HPD report calls for new DNA tests in 400+ cases

The final report from HPD crime lab independent investigator Michael Bromwich recommends new, taxpayer-funded DNA tests for prisoners in more than 400 cases in which incomplete or below-standard work was originally performed by the lab. That recommendation is based on a review of 135 of the cases which found "major problems" with 43 of them, including those of four death row inmates. But that doesn't mean there aren't other cases that have resulted in wrongful incarceration, the report said: "While the number of proven wrongful convictions attributable to the Crime Lab's DNA work is small...the possibility of other wrongful convictions resulting from DNA analysis during this era can not be dispelled," Bromwich wrote.

Overall, the report said serology work done in the crime lab between 1980 and 1992 was "generally unreliable," nothing that in one-third of 850 serology cases reviewed, lab workers never even found blood types. "In another 139 cases, the Crime Lab performed (blood) typing on the evidence but never compared it to known reference samples from the the victim and suspect, so the genetic marker data developed by the Lab was of no use," Bromwich wrote in the report. In addition, the report targeted HPD's troubled property room, which made the news in April when several weapons turned up missing. In its current state, the property room is "a threat to the public safety," the report said.

Bromwich's report caps a two-year, $5.3 million investigation into the crime lab. Problems with DNA testing there came to light late in 2002, when reports and an independent audit revealed widespread problems including sloppy work, poorly trained scientists and a leaky roof that damaged evidence. HPD closed the crime lab's DNA division in 2002, and it didn't re-open until last summer. Now, with the independent investigation complete, the question is what will happen in the future. As the report noted, the biggest challenge may be for the city to keep funding improvements to the crime lab after public scrutiny is off. "Now that [Bromwich has] helped us clean the slate, it's up to us to make sure that the lab moves forward," City Councilman and former police officer Adrian Garcia told KTRK.