Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog:
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: My favourite line in this story: "The inquiry “found no reason to believe the Practice extended any further than those five instances nor any reason to believe that the Practice remains ongoing,” the attorney general’s statement said." I love and adopt the rebuttal to this curious statement tweeted by Jerome Buting of 'Making a Murderer' fame..."The inquiry 'found no reason to believe the Practice extended any further than those five instances. Translation: we only found 5 cases where cops were too dumb to destroy the forged DNA reports they used to coerce false confessions."
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
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STORY: "Virginia Beach police used fake DNA results during interrogations, attorney general investigation finds, by Reporter Jane Harper, published by The Virginian-Pilot on January 12, 2022. (Jane Harper covers state and federal courts for The Pilot.)
PHOTO CAPTION: "The investigation found that on at least five occasions from March 2016 to February 2020, Virginia Beach police showed fake lab certificates to suspects they were interrogating that indicated the person had been connected to a crime through DNA evidence."
GIST: "The Virginia Beach Police Department used forged documents in at least five criminal cases to try to obtain confessions or cooperation from suspects, the state Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday in an announcement disclosing its investigation of the practice.
Attorney General Mark Herring said his office reached an agreement with the police department that would end the “extremely troubling and potentially unconstitutional tactic.”
The investigation found that on at least five occasions from March 2016 to February 2020, Virginia Beach police showed fake lab certificates to suspects they were interrogating that indicated the person had been connected to a crime through DNA evidence.
The phony documents were written on letterhead from the state Department of Forensic Science, and included the department’s seal and a signature and contact information for a fictitious department employee. In at least one case, the forged paperwork was offered into evidence in court.
The practice was discovered in April 2021 after a Virginia Beach prosecutor asked the Department of Forensic Science to provide a certified copy of one of the forged documents, according to Herring’s statement.
“This was an extremely troubling and potentially unconstitutional tactic that abused the name of the Commonwealth to try to coerce confessions,” Herring said in his statement. “While I appreciate that Virginia Beach Police put an end to this practice and cooperated with our investigation, this is clearly a tactic that should never have been used.”
Herring’s office announced the agreement just three days before the two-term Democrat is scheduled to step down. Virginia Beach Republican Jason Miyares, who defeated Herring in November, will take over Saturday.
The inquiry “found no reason to believe the Practice extended any further than those five instances nor any reason to believe that the Practice remains ongoing,” the attorney general’s statement said.
The agreement requires the Virginia Beach police department to issue an order to officers informing them they’re not to use such tactics. Detectives will be required to sign an acknowledgement that they received the order and information about it will be included in future training. The department also will be required to conduct its own investigation and report its findings to the attorney general’s office.
The suspects in the five instances that were identified will be notified that the tactic was used in their case and that the department has since ended the practice.
The investigation was conducted by Herring’s Office of Civil Rights, which he created earlier this year. It’s the second pattern and practice investigation the new office has conducted of a law enforcement agency and the first to be resolved through an agreement.
The first investigation involved the Windsor Police Department and resulted in a lawsuit being filed against the town of Windsor, alleging it had allowed its police department to operate in a discriminatory way against Black people and repeatedly violated their constitutional rights.
Virginia Beach Police Chief Paul Neudigate, who took control of the department in October 2020, was first made aware of the fake lab certificates on April 29, 2021, when he was contacted by the forensic science department and the state Secretary of Public Safety, according to a statement his department released late Wednesday."
The entire story can be read at:
