(Sarah Fox/Occupy Wall Street) DNA Match Tying Protest to 2004 Killing Is Doubted

[alp227]

Source: NYT

A link between DNA from the unsolved killing of Sarah Fox, a Juilliard student, in 2004 and DNA taken from a chain placed at the site of an Occupy Wall Street action in March may be the result of a laboratory error, according to two people briefed on the investigation.

One of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said it appeared that the DNA recovered from skin cells on the slain woman’s portable compact disc player and from the chain found this year came from a Police Department employee who works with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Nonetheless, the renewed focus on a DNA link to the Fox case has drawn attention to the way investigators are now using DNA collection for far more than just the most serious of crimes.

The decision by investigators to search for DNA samples on the chain, which was used to hold open a subway entrance gate, illustrates how such collections have become a routine part of a wide range of criminal investigations.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/nyregion/suspected-dna-link-to-2004-killing-was-the-result-of-a-lab-error.html

[suffragette]

1. Now isn't that interesting

You'd think they would ensure ALL personnel who might have been involved in testing would be excluded, especially before releasing it to the media.
Well, unless they wanted this out in the media for some other reason.

[MADem]

3. Did they release this info, or did someone sneak it to Murdoch's guys? And then the PD said

there are "indications" but "an investigation is ongoing" so they weren't going to comment?

I think it was leaked. Not positive, though.

[suffragette]

6. The question would still be: why would that occur/ what purpose would it serve

Village Voice made a good point in asking that and bringing up at least two recent cases where the NYPD purposefully leaked information to to direct media coverage in the way they wanted. (In those cases, they did this while at the same time denying FOIAs for more information for the victims' families.)

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/07/questions_raise.php

In the meantime, there are some questions about how this information was leaked, why it happened when it did, and what interests the leak serves.

Steve Vaccaro, a lawyer who is currently litigating multiple cases in which selective NYPD leaks have apparently been used to slant public perception of a case, said the leak in the Fox case can only serve to tip off the murderer, assuming the DNA link is legitimate.

"I can't see any legitimate law enforcement purpose to leaking that kind of information," Vaccaro said. "It raises the question of what other purpose they might have. It certainly doesn't speak well for the department in terms of its ability to control leaks."



I'd add it certainly does not speak well about the controls and competency for DNA evidence either: sloppy at best, questionable at worst.

And what DNA is being collected from where/whom to examine, what conditions trigger collection and what DNA in databases (and how was that collected and what permission provided to use it) are the collected samples compared against.

[MADem]

8. I get the sense this was a screw up--someone mouthed off, maybe for money.

Of course, the papers don't admit to doing that "pay for news" thing, but you never know.

If the cops did leak it purposefully, and wanted the papers to run with it, it would be to make the suspect they are surveilling jump and run.

However, we now know there is no "connection" between the items-- it was just a lab tech working on both items (the cd player and the chain) who got sloppy.

I say the lab tech gets fired quite possibly and they go looking for the leaker.

We'll see, though--who knows?

[suffragette]

15. The suspect they've had is not connected to OWS and he's already been out of the country and back

And he keeps going to the police himself.

[MADem]

17. By "someone" I meant someone from within the police department who has been a media source for some

time--either paid or out of a sense of self-importance.

The person spoke too soon--he or she heard an initial report and jumped the gun.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

4. Well, unless they wanted this out in the media for some other reason.

Right Wing chain mail.

[suffragette]

7. Very good point

[Blue_Tires]

12. Yeah, they got a lot of mileage with the "OWS-DNA-Unsolved murder" headlines

I think this was planned...

[suffragette]

16. Agree with you. Good point made in this article about that

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/12/occupy-murder-mess-points-to-problems-with-new-york-s-dna-database.html

The NYPD’s press office declined to answer The Daily Beast’s questions about why DNA was collected from the chain. But David Kaye, a law professor at Penn State and the author of The Double Helix and the Law of Evidence, said the department’s tactics in this case stood out.

“What’s interesting is taking [the DNA] from a chain that so many people could have touched and then running that through the database of crime-scene samples ... and finding a match,” he said. “I guess that’s creative.”

“They’re either very committed to finding clues, no matter how weak, or they’re out to get a group of people.”

[MADem]

2. It has been thoroughly discredited according to sources from the NYPOST to the WAPO.

The DNA belongs to a lab tech who worked on both cases. The lab tech is in trouble for sloppiness.

Obviously someone in the media game had a "snitch" inside the PD to get "hot tips." This hot tip turned out to be nothing more than an internal fuckup, and I wouldn't be surprised if the PD is wondering who the Big Mouth was--that lab tech may lose his or her job, and so might the snitch.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. The DNA belongs to a lab tech who worked on both cases.

Now we all know the perfect job for a murderer.

A lab tech who tests DNA at murder scenes.

[MADem]

9. Or a detective. Or a blood spatter expert, a la Dexter! nt

[Festivito]

10. Yet, 10,000s of rape kits go untested.

A co-worker discredits Occupy because someone pooped on a cop car.

If he sees this article, he'll ASSUME the truth lies in the middle.

I just wonder how did the police get their 30 pieces of silver this time.

[Huey P. Long]

11. Good point. -eom

[Billsmile]

13. July 11

The fact that the media was all over this premature NYPD "leak" yesterday morning may have been a concerted effort to smear the OWS protesters prior to them retaking Zuccotti Park later in the day.

[truebrit71]

14. ^This is the correct answer...

Still waiting for CNBC to retract/correct their gleeful reporting of this yesterday...