WSP lab explains DUI goofs

The State Patrol, which has come under fire for problems with evidence handling at the state toxicology lab, is contacting 130 people who received drunken-driving citations that were based on faulty breath tests, lab Manager Kevin Jones said Thursday.

Jones said the letters were being sent as part of the lab's efforts to improve its handling of evidence and breath-test analysis in the wake of three critical audits and a scathing ruling last month by a panel of King County judges that called for the suppression of the tests used to gauge level of intoxication.

The letters explain the errors and how they occurred, and recommends that recipients contact their attorney.

Some of those who are being sent letters already may have served a sentence or received license suspensions, said Bob Calkins, State Patrol spokesman. Eight letters already have been mailed.

"We're contacting the Department of Licensing and fully disclosing this," Calkins said. "There's not much else we can do at this point."

The Washington State Toxicology Lab, overseen by the State Patrol, has been sharply criticized for its handling of breath tests and for scientific and ethical lapses. A panel of King County District Court judges said the lab and its leadership created a "culture of compromise" with so many "ethical lapses, systemic inaccuracy, negligence and violations of scientific principles" that the breath tests should not be used as evidence in pending DUI cases.

The State Patrol's audit team issued a critical report in August, and independent audits followed in September and October by forensic scientists.

Jones on Thursday led a media tour of the South Seattle lab and spoke about the strides the lab has taken in recent months to improve its testing practices.

Of some 39 recommendations by auditors, 23 have been implemented, Jones said, including improvements in how evidence is handled. Access to the evidence room is now limited, and there's a system to document who has handled evidence.

He said an ethanol-and-water solution that forms the basis for breath-testing in the field is mixed in the lab, as before, but is now checked three times for a precise consistency before it's used. Handling and preparation of the solution was criticized in the judges' findings.

One audit team reviewed about 300 cases and found 10 errors, but none that made a difference in an individual case, Jones said. In several, the tests were done correctly but the result was expressed in the wrong units.

Calkins likened it to measuring a driveway and recording the distance in yards rather than feet. Additional peer review and changing computer defaults are expected to correct the problem.

The lab also has improved its recording of test results to ensure they are accurately listed and have the appropriate peer review. Employees at the lab are also going through extra training, including on ethics.

Jones, who became manager in August, doesn't agree with the judges' findings and said the lab does not have a "culture of compromise." He said lab employees are hardworking and highly ethical. "This lab was not doing anything unusual that's not done by other labs across the country," he said.

Ted Vosk, one of the defense attorneys who successfully argued in favor of suppressing breath-test results, said it's too soon to claim all is well at the lab.

The lab needs to meet the accreditation standards of the American Society of Crime Lab Director/Laboratory Accreditation Bureau, which has rigorous certification standards, Vosk said. Jones said the lab hopes to apply for accreditation this year.

In the meantime, the findings by the King County judges are becoming known throughout the state, and prosecutors in some counties have quietly elected to suppress breath tests as evidence rather than use them in making cases.

So far, judges in King, Snohomish, Clark, Thurston and Spokane counties are among those to have declined to allow breath-test data processed before the departure of Ann Marie Gordon, former lab manager, in July 2007.

Gordon resigned after admitting she signed off on tests she had not done herself, which is against lab policy.

Nancy Bartley: 206-464-8522 or nbartley@seattletimes.com