SEP 1, 2021
US v Boonchan Yang District of Alaska 2021
At the hearing, the government presented two witnesses: Benjamin Schmidt, United States Probation Officer for the District of Alaska, and Dr. Jared Kabulski, with the Clinical Reference Laboratory (CRL). Dr. Kabulski is a board-certified forensic toxicologist with a doctorate in pharmaceutical and pharmacological sciences. He has worked at CRL for over five years and oversees the certification department, the group responsible for the review of all drug testing results before they are sent to the client (Doc. 147:7). It is a forensic drug testing laboratory, which analyzes the PharmChek sweat patches to determine if drugs are present (Doc. 147:5). The laboratory is independent of PharmChek. (Doc. 147:6). Probation Officer Schmidt received online training from PharmChek about the proper procedures to be used when applying and removing sweat patches. PharmChek requires the probation officer to pass a test before being certified as an observer. (Doc. 148:10). While failing to object to the admission of the test results during the hearing, the defense consistently challenged the reliability of the results, focusing most questions on the chain of custody for the six sweat patches analyzed by the CRL. The defense did not present any witnesses.
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