Mistrial in Crime Chemist Case

A mistrial was declared Tuesday after a jury deadlocked in the case of former state crime lab chemist Fred Zain, accused of “perversion of the system of justice” by faking test results used in trials.

After about seven hours of deliberation, a Raleigh County jury told Judge H.L. Kirkpatrick that it was unable to reach a verdict on whether Zain is guilty of fraud against the state of West Virginia.

Special Prosecutor Jim Lees said he wants to try the case again as soon as possible.

Zain and his attorneys refused to comment on the jury’s inability to reach a decision.

The former state police officer, who left West Virginia more than a decade ago, was tried on four counts of obtaining money from the state--including his salary--under false pretenses. If he had been convicted on all four counts, he would have faced up to 13 years in prison.

The problems with tests led to dozens of challenged convictions. His work also came under fire in Texas, where he went after leaving West Virginia.

Although West Virginia State Police records indicate there were internal investigations of Zain’s work as early as 1985, the concerns did not become public until a 1993 report by the state Supreme Court, which discredited Zain’s work in the strongest possible terms.

Zain’s defense has been that the crime lab was a mess and its practices were ripe for errors, that Zain was not the only one making errors and his errors were not deliberate.

This is the second time Zain has gone on trial for work he did as a serologist for the state police from 1977 to 1989. A 1995 trial ended with acquittal on one perjury count and dismissal of a second.