Results tagged “dna”

DNA evidence from a double murder 12 years ago has been linked to a suspect who is currently in a California prison. Back in September of 1997, the stabbing murders of 57-year-old Nancy Boehm and her mentally impaired 23-year-old son Shawn occurred in their North Hollywood home on the 5700 block of Riverton Avenue. Without any leads, the case remained unsolved.

Thousands of rape kits still remain untested, finds a follow-up to a year-old audit that revealed some 7,500 rape kits sat untested on the shelves of LAPD labs. City Controller Wendy Greuel plans to release the the full findings tomorrow morning. Her office said today that the backlog has been reduced to 65%. However, Greuel says the Department’s record keeping is inconsistent, making it difficult to give entirely accurate numbers. In early October, it was reported that 3,157 kits were left to go with the full backlog completion due in the summer of 2011.

Of the 5,123 back logged untested rape kits, a majority--3,800--of them have been closed "because detectives arrested someone, prosecutors refused to pursue the case, or police could not determine that a crime had been committed," the LAPD announced yesterday, per the LA Times. However, around 400 of those untested could lead to suspects.

Following the shocking news, media pressure and community outrage of the 7,000 untested rape-kits sitting on LAPD shelves, the LAPD along with Mayor Villaraigosa and City Attorney hopeful Jack Weiss announced a plan to catch up on the DNA testing of rape-kits. Basically, political will and funding will be directed towards the crime lab.

Although everyone can agree that it's unacceptable to have a backlog of 7,000 rape-kits over at the LAPD, the reality is resources, as in money. Who is to blame? Well, the politicians are at odds over that one, though in the end, there are a lot of factors from councilmembers, past and present, mayors and the LAPD. In the meantime, the Daily News looks into the sometimes long process to analyze just one rape-kit. It's never like a one-hour TV show:

Yesterday was a cathartic day for LAPD's top dog, Chief William Bratton. In the same press conference where he admitted that the department's backlog of 7,000 rape-kits is a problem, he also spoke about the leaked-to-the-press report about shoddy fingerprint analyses that led to wrong accusations. Bratton, who emphasized that no case is solely based on fingerprints, has now convened a group of experts to form a taskforce on the issue in addition to moving the Scientific Investigation Division, responsible for fingerprinting, DNA (yes, rape-kits) and ballistics, from the Support Services Bureau to the Detectives Bureau.

In response to City Controller Laura Chick's report on the LAPD's backlog of 7,000 untested rape-kits--over 200 of which are already past the statute of limitations--Chief William Bratton admitted the issue as a “tremendously important problem," at a press conference yesterday evening. Although Chick calls for fixing the problem in three years like New York City did when it had a backlog of 17,000 kits, Bratton's plan will clear the backup to zero by 2013... that is if the funding comes in, even though the program previously lost a half million dollars in an internal clerical error. Bratton's two prong plan basically grow the number of criminalists and lab techs by over 30 as well as contracting to DNA labs across the country.

Nearly 7,000 rape-kits sit on LAPD freezer shelves awaiting testing with at least 217 of those past the statute of limitations, rendering them useless even if a rapist is identified by the DNA collected. "It is beyond disturbing that the thousands of victims who have undergone the invasive ordeal of these 4-6 hour tests do not even know that their evidence is still untested" wrote City Controller Laura Chick in an audit of the police department's rape-kit testing program. "One of the audit's findings calls out a Penal Code provision that requires the LAPD to make this notification to victims; the LAPD does not do that now." The 25-page report can be read here (.pdf).

Two big news conferences are scheduled for Monday to present reports on the LAPD and not necessarily in a good light. First, at 11:00 a.m. on the steps of City Hall, City Controller Laura Chick will present her audit on the backlog of Forensic DNA rape-kits. It has been reported that their backlog is around 7,000 kits. That's thousands of chances to gather physical evidence and DNA that could help put criminals in jail. Chick's audit is expected to officially reaffirm those problems.

One of those pesky quality of life complaints we hear a lot about are people who don't clean up after their dog. And trying to get the city to enforce a repeat violator is pretty hard too. You've got to catch the person in the act on film or photo, follow them to their home address or somehow obtain where they live, write a letter to the Department of Animal Services with the evidence and where this person lives. Then the city will send a letter telling that person you can't do that. If they continue, grab that camera for round two.