Cocaine Case Against Suspended Maltese Superintendent Collapses
Disciplinary proceedings against a police Superintendent who was suspended from the police force for failing a cocaine test have collapsed, given that the test was not conducted in a forensic drug testing facility.
Maurice Curmi, an experienced police officer, was suspended last year on half-pay in the wake of a drug test that followed an anonymous tipoff that he could have been using cocaine. He was also informed that disciplinary proceedings would proceed against him before the Public Service Commission.
However, a disciplinary board decided earlier this week not to take any action whatsoever against Curmi after ruling the police had failed to bring forward any tangible evidence or proof that the former superintendent had indeed used cocaine.
The board said the police’s initial argument that Curmi used cocaine was based on a drug dipstick test carried about by police.
A police doctor urged for a test to be conducted at Mater Dei Hospital. However, such tests carried out at Mater Dei are valid for clinical purposes but not medico-legal purposes, unlike forensic testing.
The requesting doctor from the police department was informed immediately prior to testing that any clinical toxicology testing at Mater Dei could not be used in any legal setting. A note to that effect was also added to the result itself.
“As the person who carries out these toxicology tests at Mater Dei repeatedly and persistently stated, the toxicology lab isn’t accredited to act as a forensic lab,” the board noted.
“Therefore, while no one is doubting the credibility of these results, the certificate on which the argument that Mr Curmi used cocaine is built on was issued without the proper forensic procedures being followed.”
This includes the chain of custody of the urine sample, which would have formally traced the sample’s movement through all the people who had handled it and through all stages of the drug test procedure.
It seems that the police doctor was immediately informed that any Mater Dei clinical toxicology test couldn’t be used for medico-legal purposes and that they should have therefore kept another urine sample to send to a forensic lab in the eventuality that the toxicology lab result proved positive. Or else, to eliminate all doubt, it could have sent the sample to a forensic lab straight away. Mater Dei returned the original sample to the requestor.
The board added that a doctor who recently started working at the police clinic testified that he wasn’t satisfied with the current police drug test procedure.
It also said that the kind of dipstick screening test performed at the police station on Curmi’s samples are potentially prone to produce false positives and noted that the former superintendent could have easily refused to undertake the drug test in the first place.
“Therefore the board doesn’t feel there is sufficient evidence that Mr Curmi used cocaine and cannot find him guilty of the accusations,” the board ruled.
Besides clearing Curmi, the board also urged the police to immediately revise its internal drug test procedures to ensure samples are tested at accredited forensic labs, either in Malta or overseas.
Given the nature of the case, forensic testing is recommended to be carried out in a facility where it can be used legally. The testing lab at Mater Dei provides a clinical service with overall excellent clinical performance in external quality testing.
Following this investigation, Curmi told Lovin Malta that he is still waiting to find out whether he will be reinstated to the police.
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