Eight DNA profiles were cross-contaminated by sloppy lab work at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the Daily News has learned.
Four of the profiles were entered into a federal database, CODIS, or Combined DNA Index System, and had to be hastily removed. None of those four were linked to a known offender — meaning police did not arrest the wrong person or identify anyone as being linked to an unsolved crime
Julie Bolcer, an ME spokeswoman, said the errors were caused by equipment that was not properly sterilized and caught through quality assurance guardrails. She said two criminalists were suspended from “evidence collection” and retrained before being allowed to return to their full duties.
“Robust quality assurance measures promptly detected the issue and allowed our laboratory to take swift corrective action including all required notifications to stakeholders,” Bolcer said. “We look forward to the results of the ongoing independent review while the laboratory continues to serve the criminal justice system with quality, timeliness, and accuracy.”
But Jenny Cheung, supervising lawyer for the Legal Aid Society’s DNA Unit, said the revelation — spelled out in a letter, as required, from the ME’s office, to among others, defense lawyers and the City Council, raises a host of concerns.
She said that contamination can be difficult to find in cases where there is low-level, or touch, DNA evidence, raising the specter that even more DNA profiles were contaminated. Touch DNA is prevalent in gun cases. A forensic unit dedicated to processing DNA on guns was formed in 2022.
Not all those responsible have been identified, and even though the ME’s office is investigating all DNA testing done by one of the criminalists between May 1 and Aug. 9 there could be criminal cases proceeding without defense lawyers given the chance to question the validity of the evidence.
“Clients are still taking pleas,” Cheung said, “and judges are deciding motions to order DNA from our clients without the benefit of knowing the full story.”
According to ME’s letter, dated Sept. 6, an analyst reviewing cases saw that on June 11 the same criminalist noted a match between two different DNA profiles.
A further review found the criminalist on the same day had discovered a match in four DNA profiles — suggesting the possibility of a repeat offender.
But it turns out the criminalist had earlier in the day failed to clean their equipment. The DNA from that test, the letter said, then turned up in the four subsequent profiles.
It was recommended that the criminalist make sure to change gloves between cases, keep examination scissors in ethanol, and dry the scissors with a sterile wipe before using, the letter said.
Then, on July 30, according to the letter, the same criminalist was found to have “examined a sexual assault case and later contaminated a property crime case with DNA from the sexual assault case.”
In August, a review found that another criminalist had on July 1 examined another sexual assault case and then contaminated a crime scene case with the DNA from the assault.
After that, a fourth contamination involving a third criminalist was found to have examined another sexual assault case on June 17 and later contaminated two property scene CSS.
The first two criminalists were suspended from “evidence collection” until they were retrained. And for a week some lab work — including evidence examination, and uploading DNA profiles to the database — were halted while others underwent retraining for cleaning and decontamination.
The lab was deep cleaned, cleaning solutions were replaced, the letter said, and it was ordered that various medical instruments be replaced more frequently.
The ME’s office said contamination does not typically mean the DNA cannot be retested with compromising the integrity of the case.
The City Council had no comment.
News of the contamination follows a Daily News December report detailing how hundreds of cases were ordered reviewed after three criminalists violated lab standards in more than 30 cases. They were also caught cheating on a promotional tests, according to documents the News obtained.
