By Candace Rondeaux and Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 15, 2007
A DNA match, the investigative break that has solved countless cases, gave Montgomery County detectives the evidence they needed last year to charge a convicted felon with raping a woman in 1993.
But the county's backlogged DNA lab couldn't produce the detailed analysis in time for the trial, prompting a judge to block prosecutors from using the evidence. The state was forced to drop its case early this year, and the suspect -- who was accused of attacking a woman in her back yard in Silver Spring -- walked free.
At crime labs in Montgomery and across the region, soaring demand for DNA analysis and a dearth of trained scientists have led to increasingly unmanageable backlogs, authorities say. Large numbers of cases have been delayed and, in rare instances, suspects accused of violent crimes have been released without trial.
At the Montgomery lab, staff turnover has contributed to unprecedented backlogs. In Prince George's County, a shortage of forensic scientists recently halted in-house DNA testing, forcing the county to turn to private labs. In one recent case in the county, a man was jailed for six months on charges of assaulting a child before long-delayed DNA results helped prove his innocence. About a quarter of the samples submitted last year were never tested.
Turnover and bureaucratic delays in the District have stalled plans for the police department to open its own lab. The statewide crime labs in Maryland and Virginia -- whose lab handles most local cases -- have also struggled with scarce resources and a growing backlog.
The problem, experts say, stems in part from a public fascination with DNA profiling, which revolutionized crime fighting when it was introduced two decades ago. As the demand for DNA evidence increases, fueled by juror expectations formed by such television shows as "CSI," government labs have been forced to outsource work to private labs. Flush with business, the private facilities also lure scientists away from the public labs, reducing their ability to handle the growing backlogs.
"It's a universal problem. The issue is that this is a business where the demand is totally out of our control, yet we don't have the ability to keep up," said Bill Marbaker, president of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors, a national nonprofit organization.
About 2.7 million cases poured into the country's more than 350 publicly funded crime labs in 2002, the latest year for which national data are available, according to the Justice Department. The federal, state and local labs reported a backlog of 500,000 requests for forensic analysis, which would take 1,900 full-time employees to address, the report concluded. The Justice Department defines a case as backlogged if it remains in the lab 30 days or more without a report or analysis.
"I have not yet found a single lab director that doesn't have a backlog and a need for a staff increase of up to 10, 20 or 30 percent," Marbaker said.
The FBI, which for years conducted DNA tests for the D.C. police, began farming out that work after Sept. 11, 2001. The federal agency said the growing caseload at its lab, which now makes terrorism and counterintelligence investigations its top priorities, prevented it from processing the police department's evidence.
From 2003 to 2006, the FBI spent $1.1 million outsourcing D.C. cases, according to congressional testimony by Joseph A. DiZinno, assistant director of the FBI's lab. D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier told the city's public safety committee in May that half of the future D.C. lab's 20 slots are filled. She said she hopes the lab will be running at full capacity by next year.
The backlog at Montgomery's lab, which has five scientists, has grown steadily since 2002 and stands at about 450 cases, about 65 percent of the cases analyzed last year. One of the lab's veteran scientists resigned last year, and another was on maternity leave, contributing to the backlog. Capt. Russell Hamill, who oversees the lab, said that it is running at near capacity and that recently acquired technology is expected to help.
Detectives identified Thomas A. Hall in June 2006 as a suspect in the Nov. 27, 1993, rape of a Silver Spring woman after investigators said a profile created from the rapist's DNA entered into a national database matched a sample taken from Hall in Virginia, where he had served time for distributing cocaine.
When Hall was arrested June 28, 2006, detectives took a mouth swab to confirm the DNA match. The case was supposed to be tried in the fall, but the prosecutor did not receive the lab report until November.
Hall's attorney, Robert Bonsib, asked for additional data about the analysis, which is standard in DNA cases. Assistant State's Attorney Maura Lynch, citing staffing problems at the lab, among other factors, said the report would not be available until the end of the year. Bonsib agreed to wait.
When Bonsib hadn't received the report by January, he filed a motion seeking to have the DNA evidence excluded. On Jan. 8, Montgomery County Circuit Administrative Judge Ann S. Harrington declined to give the state an extension and affirmed another judge's ruling that DNA could not be used at trial because the state hadn't made it available to the defense in time. Lynch dropped the charges.
"I'm not happy that he's not going to be punished," the victim said recently, adding that the failed effort had stirred painful memories. Bonsib said his client denies having committed the rape.
About 18 months ago, two of the Prince George's lab's forensic analysts left for higher-paying jobs. Their departure, combined with growing demand, has slowed DNA analysis significantly. There are 10 forensic analysts in the lab; three jobs in the DNA division are vacant, and two others were filled with people still being trained.
Delays there proved costly for one defendant. Andre C. King was held in jail without bond for about six months on charges of assaulting an 8-year-old girl in Upper Marlboro before prosecutors acknowledged that long-delayed DNA tests and witness alibis proved his innocence. The case against King was postponed at least once because of the slowdown. DNA testing results, which showed no conclusive link to King, became available two weeks before he was released in March.
Prosecutors dropped the charge against King, and the case is being expunged. But the experience seriously shook King, said his attorney, Andrew Jezic.
"It was a long delay that was not atypical for the courts. It was not the prosecutor's fault; it was the DNA lab being understaffed and overworked," Jezic said. "It puts judges in terrible positions. It makes prosecutors look bad because defense attorneys are screaming, 'Not fair, not fair, not fair.' It makes our guy sit in jail for an extra two months, and that's terrible."
Two forensic technicians were hired recently by Prince George's police, but they will not complete training and become court-certified experts for six to eight months, Col. Marcus Summers said. In the meantime, evidence samples will be sent to two private labs.
Outsourcing, however, is not without its problems. Summers estimates that the cost of testing each evidence sample increases by about 50 percent at private labs. He said it can take up to two months to process a case, twice the maximum time recommended by the Justice Department to stay ahead of backlogs.
High demand for testing and low numbers of forensic scientists have also long plagued the Maryland State Police lab, which serves 141 law enforcement agencies across the state. According to a 2005 state budget report, the state police crime lab lost 19 employees over a four-year period; 15 left for higher-paying jobs. The lab has since filled several of those positions, said state police spokesman Sgt. Greg Shipley. The state is in the process of filling 12 vacancies, seven of them in the lab's biology division, which handles DNA analysis.
Peter Marone, director of the Virginia crime lab, estimates the state has a backlog of 1,100 to 1,200 DNA cases. With just 44 DNA examiners in the state, it could take months to complete all the testing. Meanwhile, more cases are arriving by the dozens. Marone hopes the hiring of eight forensic scientists this month will help fix the backlog.
"It's kind of a juggling act," he said. "You kind of feel that you have to work everything at once. People are expecting more and more evidence, because that's what they see on TV."
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