State v. Roche

Soon after James Roche and Roy Sweeney were convicted and sentenced for methamphetamine possession, it became public knowledge that Michael Hoover, a chemist at the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory, had been self-medicating with heroin sent to the crime lab for testing purposes. Hoover was the chemist who had tested the substances recovered in both Roche’s and Sweeney’s cases and reported them to be methamphetamine. Roche moved for, and was denied, a new trial based on this newly discovered evidence. Sweeney filed a personal restraint petition raising the same issue, after his request…