Although I cannot verify that U3 is a DPD narcotics detective, this is very compelling information, and I personally believe the author is who he says he is.  Sharon Boyd 

As a detective, who goes out and buys dope, arrests people and files cases, I can tell you that once an arrest is made the drug is field tested, assuming that drug has a field test. 

For purposes of this posting, we will assume the drug is cocaine which has a field test.  If the field test is positive the arrest report is completed and the arrestee is arraigned by a magistrate and bond is set.  The case is filed usually the next day and sent to the DA's office.  

Once at the DA's office, Mike McManus, reviews the case before it is presented to the Grand Jury.  The trouble we have with McManus and getting a case past him since Bill Hill took over is unreal - but that's a whole different story.  Suffice it to say, Bill Hill is trying to clear the dockets as quick as he can and has given orders to McManus to sabotage as many of our cases before they hit the Grand Jury as possible.  

Dope cases don't have complainants.  If they are rejected then no one cares since there is no "victim."  If the case is rejected before it makes to the Grand Jury, Hill can claim we are sending bad cases.  Funny, we didn't have this problem before Hill.  If the case is "no-billed" or acquitted at trial, then that negatively impact Hill's stats for a re-election bid.

The Grand Jury determined if there is sufficient evidence to hold the case for trial or to determine if probable cause exists that an offense was committed.  If so, the case is "true-billed" and assigned to one of the drug courts (which were funded specifically for handling dope cases - this funding also plays a part in this - you know better than I do about funding and politicians). 

I read in the paper how appalling it is for someone to go through this process based only on a field test.  A field test is a "presumptive" test used to establish that there is probable cause.  At this point in the process that is all that is required.  The officer making the arrest, the jail supervisor approving the arrest, the magistrate who arraigns, McManus who reviews the case at the DA's office, the judge who hears the examining trial (if one was requested ), and the Grand Jury - 12 civilians not other police, are all looking for probable cause.  Several levels of checks for probable cause and that is exactly what a field test provides. Never have I been asked by the DA's office to submit drugs to the lab for testing prior to filing a case.  

Some cases are what we call RLPAs - ReLease Pending Analysis.  That means the case is released by the PD until the results come back from the lab sometimes several months later.  If the results come back positive then a detective must start the whole process from the beginning. He must file several reports, get arrest warrants signed, and either locate the suspect or send the paperwork to Legal so the warrant will be put on the computer and hopefully, some officer somewhere will come across the suspect and check him for warrants otherwise, he is free to continue his trade.  

I say all of that to let you know that the command staff is toying with the idea of making all cases RLPAs.  Which means every drug arrest will be released pending the lab results. We will be so overwhelmed with the extra paperwork that we will not be able to the little bit that we are doing now - since Bolton cut our division by a third 2 years ago.  If the dope dealers only knew how wide open it really is for them right now.....

The DA's office requests the lab test.  They don't request it until they have to - i.e., the defense attorney demands it or the case is going to trial.  It is very common for me to show up for trial on one of my own cases to find out that the DA doesn't have the lab results.  This is usually three to six months after the arrest.  The DA's office doesn't want to pay for lab tests until they know for sure they will be needed.

As far as this crap with Delapaz and Herrera, they did just like we all do as far as conducting a field test and then putting the suspects in jail if the test is positive.  You might also like to know that last Friday in our office a supervisor had several field test kits with an unknown white substance in it - at least unknown to the officers.  The supervisor handed these test kits to officers randomly and asked them to test the unknown substance.  These officers did so.  EVERY test showed POSITIVE for cocaine.  The supervisor said that the substance was NOT cocaine and he is firing off a letter to the manufacturer of the test kit demanding an explanation.

A lot has been said about these people being held for months without trial or being deported.  So what!  Even if there was not any cocaine in the substance sold to the officers it is still a felony in this state to deliver a simulated substance.  If they were deported, tough!  If they were here legally they would not have been deported except upon conviction.  If they plead guilty, oh well!  As far the people having a high bond set and it not being reduced once the DA's office knew it wasn't cocaine, talk to Greg Long, chief of the Organized Crime Division of the DA's office.   He lobbied hard to get million dollar bonds set on these dope cases.  He didn't want to give it up once it was found that all the kilos weren't legit.

I know I have thrown a lot of stuff at you and have not been very concise and tended to ramble.  It just makes me mad that these officers are being attacked and it's implied they are criminals.  I'm not saying we can't do a better job as far as case management is concerned but that is procedural not criminal.  There is a lot more but I must go for now.

U3