County crime lab navigates DNA regulations, expectations
Blog note: this article references a 2016 grand jury report.
It had been nearly 40 years since authorities found the denim jacket soaked in the victim’s blood. But in the decades since, the technology behind DNA testing improved, a federal database was created and juries have grown to expect this type of evidence.
Hidden on the jacket was a small sample of another person’s DNA and today, the case is no longer cold. But while the San Mateo County crime lab has recently uncovered leads in a number of cases, it, like many others, has a backlog.
An uptick in submissions from nonviolent property crimes tend to be pushed to the backburner while cases of homicide or sexual assault rise to the top. A sample that hasn’t been tested within 30 days after receipt is considered backlogged.
It’s now a matter of triaging, prioritizing and keeping up with increasing demands for this type of unique evidence, said Alex Karagianes, director of the Sheriff’s Office Forensic Laboratory. They’re also navigating new state laws and changes to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS. Last week, the county accepted a two-year $150,000 federal grant through the DNA Backlog Capacity Enhancement and Reduction Program, which will be used to train technicians and purchase supplies, according to a Board of Supervisors staff report.
“We’re putting a lot of resources into it, and rightfully so,” Karagianes said. “We don’t have any backlogs in major crimes against persons.”
Homicides and assaults are prioritized and the local lab is proud to say there is no longer a backlog of rape kits — a national issue that made headlines several years ago. Court necessity, or samples from cases in the midst of prosecution, also rise to the top of the hierarchy, he said.
But in a county with relatively low rates of violence and where property crimes are on the rise, the lab has seen an increase in the number of samples being submitted for testing, according to Alice Hilker, a supervising criminalist who oversees the lab’s forensic biology and DNA section.
House keys, pens, baseball caps, clothing, water bottles and a variety of other “touch case” items are frequently submitted for DNA sampling, Hilker said. That’s aside from samples of blood and bodily fluids. Over the last seven years, submissions have more than doubled. Not including cold cases, the local crime lab received 1,780 DNA requests in 2017, up from the 801 samples in 2010, according to Karagianes and Hilker.
“Submissions are on the rise because people are more aware of DNA. Juries expect it now,” Hilker said. “We have more information so people expect more information.”
But unlike the television shows, testing DNA is a much more laborious process than some might think. It takes time to lift a sample that might be used to match a known suspect or be ran through CODIS. If the federal database returns a hit, a second sample is taken from a suspect to confirm the match. Then, cases undergo technical, administrative and quality review by three others in the lab, Hilker and Karagianes explained. On average, it takes about two weeks, they said.
“Everybody has a backlog, I think it’s just the nature of it. It’s just trying to have a priority [system],” Karagianes said. “It takes longer to test than people think.”
The influx of samples related to property crimes, has led to a total backlog of about 390 cases, according to the report and Karagianes. While some less urgent samples might sit for up to a year, such as a case of a felon in possession, the average turnaround is about 81 days, according to Hilker and Karagianes.
“A high priority is given to sexual assault cases, and to homicide cases that come,” Karagianes said.
Wiping away the backlog of sexual assault kits became a public focus following national news reports and a 2016 report by the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury. Between fall 2015 and mid 2016, the grand jury found the local crime lab cleared a backlog of nearly 70 untested rape kits, which was down from a previously reported 138 in 2014.
New state laws seek to address backlogs in sexual assault cases by requiring evidence be sent to the lab within 30 days, then ran through CODIS within 120 days. The local crime lab implemented policies that prepared it to meet the requirements. Instead of waiting for a law enforcement agency to submit samples, the lab picks them up directly from the county hospital. It’s also complying with a bill that, starting this month, began requiring information about rape kits be submitted to a state database within 120 days, said Hilker and Karagianes.
“I think it’s trying to get a bigger picture of sexual assault cases in the state,” Hilker said of the new rules.
With a growing database of DNA, the FBI has also implemented changes criminalists must navigate. To make the searches more robust, the CODIS platform expanded to consider 20 genetic alleles, up from 13 markers; and it moved to a frequency-based system, which considers how rare the alleles are, Karagianes said.
“DNA has become so large and so applicable to so many things,” Karagianes said.
But while the field of forensics has expanded, triggering a growing number of samples submitted, DNA testing continues to provide new opportunities in a timeless effort to solve crimes.
“We’ve had a lot of success with cold cases, but it takes longer to process,” Hilker said. “You’re looking at so much evidence that people have already looked at over the years, so you have to think outside of the box.”
DNA evidence recently led authorities to suspects in several cold cases, it’s also cleared one person who was serving time for a wrongful conviction in Nevada. Whether it’s a decades-old blood soaked jacket from a homicide case, or a baseball cap left behind at the scene of a burglary, Hilker said the lab is motivated by helping to provide answers for victims and their families.
“That’s why a lot of us do it,” Hilker said. “As a whole, we are very proud of what we do because we know that.”
January 17, 2018
San Mateo Daily Journal
By Samantha Weigel
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