Bulletin: Douglas Prade; Akron: Bite-mark evidence; New round of hearings in Douglas Prade murder case: Expert says DNA tests exclude former police captain from bite-mark evidence; Ed Meyer reports from the Beacon Journal. "Advanced DNA testing of the central piece of crime-scene evidence, a bite-mark impression on a small section of fabric from Dr. Margo Prade’s lab coat, excluded Douglas Prade as the contributor, Staub told the judge. Those tests, involving a science not in use by authorities at the time of either the 1997 slaying or Prade’s aggravated murder trial the following year, were done by Ohio’s DNA Diagnostics Center in Fairfield and released in 2012 — the same tests that now-retired Judge Judy Hunter relied on to exonerate Prade in a 26-page ruling in January 2013. Hunter’s order stated that the center’s findings were so convincing that Prade had proven his “actual innocence.” Hearing continues. Reporter Ed Meyer; Beacon Journal;

"The first defense witness in a new round of Summit County court hearings that could lead to a new trial for Douglas Prade has had his DNA findings used in 20 criminal cases that resulted in the defendants’ exoneration. Common Pleas Judge Christine Croce, who will decide whether the former Akron police captain gets a new trial, heard that fact only minutes into Wednesday’s evidentiary hearing at the county courthouse. Dr. Rick W. Staub, a DNA lab director for 25 years who now manages the police crime scene and evidence department in Plano, Texas, once again stressed what the forensic evidence shows in the Prade murder case. Advanced DNA testing of the central piece of crime-scene evidence, a bite-mark impression on a small section of fabric from Dr. Margo Prade’s lab coat, excluded Douglas Prade as the contributor, Staub told the judge. Those tests, involving a science not in use by authorities at the time of either the 1997 slaying or Prade’s aggravated murder trial the following year, were done by Ohio’s DNA Diagnostics Center in Fairfield and released in 2012 — the same tests that now-retired Judge Judy Hunter relied on to exonerate Prade in a 26-page ruling in January 2013. Hunter’s order stated that the center’s findings were so convincing that Prade had proven his “actual innocence.” Both sides have agreed from the outset of court proceedings for one of the city’s most notorious crimes that the killer bit Dr. Prade inside her minivan during a struggle over the gun moments before the fatal shooting. The case has reached this point because Hunter’s order, freeing the former Akron police captain from prison nearly 15 years after he was convicted, was reversed on appeal in March 2014. Hunter’s ruling, however, also included a conditional order for a new trial if her findings were overturned. In what appeared to be a significant difference from the four days of DNA testimony in Hunter’s court in November 2012, Prade’s lawyers this time relied heavily on visuals that they argued would enable Croce to “walk through” the evidence..........The DNA analyses of Staub, who has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a doctorate in genetics from the University of Arizona (1984), also led to an exoneration in Summit County’s infamous Clarence Elkins murder case. Staub was the only witness Wednesday, and took the stand first, because the defense has the burden of proof to show that Prade, now 69, should get a new trial. Testimony resumes Thursday morning."
http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/new-round-of-hearings-in-douglas-prade-murder-case-expert-says-dna-tests-exclude-former-police-captain-from-bite-mark-evidence-1.637977