By JESSE McKINLEY
c.2010 New York Times News Service
SAN FRANCISCO – Hundreds of drug cases have been dismissed and hundreds more are being examined here by prosecutors who are scrambling to deal with the fallout from accusations that a technician in the Police Department’s crime laboratory was stealing cocaine for personal use.
The technician, Deborah Jean Madden, 60, has not been charged, though the San Francisco police say she is under investigation. Madden, who retired last month, did not return calls for comment, nor did her lawyer.
The laboratory was closed in early March after the police reported that Madden had been questioned. But an accounting of exactly how many cases Madden had worked on or might have influenced is continuing, and escalating.