by suggesting the girl might have gotten the semen on her while playing around the crime scene — a wooded area where he said other couples go to have sex — even though she was found fully clothed" !!!
And in an earlier case, he said that an ELEVEN YEAR-OLD victim "may have had consensual sex with someone else before Rivera killed her"!!! Jeebus H. Christ on a trailer hitch.
From the article in the OP:
The Lake County state's attorney's office has been criticized for its approach to DNA evidence in two additional high-profile cases. Prosecutors — led in all three cases by criminal division chief Michael Mermel — have continued to press for convictions even after DNA taken in each case was found not to come from the suspects.
In 2008, Mermel sought to explain the lack of a match in the Hobbs case by suggesting the girl might have gotten the semen on her while playing around the crime scene — a wooded area where he said other couples go to have sex — even though she was found fully clothed.
{snip} In another Lake County case plagued by DNA questions, prosecutors continue to pursue Bennie Starks as the perpetrator in the 1986 rape of a 68-year-old woman in Waukegan. After he was convicted, matching DNA samples taken from a vaginal swab and the woman's underwear were found to not fit Starks' genetic profile.
Awarded a new trial and released on bond in 2006 after he had served 20 years of a 60-year sentence, he awaits trial and has filed a lawsuit against the city of Waukegan.
In another case, Juan Rivera was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted by a jury in May 2009 for the third time in the rape and murder of 11-year-old Holly Staker in Waukegan in 1992.
Though Rivera confessed to the crime, defense experts have said semen found in the girl's body didn't come from him. Prosecutors have suggested the semen may have been tainted or that the girl may have had consensual sex with someone else before Rivera killed her. Prosecutors have said Rivera's confession indicated he knew things only the killer could know.
From a blog of Northwestern Univ law professors from the time the DNA non-match was revealed (Nov. 2008):
Mermel's response is stunning. Whether the semen was in her body cavity or not, it was found on a dead eight year old girl's body and it was not from the man the police believe killed her. Morever, Hobbs's confession does not mention any sexual contact with either of the girls -- he describes an impulsive stabbing not a planned rape.
If the semen is matched to a specific perpetrator and that perpetrator cannot be linked to Hobbs, Lake County prosecutors should admit their error and release Hobbs, rather than try to come up with a new theory to explain away the semen. But don't count on it. In the case of Juan Rivera, which Lake County prosecutors are taking to trial in February, DNA test results on semen found inside an 11 year old victim caused prosecutors to suggest that the 11 year old must have had consensual sex with another man or boy within hours or days of her rape and murder by Juan Rivera. Maybe they'll suggest that 8 year old Laura Hobbs had consensual sex on the day of her murder? Or perhaps they'll argue that some unknown man came upon the dead girl's body, excited himself, and left his DNA on her?
Stay tuned.
http://blog.law.northwestern.edu/bluhm/2008/11/index.ht... From a more recent post on that blog, by the same law prof, he awards the Gold,Silver and Bronze medals for explaining away DNA evidence that doesn't fit:
Explaining Away DNA: Colorado Prosecutor Takes the Gold Medal
In early posts, I have discussed the musings of Lake County Prosecutor Mike Mermel in his efforts to explain away DNA in order to preserve arrests or convictions built solely on the basis of confessions of questionable reliability. Although Lake County prosecutors have ignored DNA results in three cases -- Juan Rivera, Bennie Starks, and Jerry Hobbs -- Mermel's public comments in the wake of DNA evidence in Hobbs's case were the most bizarre I had heard until last week. But first, in the spirit of the Olympic Games, let's lay out the bronze, silver, and gold medal winners for explaining away DNA.
<snip - some truly stunning stuff follows, concerning other asshole DAs>
There was no mention of any sexual assault in Hobbs' confession. Three years later, however, semen was found on Hobb's daughters clothes and in several of her body cavities. It wasn't Hobbs's semen. Faced with this evidence, most prosecutors would have packed their bags and worked overtime to find out the identity of the semen donor. Not Mermel. His take was that the girl must have rubbed up against some semen while playing in the woods, a place where teenagers are constantly going to have sex. "It is such a goofy logic leap because somewhere in her life she came into contact with a sperm cell it means she was sexually assaulted. To take this leap that this is the identity of the mystery killer, I don't know where everybody gets this idea." Mermel went on, "If you swabbed the outhouse handles, it would not be unusual for a little girl to get that sperm...If you swabbed any tops of things like a remote control or your average shopping cart handle, you'd be surprised what you'd find."
http://blog.law.northwestern.edu/bluhm/Another good blog entry by this prof, titled "Accountability for Prosecutors":
http://blog.law.northwestern.edu/bluhm/2009/03/accounta... 
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