Chief Medical Examiner Richard Callery at times used his state office to operate his private business and used state employees to do it according to the attorney general’s office.
In a legislative hearing Wednesday, State Prosecutor Kathy Jennings also said he was absent for “large periods of time” testifying as an expert witness outside the state for extra cash.
Callery has been suspended with pay since February and is currently locked in a battle with the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) over his job.
The state crime lab under his office allegedly bungled 146 drug cases by mishandling evidence. To date, Public Defender Brendan O’Neill has filed 554 motions to dismiss cases dating back to 2010.
“It’s not sort of rocket science if someone isn’t there supervising what’s going on,” says Jennings. “When you have culture that gets created where that person engages in his own private enterprise inside the office it’s inevitable that bad things will happen.”
Since the lab was shut down in February, the state has contracted out testing to facility in Pennsylvania and has dolled out $102,000 for that service.
The news wasn’t warmly received by state lawmakers.
Rep. Michael Mulrooney (D-New Castle) says “heads have to roll” over the situation.
“I’m an electrician. If I made a mistake this big I’d be gone. I don’t see why this should be any different.”
DHSS Secretary Rita Landgraf is also lobbying legislators to move the medical examiner’s office out of her department.
If approved, it would be reorganized as the Division of Forensic Science under the Department of Safety and Homeland Security (DSHS) and be overseen by a separate commission ensuring its integrity.
DSHS Secretary Lou Schiliro notes that it makes sense to house the laboratory in the same department that most closely deals with evidence.
“We do training in terms of the council on police training for evidence collection and all of the support systems that go into providing public safety resources really come through our department,” said Schiliro. “So the operation of a crime lab for state public safety would not be that far out of our sweet spot.”
It would also demote the chief medical examiner as head of the office and install a division director. Both positions would be classified as exempt, allowing them to be fired at any given time.
That’s significant because Callery was appointed to a ten-year term and can’t easily be sacked. His tenure will expire in 2017.
“Boy, it’d sure be nice if he’d do the right thing and resign,” said Senate Minority Whip Greg Lavelle (R-Sharply) during the hearing, with his colleagues at the hearing nodding in agreement.
Schiliro and Landgraf say reopening the state crime lab is one of their top priorities, but upgrading its security procedures and infrastructure won’t come cheap.
They didn’t outline how much it might cost, but the Joint Finance and Bond Bill Committees begin finalizing the state’s proposed fiscal year 2015 budget next week
