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The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation on Friday disciplined six employees for failing to properly document the results of tests used to identify drugs.

(File photo)

RICHFIELD, Ohio - The state's Bureau of Criminal Investigation fired one scientist and suspended five others for failing to properly document the results of tests used to identify drugs recovered in criminal investigations.

A review of hundreds of cases revealed that the scientists failed to properly document results of 140 toxicology tests performed over a six-month period in 2016. But those errors will not affect any criminal cases, BCI Superintendent Tom Stickrath said Friday.

"The recording errors did not affect the [drug testing] results going to law enforcement," he said. "We don't have someone locked up from a drug he didn't have in his mixture."

The review found documentation issues in cases involving five scientists at the BCI's Richfield lab and one scientist at the Bowling Green lab. The scientists received the following discipline:

Samuel Fortener, Bowling Green lab forensic scientist, two-day suspension

Stephanie Laux, Richfield lab forensic scientist, fired

Keith Taggart, Richfield lab forensic scientist, 30-day suspension

Barbara Hoover, Richfield chemistry lab supervisor, five-day suspension

Shervonne Bufford, Richfield lab forensic scientist, two-day suspension

Whitney Voss, Richfield lab forensic scientist, two-day suspension

The discipline is related to the employees' failure to properly document the results of color tests, which are presumptive tests that indicate the drugs present in samples.

Chemists use the results of the color tests to guide them through the process of using a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry machine to test the sample. The machine determines a more precise identity of the drugs present in samples, Stickrath said.

If the GC/MS result is different than the color test result, the chemist is supposed to run a third test -- either a color test or another toxicology test. If the chemist chooses to run another color test, he or she must document the results of both color tests.

Stickrath said his review showed that chemists were instead updating the results of the first color test, rather than documenting both tests.

Criminal cases will not be affected because the crime lab sends the results of the more accurate GC/MS tests to law enforcement agencies, Stickrath said.

But the BCI sent a letter to county prosecutors overseeing cases related to the 140 improperly-documented tests, saying that the crime lab is willing to retest any drug samples to ensure they are accurate.

"Although we have no reason to believe that any suspects were overcharged as a result of the departure from documentation policy, BCI will re-test prior casework evidence related to your affected cases upon request," the letter reads.

It's unclear whether any of the 140 improperly-documented tests are related to drugs seized in Cuyahoga County. A Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman could not immediately say whether her office received the BCI's letter, or whether the prosecutor's office might ask the BCI to retest any drug samples.

In November, the BCI largely stopped using color tests because drug mixtures have been them less reliable. The color tests are less effective if a sample contains multiple drugs, such as a mixture of heroin and fentanyl, Stickrath said.

"The color testing has become less critical to our process," he said.

The BCI's crime lab came under fire late last year after a former scientist was accused of slanting evidence to aid law enforcement.

The work of G. Michele Yezzo, who worked at the lab for more than three decade, has been challenged in at least two aggravated murder cases, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, who was not in office when Yezzo worked at the BCI, said last year that he conducted two reviews of her work and found no issues, The Dispatch reported.

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