Joseph “Joey” Graves today pled to one count of RICO in front of Judge Scott Duncan and was sentenced to 15 years. He will self surrender on Friday.
On Feb. 4, 2014, agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, working with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, arrested former Pensacola crime laboratory chemist Joseph Graves on charges of grand theft, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and trafficking in illegal drugs.
Graves had worked nearly 2,600 cases for 80 law enforcement agencies spanning 35 counties and 12 judicial circuits since coming to Pensacola in December 2005. The breach in the chain of custody of evidence was reported as the largest in Florida history.
To learn more about the case, read Broken Chains.