Bulletin: DC Department of Forensic Sciences; Washington Post reports that, "One of the national organizations that governs DNA laboratories has ordered the District’s new crime lab to immediately suspend all DNA case work after concluding that the lab’s procedures are “insufficient and inadequate.” ..."The authors of the review gave the lab a minimum of 30 days to address their concerns. Legal experts say the audit could trigger a further investigation of hundreds of District criminal cases — including murder, sexual assault and gun possession cases — that have involved evidence tested at the lab since it opened in 2012." (File this in the 'so here we go again department'! HL);

One of the national organizations that governs DNA laboratories has ordered the District’s new crime lab to immediately suspend all DNA case work after concluding that the lab’s procedures are “insufficient and inadequate.” D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser ordered the audit by the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board last month after the U.S. Attorney’s Office said it had discovered errors in some of the lab’s DNA analyses. The audit, which was published Friday, criticized the lab’s practices and said they were not in compliance with FBI standards. It ordered “at a minimum” the revalidation of test procedures, new interpretation guidelines for DNA mixture cases, additional training and competency testing of staff. The DNA analysts at the District’s Department of Forensic Sciences, according to the audit, “were not competent and were using inadequate procedures.” The authors of the review gave the lab a minimum of 30 days to address their concerns. Legal experts say the audit could trigger a further investigation of hundreds of District criminal cases — including murder, sexual assault and gun possession cases — that have involved evidence tested at the lab since it opened in 2012. In March, The Washington Post first reported about alleged problems prosecutors said they found in some of the DNA analysis the lab performed. As a result, the city ordered an investigation of the lab’s practices.The city-ordered audit was delivered the same week as the separate audit ordered by the U.S. attorney’s office. Forensic experts, commissioned by the attorney’s office, found similar problems.
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/national-accreditation-board-suspends-all-dna-testing-at-district-lab/2015/04/26/2da43d9a-ec24-11e4-a55f-38924fca94f9_story.html