Results tagged “michaelbromwich”

Apparetly, the troubles at the HPD crime lab aren't quite over yet: An analyst in the lab was suspended last week, accused of improperly handling evidences, which means that police will have to review about 200 narcotics cases. The analyst, whom the Chronicle identifies as James K. Carpenter, reportedly "was not handling evidence in compliance with lab protocols," which led investigators with the police department's Internal Affairs Division to check out the lab last week....

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...

More on the story of the 21 guns that turned up missing from HPD's property room: The Chronicle reports today that independent police department investigator Michael Bromwich had warned city officials two years ago that conditions in the property room could lead to lost evidence. "The property room currently uses a number of forms to track chain of custody," Bromwich wrote in a June 2005 report. "The forms are cumbersome and archaic and increase the...

Three months after the investigation into serious problems at HPD's crime lab was put on hold for lack of funding, not a lot has changed: The probe still isn't funded, and it looks like the city might not be willing to turn loose of the $1.5 million needed to complete it.

Things keep looking worse for the embattled Houston Police Department crime lab. A new report Wednesday from an independent investigator said analysts in two divisions of the lay didn't report evidence that might have helped criminal suspects and made errors in nearly one-third of cases reviewed in a test sample. According to the report, the problems led to a "near-total breakdown" in the lab's DNA and serology divisions between 1987 and 2002. Among the findings...