Jessica Masulli Reyes

The News Journal

In the latest twist in the Delaware drug lab debacle, Jermaine Dollard – the man accused in 2012 of supplying a Kent County cocaine distribution ring – is now suing the state and several of its current and former employees.

Dollard and his wife, Keisha, are alleging in a 27-page lawsuit that he was wrongfully convicted and unnecessarily spent two years in prison before the drug evidence in his case was retested and found to be 2 kilograms of powdered sugar – not cocaine.

Dollard is the only convicted person whose charges were dropped because of the drug lab scandal. He is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, attorney costs and fees, and any other relief deemed appropriate by the court, according to the suit filed two weeks ago in Superior Court.

A lengthy state police wiretap and surveillance investigation culminated in Dollard and 13 other co-defendants being arrested for their roles in a drug ring in 2012.

Dollard was arrested in June 2012 when police stopped his Honda Accord as he and co-defendant Eric Young returned to Delaware from New York.

The police searched the vehicle at the state police Troop 2 barracks and found inside a secret compartment with two tightly-wrapped packages of white powder that field tested as 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of cocaine, according to court documents. The cocaine was valued at about $88,000.

He and Young were charged with drug dealing and other offenses, and the two bricks were sent to the Controlled Substances Laboratory in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, where they were handled and tested by four employees who confirmed the substance to be cocaine.

Young pleaded guilty in September 2013 and was sentenced to seven years in prison. Dollard went to trial and was convicted in October 2013 of several offenses that brought 20 years in prison.

Just months later, the drug lab scandal broke and widespread misconduct was found in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The evidence lab was found in disarray and 55 pieces of drug evidence were missing or had been tampered with.

Two lab employees – a chemist and investigator – were initially charged with felonies over missing evidence but ended up pleading to lesser misdemeanors and had many charges dropped. In addition, former Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Richard T. Callery lost his job and pleaded no contest to official misconduct for using state resources to run a private consulting business unrelated to the drug thefts.

Callery and the two lab employees are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Defense attorneys statewide have been filing hundreds of motions asking for drug offenders' charges to be dropped.

Chief Justice Leo E. Strine wrote in a June opinion for the Supreme Court that even though the lab misconduct was "deeply troubling," it should not "result in the issuance of automatic get-out-of-jail-free cards to defendants."

Prosecutors have, however, been willing to give plea deals or drop or reduce charges in about 700 cases that were pending.

Dollard's attorney, Alexander Funk, pushed for a retest of the alleged cocaine. Following the results, state prosecutors dropped the charges against Dollard and he was set free.

Young was allowed to vacate his guilty plea and instead plead guilty to conspiracy with a $100 fine.

Callery agrees to repay Delaware $100,000 in plea

How the case against a Delaware drug ring is unraveling

Their co-defendants are continuing to argue for their own release, and the Delaware Supreme Court is currently considering one of the cases for the drug ring's alleged kingpin.

Dollard's lawsuit says the state and its employees could have either planted, manipulated or stolen the evidence, or could have never even tested the evidence in the first place.

"As a result of some or all of these actions, Mr. Dollard was wrongfully convicted of crimes for which he was sentenced and served nearly two years of incarceration," the lawsuit said.

The lab's duties have since been assigned to the newly-created Division of Forensic Science underneath the Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security. This department, we well as the Department of Health and Social Services, are named in the lawsuit.

Neither agency would comment on the lawsuit, according to spokespersons for both departments.

Contact Jessica Masulli Reyes at (302) 324-2777, jmreyes@delawareonline.com or Twitter @JessicaMasulli.