OSP Forensic Specialist accused of tampering with 110 cases from JaCo

Jackson County, Ore.– An Oregon State Police Employee is under investigation and it’s keeping several District Attorney’s busy. “Someone who works in the system, who has a position of trust and does something to violates that trust always causes problem,” said Jackson County District Attorney Beth Heckert.

She’s talking about the Forensics Specialist who OSP is not naming. But is accused of tampering with 1,000 cases involving controlled substances. All throughout Oregon. 328 in Klamath County and 110 of them are from Jackson County. “We don’t have any indication that our cases had anything done improperly.”

But Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel knows he has a lot of work ahead of him.
“Here are some of the files I’ve started to pull them. We have to determine that her involvement in the case might be compromising the integrity of the verdict.”

And said earlier this month he sent an email to several defense attorneys informing them that the analyst quote “is suspected of skimming drugs from the evidence she tested at the crime lab.”

Hummel said, “If you’re a public official in the justice system and you’ve committed a crime, you have committed a crime against everyone in this county, everyone in this state actually.”

Now Heckert said she too will have to look through the local cases. Stating that the OSP employee handled case from Jackson County in between 2013 and 2016. “If she actually did work on a case where a prosecution resulted and there was a conviction or there’s a pending case then we’ll send that information to the defense attorney who was assigned that case and they can decide how to proceed with it.”

The OSP employee had been working out of Bend since 2012 but was not working on any homicide or sexual assault cases.

She is on administrative leave. But could be charged with a federal crime.

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