Ind. court: Drug tests in cases were incorrect

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Supreme Court has found that the state’s toxicology lab provided incorrect test results for use in criminal cases — a finding that opens the door to expected legal challenges in drug conviction cases.

The Indianapolis Star reports that a task force headed by two judges from the Indiana Court of Appeals found at least five cases where retested samples “did not reveal any of the substances originally reported.”

Monday’s report from the Indiana Supreme Court about the task force’s work said about 500 other samples were either inadequate for retesting or showed some presence of drugs or “a successor substance.”

But the report doesn’t shed light on the full extent of testing problems at the state lab that tests blood and urine samples for police agencies.