The NYPD was thrown into panic mode last week after a longtime NYPD forensics lab technician was suspended after allegedly falsifying drug-test results, meaning hundreds of cases' verdicts could be called into question. Mariem Megalla, who tested drugs in about 180 felony cases just this year, was suspended on Friday as the NYPD advised DAs to examine pending cases to see if she had done any forensics work. One source told the Post, "It could potentially be hundreds and maybe thousands of cases that need to be looked at because of how long she's been in the department."
Megalla is accused of falsely labeling bags of suspected cocaine. Of the 84 bags she tested, the first 38 tested positive and the 39th tested negative. However, because she allegedly didn't feel like filling out more paperwork, she labeled it positive. She did the same thing to a crack pipe that tested negative for drug residue. (Though if it was a crack pipe, it really should have come back positive, right?) Megalla is claiming the real culprit is her coworker.
Her lawyer, Benjamin Lieberman, claims both negatively tested items were identified properly while in her custody, but changed after she handed them to another lab tech for processing. He tells the Daily News, "It wasn't her hiccup," and says she knows she didn't do anything wrong. Because of the allegations, the NYPD is now looking into 800 cases and other forensics lab techs. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "If improprieties are found we take aggressive action. This is all part of our inspection protocol that we have in place."
