Former Lorain County Crime Lab Assistant Director charged with forgery, tampering

The former assistant director of the Lorain County Crime Lab has been charged with falsifying and tampering with records while working at the lab. Mark Vandevender, 34, of Westlake, was indicted by a Lorain County grand jury on three counts of tampering with records, three counts of tampering with evidence, and three counts of forgery, all felonies, by a Lorain County grand jury in June. He was not taken into custody until he was booked at the Lorain County Jail on Oct. 4 and released on a personal bond, according to court and jail records. Vandevender pleaded not guilty to all the charges in Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Miraldi's courtroom on Oct. 12 and remains free on bond. He hired attorney Joseph Grandinetti of Broadview Heights to represent him, according to court records, and is due back in court on Dec. 15. A message seeking comment on his client's case was left for Grandinetti on Monday. It remains unclear if the accusations against Vandevender, whom authorities said no longer works for the county, will affect any ongoing cases using evidence tested at the Lorain County Crime Lab. The Lorain County Prosecutor's Office alleges that Vandevender "knowingly" altered information while working at the crime lab in the basement of the County Administration Building in Elyria, Chief Assistant Prosecutor Chris Pierre said Monday. Vandevender's charges "are related to allegations that he knowingly altered and forged signatures on submission and evidence receipt forms and chain of custody reports on three separate occasions during his employment with the Lorain County Crime Lab," Pierre wrote in a statement provided to The Chronicle-Telegram on Monday. The Lorain County Prosecutor's Office "has no intention of calling Mr. Vandevender as a witness in relation to any of his prior analysis, has made efforts to remove him as a potential witness in any pending cases, and will seek re-testing of items that he analyzed in cases that go to trial," Pierre wrote. According to his public LinkedIn profile and a school newsletter, Vandevender graduated from Lake Ridge Academy in North Ridgeville in 2007, then obtained a bachelor's degree in forensic science and technology from Defiance College in 2011. He went to work for FirstEnergy as a laboratory technician until 2013, then as a laboratory technician for Columbia Chemical from 2014-2015, according to his LinkedIn profile. The Ohio State Highway Patrol hired Vandevender in 2015, and he worked as a criminalist there for two years, performing chemical tests and instrumental analysis on criminal evidence, according to his LinkedIn profile. Further work as a technical account manager for Columbia Chemical and a chemist for NSL Analytical Services Inc. followed. He was hired as a forensic analyst by Lorain County in November 2021, according to his LinkedIn profile, though a Board of Commissioners agenda showing exactly when he was hired couldn't be located Monday night. A search of all agendas and meeting minutes from November 2021 did not locate Vandevender's name. He did show up in board documents several months later, when the Board of Commissioners promoted Vandevender from forensic analyst to assistant director/forensic analyst at a rate of $30/hour effective March 27, 2022, according to the minutes of that meeting. The Chronicle requested a copy of Vandevender's personnel files from Lorain County and from the Ohio State Highway Patrol on Monday. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him at @daveobrienCT on X, formerly Twitter.