WORTHINGTON-GATE AND ROMNEY's MASSACHUSETTS
Saturday, January 13, 2007Crime lab adminstrator suspended for withholding DNA evidence
By DAVID WEBER
Associated Press Writer
BOSTON— The Massachusetts State Police suspended a crime lab administrator who failed to turn over information about DNA matches until after the statute of limitations expired on a number of unsolved cases.
State Police Lt. William Powers said the problem came to light when a police investigator received notification of a DNA match and noticed that the scientific information had been available weeks earlier. He said the employee, whom he would not identify, was suspended with pay on Thursday.
Powers said the preliminary investigation found discrepancies in "about 10-to-14 cases at this point."
"This is clearly something that we're recognizing is very serious," he said.
Powers said the time lapse between when the DNA matches turned up and when they were reported to criminal investigators was significant.
"It wasn't just a matter of five days. It was a significant period of time," he said.
The suspended administrator's job was to enter DNA testing data obtained from incarcerated Massachusetts convicts into a national database to see if it matched DNA evidence from unsolved cases all over the country.
"In many of the cases, a suspect was identified prior to the expiration of the statute of limitations, but neither the police investigators nor the District Attorney's Office of jurisdiction were notified in a timely manner," the state police said in a statement released Friday.
In other cases, state police said, the suspended employee informed police investigators of DNA matches that turned out to be inaccurate.
Powers said the discrepancies have not led to any tainted convictions, but they impeded the work of police investigators, with the most serious problems involving the expired statutes of limitations.
Gov. Deval Patrick criticized the handling of the DNA evidence.
"If we're going to use that evidence and have that option available to us, then we have to assure that it's consisently professional. And it hasn't been, at least in this series of cases," he told The Boston Globe.
A spokesman for Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone, Corey Welford, said five sexual assault cases in that jurisdiction were involved. Leone said in a statement his office was reviewing them to see if they could still be prosecuted. The statute of limitations on most sexual assault cases is 15 years.
Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley in Boston, said none of the problem cases have been identified as Suffolk County cases so far.
The Boston Globe reported that two cases were from Plymouth County and Norfolk County had at least one. Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe said his office had one case involving a 1988 sexual assault, but the suspect already had pleaded guilty. A spokesman for Essex DA Jonathan Blodgett said his office received one false DNA report from the lab that resulted in an arrest, the Boston Herald reported.
Powers said the FBI has been called in to pore over the state's Combined DNA Indexing System, known as "CODIS," to see whether additional breaches occurred.
Massachusetts is among a growing number of states that require inmates to submit a DNA sample upon their entry into prison. The scientific data is converted to digital computer data which can be run against similar data from unsolved cases. The system has been been particularly useful in solving rape cases because they involve DNA evidence more frequently than other crimes.
Because the investigation is still progressing, Powers said he was uncertain whether obstruction of justice or any other charges would be lodged against the employee.
"If, when all is said and done, there are criminal charges applicable, then we'll sit down with the district attorneys and discuss it," he said.
Powers said the suspended administrator had worked at the Sudbury crime lab "for some time," but could not be specific Friday about his length of employment.
The current head of the state police, Col. Mark Delaney, supervised the crime lab, which provides forensic services to prosecutors across the state, beginning in 2002 until his promotion last year. He presided over a revamping of the facility that expanded its space and staff, after prosecutors complained about delays in processing DNA evidence.
A major impetus was the high-profile case involving Cape Cod writer Christa Worthington, who was found stabbed to death in her Truro cottage in January 2002. Christopher McCowen, who was convicted in the case last fall, wasn't charged until 2004, more than a year after investigators obtained his DNA sample. In 2005, the lab had a backlog of 1,000 DNA evidence tests to process.
01/13/07 · 8:56 am posted by CCToday in EXTRA... [Permalink]
State crime lab mishandled DNA results
State Police suspend aide, ask FBI audit
An administrator at the troubled State Police crime laboratory has been suspended for failing to tell prosecutors of DNA matches in a number of unsolved rape cases, which now cannot be pursued because the statute of limitations has expired, the head of the State Police said yesterday.
