By The Associated Press
HOUSTON, Texas — A former worker in the city’s troubled police crime lab was indicted Tuesday on charges of theft and tampering with drug evidence, officials said.
Officials began investigating criminalist James Carpenter’s work after he failed to secure drug evidence at his work site according to lab rules, the Houston Police Department said in a news release.
He was removed from the lab in August after refusing to give a formal statement or submit to a drug test, police said.
Carpenter, 38, was indicted on two counts of tampering with evidence and one count of aggregate theft by a public servant. The department did not say what he is accused of stealing.
Carpenter, who first began working for the lab in 2002, resigned in October.
Court documents did not indicate Tuesday whether he had an attorney.
The crime lab’s work has been under scrutiny since 2002, when the DNA section was shut down. Inaccuracies were later found in four other lab divisions that test firearms, body fluids and controlled substances. The DNA section has since been reopened.
Three inmates have been released from prison because of mistakes by the lab.
There was no indication of improper behavior until August, but all of Carpenter’s work during the previous six months will be reviewed, said Irma Rios, the lab’s director.