Drugs from 3,600 cases in HPD evidence room with rat infestation, DA's office says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Harris County District Attorney's Office has notified attorneys in thousands of criminal cases that rats have been eating drug evidence.

The problem, made public on Friday, has prompted a major review in the first weeks of a new administration.

"I really don't think this is going to compromise any convictions, but it is important for the defense to know about," the DA's General Counsel, Joshua Reiss, said.

On Monday, the DA's office notified defense attorneys on 3,600 open cases, including capital murder cases, that involve drug evidence, held in a vault at the Houston Police Department Narcotics Evidence Room (NER), where rats have been found. The NER is a series of vaults or large rooms, Reiss explained, located at 1200 Travis in downtown Houston.

Among the 3,600 cases, rats have compromised evidence in only one open case related to two defendants, Reiss said. Their defense attorneys got a notice that stated, "certain narcotics evidence associated with your case has been affected."

"It was a very large drug case involving cocaine, marijuana, and PCP and the rodents got into one envelope of psychedelic mushrooms and that packaging was eaten into," Reiss said. "This is an issue dealing with the integrity of the packaging, not the integrity of the convictions or the cases themselves. I think that's important."

The rats were first discovered in October, HPD Chief Noe Diaz said on Friday.

Photos of the evidence room shared with ABC13 show a cramped room filled to the ceiling with seized drugs. Officials are now working on ways to dispose of drug evidence that is no longer needed.

"This issue has highlighted the pressing need to help law enforcement in the destruction of evidence no longer needed. In response, we changed a policy last week that will allow HPD to dispose of narcotics evidence obtained prior to 2015, connected to disposed cases. We plan to hire a full-time prosecutor that will focus solely on assisting law enforcement with property destruction. Our plea papers and destruction orders are also being examined to address the issue. Freeing up space for property that is important is essential," District Attorney Sean Teare wrote in an email to his office on Monday.

"We've got 400,000 pounds of marijuana in storage that the rats are the only ones enjoying," Houston Mayor John Whitmire quipped on Friday.

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