforts.