Government
May 24, 2013
Crime lab snafu leads to case dismissals, theft conviction
It's a fact of life that every year millions of specimens are sent to crime labs for analysis. In recent years tales of problems have popped up, including one that has inspired the state attorney general to change how it vets crime labs.
By Emily Green
Daily Journal Staff Writer
STOCKTON - A few years ago, the fates of two future convicts intertwined in an unfortunate way. A California man, James Lucero, was tried in a Modesto court for heroin possession. Prosecutors had offered him 10 years in prison in a plea deal, but he turned it down, claiming the baggie found on him didn't contain heroin. At trial, state criminalist Hermon Brown refuted those claims and the jury believed him. Under the three-...
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