County Loses License for Alcohol Analysis

Citing a managerial snafu, county sheriff’s officials said they recently lost their license to conduct alcohol, breath and urine analysis associated with alcohol-related driving cases.

But officials said that the state has taken over performing the analyses until the department gets its license back and they do not expect any problems, said Cmdr. Bill Wade, who oversees the department’s special services unit.

“It means virtually nothing,” he said. “It shouldn’t affect any cases.”

The licensing problem occurred when Norm Fort, the department’s forensic alcohol supervisor for more than a decade, retired at the end of 1996. Fort’s name was on the department’s license that permits it to conduct alcohol sample testing.

Under state law, the department had 90 days to replace Fort with another qualified supervisor. But the county failed to meet the March 19 deadline, said Wade, who blamed the problem on a managerial error.

About two weeks passed before the state took over testing at its Santa Barbara lab, he said.

Despite Wade’s assertions to the contrary, Ventura attorney and former prosecutor Kevin DeNoce said that some criminal cases could be compromised as a result of the licensing problem, particularly drunk-driving cases where blood, urine and Breathalyzer evidence was sent to the county’s crime lab for evaluation.

“This is not good,” DeNoce said Thursday.

“The ability to prosecute drunk drivers is severely compromised.”

DeNoce predicted that Ventura County judges will have to iron out the issue if and when it arises in court.

“I am sure,” DeNoce said, “there will be defense attorneys who will try to get the results thrown out as a result of this.”