The administrator, whom officials would not name, also told police and prosecutors that tests in an unspecified number of cases linked DNA recovered at crime scenes to suspects, when in fact they had not, Colonel Mark F. Delaney, superintendent of the State Police, said in a statement... Under state law, most rape and sexual assault allegations must be prosecuted within 15 years of the offense....
Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael D. O'Keefe said he has been told he has one case involving a July 1988 sexual assault. But O'Keefe reviewed the case and said the suspect pleaded guilty in 1989 to that sexual assault charge and several others and was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison, to be followed by commitment to the state's sexual offender treatment center in Bridgewater. In that case, scientists confirmed a DNA match, unbeknownst to O'Keefe, and the statute of limitations would have expired in 2003 if the defendant had not already been convicted...
The State Police lab has drawn criticism for years for a mammoth backlog in checking DNA samples for matches. The issue came into sharp focus in April 2004 after authorities disclosed that it took more than eight months to process a DNA sample that led to the arrest of a trash collector in the 2002 slaying of Christa Worthington, a Cape Cod fashion writer who was found stabbed and sexually assaulted in her home. The trash collector, Christopher M. McCowen, was convicted of murder in November... Read the rest of this Globe story here.
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Crime lab mishandled DNA results
State Police suspend aide, ask FBI audit
/ State Police Colonel Mark Delaney ordered the probe.By Jonathan Saltzman and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff | January 13, 2007
An administrator at the troubled State Police crime laboratory has been suspended for failing to tell prosecutors of DNA matches in a number of unsolved rape cases, which now cannot be pursued because the statute of limitations has expired, the head of the State Police said yesterday.
The administrator, whom officials would not name, also told police and prosecutors that tests in an unspecified number of cases linked DNA recovered at crime scenes to suspects, when in fact they had not, Colonel Mark F. Delaney, superintendent of the State Police, said in a statement.
As a result of an internal investigation Delaney launched in mid-November, the administrator has been placed on paid leave, and the State Police has brought in the FBI to conduct an independent audit of DNA testing procedures at the crime lab.
Lieutenant Detective William Powers, a State Police spokesman, said the investigation involves at least 10 cases across the state, some of which date to the 1980s. Under state law, most rape and sexual assault allegations must be prosecuted within 15 years of the offense. In the mishandled cases, the evidence was typically recovered years before DNA testing became commonplace.
It was not immediately clear if the administrator's mistakes allowed sexual offenders to go free or led to the prosecution of innocent people. In at least one case, the defendant was convicted without the DNA evidence, officials said yesterday.
Governor Deval Patrick said he was first briefed on the matter Thursday and expressed outrage at the latest black eye for the lab, which has operated with a backlog that reached 1,000 cases in 2005.
"Every citizen is entitled to a highly professional, consistently impartial, and fair criminal justice system," Patrick said. "DNA evidence and the use of DNA evidence has been one element that has brought a certain degree of certainty into many criminal prosecutions that wasn't there before. If we're going to use that evidence and have that option available to us, then we have to assure that it's consistently professional. And it hasn't been, at least in this series of cases."
The State Police statement issued late yesterday afternoon did not identify the civilian, citing the ongoing internal investigation. The administrator was in charge of the Combined DNA Indexing System, a computerized databank that matches the DNA profiles of convicted felons with samples collected at crime scenes and analyzed by scientists. About 60 analysts and administrators work at the lab in Sudbury.
Powers said the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Va., which has agreed to undertake an audit, might uncover more errors involving old cases. But the State Police internal review has found no problems with testing of DNA recovered in ongoing criminal cases.
"We don't think it will have any impact on those whatsoever," he said.
He said the errors did not involve the analysis of DNA. "The work was done," he said. "When it got into the hands of the administrator, the work was not properly advanced to the appropriate investigating authorities."
