Collaboration? AFAICT we have lots of reason to suspect that it happened at the _instigation_ of the prosecutors!
By all means, throw the book at the dishonest chemist, but I want to see heads on pikes (or at least a legal equivalent) for the justice-perverting rat finks that set her up to it.
I'd want to see their emails before taking such a generous point of view. All the emails between this lab tech, police, and DAs should be released, and a special prosecutor brought in to review them.