Vice President Kamala Harris dismissed hundreds of drug convictions and cases when she served as San Francisco district attorney amid an evidence lab scandal involving cocaine use that rocked her office.
Ahead of her run for the White House, Harris’ district attorney’s office was hit by a scandal in 2010 involving a lab technician with a criminal background who allegedly took cocaine home from the evidence lab and possibly tainted hundreds of other cases. The scandal unfolded as Harris hit the campaign trail to become the Golden State’s attorney general.
The lab tech had reportedly become unreliable at work in the weeks leading up to the alleged cocaine theft, with the DA’s lead drug prosecutor sounding the alarm in a 2009 email to a colleague, stating the lab tech had become “increasingly UNDEPENDABLE for testimony” and that the situation at the lab was “ridiculous” and jeopardized drug cases, SF Gatereported at the time. Lab techs …