Public defender Jeff Adachi called the taped police interview with retired police narcotics lab technician Madden -- first aired by KTVU Tuesday night – “a bombshell” during a news conference addressing the case Wednesday and said transcripts indicate the problems at the lab stretch "far beyond" Madden.

Madden is accused of stealing small quantities of cocaine from the lab between October and December of last year.

In a taped interview with police investigators late last February, former police drug lab technician Deborah Madden said she stole miniscule amounts of cocaine from the lab five times between October and December 2009.

“I didn't scoop it up,” said Madden on the recording. “It was just … I didn't do that, you know? If some of it you know, fell on the counter after I put the stuff away, rather than just throw it in the garbage -- which is what I normally did -- yeah, I take a little bit of that.”

Madden's attorney Paul Demeester told KTVU Wednesday his client was interviewed without a lawyer present, but said the interview made it clear she took only small amounts of the drug.

"It was a very honest account by my client. It was straight talk. And it does not amount to very much in the scope of a 29 year career," defended Demeester "Her hand was not in the cookie jar. These were crumbs that had fallen out after people had legitimately been in the cookie jar to test the materials."

Under a court order, the San Francisco District Attorney's Office late Wednesday turned over about 1000 pages of documents in the Madden investigation to the public defender's office and a local criminal defense attorney.

"A lot of them revolve around the criminal investigation of Debbie Madden,” explained SF Assistant District Attorney Brian Buckelew. “The investigation is far more complete than just taking Debbie Madden's word for it. If it turns out at the end of the investigation that it was limited to five instances, then we're in a lot better shape than we thought."

A team of public defenders is now examining three discs worth of those documents, even as Adachi called for an independent investigation

"When you have a police department who is primarily concerned with their conviction rate and what's gonna happen to these cases, [they are] basically giving their own employee what I would say would be a very softball interview," said Adachi.

He said an independent investigator with "enforcement power" was needed.

"I've called for an independent investigation of not only the crime lab and the problems at the crime lab, but of the misconduct of the technician and possibly other technicians in this case," said Adachi.

The public defender's office told KTVU it will ask a judge Thursday to release an additional 3,000 documents in the Madden case.

Madden has not yet been charged as police continue their investigation.