The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation has suspended five employees and fired another who worked at state crime labs.
The disciplinary actions followed an investigation into the six employees after an internal review found mistakes in how scientists were recording drug tests they performed. Five were at the Richfield lab, with one at the Bowling Green crime lab. BCI Superintendent Thomas Strickrath said Friday that the issues didn't compromise any criminal investigations. However, he says there is "zero tolerance" for policy and procedure violations for people who are analyzing evidence in a crime lab. He said BCI has revised the testing protocol for drug cases to ensure proper documentation, and has put in place ethics training and remedial case documentation training. Stickrath, who has led the Bureau since 2011, says tougher regulations and investigations into alleged shoddy work are part of agency-wide effort to raise standards.
