PASSAGE OF THE DAY; 'The anomalies discovered in Wuensch’s case work were limited, and how this will impact the criminal cases she worked on is yet to be determined by the criminal investigation.'
STORY: "Colorado Forensic Lab Fires DNA Analyst After Finding 'Anomalies,' published by Forensic, on March 4, 2024.
GIST: "Chiara Wuensch, a DNA Analyst, who worked for the Weld County Sheriff’s Office at the Northern Colorado Regional Forensic Lab for just over 10 years, was the subject of an internal investigation that began on Jan. 31, 2024.
The internal investigation centered on Wuensch having anomalies in her case work.
The findings of the internal investigation revealed Wuensch violated the Weld County Code for expectations of proper conduct, and the sheriff’s office standards of conduct policy for not cooperating with the agency’s internal investigation.
Based on these findings, the sheriff's office terminated Wuensch's employment on Feb. 28, 2024.
The sheriff’s office intends to pursue criminal charges against Wuensch for the alleged anomalies in her case work, however those charges have yet to be determined as the criminal investigation is still ongoing.
The anomalies in Wuensch’s case work were brought to light due to a separate, active investigation, conducted by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into their own personnel. Due to the ongoing nature of CBI’s investigation, no further information is available at this time.
The anomalies discovered in Wuensch’s case work were limited, and how this will impact the criminal cases she worked on is yet to be determined by the criminal investigation.
“We hire people that we believe have the utmost integrity. No system is better than the people who work in it,” said Weld County Sheriff, Steve Reams.
The WCSO criminal investigation is still ongoing, and no further information will be released until its conclusion.
https://www.forensicmag.com/611309-Colorado-Forensic-Lab-Fires-DNA-Analyst-After-Finding-Anomalies/
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CBS News story: (Excerpt - full story link below):
"It is a very rare and troubling situation," said Raj Chohan, CBS News Colorado Legal Analyst. Chohan said there are many people who have gone through the Weld County judicial system who will be paying attention to what comes from this investigation. "There is a possibility it could taint every major case this person has worked on in the last several years," Chohan said. "DNA is typically considered to be bulletproof evidence in the identification of the defendant. If there is some problem with that evidence, some credibility issues, that is going to be a really important concern for prosecutors." In a statement issued to CBS News Colorado's Dillon Thomas, the Weld County District Attorney's Office said it has received some of the information gathered by investigators. The DA's office is now working on contacting defendants potentially impacted by this investigation in an effort to promote transparency. "The DNA analyst is critically important to proving out cases where identity of the defendant is at issue," Chohan said. "You're going to have situation where you have people in prison serving long stretches of time, after convictions at trial, who are going to ask for their case to be relooked at. Because, they are going to think maybe they have an opening here if there is some reason to question the reliability or the ethics of the DNA analyst."
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/dna-analyst-weld-county-colorado-fired-handling-evidence/
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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/
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/
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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;
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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-12348801
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MORE VALUABLE WORDS: "As a former public defender, Texas' refusal to delay Ivan Cantu's execution to evaluate new evidence is deeply worrying for the state of our legal system. There should be no room for doubt in a death penalty case. The facts surrounding Cantu's execution should haunt all of us."
