Governor signs bill creating forensics division

Gov. Jack Markell on Tuesday signed into law a measure abolishing the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and replacing it with a new crime testing division under law enforcement control.

Markell signed the bill shortly after it was passed 35-4 by the state House in a fast-tracked vote.

"Forensic science is at the core of our work in the criminal justice system," Markell said in a statement. "This legislation will help us create a structure for forensic science that can support the criminal justice community in a way that is expert, timely, professionally independent, and accountable."

Tuesday's action came despite opposition from national groups including trial lawyers and the National Association of Medical Examiners, whose president, in a letter to lawmakers, complained that the legislation creates a "structural conflict of interest" by giving Department of Safety and Homeland Security control of forensic crime testing.

Opponents contend crime labs should be independent of law enforcement and prosecutors.

The Homeland Security Department also oversees the Delaware State Police.

Administration officials pushed the measure after the discovery earlier this year that drug evidence had gone missing from the state's Controlled Substances Laboratory, or had been tampered with, jeopardizing thousands of drug prosecutions.

Sen. Robert Marshall, a Wilmington Democrat, sponsored the legislation, which passed the Senate 18-2 last week.

"Senate Bill 241 answers the question Delawareans have been asking since this February when the scandal at the Medical Examiner's Office was revealed: 'Who is in charge?' " Marshall said in a written statement on Tuesday. "That answer is the new division and the new director."

Two lab employees have been arrested in the probe into the missing evidence, which started disappearing in 2010.

Delaware's chief medical examiner, Richard T. Callery, remains under investigation for the potential misuse of state resources to operate a private business as a forensic expert in out-of-state cases. Callery remains on paid suspension.

Lewis Schiliro, the Homeland Security secretary, said the medical examiner's office was often left without oversight and a change was necessary.

"We had a chief medical examiner who simply wasn't around," Schiliro said. "He was off conducting a separate business. We simply cannot allow a lack of oversight to continue."

The legislation creates a new forensic science division within Homeland Security, with its own division director.

An advisory panel would help oversee the division. The panel's members would include law enforcement officials, forensic science experts, a prosecutor, a public defender and heads of the state Health and Homeland Security departments.

Wilmington-area lawmakers expressed concern Tuesday that the legislation would result in moving the state's crime lab outside of the city.

"I want that facility to stay in Wilmington," said Rep. Charles Potter, a Wilmington Democrat who voted against the legislation.

Schiliro said the state intends to keep its labs in Wilmington, and is investing $150,000 in security upgrades for the building.

Enactment of the bill is unlikely to soothe concerns of some in the national community.

Nationally known defense lawyer Mark Geragos, president of the National Trial Lawyers Association, told lawmakers in a letter this week that placing forensic testing of evidence under law enforcement control is inappropriate.

"Shifting control over this function to an arm of law enforcement would create a significant conflict of interest and cast serious doubt on the integrity of such evidence," Geragos wrote.

Contact Jonathan Starkey at 983-6756, on Twitter @jwstarkey or at jstarkey@delawareonline.com.