OC Crime Lab Reorganization Underway

ORANGE COUNTY, CA —Former Orange County Supervisor and now Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer has handed over the keys to the Orange County Crime Lab back to the Sheriff, it was reported Tuesday.

The current OC Board of Supervisors approved a reorganization of the OC Crime Lab, which will be overseen now by the sheriff's department, who is responsible "for the collection and accumulation of evidence, and making sure there is a strong chain of custody," Spitzer said.

"The District Attorney, in my opinion, should not be in that business," he said. Spitzer told the board that best practices were to have a police agency oversee the collection and analysis of evidence.

"It is the responsibility of the District Attorney to take that evidence and prosecute crimes," OC Sheriff Don Barnes agreed.
In 2008, the CEO, Sheriff and District Attorney took over a joint-oversight of the crime lab due to a backlog of over 1,800 cases, Supervisor Andrew Do said. Back then, friction between the sheriff and prosecutors was high.

Do posited the question, if that would happen again, what would the Sheriff and DA do to ensure the lab was being run appropriately, which Spitzer turned the tables back to the supervisors who "call the balls and strikes" in the county.

In the meantime, the Sheriff and District Attorney's offices agreed that the Crime Lab's management should be kept in a "separation of powers."