2014/05/07

San Jose Mercury News May 5 2014: Crime lab uses wrong chemical in 2,500 methamphetamine tests in Santa Clara County.

Crime lab analysts used the wrong chemical to conduct preliminary methamphetamine tests earlier this year on the blood samples of 2,500 people who were arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office disclosed Monday.

However, retesting found that only seven tests had showed a false positive because of the mistake by lab analyst Mark Burry, according to assistant district attorney David Angel, head of the office's conviction-integrity unit. No one is in custody because of a mistaken test, he said.

Burry apparently grabbed the wrong solution off a shelf in January and loaded a machine with the more sensitive compound, Angel said. The problem was discovered by another analyst in March.

"It was human error," Angel said. "The chemicals have similar names and they were close to each other." more