Care Home Tangled In Controversy Over Drug Analysis
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The district judge presiding over a prescription drug case that closed a local personal care home threatened to throw the case out unless crime lab results are in by next month.
Judge Armand Martin of Glassport said he expected prosecutors to have their preliminary hearing evidence ready against administrator William Garvin and two other employees of the now-closed Liberty Personal Care Home.
But the results of the tests on the prescription drugs allegedly stolen from patients has not yet been completed. The home was raided in March and criminal charges were filed in April.
Defense attorney Michael Pribanic, who represents Garvin, said, "What is unusual is for a magistrate to postpone a case twice when the prosecution clearly has not acted diligently. They've had these drugs, alleged drugs, since March 3 and they've done nothing about it."
Pribanic says he is prepared to present the testimony of a pharmacist who would testify that the alleged controlled substance at issue was not a controlled substance.
The judge wanted lab tests available before proceeding with the case.
But he warned that while its not unusual for the crime lab to face a backlog, he will dismiss the case unless those results are in by the next scheduled hearing July 2.
Meantime, defense attorney Charles LoPresti, who represents employee Mary Cherney, also charged, says his client has been unable to find work while the case is in limbo.
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