Etowah Grand Jury facing heavy Caseload

District Attorney Jimmie Harp

Members of the Etowah County Grand july will have a heavy caseload to consider when they meet this week with more than 400 drug cases alone.  According to Etowah County District Attorney Jimmie Harp the volume of cases now is the result of a slowdown in bringing cases to trial that occurred when the state Department of Forensic Science shut down its Jacksonville lab.

As a result, Harp said the drug cases that Drug Enforcement Unit agents and other law enforcement officers made were held up until testing could confirm the controlled substances people were being arrested for were indeed controlled substances.

Since the Drug Enforcement Unit acquired TruNarc, an analyzer that allows the agency to do its own testing on suspected controlled substances, Etowah County has been cutting down on the backlog of cases. When the testing is done, Harp said criminal cases can proceed to the grand jury, and get the adjudication process underway.

Harp said that With the ability to handle drug analysis in-house, agents can make an arrest and get the evidence needed to go to the grand jury much quicker. The turnaround time can be as little as a week.