A New York cop heads to prison for dealing dope and groping women, a pair of Texas cops land in hot water, and California seems to have something of a problem with its drug lab techs. Let's get to it:

[inline:crimelab.jpg align=right caption="prohibition testing the crime labs"]In Buffalo, New York, a former Niagara Falls police officer pleaded guilty April 22 to three federal charges, bringing his career as a dope dealer in uniform to an end. Former Officer Ryan Warme, 28, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute more than five grams of crack cocaine, possession of a weapon during the commission of a drug offense, and deprivation of civil rights. Prosecutors described Warme as a cocaine dealer who bought and sold drugs while at work and in uniform. They also said he had provided descriptions of undercover cars to drug dealers and warned one dealer of an impending raid, allowing him to elude arrest. The civil rights charge was for groping a woman he had detained. He faces mandatory minimum five-year sentences on both the cocaine and the gun charge, and one year on the civil rights count.

In Pasadena, Texas, two Pasadena police officers were indicted Thursday for their behavior during drug investigations. Officer Raymond Garivey, 39, was indicted on two counts of filing a false police report for lying to a Harris County prosecutor about the existence of a witness in case. Officer David Deal, 35, was indicted on two 2nd degree felony counts of tampering with a government record for written statements he made in official documents about a suspect he arrested with three pounds of marijuana. Both men have been suspended.

In Ripon, California, drugs have turned up missing from the Central Valley Crime Lab and thousands of drug cases could be in jeopardy. One lab employee is under investigation and has been suspended in a series of cases where methamphetamine has gone missing, but no arrests have yet been made. The lab did testing for five Central Valley counties, and public defenders in those counties are preparing to challenge current prosecutions and review past convictions. This is the second crime lab scandal in California in recent weeks; similar problems in San Francisco have resulted in hundreds of cases being dismissed, and that number could rise.