DOVER, Del. (AP) - Two employees of the Delaware medical examiner’s office were arrested Wednesday in an ongoing investigation of evidence tampering and theft at the state drug testing lab, authorities said.
James Woodson, 38, and Farnam Daneshgar, 54, were arrested after being indicted by a New Castle County grand jury on Tuesday. Both men were previously suspended from their jobs at the Controlled Substances Lab, which is part of the medical examiner’s office.
State police closed down the lab in February during a criminal investigation of evidence being tampered with or missing. Chief medical examiner Richard Callery, who has been suspended with pay, is the subject of separate investigations involving possible misuse of state resources.
Joseph Hurley, an attorney representing both Woodson and Daneshgar, questioned the timing of their arrests and the strength of the allegations against them. He noted the public scrutiny generated by the drug lab scandal, which has prompted Markell administration officials to propose a reorganization of the medical examiner’s office.
“I can only tell you that they’ve got to find a head to roll,” Hurley said about the indictments of Woodson and Daneshgar, adding that security lapses at the drug-testing lab were “big enough to drive the proverbial truck through.”
State police Sgt. Paul Shavack said the arrests do not signal the end of the investigation.
“More arrests are possible,” he said.
Woodson, who worked as a lab courier, is charged with cocaine trafficking, theft of a controlled substance, tampering with evidence and official misconduct. He is accused of removing cocaine from an evidence bag at the drug lab. The charges involve activity between April and June of 2011. Woodson also is charged with illegally obtaining or using criminal history record information last month, while the investigation into the drug lab was under way. He was suspended from his job a week later.
Daneshgar, a chemist in the drug lab, is charged with falsifying business records, accused of failing to produce reports documenting discrepancies in drug evidence he reviewed, once in 2013 and again in January of this year.
Daneshgar and three other people also were charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia authorities say was found at his home. Jason Miller, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said authorities are not alleging that those charges are related to the investigation of the medical examiner’s office.
Authorities announced the arrests shortly after members of the legislature’s budget-writing committee voted to meet in secret with Gov. Jack Markell’s chief of staff, Michael Barlow, and Safety and Homeland Security Lewis Schiliro about the medical examiner’s office. Administration officials have proposed moving the ME’s office from the Department of Health and Social Services to the Department of Safety and Homeland Security, where it would be renamed the Division of Forensic Science and made subject to a state oversight commission.
State prosecutor Kathleen Jennings said earlier this month that 75 current and past criminal defendants have been notified of evidence discrepancies related to the drug lab. She also said 146 drug cases that were pending when the lab was shut down by state police have been compromised as the direct result of evidence tampering, resulting in the dismissal of charges or plea bargains.
Meanwhile, the state public defender’s office has filed about 500 motions seeking to have drug convictions overturned because of problems at the lab dating to 2010.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.