DC Watch, an on-line magazine that covers local city politics and public affairs in Washington, D.C, published an article in 1998 highlighting the testimony of Dorothy Brizill, the magazine's exectuvive director, to the city council concerning the nomination of E. Barrett Prettyman Jr. as Inspector General.
During her testimony Ms. Brizill voices concerns about the nomination and specifically references a letter by attorney Robert E. Deso to the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, written in 1987 at the request of certain employees of the Washington D.C Metropolitan Police Department who alleged irregularities in the police department's drug testing procedures. The following paragraph contains an excerpt from that article. The full article can be found at http://www.dcwatch.com/dorothy/dot9801.htm. The letter that Ms Brizill makes reference to can be found at http://www.dcwatch.com/police/870717.htm.
In this letter, Mr. Deso recounts in great detail allegations by police officers and civilian police department employees that there were "gross misconduct and possible criminal violations in the manner in which the drug testing program at the Clinic has been and is being administered." These employees allege that a urine sample provided by then Captain Robert C. White, who was then Commander of the Narcotics Branch of the Morals Division, tested positive for cannabis. They further allege that several highly irregular steps were taken to obtain a different urine sample that had possibly been provided by another officer, to submit that sample to a private testing laboratory as Captain White's, and that this sample tested negative for drugs. They allege that at that time there was "a systematic effort to subvert the integrity of the drug testing procedures at the Police and Fire Clinic and to manipulate the procedures so that desired results can be obtained." Further, these employees allege that after the police officer submitted complaints about these matters to the Assistant Branch Commander of the General Investigations Branch of the Internal Affairs Division of the Metropolitan Police Department, then Lt. Sonya Proctor, he was ordered by his commanding officer "not to discuss his complaints with anyone."