Welcome to

State Attorney’s from 35 counties began reviewing hundreds of drug cases Monday. They’re dealing with the fallout of an FDLE evidence tampering investigation

Willie Meggs handles six counties for Florida’s 2^nd Judicial Circuit. He said his office started going back through almost 50 drug related cases. All relied on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s crime lab in Pensacola to test evidence. On Friday, Meggs was forced to ask for an extension on a trial after he discovered some evidence was swapped with over the counter pills “We’ve got to go back and look over all of our cases that have been sent to that lab in Pensacola. Even the closed ones, the tried ones, it’s a pretty big task” says Meggs

On Saturday. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said they had relieved a chemist at the Pensacola lab  after finding prescription pill evidence was missing. Over the counter drugs had been substituted. FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey called the investigation unusual because it involves one of his own. “We have not had a bad apple problem, and this individual would have been way down on my list if you had asked me for that.”

Bailey says the evidence tampering could affect thousands of cases in 35 counties across Florida. Meggs believes the problem is a byproduct of budget cuts to the department.

“This is a spinoff. It would be much better to have more personal contact with our lab people than we do, but in today’s economy we’re not able to do that.”

And with compromised evidence, Meggs and others are unsure how pending or past cases will be resolved…including some who have been convicted and are now certain to appeal.