By RUSTY MARKS
The State Journal
CHALRESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has given $1 million from monies taken in from health-care-related court settlements to the West Virginia State Police to help attack a backlog of cases in the State Police crime lab.
The money will be used to fund four new staff technicians and analysts in the State Police drug, toxicology and DNA labs, State Police officials said.
Morrisey said prosecutors around the state have been complaining that it often takes six months to a year to get lab results back in drug cases. According to the State Police, the average turnaround time for a drug case to make it through the crime lab is 262 days.
“I’ve wanted to do something about this for a long time,” Morrisey said during a press conference Tuesday, Oct. 3 from his office at the State Capitol in Charleston.
He said the crime lab backlog “is not the fault of the State Police.
“They’ve been under-resourced,” he said.
“These are really good people,” Morrisey said. “Top notch.”
Morrisey said the crime lab backlog is the biggest problem prosecutors face in pursuing drug cases. He said the lengthy wait for lab results may even discourage some prosecutors from prosecuting drug crimes.
The backlog also means those accused of drug crimes are often held in regional jails for months on end awaiting trial. Morrisey’s staff said reducing the backlog will speed up inmates’ access to a speedy trial, ease jail crowding and save money on costs to house inmates.
Morrisey said the State Police crime lab examines drug seizure evidence from every state, county and municipal police department in the state.
Morrisey was accompanied by State Police Superintendent Col. Jan Cahill.
Morrisey and more than 40 law enforcement professionals from all over the state urged members of the state Legislature earlier in 2017 to provide more funding to address the crime lab backlog, the attorney general’s staff said.
“I commend Col. Cahill’s willingness to stand shoulder to shoulder in the fight against opioid abuse,” Morrisey said. “Another $1 million will be a tremendous boost toward eliminating the backlog.
“That helps every police officer and prosecutor in our state and demonstrates the cooperation needed to eradicate opioid abuse once and for all.”
Throughout his tenure, Morrisey has said he would return settlement monies to the state while keeping enough money on hand to run the Consumer Protection Division. The attorney general’s staff said Morrisey has turned over more than $39 million to the state since 2013.
Morrisey said it makes sense to use money recovered from health-care settlements to fight substance abuse, which he considers the state’s biggest health crisis.
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