DWAYNE JACKSON; DNA ANALYST SWITCHED SAMPLE WITH THAT OF RELATIVE; $1.5 MILLION SETTLEMENT SET TO BE APPROVED; LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL;

""We can't give him back four years of his life," said Sisolak, who on Monday will seek re­assurance from Las Vegas police that what happened to Jackson will never happen to anyone else.

"Quite frankly, he pleaded guilty because his lawyer told him the DNA was his and if he went to trial he would get a lot more time. That's troubling, and all because one employee messed up, plain and simple."

Sisolak also said the case effectively destroyed the notion that DNA evidence is ir­refutable.

"We've been told DNA is not subjective, that it's a fact that can't be questioned. We now know that's not true. Let's fix the system so this can't happen again.""

REPORTER DOUG MCMURDO: LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL;

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"Dwayne Jackson spent four years in prison for a kidnapping and robbery he did not commit, sent there after a DNA analyst mistakenly switched his sample with that of a relative -- a relative who remained free to commit more crimes, each more violent than the last," the Las Vegas Review-Journal story by reporter Doug McMurdo published earlier today under the heading, "$1.5 million DNA error on agenda" begins.

"On Monday, the Clark County Fiscal Affairs Committee is expected to approve a $1.5 million settlement ironed out between attorneys for the Metropolitan Police Department and Jackson, the largest settlement in the department's history," the story continues.

"From County Commissioner Steve Sisolak's perspective, no amount of money would ever justly compensate Jackson.

"We can't give him back four years of his life," said Sisolak, who on Monday will seek re­assurance from Las Vegas police that what happened to Jackson will never happen to anyone else.

"Quite frankly, he pleaded guilty because his lawyer told him the DNA was his and if he went to trial he would get a lot more time. That's troubling, and all because one employee messed up, plain and simple."

Sisolak also said the case effectively destroyed the notion that DNA evidence is ir­refutable.

"We've been told DNA is not subjective, that it's a fact that can't be questioned. We now know that's not true. Let's fix the system so this can't happen again."

Commissioner Larry Brown echoed Sisolak's comments. "First and foremost, this is tragic. We know human error is to blame, so the focus going forward has to be on why and what can we do to prevent it in the future."

As for the amount of the settlement, Brown was both philosophical and succinct: "We took four years away from a fellow human being. What is the value of that? My guess is the ($1.5 million settlement) is reflective of what prior courts have done. But the question remains, how can we give Mr. Jackson four years of his life back?"

Both Sisolak and Brown sit on the fiscal committee.

Jackson attorney David Chesnoff said his client is pleased with the offer. "He's moving forward and looks forward to the resolution," Chesnoff said.

Jackson declined a request for an inter­view.

His nightmare began in November 2001 when Jackson, then 18, and his cousin, Howard Dupree Grissom, then 15, were arrested in the home invasion robbery of a woman and her two small children in southeast Las Vegas.

One masked robber wielding a baseball bat burst into the woman's home and ultimately forced her to drive to a nearby ATM to withdraw cash.

Police arrested Jackson and Grissom. Both men denied involvement. They agreed to submit to DNA tests.

Veteran technician Terry Cook somehow placed Jackson's DNA in Grissom's vial and vice versa. The DNA also matched clothing Grissom wore in the robbery. Cook's error wrongly incriminated Jackson and allowed Grissom to remain free to commit more crimes.

Faced with the DNA evidence and a potential life sentence, Jackson took a plea and went to prison an innocent man.

Sheriff Doug Gillespie and key Las Vegas police employees acknowledged the error during a July 7 press conference and explained how the mistake occurred.

Jackson was paroled in 2006 and has not had any contact with police since then.

Grissom was sentenced to prison in 2008 in a violent robbery and released in 2010.

Grissom's DNA was collected in prison in 2008 and sent to the Police Department's lab as required by law. Had lab technicians run that sample against all other DNA evidence in the system, Grissom would have been linked to the 2001 robbery and Jackson's vindication would have come that much sooner.

But at the time, the lab's policy called for testing DNA obtained from prisoners only against DNA evidence in open cases. That policy was amended roughly six weeks ago to require comparisons against DNA evidence in all cases, open or closed.

Three months after Grissom was released from the High Desert prison near Indian Springs, he was arrested and ultimately convicted in the kidnapping, robbery and rape of a California woman he also stabbed repeatedly.

She survived; he got a term of 41 years to life.

Once again, Grissom was compelled to give a DNA sample, and this time it was put into a national database. California authorities notified Las Vegas police last October that Grissom's DNA matched the 2001 case.

The department opened its investigation after noticing the names didn't match.

The Police Department's lab has amended its protocols in an effort to prevent future errors, acknowledging, however, that there is no way to make foolproof any system that requires human involvement.

That's not good enough for Sisolak.

"It is very, very troubling that one employee did this and it went undetected all these years," he said. "We need a system in place where this potential doesn't exist. Mistakes like this could be intentional, and with no checks and balances in place, who knows?

"This guy knew in his heart he was innocent, but he took a deal because he was looking at a life sentence all because of human error. Well, to say that human error will always be there is no excuse. We can't take that chance."

If approved, the settlement would top a $1.48 million deal approved in 2007 for a case involving the wife of a police officer who had struck and killed a bicyclist 13 years earlier.

Gillespie declined to comment for this story, but the department recently acknowledged other mistakes have resulted in very close calls, although no evidence errors on par with the Jackson case have emerged.

The Metropolitan Police Department isn't the only entity reviewing DNA test results. County Public Defender Phil Kohn has launched a review of such evidence in the wake of the Jackson case."

The story can be found at:

http://www.lvrj.com/news/-1-5-million-dna-error-on-agenda-125939633.html?ref=633

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;