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

[Sequitur]

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

Appreciate your a$$toot analysis, Biff.

There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. When there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

Ayn Rand

You're probably beaking several laws right now, you criminal, you. ;<