United States v. Wayne R. Cooper and Vincent Gammill

Because of the government’s bad faith actions, the laboratory equipment seized from Apotheosis Research lies broken and buried in a toxic waste dump. This equipment cannot be introduced at trial. It can neither support nor undermine Wayne Cooper and Vincent Gammill’s repeated assertion that their lab lacked the physical capability to manufacture methamphetamine.

We consider here whether Cooper and Gammill have a comparable, alternative means to support their assertion of innocence. We conclude that no alternative matches the potentially powerful exculpatory evidence destroyed by the government. The appropriate remedy is dismissal of the indictment. Thus, we affirm the district court’s judgment.

I

Vincent Gammill owned Apotheosis Research, a small chemical laboratory operating out of leased space. Wayne Cooper managed it. The two maintain that they ran a legitimate lab, making legal chemical products such as a fuel additive and naval jelly.

They say that the company obtained a contract to manufacture dextran sulfate and that Cooper configured the laboratory equipment to undertake that product’s cool-reaction process. At the time, dextran sulfate was one of the most common…