Top cop: 2006 report detailed lab's problems

Nassau Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey said Tuesday an internal report detailing serious problems at the crime lab in 2006 has turned up in the department's archives.

Mulvey told Newsday through a spokesman that in recent days he found a report written by Assistant Chief Paul Tully in August 2006.

The spokesman, Det. Lt. Kevin Smith, said Mulvey was not aware of that report before he ordered a search of police records. Mulvey, Smith said, issued the search order after a national lab accrediting agency told the department two weeks ago that the agency's crime lab is on probation for the second time since 2006.

Two other retired police officials said they, too, had written reports detailing problems at the lab before 2007, when Mulvey took over.

But Mulvey said he had found no record, nor did he have any knowledge of those reports.

Former Assistant Chief of Detectives Richard McGuire, contacted by Newsday, said he wrote a report in July 2007, outlining significant deficiencies at the lab, and warning of problems that could arise if those deficiencies weren't addressed.

McGuire declined to discuss the specifics of the report.

Mulvey said no such report by McGuire has turned up in the archival search.

McGuire said he did his report at the behest of Mulvey's predecessor, James Lawrence, and submitted it to the commissioner's office as Mulvey took over the job. McGuire said he himself had a brief discussion with Mulvey about the report, but would not elaborate.

But Smith said Mulvey had never spoken to McGuire about the lab.

A third retired Nassau police chief, Chief of the Support Division Stephen McDonald, said his office also wrote several reports while Lawrence was commissioner, outlining problems at the lab including its 2006 probation.

The reports were written to justify the need to spend millions of dollars to build a new public safety center in Westbury, McDonald said. One of the major reasons for the new center was problems at the lab, including problems with the physical plant, McDonald said.

Last week, Mulvey testified before the Nassau Legislature's Public Safety Committee: "I had no clue that we were on probation and off probation before me taking office. . . . I had no idea before last Monday." On Tuesday, Mulvey reiterated through Smith that he knew of no serious problems at the lab before Dec. 6.

The latest probation was triggered by a November inspection that found 25 failures of "essential" or "important" protocols.

Legal experts and prosecutors have said the report 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 past convictions if they can show that the lab evidence used was not reliable.