Officials seek parish support for new crime lab

FRANKLIN -- St. Mary's district attorney and the Acadiana Crime Lab director made a pitch Wednesday for the Parish Council's commitment to a new $20 million lab.

For now, Bo Duhé, the 16th Judicial District attorney, and Crime Lab Director Kevin Ardoin are looking only for moral support. A request for financial support is likely to come later as officials seek $15 million in state capital outlay funding and the 25% local match that would be required from the eight parishes served by the lab.

Duhé believes the political timing this year is as good as it's likely to get.

The lab conducts forensic analysis of evidence, including DNA and ballistics, submitted by law enforcement agencies in St. Mary, St. Martin, Iberia, Lafayette, Acadia, Evangeline, St. Landry and Vermilion parishes.

The lab has been in operation since 1972 and at its current building on Iberia's Admiral Doyle Drive since 1989. The lab has outgrown its current home, Ardoin said.

Twenty-two staff members share the 10,000-square-foot building, Ardoin said. The U.S. Department of Justice recommends 1,000 square feet for each employee.

"I've been in that lab for decades," said Duhé, who serves as vice president of the Acadiana Crime Lab Commission. "Their people are on top of each other."

The lab stores evidentiary material from more than 6,000 pieces of evidence submitted each year, some of it in an attic beneath a leaky roof that also threatens expensive equipment, Ardoin said.

Plans for the new lab call for a 40,000-square-foot facility near Acadiana Regional Airport in Iberia.

"We're housing a lot of important evidence," Ardoin said. "A lot of people depend on what we do."

The work performed by the lab doesn't just catch bad guys, Duhé said. It can also exonerate people who are wrongly accused.

Juries have also come to expect forensic evidence such as DNA analysis, he said.

"As a district attorney, I can't tell you how important this lab is," Duhé said.

Success in obtaining capital outlay funding in this legislative session is likely to depend on success in demonstrating the ability to raise the $5 million local match, Duhé said.

How that obligation would be shared among the eight parishes and the cities within them isn't clear.

St. Mary, for example, accounts for 9.9% of the assessed valuation in the eight-parish region; for 7.6% of the population; and for 15.9% of the lab's case load.

Several hundred pieces of evidence are submitted to the lab from St. Mary each year.

The lab is likely to find some sympathetic ears among lawmakers who make the funding decision.

Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, chairs the Joint Legislative Committee on Capital Outlay. The vice chairman is Rep. Stuart Bishop, R-Lafayette.

"I don't think Acadiana is ever going to be more influential [in the Legislature]," Duhé told the council.

Also Wednesday, two council members introduced ordinances.

Councilwoman Gwendolyn Hidalgo of Bayou Vista introduced a proposal to require 60 days to pass before an ordinance that was voted down can be reintroduced.

The council chair, currently Kristi Prejeant Rink of Morgan City, would determine whether or not a proposed ordinance differs sufficiently from an ordinance that had been voted down less than 60 days earlier.

The full council could override the chair's finding.

Councilman Scott Ramsey, also of Bayou Vista, introduced an ordinance changing the way traffic control devices are installed, removed or modified.

Under the proposed ordinance, a Parish Council member could make a written request related to a traffic control device. To ensure compliance with state law and that the change is based on engineering, a written report would be required from the South Central Planning and Development Commission or an engineer with traffic control experience.

If the report finds the change is consistent with the "Louisiana Road Traffic Sign Handbook for Parishes and Small Communities," an ordinance making the change could be introduced.

The ordinances introduced Wednesday can come up for public hearings and passage votes after 20 days.