Faulty state-issued urine kits could have caused false positives for alcohol intoxication in criminal investigations conducted in Sonoma County between 2016 and 2025, according to a letter obtained by the Chronicle.
County prosecutors this week advised the Public Defender’s Office and private defense attorneys that some cases may have included potentially inaccurate alcohol readings from urine tests used by the state’s forensic laboratory in Santa Rosa.
Assistant District Attorney Brian Staebell said in an interview that his office identified nine criminal cases with convictions, mostly drunken driving cases, that involved the faulty tests during that time period. He said the laboratory provided a list of 14 tests run with the kits but that five of those tests were conducted in investigations that didn’t result in charges…