OSP offers ‘profound regret’ over crime lab analyst’s pill thefts

One day after an Oregon State Police evidence analyst admitted in court to stealing over 700 pills from the Bend and Pendleton crime labs, the OSP issued a statement Tuesday on what transpired and efforts to prevent any recurrence.

OSP forensic scientist Nika Larsen pleaded guilty in Portland federal court Monday to charges of stealing more than 700 pills submitted by police as evidence for testing to the facilities in Bend and Pendleton since 2014, making personal use of them due to her drug abuse and addiction.

The OSP’s statement:

“During the summer of 2015, we initiated an investigation into missing controlled substances that had been removed from two of our crime labs. Our detectives subsequently established and documented a pattern of theft by employee Nika Larsen, an OSP scientist, who used her position to remove controlled substances from two of the five OSP crime labs.

“We promptly notified all Oregon district attorney offices and turned the results of our investigation over to the Oregon Department of Justice for additional investigation and independent evaluation.

“The Oregon attorney general and the United States attorney’s office subsequently conducted their own investigations, which confirmed OSP’s findings and built a successful criminal case against Larsen.

“We profoundly regret our scientist’s behavior and any adverse impact it has had on our professional partners or the administration of justice. We are redoubling our commitment to delivering the consistently professional service that built our hard-earned reputation for excellence.

“As part of our efforts moving forward, we participated in and look forward to any recommendations from the workgroup established by Governor Brown to evaluate policies and procedures utilized with our crime labs.

“No human system can guarantee perfection, but we have underscored our commitment to integrity, reliability, security and transparency by updating lab security policies, procedures and equipment.

“The OSP Forensic Services Division provides Oregon’s only full service forensic laboratory system. Our analysts provide technical assistance and training, evaluate and analyze evidence, interpret results, and provide expert testimony related to the full spectrum of physical evidence recovered from crime scenes”

U. S. Attorney Billy J. Williams, Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel and the Oregon District Attorneys Association said Larsen, 36, of Bend, admitted “using her position as a forensic scientist to steal controlled substances from evidence items submitted by law enforcement agencies to the Oregon State Police Crime Lab for analysis and testing.”

“This prosecution resolves any potential state charges stemming from this criminal conduct,” a news release stated.

Under terms of a plea agreement, Larson pleaded guilty to two counts of obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud and deception.

U. S. District Judge Anna J. Brown presided over Larsen’s guilty plea and will sentence her on Monday, Dec. 12 at 2 p.m.

The parties are jointly recommending the judge impose a 36-month term of incarceration followed by a term of supervised release with conditions, including community service.

In an eight-page “statement of facts” signed by Larsen on Monday, investigators said they used documentation and “determined that over 700 pill form controlled substances had been stolen from over 50 separate evidence items known to have been handled” by Larsen, including morphine, hydrocodone, diazepam, methamphetamine pills, oxycodone and methodone.

In some cases, all of the pill evidence was stolen, and in others only a portion of the evidence was missing. “In a few cases,” the pills were “replaced with non-controlled substance pills to hide the fact the pill had been stolen,” the statement said.

Larsen stole the pills before packaging them for return to the police agency that submitted them.

“Because law enforcement agencies rarely go back and recheck the evidence (unless going to trial), this went undetected for a significant period of time.”

Larsen used her access credentials to enter the Bend lab nearly two-dozen times on her days off in late 2014 and 2015, and another two-dozen times after regular business hours.

Since last year’s discovery of the thefts from evidence in criminal prosecutors, every Oregon DA began reviewing every pending case where she was the forensic scientist on the case.

“As of today, the district attorneys … have reviewed over 2,500 cases, expending over 2,000 attorney and support staff hours,” the statement said. All pending cases which relied on her analysis were dismissed, or a continuance was sought to retest evidence. If denied, the case was dismissed.

In Umatilla County, 70 cases were dismissed and another 40 are expected to be dismissed. Numerous drug prosecutions have been declined when the testing was done at either crime alb when Larsen worked there and the DA could not prove she did not have access to the evidence.

In cases where defendants pleaded guilty and were on a conditional discharge, the DAs agreed to set aside those pleas and start the cases over, hoping to retest or “salvage cases on other non-drug charges, if they exist.”

Last fall, both crime labs suspended forensic testing of drugs, instead sending drug evidence to the crime labs in Clackamas and Springfield, and requiring forensic scientists to travel to Central and Eastern Oregon to testify.

During the investigation, Larsen walked investigators through both facilities “and described the method and manner whereby she took drugs from drug evidence over a significant period of time.” She also told investigators of efforts to conceal her misconduct.

Larson also told investigators that all the drugs she took “were for her personal use, in that she did not share or otherwise distribute any of the drugs to anyone else.” An investigation that included two polygraph tests “revealed no evidence contradicting” what she told them.

Larsen also shared with prosecutors medical records documenting a ‘history of substance abuse and addiction that, according to defendant, resulted from (her) misguided attempt to cope with a number of existing health conditions.”

Shortly after being placed on paid leave by OSP, prosecutors said. Larsen entered and successfully completed a comprehensive drug and alcohol treatment program and “continues to attend regular AA/NA meetings.”

“Throughout defendant’s contact with prosecutors and investigators, defendant has shown sincere remorse for her criminal conduct and has come to understand the resulting derivative and collateral effects of her conduct.”

Hummel told NewsChannel 21 Monday his office is going through every case in the lab during Larsen’s time there, as she could have tampered with ones she was not directly involved in. About 10 cases have been dismissed.

Hummel said he is not as worried about the costs of such an incident as the cost to the integrity of the justice system. He said while some policies and procedures have been changed, the governor also has convened a task force to review the crime labs’ operations, and he will be very interested in their recommendations.

The case was investigated by the Oregon State Police and the Oregon Department of Justice, Criminal Justice Division. Assistant U.S. Attorney Pamala R. Holsinger and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen H. Gunnels (Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office) are prosecuting the case.

Multnomah County Chief Deputy District Attorney Donald N. Rees served as a Special Deputy District Attorney for Umatilla County during the case and also represented the Oregon District Attorneys Association.