Prosecutors said yesterday that the State Police and Executive Office of Public Safety had notified them of the lapses in recent days, and they were assessing the damage.
In Middlesex County, which has some of the busiest criminal courts in the state, the lapses affected five cases involving crimes committed 15 to 20 years ago, said Corey Welford, spokesman for District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr.
"We are attempting to locate and notify each victim," Welford said.
Leone issued a statement saying that his office will determine whether it can prosecute the cases despite the statute of limitations. In some criminal cases, the statute of limitations can be extended for the amount of time a defendant wasn't living in Massachusetts.
Plymouth County has two cases, Norfolk has at least one, and Suffolk has none, officials said.
Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael D. O'Keefe said he has been told he has one case involving a July 1988 sexual assault. But O'Keefe reviewed the case and said the suspect pleaded guilty in 1989 to that sexual assault charge and several others and was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison, to be followed by commitment to the state's sexual offender treatment center in Bridgewater.
In that case, scientists confirmed a DNA match, unbeknownst to O'Keefe, and the statute of limitations would have expired in 2003 if the defendant had not already been convicted.
"He was convicted of it without the benefit of the DNA," O'Keefe said.
The State Police lab has drawn criticism for years for a mammoth backlog in checking DNA samples for matches. The issue came into sharp focus in April 2004 after authorities disclosed that it took more than eight months to process a DNA sample that led to the arrest of a trash collector in the 2002 slaying of Christa Worthington, a Cape Cod fashion writer who was found stabbed and sexually assaulted in her home. The trash collector, Christopher M. McCowen, was convicted of murder in November.
Last August, State Police and Governor Mitt Romney hailed the opening of a 12,000-square-foot addition to the lab, calling it a key step to eliminating the DNA sample backlog.
Last September, the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association urged the state to increase the number of chemists at the lab from 30 to 80 and to cut the turnaround on analyzing samples to one month from about 10 months.
Geline Williams, a spokeswoman for the association, issued a statement yesterday saying that the lab has dramatically improved overall in recent years and that she was confident that the Patrick administration will address any problems uncovered by the FBI audit.
Mary R. Lauby -- executive director of Jane Doe Inc., an advocacy group for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence -- said the lab's problem undercuts the confidence of victims of sex crimes in the criminal justice system and could make it more difficult for law enforcement to persuade them to go forward, since they already bear the emotional burden of facing their alleged assailants at trial.
She said it was disheartening that some offenders could escape prosecution for rapes committed more than 15 years ago, but credited State Police for taking action to correct the errors and for working well with her agency.
Now, she said, law enforcement must inform every victim whose case was affected by the error.
"I think this is an issue of integrity," she said. ". . . Each of the victims needs to be contacted."
Stephanie Ebbert of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Ellement can be reached at ; Saltzman at .
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
Crime lab adminstrator suspended for withholding DNA evidence
BOSTON— The Massachusetts State Police suspended a crime lab administrator who failed to turn over information about DNA matches until after the statute of limitations expired on a number of unsolved cases. State Police Lt. William Powers said the problem came to light when a police investigator received notification of a DNA match and noticed that the scientific information had been available weeks earlier. He said the employee, whom he would not identify, was suspended with pay on Thursday.
Powers said the preliminary investigation found discrepancies in "about 10-to-14 cases at this point. This is clearly something that we're recognizing is very serious"... The Boston Globe reported that two cases were from Plymouth County and Norfolk County had at least one. Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe said his office had one case involving a 1988 sexual assault, but the suspect already had pleaded guilty. A spokesman for Essex DA Jonathan Blodgett said his office received one false DNA report from the lab that resulted in an arrest, the Boston Herald reported...
A major impetus was the high-profile case involving Cape Cod writer Christa Worthington, who was found stabbed to death in her Truro cottage in January 2002. Christopher McCowen, who was convicted in the case last fall, wasn't charged until 2004, more than a year after investigators obtained his DNA sample. In 2005, the lab had a backlog of 1,000 DNA evidence tests to process. Read the rest of the Telegram story here.