Palmberg, Bryan Elliott, WR-82,876-01

On June 17, 2007, HPD Officer J.C. Masaba arrested Bryan Elliott Palmberg for public intoxication and seized a broken rock of suspected crack cocaine from his pocket.
Officer Masaba performed a chemical field test on the entire visible sample; the field test returned a positive result for cocaine.
Palmberg waived indictment and pled guilty on June 19, 2007 to possession of a controlled substance (cocaine, <1 gram) and was sentenced to 90 days in county jail under a plea agreement.
On September 15, 2009, the HPD Crime Lab notified the DA that the officer had used the entire visible sample in the field test and no unprocessed sample remained for confirmatory lab testing.
The State disclosed the lab letter to defense counsel in 2014; Palmberg filed a habeas application in 2015 asserting his guilty plea was involuntary because no confirmatory testing occurred.
The State concedes that a conviction based solely on an unconfirmed positive field test is insufficient and recommends habeas relief; the Court of Criminal Appeals requested further briefing.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Palmberg's guilty plea was involuntary because the seized substance was entirely consumed by a field test leaving no sample for laboratory confirmation	Palmberg: Plea was unknowing/uninformed because the substance was never laboratory-confirmed and the field test consumed all evidence	State: Concedes that a positive field test alone cannot support conviction; agrees the plea was involuntary and that relief is appropriate	Court remanded for further briefing; State agrees relief should be granted because field test alone is insufficient evidence

Curtis v. State, 548 S.W.2d 57 (Tex. Crim. App. 1977) (a positive field test and officer testimony are insufficient to prove a substance is a controlled narcotic)
Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963) (prosecutor's duty to disclose exculpatory evidence to the defense)