Prosecutor: Evidence lost in L.A. rapes

USA tODAY | 4.3.02

[meandog]

By Martin Kasindorf, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — A prosecutor complained Tuesday that police had lost or destroyed biological evidence in thousands of unsolved sex-crime cases, preventing scientists from using DNA analysis to pinpoint suspects.

Lisa Kahn, a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, said that hair, blood, semen and skin samples gathered by detectives in as many as 4,000 rapes and sex murders were gone from evidence lockers of the Los Angeles Police Department and the county sheriff's department.

"This can't continue," Kahn said.

Crime-lab scientists, using grants from California's 1-year-old, $50 million "cold hits" program, wanted to extract DNA from the missing samples and compare it with state and national databases of DNA taken from 1 million convicts in hopes of finding a match.

Kahn said authorities "didn't know how bad things were" until they took an inventory of "rape kits" to be analyzed. They expected 3,000 to 6,000 but found only 2,000, she said.

Police and sheriff's officials here questioned the accuracy of Kahn's figures on destroyed evidence. They acknowledged that their departments until recently had routinely disposed of evidence in rape cases that fell outside the seven-year statute of limitations for prosecution. The evidence "would have value to the DNA database," said David Peterson, commander of the LAPD's Property Division. He said he knew of no homicide cases where evidence was destroyed.

Peter Zavala of the sheriff's department said "individual case investigators" approved dumping evidence in old rape cases before a moratorium on destruction was ordered in late 2000.

Jan Bashinski of the California Department of Justice has estimated that rapidly advancing DNA technology will pinpoint suspects in 700 of 23,000 cold cases under the state program. California authorities made 49 matches last year, Kahn said, but the state is "bringing up the rear" nationally. Virginia had 308 matches, she said.

Barry Scheck, a New York City defense attorney who specializes in DNA evidence, said police and prosecutors routinely misplace evidence kits or destroy them once the statute of limitations has expired. "It's a national scandal," he said. And if thousands of kits are missing in Los Angeles, it is "particularly egregious" and the largest single loss he knows of.

Last month, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., introduced a bill aimed at setting national standards for evidence collection and preservation. The bill also would provide federal funds to reduce backlogs in analyzing biological samples.

Contributing: Richard Willing in Washington

[meandog]

Okay, L.A., Let's see some heads roll over this! (Hmm-m-m-m, I wonder if any of the DNA evidence implicated Beelzebubba? After all he was a frequent visitor to L.A.)

[Semper Paratus]

Another reason to avoid L.A.

[tracer]

Unless one is a rapist.....

[meandog]

I just can't seem to come to grips why the L.A. police department is so incompetent; or, perhaps, corrupt...

[X-USAF]

They acknowledged that their departments until recently had routinely disposed of evidence in rape cases that fell outside the seven-year statute of limitations for prosecution.

If they cannot prosecute because of the statute of limitations, then there is no other reason to keep the evidence, unless some legal controlling authority had mandated it.

I can only imagine how much the citzens of LA pay every year for evidence storage. It must be astronomical.

[Sabertooth]

I just can't seem to come to grips why the L.A. police department is so incompetent; or, perhaps, corrupt...

Let's start with our racist, criminal-coddling City Council.

They view getting tough on crime as being part of a Whitey Conspiracy. That's why when Councilman Mike Hernandez got busted for doing cocaine in his city office, we couldn't get a majority of the Council to oust him.

Those, like Joel Wachs, who wanted to, were smeared as racists.

It's our City Council that refuses to allow our LAPD to determine the residence status of suspects... the result being that we can't get the INS to deport any of the more than 100,000 illegal alien gangsters (LAPD Gang Unit estimate) in our city.

So, it's not surprising at all that we have policies that are favorable to rapists. The safety of our citizens is not a priority.

Nice, huh?

[101viking]

"I just can't seem to come to grips why the L.A. police department is so incompetent; or, perhaps, corrupt..."

Incompetence breeds corruption, so your right on both counts. I've lived in L.A. my whole life, and I can certainly tell you that the current LAPD is no longer a law enforcement agency, but is a politically correct community out reach program, with guns. For the most part, the LAPD gave up years ago in trying to hire competent police personel, and chose to sacrafice quality for diversity. Our police chiefs since Gates have been hired not solely because they were the best men for the job, but because they had some qualifications and were ethnicaly correct for the job. Once that starts at the highest level in the department, it trickles down through the ranks.

[Sequitur]

This article overlooks a whole other angle entirely. False convictions.

The court system in America today is not about justice, or doing what's right. It's about winning cases, and locking people up for as long as possible. DA's are the most powerful people in America. They can (and do) lock up anyone they damn well please, whether they are guitly of a (real) crime or not.

