Local Greensboro Legal Leaders Refute Cooper's Lies on State Crime Labs | Eastern NC Now

Press Release:

"The Crime Lab Has Not Been Fixed"

    GREENSBORO, NC     Standing in front of the state's Triad Regional State Crime Lab, local Guilford County legal experts and law enforcement officials refuted Attorney General Roy Cooper's lie stating that he had fixed the issues that have - and still are - plaguing the state's Crime Lab.

    "As head of major crimes, I have vast experience with the State Crime Lab," said Captain George Moore, a member of the Guilford County Sheriff's Department. "I've been in law enforcement for over 20 years. When it takes two years to get evidence back, it's simply unacceptable. You could have innocent people held in jail for no good reason because the Crime Lab took two years to get us results. You might have a murderer, rapist, or robbery suspect free to roam the streets and commit further crimes until the evidence is processed. We've had to send our evidence to private labs that get results in a couple weeks."

    Many cities have had to send their evidence to private labs, which can return work in as little as two weeks. The Crime Lab can take years to return the same work. Since Cooper has failed to fix the problems and law enforcement is forced to send evidence to private labs, taxpayers are being double-billed to solve crimes.

    "I served in the Senate with Roy Cooper, so I'm very familiar with his work," said Rep. John Blust, a law school classmate of Cooper. "He's been running for Governor all these years. I can't remember the last time he got a private sector paycheck. We've been having problems with the Crime Lab for years. Cooper first became Attorney General in 2001 and there was a pledge to clean up the organization. Cooper appointed his head lobbyist to clean it up, and there's plenty of evidence that very little has been done."

    Cooper appointed his chief lobbyist Greg McLeod to head the SBI's cleanup in 2010, and Cooper's choice to head the Crime Lab quit before even assuming the job, an embarrassing incident Cooper attempted to hide from the public. A recent article from The News & Observer also found Cooper hid an independent agency's assessment of thfor political reasons.

    "I have clients that have been directly affected by the Crime Lab's inability to do their job," stated private attorney Janet Wallace. "I had a client that had to have their blood tested for a violation in November 2012. We got the blood test results back in December 2015 that weren't tested for what we instructed. My client spent three years of her life dealing with the delays of justice. Another client is still waiting for test results two years later, and another who has been waiting over a year for test results so that a judge can help determine if he deserves custody of his children. The Crime Lab has not been fixed."

    Kami Mueller, spokeswoman for the NCGOP offered a final word, stating, "Roy Cooper has failed to show up for work for the past 16 years. Cooper has had 16 years to address and solve the myriad of problems that have caused rape kits to sit in waiting for years, have let criminals continue their lawbreaking on our streets, and have wrongfully convicted innocent people due to faulty and invalid evidence processed by Cooper's Crime Labs. Now, Cooper laughably wants a promotion while campaigning around the state, bleeding the taxpayers of North Carolina dry. It's incredulous and North Carolina deserves better."

• Contact: NCGOP Communications
•     communications@ncgop.org