In 2006, Nassau tried to hire lab consultant

A Nassau police assistant chief's August 2006 report on the department's crime lab, which had been placed on probation by a national accrediting board, recommended hiring an outside consultant to build a quality assurance program to rectify some of the lab's problems.

The report by now-retired Assistant Chief Paul Tully, which Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey gave to Newsday Wednesday, was done after the lab was put on probation in 2005 and was addressed to then-police Commissioner James Lawrence.

Such a consultant never was hired, Mulvey said during an extensive interview in his Mineola office. Lawrence, in a September 2006 letter to Pennsylvania State Police, asked for a quality management official to come and assess the lab. A response from that official, Anna Yoder, said she was unavailable.

Tully's report was one of more than a dozen documents and correspondence between Lawrence, then-lab director Det. Lt. James Granelle, a national lab accreditation agency and others that discussed the lab's testing, 2006 probation, reinstatement and recommendations for improvement. Mulvey said he last week ordered a search of police archives about the matter.

Of the documents, Mulvey provided Newsday a copy of the report by Tully. He allowed a reporter to view the other documents. Newsday, through the Freedom of Information Act, already has requested copies of all correspondence relating to the lab from 2005 onward.

Tully could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

In an interview that lasted more than an hour, Mulvey repeated what he has said since the lab became one of two nationwide ever to be put on probation twice: He did not know of any significant problems at the lab before Dec. 6.

"I was never briefed on any issues with the lab," Mulvey said.

Nassau legislators last week questioned Mulvey about what he knew, and when, in the wake of the news that the lab again had been put on probation after failing in 25 "essential" or "important" protocols. Nassau's is the only one of nearly 400 accredited labs across the country to be on probation.

Experts have said the probation may lead to a surge of legal motions from defense attorneys who believe their clients were arrested based on faulty testing by the lab. Many attorneys say they will ask judges to dismiss current cases and set aside convictions if they can show that the lab evidence used was not reliable.

Granelle, director of the lab since 2003, was reassigned Dec. 10. A union representative for Granelle told legislators last week that Granelle had been advised not to answer their questions unless he is subpoenaed. Legislators had not decided whether to issue a subpoena.

Former Commissioner Lawrence, contacted by phone, said he remembers that problems at the lab were a significant issue in his time. "I was very concerned," he said. "The lab is an important part of bringing people to justice."

As the lab was not on probation when he left office, Lawrence said he may not have alerted Mulvey to problems there.

He did not remember getting reports on the lab's troubles from Tully or another assistant chief, Richard McGuire, who says he also wrote a report, but said he could not be sure. He said he could not remember whether he pursued the issue of an outside consultant after Yoder responded that she was unavailable.

Mulvey said Wednesday he is certain he never was briefed by Lawrence or anyone else when he took over as commissioner in July 2007.He said the main problem is that there has been so much turnover among the department's high-ranking detectives that there was not time for them to come up to speed on issues at the lab. He said correspondence shows Granelle did alert his superiors to the 2006 probation, but Granelle could have communicated better about the lab's recent problems.He said chiefs above Granelle should have been checking on work there, but they didn't have time.

"Turnover inhibited information from flowing up," he said.