CSI Vermont

15 November, 2007 (16:52) | Uncategorized

With the tremendous popularity of CSI (and CSI New York and CSI Miami) the public now places great faith in crime labs. After all, there are strict procedures and the forensic scientists have little apparent reason to lie. Unfortunately, the public should be more skeptical. The famed FBI lab was rocked by allegations of incompetence and wrongdoing in 1997, many of which were confirmed after an investigation by the Solicitor General. More recently Texas, Virginia and Minnesota have created oversight boards to investigate their labs.

Closer to home, the Vermont Crime Lab had a scandal of its own in 1992-1993 after revelations that two of the five forensic scientists had helped themselves to regulated drugs from the lab.

Also missing were seven of the high-purity drug standards used to calibrate the analytical instruments. Investigative reports were generated by Capt. Kerry Sleeper and lab director Capt. James Candon. The two chemists, Dr. Brendan McMahon and Glenn Welker, pled guilty to minor state charges, entered a diversion program, and had their criminal convictions expunged. An unanswered question at the time was how all this escaped the notice of lab boss Dr. Eric Buel in his tiny operation, especially since Welker, according to Sleeper’s report, “often displayed the symptoms of a narcotic user while at work, ie., drowsiness, slurred speech, cotton mouth.”

Ancient history? Not exactly. Glenn Welker’s lack of a criminal record allowed him to once more find employment in a position of trust until he was busted again in 2002, this time for prescription fraud. According to the Rutland Herald of April 20, 2002, Welker, as a nurse at Central Vermont Medical Center in Barre, had taken prescription pads from the hospital and had forged the signatures of CVMC physicians to again illegally obtain painkillers. And after the complete lack of oversight led to the lab’s problems in 1992, who was picked to be the new Director, a person who continues in the position to this day? The visually impaired Dr. Eric Buel. Check it out.