Saturday, December 31, 2016

Diana Morales: Texas; Austin police DNA lab supervisor: ('Oh, no. Here we go again' department...More grist for our mill as we head into 2017... HL); Her performance reported by The Austin American-Statesman to have "triggered alarm" in a sex assault case..." At one point, minutes before she was set to testify in the May trial, she also had to call another analyst to help her with calculations, prosecutors said. Grunewald and Smith documented their worries, and the district attorney’s office made those memos part of a file of potential witnesses whom they consider unreliable. Yet Morales, whose qualifications to analyze DNA had been questioned by a colleague as far back as 2010, continued working for the Austin Police Department. Only last week, after the American-Statesman revealed how Morales handled the broken freezer and state experts informed the department that they no longer wanted to help retrain her, did officials reassign her from the lab to the department’s records division. The latest revelations come as the scope of the problems inside the troubled lab continue to come into focus, rippling throughout the Travis County criminal justice system."


STORY: "Austin DNA lab leader’s work triggered alarm in sex assault case," by reporters Tony Plohetski and Andrea Ball, published by The Austin American-Statesman on December 15, 2016.

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/crime--law/austin-dna-lab-leader-work-triggered-alarm-sex-assault-case/7Rwn2cGy1781kJesXdcCVJ/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. 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.