Toxicology Reports

[SAR923]

Can anyone who knows more about things work in Alabama than I do explain why it takes up to a year to get a toxicology report back after a traffic accident? There is one case I'm following that's supposed to be presented to a grand Jury in February. The fatal accident occured in April of 2006 and the tox report STILL isn't back. The case wasn't presented to a grand jury in August in because the DPS supposedly hadn't finished their investigation, almost four months after the accident.

In California, we were able to get blood alcohol reports within 24 hours and a full tox screen within 30 days at the latest. Taking a year or more to get toxicology reports done seems to indicate a serious problem with the system yet no one I've talked to is upset about this. It's just way things are.

I don't even get why this case has to be presented to a grand jury. The driver was speeding, passing over a double yellow on a hill, ran another vehicle off the road, and then ran off the road himself, flipping the car three times and killing his passenger. As usual, the scumbag driver had a few scratches. There were many witnesses to his reckless and negligent driving. Why wasn't he arrested on the scene for the traffic violations and vehicular manslaughter, arraigned, and then have a preliminary where a judge could look at the evidence and bind him over for trial? He was never arrested on any charge and wasn't even cited for the driving violations. Regardless of the tox report, the driver's reckless operation of the vehicle would have been enough to support a charge of negligent homocide or traffic manslaughter or whatever the charge would be in this case. The guy is a flight risk and, if he's indicted, he'll flee the state. He's had 10 months to make plans and, since he's not even on bail, he can leave any time he wants and there's nothing that can be done to stop him.

Sorry for the rant but something is wrong here.

 

[kingpin]

I can't explain why such a long delay, but my wife was killed in the line of duty almost 5 years ago and she was in a wreck where she was a passenger. The driver of the vehicle she was in was grossly negligant, but got off due to immunity laws here in the state but that's another rant..... The state did a toxicology report on her (since she was in the line of duty) and I had it in 4 weeks delivered along with the autopsy.

So, takes up to a year? No. I smell attorney's involved. Maybe keeping the records sealed for what ever reason. Money talks......

Good luck tracking that case. I hope the guy gets what he deserves.

 

[TechnoDave]

The Alabama Department of Forensic Science is very VERY poorly funded for manpower, and in being so, they have a backlog greater than you even want to imagine. I would guess that processing evidence happens in the order it is received.

 

[Steve]

BHAMDISPATCHER is correct about DFS. Very important agency and responsibilities but least thought of and funded.

Now about the grand jury, short but not simple reason, the District Attorney.
The District Attorney for each district makes the decisions if and what charges are made against people involved in fatal traffic crashes and the like.

Also each fatal crash investigation is handled differently. In most crashes outside city limits (and handled by the State Troopers),a 1 vehicle/ 1 fatality crash may only be investigated as a regular crash if nothing looks fishy, so the same trooper that was 1st on-scene will work it. But if something doesn't look right or the crash involves more vehicles and/or fatalities and injuries, usually a traffic homicide trooper will handle the crash. And that trooper may be working several traffic homicide cases at once.
Before I retired the THI troopers at my Post were pulled off routine patrol so they can catch up on their cases. One trooper had 4 THi cases he was working on and he still had routine duties and regular crashes to work. I have heard of TH investigations last a year or more. Rare but it happens here in Alabama.

Steve
KD4LCY

 

[SAR923]

Jason, I'm very sorry to hear about your wife's death. My wife died almost three years ago from leukemia so you have my sympathy. I suspect that they may have gotten the toxicology report back sooner in your case since it was line of duty. My attorney has three traffic death cases right now that are approaching a year and there's no tox report back yet so I don't think it's all that rare.

Dave, I've read that the DFS is both poorly funded and woefully understafffed. We had a somewhat similar situation in California. There was certain backlog level that triggered cases being outsourced to private labs so we could prosecute things in a timely maner. Something like that needs to be done here.

Steve, this crash was handled by a trooper homicide team. It was in the county, not in city limits. I can understand that the DA would make a decision about presenting to a grand jury but we would have arrested the driver and he would have had a preliminary hearing. The judge and/or the DA could have held the case over for a grand jury or he would have been bound over for trial. He would have had to make bail and would have had bail conditions, especially since he's a known flight risk. At the very least, we would have written him for all the traffic violations and gone to the DMV for a license suspenson. This guy had nothing happen to him at all. If you ran his DL, it wouldn't even show the accident on his record. There seems to be an attitude here that traffic deaths are just "unfortunate accidents" and no is really to blame. I don't know if it's like this all over Alabama or just here in Autuaga but the idea of this guy roaming around free 10 months after he killed a 17 year old kid due to his gross negligence really sticks in my craw. I know the father of the victim and had to talk him out of just going over and killing the driver. I told him that this should be an open and shut case and let the courts handle it. Now I'm not so sure that was the right advice.

 

[Steve]

Jim,

Here in Alabama, things are strange. In my 16 years with DPS (dispatcher or PCO), I have saw very few crashes result in arrests or citations. That not to say arrests and/or citations don't occur. One of the problems is the court system and its set-up. Now most of the people working for the court system are good people, that is not the big problem.
It is the laws and their wording and each county's set-up. You will see some wild and weird things occur in and with the courts. You did the right thing talking the father out of facing off with that driver/suspect. If he had did the deed you spoke of, he probably would have been convicted and sentenced to death. Alabama is strange but once in a while things happen as they should. It is still better than some countries and places.


Steve
KD4LCY

 

[TechnoDave]

And just one note to add to Steve's post. ....
Most often the officers do not issue citations unless they actually, honestly, and truly saw the person commit the offense, not simply go on the persons statement of "Yes, I was driving".

 

[SAR923]

Thanks for the encouraging words, Steve. Let me make it clear that I'm not trying to say Alabama is a bad place to live. In most aspects, it is far better than California, which is why I'm here. The lack of application of consistent law enforcement is not one of the things I like here. I've already been in court on a civil case and saw a judge that was either psychotic or drunk go against a clear set of laws and issue an adverse ruling - after he got through throwing things and cursing from the bench at both the plaintiff and defendent. Once he finally signs off on the settlement, I intend to file a complaint with the Alabama Judicial Commision regarding this judge's behavior. I've probably appeared before 40 different judges in my career and his was the most reprehensible behavior I've ever seen.

I actually talked to the state trooper that's handling this case shortly after it occured. I asked him why he didn't issue any citations when there was both physical evidence and witness statements about what occured. He said they just don't so that here. I asked him what he would have done if he had seen this same vehicle going 90 mph, crossing a double yellow on a hill, and running another driver off the road. He said he would have stopped him and cited him. When I asked him how the results of accident where the evidence of these violations was clear didn't lead to exactly the same type of citations, he had no answer. Makes absolutely no sense to me.

Dave, there's no question who was the driver. The fire department had to extricate him from the car. Whether the driver admitted anything in the case should be immaterial. There were 400 feet of skid marks, 6 witnesses who gave statements about the incident, and a ton of other physical evidence at the accident scene. I assume that's why you have accident investigations - to fix the blame as to who caused the accident. If no citations are ever written because an officer didn't actually witness the accident how will blame ever be accessed? I'm assuming that grand juries don't issue traffic citations. If the suspect already has the citations issued based on the witness and physical evidence, shouldn't this be crucial evidence for a grand jury to base a decision?

Anyway, thanks for listening to my rant and giving my some good feedback. I do hope this rat gets indicted in February but, from what I've seen of the Alabama legal sytem so far, I'm not holding my breath.