With this said, it makes sense that DNA evidence is lost or destroyed as soon as possible after a case. Now that this technology is here, many innocents wrongly accused are asking (from prison) for DNA examination of evidence in their cases. Many have been subsequently exonerated. But it's an uphill fight to get this info re-introduced. The DAs fight it tooth and nail. I've even seen prosecutors deny they were wrong in prosecuting innocent people, even after later DNA tests prove these people were innocent. Arrogant bastids! This isn't happening just in LA, but all over the country.

Is it any wonder that Amerika, Land of the Free, has more of it's own citizens locked up than any other country ever has, including the PRC or former USSR? Wouldn't want the public to know that many of their fellow citizens are being unfairly persecuted by the state, now would we? DAs want DNA evidence destroyed to elimate the possiblity of evidence surfacing which shows their evil deeds.

One DA in my local area is campaiging on his past success rate on convictions. His "get tough" attitude about made me puke. Especially since our city recently had to drop about 80 cases after drug evidence was later found to be sheetrock. Wonder how many other innocents are being ram-rodded through the system every day to keep up the DAs conviction percentages. Sad state of affairs. Note that this article is about pinning unsolved cases on existing prisoners. (more total jail time) What about using the evidence to release people unfairly accused? (Less total jail time). Never happen! Why? Locking up citizens is good business for the prison industry.

See America's Private Gulag:

http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=867

After they're locked up: Throw away the DNA = Throw away the key. My 2 cents.

[FreeTally]

This article overlooks a whole other angle entirely. False convictions.

I was thinking that too. I'm sure much of the evidence was intentionally destroyed so that it could never be proven that there are people wrongly imprisoned. Is it a coincidence that they find out this evidence is missing around the same time that DNA evidence is exonherating people in prison all over the country? I think not.

[Gritty]

Isn't this the same town that wants to pass a tax of $.05 a bullet on their citizens, they are so concerned with crime?

[Victoria Delsoul]

It's our City Council that refuses to allow our LAPD to determine the residence status of suspects... the result being that we can't get the INS to deport any of the more than 100,000 illegal alien gangsters (LAPD Gang Unit estimate) in our city.

According to "Barry Scheck, a New York City defense attorney who specializes in DNA evidence, said police and prosecutors routinely misplace evidence kits or destroy them once the statute of limitations has expired. 'It's a national scandal,' he said. And if thousands of kits are missing in Los Angeles, it is 'particularly egregious' and the largest single loss he knows of."

[meandog]

If they cannot prosecute because of the statute of limitations, then there is no other reason to keep the evidence, unless some legal controlling authority had mandated it.

What about future crimes?

[Just another Joe]

Ah, the old DNA database rears it's ugly head.
They might start with criminals, they will end up with everybody.

[BluH2o]

So? We all know from the OJ Simpson trial DNA evidence, no matter how compelling,
will get a conviction with a LA jury.

[CdMGuy]

The problem is that LA County has deteriorated at all levels of service. I work in LA County and live in Orange County. It is mind boggling to see how bad LA County has become.

The most recent example was that the Registrar of Voters in LA County failed to staff many polling places on primary day. Thousands of voters were stranded with no place to vote. She should had been jailed for her failures.

In Orange County, the sheriff's office, city police and the DA's office are working to solve old murder cases using DNA evidence. They have been quite successful. In LA County, the crime lab is so understaffed and backlogged, that several LA County cities are contracting with the Orange County crime lab to handle their lab work.

It just goes on and on. The bus system in LA has been hauled into court because the bus fleet is so old and decrepit. The freeway system in LA County is years behind in imporvements compared to Orange County. Imagine driving on a 10 lane wide interstate highway (I5) commuting into LA. In Orange County the road has been expanded to 10 lanes wide, 2 of which are for car pools. When you get to the LA County line, it drops back to 6 lanes. It is probably the only major highway in the country which gets narrower as you approach the city.

[SoCal Pubbie]

I'm not sure the 5 is the fault of LA County. It is a state or federal sysytem, no? Anyway, aren't they starting to widen the 5 north of the 91 interchange?

[Brian Allen]

If they cannot prosecute because of the statute of limitations, then there is no other reason to keep the evidence, unless some legal controlling authority had mandated it.

Statutes of Limitations do not apply to police investigations, to prosecutions or to prosecutors.

They provide "outs" for those being prosecuted but must be exercised by the accused.

Seems to me pretty darn cheap insurance that we keep evidence of crime permenantly.

[bwteim]

Nice, huh?

No, not nice. But thanks for the ping.

[L.N. Smithee]

Is it any wonder that Amerika, Land of the Free, has more of it's own citizens locked up than any other country ever has, including the PRC or former USSR?

In those countries, they don't have to lock them up. HELLO, McFLY????