Oct 22, 2008 - 04:05:16 CDT
Michelle Burkett measures blood and water carefully as she demonstrates how she tests blood alcohol concentration. She's done this more than 12,000 times with real samples, sometimes performing as many as 50 tests per day, she says.She tests BAC of blood samples from driving under the influence cases and from death investigations. She's seen 0.0 BAC tests, mostly in death investigations, and lately she's seen more tests coming in at 0.08 in DUI cases.
Coworker Janelle Portscheller prods her to tell the visitors to their laboratory the highest test she's seen. Burkett smiles.
Once, she saw a 0.48 in a DUI case, six times the legal limit. A 0.48 BAC means nearly half of 1 percent of a person's blood consists of alcohol. Burkett's high test came shortly after her previous high, a 0.46.
Burkett and Portscheller are two of 14 full-time analysts working in the North Dakota crime laboratory. They and other analysts demonstrated their jobs and showed visitors around the newly completed, 19,000-square-feet state crime laboratory on Monday and Tuesday.
The lab, located at 2641 E. Main Ave. in Bismarck, was a $5.1 million project designed to bring the state crime lab up to current technological standards in forensic science. The old crime lab, built in 1974, was 5,725 square feet and contained 3,767 square feet of lab space. The new building dwarfs that, with 7,300 square feet of lab space, 4,300 square feet of office and classroom space, and 5,000 square feet of mechanical, garage, storage space and restrooms.
"It will meet our current needs and our future needs as technology changes," crime lab director Hope Olson said.
More space and additional equipment will benefit all North Dakotans, Olson said.
"It will help reduce the turn-around time" of tests getting back to law enforcement, she said.
The crime laboratory was moved under the jurisdiction of the state attorney general's office in 2003, when Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem asked the Legislature to move it there from the state health department. In 2005, the Legislature granted $3.6 million for a remodeling and expansion project for the lab, but Stenehjem pulled the plug on the project after receiving a few estimates.
The old lab still would have been outdated had that project been completed, Stenehjem said. So, he asked for more money for a completely new lab in 2007. The governor put it in his budget and the Legislature approved the project.
Last week, the analysts moved into their new digs, which Stenehjem says are "as good as any crime lab in the entire country."
Updates to the lab will be well worth the price, Stenehjem said. Such technological advances as DNA have made an expanded crime lab necessary. In 1968, the lab had 70 samples of narcotics to test, Stenehjem said. Now, the lab handles thousands of drug samples and blood samples, plus performs DNA testing on evidence and for the convicted offender database.
Next August, DNA samples from anyone arrested for a felony in North Dakota will be run through a database to check for links to unsolved crimes. If the person is exonerated of the original felony charge, the sample will be destroyed, Stenehjem explained.
Because of new technologies, crimes have been solved that would have never been solved in past years, the attorney general boasts. DNA evidence has played a part in numerous sexual assaults and homicides, and a robbery suspect recently was identified from DNA on a sweatshirt, Stenehjem said.
Amy Gebhardt, who analyzes DNA evidence, shows how DNA matches are made. On television crime shows, DNA matches pop up in the form of pictures and names in a database. In real life, DNA data is represented by peaks and numbers on a graph, which then can be matched to peaks and numbers of known profiles, she explains.
DNA tests can be inconclusive for a number of reasons, including not enough DNA or due to what the DNA was on. Certain materials, like leather or denim, interfere with DNA testing. Being stored in plastic can degrade a DNA sample, while paper and cardboard are ideal, she said.
Age of the sample can make a difference, too, but just because a sample is old doesn't mean it won't yield results, she said. Gebhardt said she has gotten a full DNA profile off a 25-year-old piece of evidence.
A visitor questions whether that evidence solved a case. Not yet, Gebhardt answers. Stenehjem, stopping in during the demonstration, advises her that that's enough information on the case for the inquisitive visitors.
From one laboratory to the next, analysts carefully put scientific terms into everyday explanations, showing visitors how their jobs work toward the goal of solving crimes.
Stephanie Maier, donning a bright yellow jumpsuit, uses luminol and alternative light source tests to show how analysts find bodily fluids for possible DNA testing. Jennifer Penner and Shannon Johnson explain how they extract the DNA so Gebhardt can analyze the genetic material.
Margy Pearson, the state toxicologist, and Deb Kashur explain how breath tests work on impaired drivers. Kashur and Pearson make sure Intoxilyzers across the state are calibrated and repaired.
Portscheller shows visitors how blood samples are tested for drugs. When she started at the laboratory, methamphetamine was the drug that came up most often in screenings. Now, methadone and prescription medications seem to come up most often.
"I still run into drugs I've never seen," Portscheller said.
Charlene Schweitzer explains how analysts look for accelerants in arson investigations, and Marc Larson shows various tests used to determine what substances are what. White powders, labeled cocaine and methamphetamine, look similar, but Larson shows how each reacts with different chemicals in different ways.
Lamonte Jacobson points out how he compares bullets and cartridges. The microscopic striations left on a bullet are unique to each individual gun, meaning bullets can be analyzed to see if they were fired from a certain weapon, he explains.
Troy Goetz shows how difficult it really is to get find good fingerprint evidence. Even prints he planted on an envelope to show the visitors are smudged and would be hard to read.
"A couple in a hundred might give you a usable print,"he said. "We try, but you learn soon you don't get prints off everything."
The analysts are excited to have more space, including desks away from the laboratories. Jacobson used to have to take guns off site to shooting ranges to capture bullets for comparisons, and it made sense to wait until several cases built up.
"If you had to go off-site, you wanted to make it worth the trip," he said.
Goetz listed advantages of the new lab over the old - more space, better lighting, better ventilation. Just being more spread out from coworkers is a plus, he said.
"You overheard a lot of conversations,"he said. "We made it work and we all got along."
Even the littlest things about the new lab are advantageous, Goetz said, noting the number of clocks on the walls.
"It's way above the other one," he said. "We look forward to breaking it in."
(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@;bismarcktribune.com.)
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