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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Crime lab chemist asks for job back

Associated Press

OLYMPIA – A fired Washington State Patrol crime lab chemist asked the state Personnel Appeals Board on Monday to overturn his dismissal.

Arnold Melnikoff was fired from the WSP’s Spokane crime lab in March 2004 for testimony he gave in a 1990 case in Montana. The patrol concluded his conduct in the case did not meet professional standards.

The Personnel Appeals Board hearing is expected to last until Thursday, board spokeswoman Paulette Yorke said. The board normally reaches a decision in about 60 days, she said.

Melnikoff testified in the 1990 case and others about hair sampling, a technique that was used in the 1960s and 1970s but was later discredited.

The WSP fired Melnikoff for misconduct involving his testimony, case analysis and statistical comparisons in the Montana case.

At the time of his firing Melnikoff, through his attorney, Rocco Treppiedi, called the WSP investigation flawed and politically motivated.

The internal affairs investigation and audit of Melnikoff’s work was prompted by a letter from the Innocence Project, a New York-based nonprofit legal group that uses DNA evidence to exonerate people who have been wrongly convicted.

Melnikoff headed Montana’s state crime lab from 1970 to 1989, when he went to work for the WSP.

As a result of the Innocence Project’s challenges of Melnikoff’s hair testimony, two men serving rape sentences in Montana were exonerated.

A panel of scientists audited 100 drug cases Melnikoff had worked the previous four years in the Spokane crime lab, but found no discrepancies in his work, which did not involve hair samples.