Rice requests Nodaway Countians to contact state representatives

Rice requests Nodaway Countians to contact state representatives

Nodaway County Prosecutor Robert Rice

Nodaway County Prosecutor Robert Rice is requesting Nodaway Countians to contact State Representative Allen Andrews and State Senator Dan Hegeman about increasing the amount of money available for the Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Laboratories.

Rice utilizes the Troop H State Highway Patrol Crime Lab in St. Joseph for drug testing. These tests now take four months to complete.

The main lab for the highway patrol is in Jefferson City. This lab tests blood, DNA and other forensics. The blood tests, including testing for alcohol content and drugs, take four to five months to be completed. The DNA and fingerprint tests take 12 to 14 months to process. DNA and fingerprint testing puts a priority on sexual assault kits; the turnaround is typically four months.

“When I have a jury trial, I ask the jurists how many like CSI,” Rice said. “Then I proceed to tell them it’s not real.”

According to the state highway patrol website, “since its creation, the Crime Laboratory Division has accepted submissions from any Missouri law enforcement agency. Presently, approximately 75 percent of the cases received by the Crime Laboratory Division are submitted by outside agencies such as municipal police departments, county sheriff’s departments and county coroners.

“Forensic lab services are provided to these submitting agencies at no charge. Forensic examination of evidence has become essential for the successful investigation and prosecution of criminal cases.”

“Additional funding is needed,” Rice said. “So many cases are sent to them. We need more crime technicians who are properly trained and certified.”

Another need is to broaden the definitions of illegal drugs to cover the designer drug spin-offs where slight modifications are made to keep the synthetic drugs from being illegal.

Rice spoke about the steps that are completed to bring a case to trial:

The local law enforcement agencies have an evidence custodian. This person makes sure the evidence is properly secured in locked evidence rooms where no one has access except for the evidence custodian and the chief.

Then, the evidence custodian testifies that they are the one who personally delivered the evidence to the lab.

The crime lab entry officer testifies that they received the drugs and a receipt is issued to the evidence custodian. The crime labs custody officer issues a barcode which is put on the box or bag the evidence is contained in. The evidence is placed in a security locker. Each time the evidence is taken out, the code is scanned and scanned again when the evidence replaced. Each employee has a unique scanner.

The barcode is scanned by the lab tech when the evidence is taken out and analysis is performed. The readings of all the computers and testings are printed and become part of the evidence file.

A report is generated; the local evidence custodian picks up the evidence from the crime lab. A change-of-custody receipt is generated. The evidence is returned to the local locked evidence room. A report is then sent to Rice.

All these steps ensure the integrity of the evidence and that it hasn’t been tampered with. All these people, from the evidence custodian to the lab technician, are subpoenaed to testify at the trial.

There are not enough lab technicians to perform the actual analysis on the evidence stated Rice.

“We do our best to speed the cases along, through pleading if the facts are not in dispute,” Rice said. “If the state has to prove its case, it has to be sent down to the labs.”

Increased funding would speed up the criminal justice system by creating a quicker turnaround on cases.

Rice listed the following remedies for the problem: the legislature increasing funding and the local courts taxing the cost of the labs to the defendants when they’re found guilty.

“Call Representative Andrews and Senator Hegeman,” Rice said, “to support necessary funding for our crime labs so we can expedite drug and DWI cases through the criminal justice system to hopefully one day achieve lab reports being available in 30 days.”

Contact information is: Hegeman, 573.751.1415, dan.hegeman@senate.mo.gov, Capitol Bldg. Room 332, Jefferson City, MO 65101; and Andrews, 573.751.9465, allen.andrews@house.mo.gov, Capitol Bldg. Room 135-B, Jefferson City, MO 65101.