Lynchburg prosecutor pleased with new state measure

RICHMOND — The General Assembly approved short-term measures Wednesday to comply with a Supreme Court ruling that affects evidence in drug and DUI cases, leaving Lynchburg prosecutor Michael Doucette satisfied with the results.

“I’m pleased,” Doucette said after a special session of the assembly adjourned Wednesday. “It may not be perfect, but it is certainly

something we can work with and make some progress with.”

Doucette played a key role in shaping the legislation, because he represented Virginia’s commonwealth’s attorneys on a task force that drafted the measure.

The assembly will dig more deeply into what’s known as the Supreme Court’s “Melendez ruling” in January, Doucette and most legislators said.

The ruling, on June 25, already has led to lighter sentences for drug-possession defendants in Lynchburg, and caused several drunken-driving defendants in Northern Virginia to go free, Doucette said.

Wednesday’s action was a short-term solution to the ruling’s requirement that the state’s forensic scientists and breathalyzer operators be available to testify in every court case where the defense wants to cross-examine them.

The ruling has caused at least a seven-fold increase in the number of times the 160 scientists in the state’s drug-analyzing laboratories have been subpoenaed to testify in courtrooms across Virginia since early July, said Del. Shannon Valentine, D-Lynchburg.

The measure adopted Wednesday accomplishes three primary goals, Doucette said.

It contains deadlines for when a prosecutor must notify the defense attorney that scientific evidence will be used against a defendant, and deadlines for when the defense must say whether it wants to subpoena the scientist who analyzed the evidence.

It also established a speedy-trial waiver, giving more time for prosecutors to schedule an appearance in court by the scientists.

A third issue involved breathalyzer tests in drunken-driving cases. The Melendez ruling requires that the machine’s operator be in court to answer questions about his or her qualifications and the machine’s accuracy.

“We were able to accomplish all of those,” Doucette said.

Today, Doucette said, he planned to start developing training guidelines for the state’s prosecutors to use in following the new requirements.

Those duties fall to Doucette because he represented the Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys on the task force, which also included representatives of the Department of Forensic Science, the chief medical examiner, the State Police, and Department of Motor Vehicles.

Valentine, a member of one of the key legislative committees that reviewed the bills that were considered Wednesday, said Doucette was “instrumental in drafting the legislation.”

“Mike was one of the key witnesses to testify as we went through proposed legislation line-by-line,” Valentine said.