Michigan State Police are showing a baffling lack of urgency in determining and disseminating what impact a crime lab forensic scientist fired for mishandling documents may have on criminal prosecutions in the state.

Sarah Nutter, who worked at MSP’s Northville lab, was fired 10 months ago for improperly documenting a verification step in analyzing fingerprints, and then being untruthful about it when confronted, according to MSP.

“Due to the laboratory’s quality controls and the independent verification and peer review processes in place in the Latent Print Unit, we have a high level of confidence in the reliability of the reports issued and do not expect this issue to negatively impact cases,” MSP spokesperson Shannon Banner said in an email.

Local prosecutors aren’t so confident. They are scrambling to figure out which of their cases may have involved evidence processed by Nutter.

The department didn’t say whether Nutter’s actions were intentional, noting only that its investigation of the matter was “non-criminal.”

Nor did it explain why it failed to immediately notify local prosecutors of the firing.

It was only publicly discovered last month when Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy attempted to subpoena Nutter to testify in an upcoming trial.

If any evidence was compromised, it could result in everything from demands to retest evidence to orders for new trials. Even short of that, Nutter’s alleged untruthfulness may make her a liability when it comes to testifying at trial as to the accuracy of her evidentiary analysis.

Worthy says she was under the impression MSP was conducting a criminal probe, but Banner said “no criminal investigation is forthcoming” into Nutter’s activity. She didn’t say why.

“The only ‘investigation’ that was involved in this matter was an internal administrative investigation in regards to the form that is mentioned in the statement I provided,” Banner wrote. “That investigation is complete; the result was the employee’s termination.”

The agency still hasn’t formally notified local prosecutors of the incident. Banner said, “notification to county prosecutors with cases handled by this employee is forthcoming.”

Nutter was fired last December. Alerting county prosecutors should have happened the moment the investigation began, to guard against reliance on compromised evidence or the compromised credibility of the analyzer. That 10 months was allowed to go by before prosecutors were made aware of the issue, and then only by accident, is inexplicable.

MSP must provide better answers. And it should also detail the agency’s policy for notifying prosecutors when problems occur in one of its seven labs.

MSP has not yet fully engaged with prosecutors attempting to assess which of their cases relied on evidence processed by Nutter, and whether the lab’s analysis was reliable.

If there’s even a remote possibility an innocent person was convicted based on evidence not appropriately verified by state labs, figuring that out should be the department’s top priority.

An outside investigation is warranted. Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office should step in to examine whether Nutter’s actions rise to a criminal offense.

The AG should also explore whether the State Police was negligent in its handling of the incident, and to assure it has procedures in place to quickly inform prosecutors when a problem with evidence is suspected.

— The Detroit News