Memo calls for ouster of chemist

Joyce Gilchrist was an incompetent, poorly trained manager of the Oklahoma City police forensics laboratory who lost, destroyed and mishandled key physical evidence, a captain wrote in an internal memo to Police Chief M.T. Berry.

The memo by Capt. Byron Boshell called for Gilchrist's ouster. It also said Gilchrist spent thousands of dollars on equipment that likely never would be used, and said she had an inability to get along with other lab workers.

"To say the serology laboratory was mismanaged is an understatement," Boshell wrote in the Jan. 16 memo obtained by KWTV NEWS9. "It was grossly mismanaged!

"If we fail to take action, we very well may find civil action being taken against the city, the laboratory and the civilian and sworn personnel involved."

Berry refused to comment Monday when he was shown the document by The Oklahoman.

"I can't be held to sit here and make comments on something that you're not legally in possession of," Berry said. "That is an official police department document.

"I didn't release it to you, my public information officer didn't release it to you, my records bureau didn't release it to you.... I'm not going to comment on it."

Boshell also refused Monday to comment when shown the memo.

Gilchrist is the subject of investigations by the FBI and Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation after being accused of misidentifying evidence and giving improper testimony in several court cases.

A secret FBI report, disclosed Wednesday by The Oklahoman , said Gilchrist gave testimony "that went beyond the acceptable limits of forensic science" or misidentified hair and fibers in at least six criminal cases.

The FBI has recommended a review of all cases where Gilchrist linked hair or fibers with a suspect or victim and the evidence "was significant to the outcome of the trial."

Forensic work by Gilchrist, a 21-year department employee, has been criticized by defense attorneys and appellate judges for years. She is on paid administrative leave.

Gov. Frank Keating on Monday called for the OSBI to perform a thorough examination of all cases handled by Gilchrist.

Melvin Hall, Gilchrist's attorney, could not be reached for comment Monday. Hall has said Gilchrist stands behind her work and believes she will be vindicated.

In the memo, Boshell told the chief one of his concerns about the laboratory was blood, some of which was probably HIV-infected, that was being washed down the drain into the city drainage system.

Boshell, who became laboratory supervisor in May 1999, said evidence was being stacked all over the chemist's area because of lack of storage space, posing a contamination issue. Rape evidence was systematically being destroyed after two years, long before the statute of limitations.

"This meant evidence was being destroyed ending the possibility of prosecution in some unsolved rape cases," Boshell wrote.

Police department policy and procedure were violated because proficiency testing had not been conducted, even though the city was paying for the tests, the memo stated. The testing ensures results with the lab's equipment are accurate.

"As bad as all of these problems were, the issue of proficiency testing caused me the greatest alarm," Boshell told the chief. "The failure to conduct these proficiencies placed the lab in a defenseless position and was a waste of city funds. Proficiency tests are the primary way of proving the work performed in a lab is credible."

Gilchrist blamed the OSBI, her supervisors, commanding officers, defense attorneys and judges for the problems with her and the laboratory, the captain wrote.

"In the defense (attorney) community, she alleges a conspiracy due to in part because she is black and should not know as much as she does about forensics," Boshell wrote.

Gilchrist was accused of not properly attending to boxes of evidence that became wet when an evidence room flooded, Boshell wrote.

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