Female charged for Domestic Violence, could this be possible? Well Deborah Madden brought the entire San Francisco Police Drug Lab down, and it has shut for good. Read Below
...Revelations that the department had failed to tell prosecutors about [now-resigned San Francisco Police Drug Lab Technician Deborah] Madden's criminal record for domestic violence led to an internal review of police files. That review ultimately determined that as many as 135 police officers had misconduct histories that might be subject to disclosure to defense attorneys if they were summoned to the stand... The department has since created a panel to review the histories of officers going back 30 years... Since the drug lab closure, prosecutors have been forced to drop hundreds of drug cases as testing is farmed out to outside labs...
SAN FRANCISCO POLICE FACE DEMOTION IN CRIME LAB SCANDAL
Aug 21th, 2010
Several top San Francisco police officials - including at least one assistant chief - failed to act on early indications that a former lab technician had been skimming drug evidence and face demotion or misconduct charges, police sources say.
In March, Police Chief George Gascón ordered the drug lab shut amid allegations that since-retired lab worker Deborah Madden had taken cocaine sent to the lab for testing.
Without going into detail, the chief said at a news conference Friday that there had been "acts of negligence by various" police officials who showed an "inability to see the signs that should have been detected much earlier" related to the drug lab.
"Some of that had to do with broken-down systems. Some of that had to do with people not paying attention to their jobs," he said. The chief did not mention names, citing personnel protections.
Gascón also said the department bungled by not telling prosecutors about Madden's previous conviction for domestic violence in San Mateo County. By law, prosecutors must turn over such information to the defense during trials.
He said at the news conference that he is doing everything he can to clean up the department.
"We can tell the public," he said, "if we have a bad apple, we're going to deal with a bad apple and we're going to do so appropriately, and that we're going to create systems and we are going to hold people accountable to make sure acts like this do not recur."
Tech's sister alerted department
The department learned about the possible drug theft in mid-December, when Madden's sister alerted the lab that she had found a lab vial at Madden's home. Department officials, however, did not launch a criminal investigation until February, a delay of more than two months.
Two of the officials who were told of suspicions surrounding Madden in December and failed to order a criminal probe for more than two months - Assistant Chief Kevin Cashman and Commander John Loftus - have both been demoted to their previous civil service ranks of captain.
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