Massachusetts State Police Lab debacle has been exposed with numerous questions related to the accuracy of DNA testing. Issues surrounding the timing of the release of critical evidence is also in question.

A federal inspection of the State Police crime laboratory completed in September 2007 found problems with the handling of DNA evidence that go beyond those that prompted the agency to suspend a civilian administrator and led to two sweeping reviews of the lab.

July 26, 2007

Fixing the mess at the crime lab

The mess at the state police crime lab is difficult to fathom: Evidence samples from thousands of crime scenes, dating back 20 years or more, were simply not tested. A state investigation revealed that DNA tests on evidence involving 16,000 cases were not done; 4,000 rape kits containing biological evidence were never even opened.

Defenders of the Sudbury facility cite new technology and lack of staffing for the backlog, and the new report, done by an independent consulting company, agrees. But we can't help but recall the mail carrier that dumped bags of mail in the woods because he didn't have time to deliver it. Such negligence is inexcusable........

"It's not just about convictions," Essex District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett said this week, a point the state police should remember. It's about determining the truth. That's going to take time and money, but it must be done.

June 27, 2007

Forensics chief exits as probes continue

Appointed in '05 to fix 2 agencies

The state's top forensics official resigned yesterday following a series of blunders in the State Police crime laboratory and the medical examiner's office, making her exit the most prominent in a string of high-level departures from both operations.

The resignation of LaDonna J. Hatton as undersecretary of forensic sciences comes amid four investigations into the alleged mishandling of DNA test results in about two dozen unsolved sexual assault cases at the crime lab and another inquiry into the disappearance of a body from the medical examiner's office.

Hatton, 46, was appointed by the Romney administration in 2005 to fix the long-troubled agencies but had struggled with one crisis after another over the past six months. She will leave in August to become general counsel to the State Police.

"There is no perfect time to leave a job with as many challenges as undersecretary for forensic sciences, but I know that this is the right decision and the right time for me personally and professionally," Hatton said in a statement issued by Kevin M. Burke, public safety secretary.

April 14, 2007

The embattled administrator of the DNA database at the State Police crime laboratory was fired yesterday, three months after the agency suspended him for allegedly mishandling test results in about two-dozen unsolved sexual assault cases, according to the lawyer for his union.

Robert Pino, a 23-year civilian employee of the lab who testified in more than 240 criminal cases and helped set up the state database, was sent a letter yesterday saying he was terminated, said Ann Looney, general counsel to his union, the Massachusetts Organization of State Engineers and Scientists.

Colonel Mark F. Delaney, superintendent of the State Police, sent the letter two weeks after the agency held a closed-door administrative hearing about Pino's performance.

February 21, 2007 

Another problem found at DNA lab
Data could harm 12 sex crime cases

State officials said yesterday they have discovered a new problem in the State Police crime lab that could jeopardize 12 sex crime investigations: DNA profiles of the suspects were wrongly in the lab's database of convicted felons.

Public Safety Secretary Kevin M. Burke said the 12 suspects, whose profiles matched DNA evidence collected from crime scenes, were convicted of misdemeanors. State law, however, limits the database to those convicted of felonies.

Burke, a former Essex County prosecutor, said he believes that police and prosecutors can still seek criminal charges using the DNA information. "As far as I can see, it is admissible," he said in a telephone interview. "This error wasn't an intentional error. The errors in these 12 cases were the result of misreading the original criminal record."

But defense attorneys said that since the state had no right to the information, prosecutors should not be allowed to use the DNA matches in trials.

February 14, 2007 

Crime lab botched 27 DNA results
Nearly twice as many as state found earlier

An administrator at the State Police crime laboratory mishandled DNA test results in 27 sexual assault cases, nearly twice as many as state officials' most recent count, according to a nearly completed internal review.

In his first interview on the problems at the lab, Kevin M. Burke, the state's new public safety secretary, said yesterday that the DNA computer database administrator, Robert E. Pino, failed to tell law enforcement officials of DNA matches in 23 sexual assault cases.

During the time Pino did not report the matches, the statute of limitations expired in the cases. Despite hope expressed by some district attorneys that they could prosecute some of those cases, Burke said they cannot be pursued.

February 1, 2007 

US audit found more problems at crime lab

A federal inspection of the State Police crime laboratory completed in September found problems with the handling of DNA evidence that go beyond those that prompted the agency to suspend a civilian administrator and led to two sweeping reviews of the lab.

Auditors from the US Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General concluded that the laboratory entered incomplete genetic profiles into its computerized database in 12 cases of a sample of 100 involving unidentified suspects who left DNA at crimes scenes, making the profiles inadequate.

The auditors also found instances in which laboratory officials entered the same genetic profile under two different ID numbers in the database and failed to follow FBI protocols for analyzing profiles and double-checking results, according to an executive summary of the inspection report.

In addition, the summary said, the laboratory waited nearly eight months to confirm a tentative match between DNA from a crime scene and DNA from a convicted felon whose genetic profile was entered into the database. Federal guidelines call for confirmation within 30 days.

January 20, 2007 

DNA gaffes shake foundation
Cops, victims feel pain of lab blunders

In a stinging rebuke, police say botched DNA tests at the state crime lab are "disturbing" and drop down through the court system all the way back to the streets.

The cops, courts and victims will feel the brunt of the state's mistake.

"To let them walk free because of a technical lapse is disgusting. We don't like it, and I know everyone feels the same," said Framingham police spokesman Lt. Paul Shastany.

As police work becomes more technical, Shastany said, errors at the crime lab will reverberate.

"(It's a) domino effect," he said. "Now the way we collect evidence and the chain of custody for any DNA is going to be under more scrutiny."

Controversy over the lab's handling of DNA evidence could also endanger some high-profile cases.

January 13, 2007 

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.

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.

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