[JimRed]

Please explain how the HELL flour tests positive for opium and coke! Sure sounds like a setup; there had to be a trace of each sufficient to get a reading.

[doc30]

Please explain how the HELL flour tests positive for opium and coke! Sure sounds like a setup; there had to be a trace of each sufficient to get a reading.

The on;ly thing I can think of is that they used a portable FT-IR spectrometer for field analysis. The specral libraries may contain examples of narcotics cut with flour. The sample spectrum from the condoms would correlate to the spectral signal of the flour used to dilute the drugs and a false positive would be obtained. The technician doing the field test only knows how to push the buttons and not visually inspect the spectra for consistency, nor does a confirmatory test on the material. The company, Smiths Detection, makes these instruments.

[Squawk 8888]

The flour tested negative and the cops lied about the result.

[grjr21]

Please explain how the HELL flour tests positive for opium and coke!


That's the 180, 000 dollar question isn't it.

Here's little irresponsible speculation on my part , if the city didn't want go to trial it's because they are hiding something .Over the course of the years I have come to believe that  some people believe is stronger than facts (Cindy Shehan for example) and when the city found a white powder in a condom they were incapable of believing it was any thing but drugs and proceeded accordingly.
I'm not a gambling man but I would stake my lunch money that the test  results were ignored because the people involved didn't believe in them.

[marktwain]

"Please explain how the HELL flour tests positive for opium and coke! Sure sounds like a setup; there had to be a trace of each sufficient to get a reading."

The idea that drug tests are infallible is naive. All tests have some false positives. There is always the possibility of contamination by the person(s) or instrument(s) involved in the tests; and the assumption of guilt by an officer doing the field tests can bias the result with the well known placebo effect.

[DB]

If there "were a trace" the later detailed testing would have reveled that and the city wouldn't be paying $180,000.

[Oberon]

Please explain how the HELL flour tests positive for opium and coke!

The samples came to the lab from the Philly police, who wanted them to test positive for opium and coke. That's all it took.