Riverside California Tox-Lab scandle
California lawyer Mary Frances Prevost has a blog entry about a scandal at Riverside's Bio-Tox lab. The post, quoting an article from DailyJournal.com, should be an example and a warning for all who think that forensic science in DUI cases is unassailable.
CALIFORNIA'S TOP LEGAL NEWSPAPER TRACKS BIOTOX SCANDAL :: California Criminal Lawyer Blog: "Defense attorneys are questioning the viability of evidence in thousands of criminal cases in Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties because defendants' blood and urine tests were conducted by a forensic lab technician who admitted to fudging his analysis in a previous job.
Lawyers are frantically digging for information on every case Aaron Layton tested on behalf of Riverside-based Bio-Tox Laboratories over two years with the company until he was fired in February. Thousands of cases in the three counties that contract with Bio-Tox have been thrown into question, attorneys and some judges say, because Layton acknowledged lying hundreds of times about his testing while working at a Colorado lab eight years ago."
According to Fullerton DUI attorney Randall Longwith, who practices DUI and criminal defense in Los Angeles, Orange County and Riverside County, this is discouraging from the standpoint of justice and fair play, but some that good California DUI lawyers are always on the lookout for.
And this is not the only lab and the only time that this has happened. Our history is fraught with stories of people wrongfully convicted based on inaccurate and false scientific testimony. Sometimes that testimony is given intentionally, and sometimes out of accident or ignorance. The result is the same. Justice is not served.
