Budget cuts cause delays in Ala. forensic tests

MONTGOMERY, Al.

 The funding crisis in Alabama's General Fund budget is being felt in particular by law enforcement agencies and district attorney's offices with delays in critical lab work results needed to investigate crimes and bring cases to trial.

This includes tests to determine if something found in a car or on a suspect is an illegal substance like cocaine or marijuana or contains legal ingredients like talcum powder or pencil shavings. Also being delayed are tests to determine how a person died and those that show if arrested drivers were under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

State Forensic Sciences Director Michael Sparks said his agency's funding has been cut 33 percent in the past three years and there are 27 fewer employees than in 2009.

He said the funding shortfall is causing backlogs, particularly in drug tests and on toxicology tests that determine cause of death.

The agency has long suffered from budget shortfalls, but Sparks said they had $14 million to spend three years ago and the agency had eliminated most backlogs. Then the recession hit and in the past three years, Sparks has watched the agency's budget drop almost $5 million a year. Labs have been closed and some key services have been dropped, such as providing transportation to ship bodies to laboratories.

"We have to investigate everything that is brought to us," Sparks said. "If someone is found dead, they want to know what happened."

Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey said quick results on a toxicology test can mean whether a case is successfully prosecuted.

"I can't prosecute cases until I have a toxicology report in my hands," Casey said.

She said the delays are causing grand jury proceedings to be delayed, slowing down how long it takes for indictments to be brought against suspects.

Casey said she had a drawer in her office in Oneonta that contains about 700 cases that need to go before a grand jury. She said in many of those cases the laboratory work has not been completed.

She said the state's district attorneys have already been told more budget cuts are coming in the session of the Legislature that begins in February.

"I don't see how we can be cut anymore," Casey said.

She said she has already had to delay grand jury meetings.

The chairman of the state House Ways and Means General Fund Committee, Republican Rep. Jim Barton of Mobile, said the cuts may get worst for agencies like Forensic Sciences and predicted as much as a $400 million cut for next year's General Fund budget.

"We have long passed from cutting muscle to bone in cutting most of these departments," Barton said.

Sparks said one possible solution might be to increase some of the fees already charged to help pay for some of the department's work, including one placed on people charged with driving under the influence.

But Barton said there is no enthusiasm in the Legislature or among the general public for raising court fees, even those charged people who violate the law.

"At the end of the day, I don't see us raising any fees," Barton said