Raymond Van Orden

Forensic Scientist Supervisor - Toxicology

Mesa Police Dept. Forensic Services

Ray joined the Mesa Police Department in 2007. He began his career as a Forensic Scientist Supervisor in the Toxicology Unit. Ray oversees the Toxicology Unit which does testing of blood and urine for volatiles that impair driving, testing of blood and urine for drugs that impair driving, corroborate Drug Recognition Evaluations (DRE). Ray supervised the Controlled Substance unit two different times over the 14-year period. He has a M.S. degree in Biochemistry from the S.U.N.Y College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Previous to his job at Mesa, he retired from the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office with 20 years of service as a sworn Deputy Sheriff. Ray spent 17 of those years in the Crime lab performing controlled substance qualitative and quantitative analysis, blood alcohol analysis, latent print processing and comparison, AFIS, crime scene processing and reconstruction, and blood drug testing.

Time with Agency: 14 years

Time in Rank (Supervisor): 14 years

Previous Assignments:  Forensic Scientist Supervisor over Controlled Substance Unit (in addition to toxicology) two different occasions.

Academic:  M.S. degree in Biochemistry from the S.U.N.Y College of Environmental Science and Forestry

 B.S. degree in Wildlife Biology from the S.U.N.Y College of Environmental Science and

 Forestry

                      A.S. degree in Math and Science from S.U.N.Y Agricultural & Technical College at Alfred

Direct Reports:  Tad Hanson, Forensic Scientist III

                              Lela Fokumlah, Forensic Scientist III

                              Heather Francois, Forensic Scientist III

                              Alicia Miller, Forensic Scientist II

                              Whitney Brown, Forensic Scientist II

                              Tatiunna Porte, Forensic Scientist I