GIST: "The director of the Fort Worth Police Department Crime Lab is no longer employed by the city, according to a department spokesperson. Michael Ward’s employment with the city ended June 14.
Police would not say whether he was terminated or resigned, only that he “is no longer employed by the city.”
The Star-Telegram has filed open records requests with Fort Worth police in an attempt to determine the nature of the end of Ward’s employment with the city.
Ward, who had been with the crime lab since 2006 and worked as its director since at least 2017, could not be reached for comment.
Ward’s term as leader of the crime lab, which is responsible for conducting forensic criminal investigations for the Fort Worth police, was characterized by controversy and complaints with the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which is charged with maintaining accountability and investigating complaints at accredited crime labs in the state.
The end to Ward’s employment comes after years of problems with the lab ranging from complaints and lawsuits to concerns about his quality as a leader expressed by now-former employees in their resignation letters.
The latest controversy with the lab’s management came from a complaint filed by Ward against the former acting quality assurance manager, Deborah Smith, claiming she illegally deleted files from lab computers before her resignation.
That complaint was found by the commission to be baseless and was dismissed in April.
A lawsuit filed in 2020 by another former lab employee claimed that a whistleblower report the employee wrote led to retaliation.
The lawsuit, filed by Trisa Crutcher, claimed Ward retaliated against her for her whistleblower report that said the lab had problems including an extreme lag in testing of child abuse cases, falsification of records and policy violations that could affect hundreds of criminal cases, including death penalty investigations.
On July 30, 2021, the lab manager, who is not identified in the document, wrote a report about the issue that in part said, “The root cause of this concern does not appear to stem from any factual issues, but rather appears to stem from some type of personal animus, bias, or jealousy” by Crutcher.
In May of this year, the Dallas Fifth District Court of Appeals reversed the trial court judge’s decision to dismiss Crutcher’s suit, which she had amended to include a wrongful termination claim after she was fired in April 2021.
The suit is scheduled for trial in May 2024, according to Dallas County court records. In resignation letters from 2022 obtained by the Star-Telegram, employees leaving the Fort Worth police crime lab mentioned moral and ethical standards and values held by employees that were not reflected by upper management of the lab.
In one letter, the resigning employee wrote that she could not disagree with upper management including Ward for fear of retaliation.
Pat Wertheim, a former latent print examiner, expressed concerns in his resignation letter that Ward unnecessarily micromanaged employees, played favorites in terms of who was promoted, held grudges and “retaliates out of proportion to perceived insubordinations.”
Smith wrote in her resignation letter that the fear of retaliation interfered with her ability to do her best work.
She wrote that she tried to talk with Ward about her concerns that she might face backlash for speaking out or disagreeing with management but wasn’t able to.
“I have repeatedly tried to discuss my concerns with management — particularly the Forensic Science Division Manager (Ward) — to no avail,” Smith wrote. “I have always tried my best to work with management on their needs and not overstep in my position, as I have always felt that if I spoke out to a great extent my job could be in jeopardy.”
The lab under Ward’s leadership has been in hot water for the impacts of internal problems, too.
In 2020, Tarrant County visiting judge Elizabeth Berry filed a 32-page report detailing possible violations at the Fort Worth Police Department Crime Laboratory.
The judge began investigating the lab over concerns the lab violated policies relating to the handling of DNA evidence.
According to court documents obtained by the Star-Telegram in 2020, the violations were suspected to have continued even after Crutcher first reported problems in 2018.
The investigation started after a defendant in a murder trial filed a motion to suppress DNA evidence in his case because he said it was tampered with.
In the whistleblower report filed by Crutcher in 2020, before she was fired from the lab, she said the lag in testing, falsification of records and policy violations she alleged in the report could have impacted hundreds of cases.
The Texas Forensic Science Commission in 2021 released a 126-page report on its findings, which focused on an allegation that a policy regarding maintaining evidence had not been followed correctly for at least two years.
It affirmed Crutcher’s allegations that the policy wasn’t followed but also found that the issue didn’t rise to a level of misconduct.
Several recommendations were made by the commission that it said would improve the flow of work at the lab.
Fort Worth police did not release any information on what led to the end of Ward’s employment with the crime lab but said in a statement emailed to the Star-Telegram that the lab “performs a crucial function in support of the Department’s law enforcement mission and we look forward to finding an excellent candidate to take the leadership of this important unit.”
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article276579611.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. 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;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
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;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-1234880143/
