HOUSTON -- Two DNA analysts at the HPD Crime Lab are gone indefinitely, suspected of cheating.

And for some, the promise of a new outlook for the troubled lab is gone as well.

“It’s just one scandal after another for the Crime Lab,” defense attorney Dick Degeurin said.

Degeurin calls the latest scandal “business as usual” for the lab – yet another mess in a series of serious mistakes.

After a five-month internal investigation, HPD found the director of the DNA Serology Lab helped two of her analysts cheat on a proficiency exam.

Analysts must pass the exam in order for the lab to maintain its accreditation.

“I’m encouraged that Chief Hurtt or Internal Affairs smoked these guys out, but how many more are out there? It’s terrible,” Degeurin said.

Degeurin said the testing that went on during the director’s tenure in the last few months is now in question.

Most criminal defense attorneys will likely raise those questions in court.

“You have an obligation to point out that people who are testifying to the evidence are not honest.  That just strikes at the heart of the judicial system, which is to try to get truthful evidence you can depend on,” Degeurin said.

11 News Legal Professor Gerald Treece said the latest developments are another blow for prosecutors.

“I thought it was getting better, but it hasn’t,” he said.

Treece said prosecutors are forced to rely on the evidence tested at the HPD Crime Lab. They’re presenting to jurors what’s being presented to them.

Treece is even going as far as to call for a state-wide crime lab.

“Take the crime lab out of the local government and put it under a state-wide crime lab. That means it wouldn’t matter if you’re in Beaumont, Houston, Dallas, Odessa, the scientific data would go to people who don’t have a stake in the outcome of a case, and HPD does have a stake in the outcome of a case,” Treece said.

For now, HPD won’t be doing anymore testing at its lab – at least, until a new director comes on board.