"I can't fully explain why it wasn't caught in each instance before it went out," said CBI Director Mike Rankin who in addition to the refrigerator problem and the outside labs noticing discrepancies, says internal quality control first detected the testing issue. No defendants were overcharged because of the lab testing errors. The error resulted in 56 of the 123 tests the scientist conducted were reported more than 10 percent too low. The errors traced back to a CBI scientist, working at the agencies' Pueblo lab, who was using faulty procedures and allowed too much alcohol to evaporate during the tests.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is responsible for certifying labs and launched a formal investigation into the lab testing procedures at CBI. "To see this many discrepancies when the CBI just started this summer, is at a simple overview, way too many discrepancies," said lab director Pat Sulik of Rocky Mountain Instrumental Laboratories. At the same time, independent labs, ChemaTox and Rocky Mountain Instrumental Laboratories, started noticing problems and reported them to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. A CBI refrigerator used to cool blood vials malfunctioned, leading to a need to retest DUI samples housed in the refrigerator.
The problems were discovered through a confluence of events last December. In January, a CBS4 investigation revealed mistakes in 56 blood alcohol tests during a four month period from August 2015 through November 2015.
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