PUBLISHER'S NOTE: It's pretty fascinating. I recently published posts related to a civil trial relating to deceased San Diego Police Department criminalist Kevin Brown. The nub, as per one of the posts: "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." Now, a few posts later, thanks to Dr. Michael Bowers of CSIDDS: Forensics and law in focus, we have another troubling case of crime lab cross-contamination in the most serious of criminal cases - this time far, far away in Australia, where, in the lab in question, at one time lab personnel were not required to wear face masks. Read on:
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
BACKGROUND: Wikipedia: (A very thorough, interesting entry. Makes a good read. HL); "The Claremont serial killings is the name given by the media to a case involving the disappearance of an Australian woman, aged 18, and the killings of two others, aged 23 and 27, in 1996-1997. After attending night spots in Claremont, a wealthy western suburb of Perth, Western Australia, all three women disappeared in similar circumstances leading police to suspect that an unidentified serial killer was the offender. The case, described as the state's biggest, longest running, and most expensive investigation, remains unsolved. However, in 2016, a suspect, Bradley Robert Edwards, was arrested. His trial began in November 2019."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claremont_serial_killings
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Mr Egan (Forensic Scientist Scott Egan) said fingernail samples taken from Ms Rimmer had also been contaminated while in the care of PathWest, this time with the DNA of one of the laboratory's top forensic scientists, Laurie Webb. He said Mr Webb had not been involved in receiving the fingernail samples when they first came into the laboratory in August 1996, nor was he involved in any subsequent DNA testing or evaluation by PathWest. His DNA was not detected on the extracts until they were sent for further testing in the UK in October 2017 by Cellmark, which reported the apparent contamination to PathWest. Mr Egan said an investigation was conducted by PathWest to try to find out how it could have happened and the only conclusion that could be drawn was that Mr Webb was present in the lab when the samples were received and being worked on, and therefore the opportunity existed for them to be contaminated. Mr Webb was sacked from PathWest in 2016 for unethical conduct including breaching testing protocols. Mr Egan also revealed his own DNA had been found by Cellmark when it combined four intimate samples taken from Ms Glennon in 2018. The samples had been tested individually at Pathwest in the intervening years since Ms Glennon's death, but no DNA had been detected at all, not even any of her own genetic material. Mr Egan said an investigation showed his DNA most likely contaminated one or more of the four samples when he was initially preparing the samples for DNA extraction, as a young lab assistant in 1997. "We weren't wearing face masks at the time in the laboratory so the opportunity for me to contaminate them would have been higher," he said."
STORY: "Claremont serial killings forensic evidence contaminated by DNA while handled by PathWest," by reporter Andrea Mayes, published by ABC News. "Andrea Mayes is a digital News Producer at ABC Mews. Thanks to Dr. Michael Bowers of CSIDDS (Forensics and law in focus) for bringing this case to our attention. As he points out, under the heading 'Forensics: DNA contamination personified in this case from Australia: "In the US, prosecutors in San Diego investigated the lab worker (Criminalist Kevin Brown) San Diego) whose DNA was mixed up in the crime scene samples. He later committed suicide. This case in AU has similar DNA problems."
https://csidds.com/2020/02/29/forensics-dna-contamination-personified-in-this-case-from-australia/
------------------------------------------------------------------
GIST: "A twig lying on top of the body of Jane Rimmer was
contaminated with female DNA from a completely unrelated crime while
being examined and other evidence had traces of DNA from one of the
state pathology lab's own scientists, the Claremont serial killings
trial has been told." The revelation came as the trial of Bradley Robert
Edwards for the wilful murders of 23-year-old childcare worker Jane
Rimmer, 18-year-old receptionist Sarah Spiers and 27-year-old lawyer
Ciara Glennon entered its 54th day. Forensic scientist Scott Egan,
who has worked at PathWest since 1995, told the WA Supreme Court an
extract from the twig — an exhibit known as RH21 — was being examined by
PathWest scientist Agnes Thompson on February 4, 2002. Four days
earlier, on January 31, a different PathWest scientist had been
examining an item connected to an unrelated crime and it was DNA related
to that case that was later found to have contaminated the twig. "I think it's most likely from a manual handling issue," he said. The
same batch of tubes was used to capture samples from both crimes and he
said this was the likely way the DNA had been transferred from the
unrelated crime to the twig sample relating to Ms Rimmer. "The only way that I could think of was that there might have been an operator error," he said.
Key points:
- Jane Rimmer's body was found partially covered by vegetation
- A twig from the scene was contaminated with DNA from another crime
- A scientist's DNA found its way onto fingernail samples
Scientist's DNA contaminated fingernail sample:
Mr Egan said fingernail samples taken from Ms Rimmer had also been contaminated while in the care of PathWest, this time with the DNA of one of the laboratory's top forensic scientists, Laurie Webb. He said Mr Webb had not been involved in receiving the fingernail samples when they first came into the laboratory in August 1996, nor was he involved in any subsequent DNA testing or evaluation by PathWest. His DNA was not detected on the extracts until they were sent for further testing in the UK in October 2017 by Cellmark, which reported the apparent contamination to PathWest. Mr Egan said an investigation was conducted by PathWest to try to find out how it could have happened and the only conclusion that could be drawn was that Mr Webb was present in the lab when the samples were received and being worked on, and therefore the opportunity existed for them to be contaminated. Mr Webb was sacked from PathWest in 2016 for unethical conduct including breaching testing protocols. Mr Egan also revealed his own DNA had been found by Cellmark when it combined four intimate samples taken from Ms Glennon in 2018. The samples had been tested individually at Pathwest in the intervening years since Ms Glennon's death, but no DNA had been detected at all, not even any of her own genetic material. Mr Egan said an investigation showed his DNA most likely contaminated one or more of the four samples when he was initially preparing the samples for DNA extraction, as a young lab assistant in 1997. "We weren't wearing face masks at the time in the laboratory so the opportunity for me to contaminate them would have been higher," he said. He said the fact that none of Ms Glennon's DNA had been found on the intimate samples was because of the passage of time and the resulting degradation of the samples. The lawyer's body was found on April 3, 1997, 19 days after she disappeared, The same was true of intimate samples relating to Ms Rimmer, which also did not have any detectable DNA on them — from her or from anyone else, he said. Ms Rimmer's body was found on August 3, 1996, 55 days after she disappeared. It was also revealed in court today that the highly anticipated DNA evidence from Dr Jonathan Whitaker, a world renowned expert in Low Copy Number DNA profiling, will be heard from March 9. Ms Barbagallo said Mr Whitaker would fly into Perth from the UK next Saturday and give evidence the following week. The trial will resume on Tuesday."
The entire story can be read at:
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;
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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;
------------------------------------------------------------------
