Saturday, August 14, 2021

Technology: Texas: Loss of evidence: No problem with the locks on the Dallas Police evidence room, it seems. Not at all! According to the force, the evidence was lost when someone "accidentally deleted" 22 terabytes of case data from a network drive and the department thus far had only been unable to recover more than a third of it" - as Reporter David Lee reports in The Courthouse News Service. So what does that add up to?..."The size of the data loss is vast, as 8 terabytes holds approximately 52 million pages of documents or 250 standard definition movies."...That's all (HL!). The story is headed: "Prosecutors admit Dallas police lost massive amount of case data."...Sub-Heading: "Dallas County's district attorney says an unknown number of criminal cases are affected but vows 'justice will be served' in each case."



STORY: "Prosecutors admit Dallas police lost massive amount of case data," by Reporter David Leee, published by The  Courthouse News Service on August 11, 2021.

SUB-HEADING: "Dallas County's district attorney says an unknown number of criminal cases are affected but vows 'justice will be served' in each case.

GIST: "Prosecutors admitted Wednesday that Dallas police accidentally deleted 22 terabytes of case data from a network drive and the department has been unable to recover more than a third of it. 

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot made the disclosure in an “effort for full transparency” and to satisfy obligations under federal and state law to disclose certain evidence.

“We learned that 22 terabytes of DPD data were deleted over the course of a few days (March 31, 2021 – April 5, 2021),” Creuzot’s office said in a written statement. “Approximately 14 terabytes of data were recoverable, but approximately 8 terabytes remain missing and are believed to be unrecoverable.”

The size of the data loss is vast, as 8 terabytes holds approximately 52 million pages of documents or 250 standard definition movies.

Creuzot tweeted that he is in “constant communication” with Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia this week and they “are committed to ensuring that justice is served” in every case.

“It is possible that much of the missing evidence had already been uploaded to this office’s data portal prior to April 5, which would have a limited impact to cases,” Creuzot said. “At this time, it is too soon to estimate how many cases will be affected and what the impact will be on those individual cases.”

Dallas police declined to comment on the disclosure Wednesday, referring questions about the data loss to Dallas City Hall.

Prosecutors say the city became aware of the problem on April 5 when users noticed missing files. They say Dallas police have determined a range of affected cases with offense dates of before July 28, 2020.

“Additionally, this issue does not affect ‘direct file’ cases (i.e. cases without a detective, such as DWI, evading arrest and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon),” Creuzot’s office said. “Effective today, all prosecutors have been instructed to verify with the filing detective that all evidence/files were shared with our office via TechShare before disposing of the case. This requires the detective to compare the police department’s records to those maintained in TechShare, in order to confirm that all evidence gathered in the case is uploaded into TechShare or to determine if there are any missing files that DPD has not previously shared in TechShare.”

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.courthousenews.com/prosecutors-admit-dallas-police-lost-8-terabytes-of-case-data/

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I will be following development closely - such as this on. HL: 

Dallas Morning News: August 13, 2021:

"A  murder suspect scheduled to go on trial this week will now be released from Dallas County jail after it was revealed that the city may have lost evidence in his case.


Jonathan Pitts will be freed on a personal recognizance bond, meaning he does not have to pay bail, because prosecutors weren’t ready for trial Thursday when prospective jurors reported to the Frank Crowley Criminal Courts Building."

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGkZspCcTPQsXtNGSLtQFDrMSGf

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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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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions.   They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they’ve exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;