Theft at Hoover crime lab results in dismissal of drug charges

District Attorney Brian McVeigh

Authorities say An Oxford man now serving seven years in prison on drug convictions may go free after evidence in his case was stolen from a state forensics lab.

Probation for a Fruithurst woman convicted on separate charges are to be dismissed for the same reason, as is the case against a Birmingham man facing charges of possessing more than 70 ecstasy pills.

Calhoun/Cleburne District Attorney Brian McVeigh said a list of several hundred other potentially affected cases arrived on his desk Tuesday, but drug evidence in those cases is still secure at the state lab in Hoover.

30 year old Brandi Mikkel Hicks began working as an evidence technician at the state forensics lab in Hoover in July 2014. Hicks, of Odenville was arrested April 1 by Hoover police, charged with trafficking heroin, trafficking cocaine, first-degree theft of property and second-degree theft of property. She has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

The thefts, which may have affected 54 drug cases at the Alabama  Department of Forensic Science’s lab in Hoover, occurred between November 2014 and January 2015, according to court records.

Stolen from the lab were 11.31 grams of heroin and 57.21 grams of cocaine, according to those records.