Board to oversee crime lab restoration

Nassau County will create a forensic advisory board that will oversee the restoration of the shuttered police crime lab into a facility run by civilian scientists to resume key evidence testing, County Executive Edward Mangano said Wednesday.

Former New York State homeland security czar Michael Balboni, who served as a Republican state senator and assemblyman from Long Island, will lead the board, Mangano said.

Mangano has given the board broad powers to ensure the lab complies with state law. It will oversee the lab's move to a new facility in New Cassel, the hiring of qualified scientists and efforts to seek state accreditation.

"Today we take the first step forward at renewing Nassau's laboratory credibility by establishing an independent board of scientific experts, academics and other individuals well known for their public safety experience and expertise," Mangano said Wednesday.

A year ago this month, a national rating agency, the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB), placed the lab on probation after finding a host of poor practices.

Mangano closed the lab Feb. 18 following disclosures of slipshod evidence analysis. Since then, Pasquale Buffolino of the county medical examiner's office has overseen the lab. He will remain its director.

The shutdown unleashed dozens of court filings on both pending cases and past convictions. The county also was forced to retest drug evidence in thousands of felony drug cases at a cost of $100,000 a month.

So far, Nassau judges have thrown out convictions in two cases, saying they were based on unreliable evidence from the lab. The cases are under appeal.

On Nov. 9, state Inspector General Ellen Biben issued an 184-page report detailing "a tortured history of significant problems at the lab." In the report, she recommended that law enforcement officials expand their current retests of drug and blood-alcohol evidence at the lab to include all disciplines handled by the lab -- including tests for latent fingerprints, ballistics, hair and clothing fibers.

Biben also found that lab managers were not properly trained and county officials -- past and present -- had failed to recognize the problems at the facility.

"We appreciate the county's swift efforts at implementing the reforms recommended in the inspector general's report," said John Milgrim, Biben's spokesman.

Balboni, 52, was appointed by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer to serve as his deputy secretary for public safety. Ann East Williston resident, he is a managing partner in Manhattan for Bluewater International, which has an energy company and a homeland security division.

"The goal here is to restore confidence in this lab within the criminal justice community and to bring scientific professionalism that is objective," Balboni told Newsday.

He said one goal is to restore key evidence testing -- such as drug analysis, fingerprints and ballistics -- to the new lab.

Balboni said the county has re-established toxicology testing at the lab and has received provisional accreditation to perform analysis of fingerprints left at crime scenes.

Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice Wednesday praised the creation of the board.

"The appointment of a forensic advisory board is an important step to ensure that Nassau's new civilian-run crime lab opens its doors using the most qualified professionals, latest technology and best procedures to restore public confidence in the evidence we present in court."

Other board members are: Madeline Singas, Nassau chief assistant district attorney; John Hicks, a former FBI senior executive; Diane Markunas, a former Nassau deputy medical examiner; and Michael Warren, a University of Florida professor.

The advisory board

MICHAEL BALBONI: Former Republican state senator and assemblyman from Long Island, former deputy secretary for public safety to the governor of New York. Managing partner of Bluewater International.

JOHN HICKS: Former FBI senior executive who established the bureau's Forensic Science Research and Training Center and coordinated the DNA development program that led to the implementation of CODIS, the national DNA databank.

DIANE MARKUNAS: Former Nassau County deputy medical examiner for administration.

MICHAEL WARREN: Associate professor in the University of Florida's Department of Anthropology.

MADELINE SINGAS: Chief Assistant District Attorney for Nassau County. Former chief of the district attorney's Special Victims Bureau. She is representing District Attorney Kathleen Rice on the board.