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Head Of Baltimore Police Crime Lab Fired

BALTIMORE (WJZ) ― Seven years of cases where DNA was used as evidence are called into question and now the city's top prosecutor wants answers.

Mary Bubala has more on the potential fallout.

Edgar Koch has been an advocate for DNA testing for years.

"I feel DNA evidence has probably had the greatest impact of any science technology out there, as far as science goes," Koch said.

But the Baltimore Police Department says Koch failed at operating the crime lab.  Last Friday, it was discovered that some DNA had been contaminated with workers' DNA and labeled for years as "unknown profiles."

"Unknown profiles.  People who we thought were just a suspect out there, we didn't know who he was, turned out to be staff," said Sterling Clifford, Baltimore City Police spokesperson.

Police say Koch was supposed to add 65 staff DNA files to the database to prevent these false positives three years ago.  Now crime workers will have to go back to possibly 20 cases to find a new piece of DNA that actually belongs to the criminal and not a staff member.

Mayor Sheila Dixon says this is an example of weeding out problems in the department.

"Well, there are some concerns and they are looking into that, but at this point, it's my understanding that there should not be [past cases in jeopardy].  But of course we don't know that definitely, so we have to continue to research that," Dixon said.

What could be affected are cases from the state's attorney for Baltimore City.  Evidence is processed in the crime lab for criminal cases.

"We do not know whether this affects cases that are closed since 2001 or remain open.  We are working very hard with the police department to determine the scope of what is involved," said Marty Burns with the State's Attorney's Office.

Despite the mistake being big enough to be fired, the police department promises "Nobody's in jail who shouldn't be based on these lab results, but we still need them to be right," Clifford said.

An acting crime lab director is in place.  The database is still being updated with staff's DNA samples.

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