Judge wants San Francisco prosecutors to throw out 100s of pending drug cases

"Judge to S.F. prosecutor: Dump drug cases" by Jaxon Van Derbeken, San Francisco Chronicle

(04-15) 18:36 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco judge told prosecutors Thursday to dismiss hundreds of drug cases after they admitted that the investigation into the police drug lab scandal would prevent them from bringing the defendants to trial anytime soon.

District Attorney Kamala Harris' office has already dismissed several hundred cases because of evidence-skimming suspicions involving a former lab technician, and prosecutors have said as many as 600 more are in jeopardy. However, after an initial wave of dropped cases, prosecutors have been freeing defendants only a few at a time, usually when their court dates arrive.

Meanwhile, many drug defendants remain behind bars at the county jail. At a Superior Court hearing Thursday, Judge Anne-Christine Massullo asked lead drug prosecutor Sharon Woo about the status of six cases set to go to trial next week.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/16/MNDM1CVGEA.DTL

Judge Massullo, by the way, was appointed in 2006 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who we all know is Republican. I thought that the GOP was the "tough on crime" party and thus would've wanted to keep the cases. Similarly, Orange County Judge Jim Gray, a conservative Republican, has spoken out against the War on Drugs after having sentenced many drug offenders during his career.

:kick: