Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), a presidential candidate, was San Francisco’s top prosecutor, running to become California’s elected attorney general, when a scandal stunned her office and threatened to upend her campaign, the Washington Post reports. One of Harris’s top deputies told a colleague that a crime lab technician had become “increasingly UNDEPENDABLE for testimony.” Later, the technician allegedly took home cocaine from the lab, possibly tainting evidence and raising concerns about hundreds of cases. Neither Harris nor her prosecutors informed defense attorneys of the problems. Harris “failed to disclose information that clearly should have been disclosed,” Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo wrote in 2010. Harris blamed the police for failing to inform defense lawyers. She estimated that only about 20 cases initially would be affected. Then, with the criminal-justice system at risk of devolving into chaos, Harris took the extraordinary step of dismissing 1,000 drug-related cases, including many in which convictions had been obtained and sentences were being served.
Casting herself as a “progressive prosecutor” who was concerned for the rights of defendants, Harris has highlighted her seven years as San Francisco’s top law enforcement official as evidence of how she balanced her roles. A review of the case presents a portrait of Harris scrambling to manage a crisis for which she was unprepared. It also shows how Harris, after six years as DA, had failed to put in place guidelines for ensuring that defendants were informed about potentially tainted evidence and testimony that could lead to unfair convictions. Harris told the Post that the crime lab was run by the police. She took responsibility for the failings. “No excuses,” Harris said. “The buck stops with me.” Jeff Adachi, the city’s elected public defender, said before he died on Feb. 22 that Harris was “slow to respond.”