200 sex assault cases pass prosecution deadline before LAPD tested DNA kits

The cases are part of a backlog of 7,000 DNA kits that the department has not tested, according to an audit by City Controller Laura Chick. Police say they don’t have enough money.

By Richard Winton
October 21, 2008

As many as 200 potential sexual assault cases have gone without prosecution because Los Angeles police officials failed to meet legal deadlines to test DNA evidence that might have identified a suspect, according to a city audit released Monday.

The audit was the second critical assessment of LAPD forensic work in as many weeks. A confidential report obtained by The Times last week disclosed shoddy work by the department’s fingerprint experts that had falsely implicated people in crimes.

Chief William J. Bratton said late Monday that he had set up a task force to examine the Scientific Investigations Division, which oversees the department’s fingerprint analysis unit and DNA lab. He said he had asked the FBI and Los Angeles County district attorney’s office to join the task force probe.

“You hired me as chief of police to manage the department day to day. But you also hired me for when a crisis occurs and they will occur,” Bratton said. “When it occurs, the idea is to quickly get in and assess what is wrong.”

According to the audit by City Controller Laura Chick’s office, the LAPD has a backlog of 7,000 sexual assault test kits that have not been examined. Of those cases, 217 are beyond the 10-year statute in which to prosecute the crimes, according to the report.

Each kit, officials say, contains a potential genetic road map to the perpetrator of a crime.

“Sometimes I find problems as city controller that simply defy explanation,” Chick said at a news conference. “It is beyond disturbing that the thousands of victims who have undergone the invasive ordeal of [submitting to] these tests do not even know that their evidence is still untested.”

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