Kamalkant Shah was found to have faked a result in a drug case on Dec. 10, prompting authorities to review 7,800 other cases.
Nearly 8,000 criminal cases are under review after a State Police lab tech was allegedly caught making up results in one drug case, authorities said.PASSAIC COUNTY -- Authorities are conducting a criminal investigation into a State Police lab technician who allegedly faked a result in a drug case, according to The Record.
Cynthia McSweeney, the director of the State Police laboratory in Little Falls, confirmed Kamalkant Shah was facing a criminal probe into his alleged misconduct while testifying in a drug case in Passaic County Wednesday, the newspaper reported.
Kamalkant Shah worked as a laboratory technician for the State Police laboratory in Little Falls and was found on Dec. 10 to have "dry labbed" suspected marijuana in a drug case -- casting a shadow over the 7,827 criminal cases on which he worked during his 10 years at the lab.
"Basically, he was observed writing 'test results' for suspected marijuana that was never tested," Deputy Public Defender Judy Fallon said in a memo to Public Defender Joseph Krakora on Feb. 29.
As reported by NJ Advance Media, Ellie Honig, director of the Division of Criminal Justice, told county prosecutor's offices in a Feb. 22 letter that Shah "failed to appropriately conduct laboratory analyses in a drug case."
"Mr. Shah was observed in one case spending insufficient time analyzing a substance to determine if it was marijuana and recording an anticipated result without properly conducting the analysis," Honig said.
Since that disclosure, authorities have found errors or missing information in 11 other cases he handled in Passaic County, The Record previously reported.
Authorities have said about 2,100 cases in Passaic County, 2,000 in Essex County, 1,429 in Morris County and 263 in Sussex County were impacted by the disclosure over Shah's results. According to The Record, 2,300 cases in Bergen County were also affected.
The disclosure of Shah's faked results has already prompted action by defense attorneys. In Bergen County, attorney Frank Carbonetti requested the dismissal of drug charges against his client, Fernando Polanco, because of Shah's involvement in the case. Meanwhile in Sussex County, attorney George T. Daggett filed a notice of tort -- a formal notice that he plans to sue -- against Shah, the State Police, the superintendent of the State Police, Col. Rick Fuentes, and the State Police Office of Forensic Sciences North Region-Drug Unit, the New Jersey Herald reported.
Ernest M. Caposela, the assignment judge of Passaic County, previously told NJ Advance Media people who are currently in prison based on tests performed by Shah may need to be let out until investigators can determine if those test results were legitimate.
"If somebody was convicted based on one of these tests, until we know more, I think you've got to let them out," he said. "At least until we can determine whether these certifications have any integrity."
Caposela said a large number of drug cases -- many of which were adjudicated by municipal courts -- likely wouldn't be overturned if defendants accepted a plea early on in the process.
Cases where defendants were convicted and didn't plead guilty are what concern Caposela the most. The next highest priority are those defendants who are out on bail pending trial and those who were convicted and already served their sentences.
Defendants who were convicted and already served their sentence may also seek to file for post-conviction relief or appeal their sentences -- as it could challenge their status as a convicted felon or impact post-incarceration stipulations of their sentence.
According to Fallon's Feb. 29 memo, the prosecutor's office's plan "is to submit for retesting specimens from open cases. The larger, and unanswered, question is how this impacts already resolved cases, especially those where the specimens may have been destroyed."
Justin Zaremba may be reached at jzaremba@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinZarembaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.