BACKGROUND: "When he died, cold-case detectives were investigating Brown, 62, for his possible involvement in the 1984 strangulation of 14-year-old Claire Hough at Torrey Pines State Beach. They’d linked him through DNA testing to sperm cells found on a vaginal swab collected during the autopsy. According to the lawsuit, detectives recklessly rejected the most obvious explanation for the sperm: accidental cross-contamination in the police lab. Brown had worked there then as a criminalist. He didn’t process the Hough evidence, but he and others routinely kept their own semen samples on hand as known standards to check the efficacy of testing methods, the suit says. It describes contamination by lab employees as “a well-recognized, well-documented, and frequent occurrence,” and identifies 41 instances of it happening at the San Diego Police Department since 2001.Brown suffered from depression and anxiety most of his life, and the suit says his final downward spiral can be tied to unconstitutional police misconduct during the investigation. It accuses the lead detective, Michael Lambert, of misleading a judge when he got him to sign a search warrant, omitting key facts about possible lab contamination, and downplaying the criminal behavior of a convicted rapist who was also tied to the murder through DNA testing."
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Rebecca Brown said as the months went by without receiving their belongings back, her husband started crossing off the days on a calendar to mark the amount of time deputies held onto their items. The couple believed once their property was returned it would mean Kevin Brown was exonerated of Hough’s murder and they could return to their lives, Rebecca Brown said. “He was definitely upset the retention of our property made it look like he was guilty,” she told Richardson. But Rebecca Brown didn’t keep copies of her husband’s calendars, cleaning out his closet within a week of his death. “I wasn’t thinking what evidence I needed to pile up, I was just heartbroken,” she said. Rebecca Brown said she thought she could request Lambert return the family’s belongings because she had asked for her computer to be returned in March 2014 and received it within two weeks."
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STORY: " Widow of Crime Lab Worker Says Detective Flip-Flopped in Cold-Case Probe" by reporter Bianca Bruno, published by Courthouse News on February 11, 2020.
GIST: "During terse questioning by a San Diego city
attorney Tuesday, the widow of a crime lab worker said she and her
husband didn’t seek a court order for the return of their property
seized in a cold-case murder investigation because the detective on the
case told them it would be given back." But
the 14 boxes of personal items – including a Bible and religious
paraphernalia and up to 30,000 family photos – were not returned until
weeks following retired San Diego Police Department criminalist Kevin
Brown’s suicide in October 2014. Brown’s wife Rebecca sued SDPD cold-case detectives Michael Lambert and Maura Mekenas-Parga for seizing and holding the family’s personal mementos during their investigation of the 1984 unsolved murder of 14-year-old Claire Hough. Trace amounts of Kevin Brown’s semen were found on a retested vaginal
swab in 2012. Crime analysts never identified sperm on the swab until
advances in DNA technology made it possible to do so. Brown maintained the positive match was the result of
cross-contamination because up until recently lab workers used samples
of their own semen as a control when mixing chemicals to process and
test crime evidence. But Lambert said his supervisor told him lab workers ruled out
contamination before the case was assigned to him in late 2012. He testified
last week he never learned about the semen samples kept by crime lab
workers until a member of Rebecca Brown’s family mentioned it to him
during an interview. Lambert also testified he knew within about a month of a search
warrant being executed on the Brown home that none of the items seized
tied Kevin Brown to Hough’s murder. But he didn’t authorize the return
of the property and said in court Monday he believed Kevin Brown was
involved in Hough’s murder at the time he killed himself. During questioning Tuesday by Chief Deputy City Attorney Catherine
Richardson, Rebecca Brown said she and her husband didn’t file a court
motion for the return of their property because Lambert told her
multiple times over the course of several months they’d soon be getting
their things back. Rebecca Brown said as the months went by without receiving their
belongings back, her husband started crossing off the days on a calendar
to mark the amount of time deputies held onto their items. The couple believed once their property was returned it would mean
Kevin Brown was exonerated of Hough’s murder and they could return to
their lives, Rebecca Brown said. “He was definitely upset the retention of our property made it look like he was guilty,” she told Richardson. But Rebecca Brown didn’t keep copies of her husband’s calendars, cleaning out his closet within a week of his death. “I wasn’t thinking what evidence I needed to pile up, I was just heartbroken,” she said. Rebecca Brown said she thought she could request Lambert return the
family’s belongings because she had asked for her computer to be
returned in March 2014 and received it within two weeks. She said in early summer 2014 she became more worried for her husband
because he wasn’t getting out of bed. Her brother took away their guns. “I knew maybe I wasn’t supposed to contact Lambert because we had an
attorney, but things were getting really serious,” Rebecca Brown said. She also disputed Lambert wasn’t aware that contamination could
explain why Kevin’s DNA was found on the vaginal swab taken from Hough,
since she said Kevin had told Lambert as much when the officer told
Kevin his DNA was found on evidence. Kevin also told Lambert the
evidence could have been planted. But Lambert told Kevin Brown both those options were off the table. Neither Rebecca Brown nor her husband raised the issue of the semen
sample directly with Lambert, Rebecca testified, because “I assumed he
knew it. He’s an investigator.” When asked whether she’d contacted Kevin Brown’s doctors to tell them
she’d found an apparent suicide note and bullet on their bedroom floor
weeks before his death, Rebecca Brown said she asked her husband to talk
to his doctors about adjusting his anxiety medication dosage. “He did it himself, he wasn’t an invalid,” Rebecca Brown responded
after Richardson asked, “You weren’t concerned enough to call his
doctors?” She added: “This was a very gentle person and it had put too much pressure on him.” The plaintiff rested her case Tuesday afternoon, with the defense
team kicking off with an expert witness. The trial was expected to last
through the end of the week."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.courthousenews.com/widow-of-crime-lab-worker-says-detective-flip-flopped-in-cold-case-probe/
PUBLISHER'S
NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles
Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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 Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
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FINAL
WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever
there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal
system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent
future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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