Blood tests may be excluded

A Kane County judge says he will decide next week whether forensic test results from a missing blood sample can be used as evidence in a St. Charles woman's reckless homicide trial.

The blood, which South Elgin police have admitted to mishandling and possibly destroying, is "the heart of the state's case" against 20-year-old Erika Scoliere, Assistant State's Attorney Steve Sims said.

Scoliere faces up to 14 years in prison if convicted of reckless homicide and aggravated driving under the influence in the July 13, 2007, death of Frank Ferraro, 40, of South Elgin.

On Tuesday, defense attorney Stephen Komie argued the charges should be dismissed because the defense has no way of independently testing or examining the state's key piece of evidence.

"This defendant can't start on a level playing field," he said at an evidence hearing in front of Judge Thomas E. Mueller. "The indictment should be dismissed because they can't prove it."

Scoliere is accused of being drunk when her 2003 Ford Escape turned in front of Ferraro's 2005 Kawasaki motorcycle at Randall and Silver Glen roads in South Elgin, killing Ferraro. Police said her blood was drawn about three hours later.

Colleen Lord, a forensic scientist at the state crime lab in Westchester, testified Tuesday about how she conducted tests on Scoliere's blood for alcohol and her urine for drugs.

Lord said the blood test showed Scoliere, then 18, had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.115, which is over the Illinois threshold of 0.08 for drivers of legal drinking age; there was no sign of drugs. "The equipment was functioning properly," Lord said of the testing instruments.

Surprising both the prosecution and defense, Lord also revealed for the first time Tuesday that she conducted a second set of tests after a South Elgin police sergeant questioned the initial results. She said a follow-up test with no control group yielded identical results and, afterward, she "shredded" her notes from the "unscientific" experiment.

While Sims brushed off the second test as irrelevant, Komie argued it showed there was doubt over the outcome of the first test and questioned why Lord would destroy notes that supported the original finding.

"Obviously, there was a concern the result was wrong," he said.

Mueller said he would rule on the motion to suppress evidence July 22.