Judge: False DNA common

[flashl]

A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge says that he warned prosecutors and San Jose police years ago against using phony crime lab reports as a ruse during interrogations - long before the recent controversy that forced police to disavow the practice.

The warning from Judge Ray Cunningham, now the presiding judge of the county's criminal courts, is one indication uncovered this past week that the police use of the phony reports during questioning of sex crime suspects was more extensive than previously known. Cunningham said the case dated to the 1990s. In a separate 2002 case, detective Juan Serrano described the use of ruse crime lab reports as "standard procedure" at that time.

Further, as Cunningham's comments reflect, the practice had drawn concern long before detective Matthew Christian falsely testified last year that a crime lab report implicated Michael Kerkeles as having sexually assaulted a developmentally-disabled woman who lived nearby. The charges against Kerkeles were dropped last year once his attorney asked for the resume of Rebecca Roberts, the name on the crime lab report - and learned she was a fictional character and the report had been concocted by Christian.

Police and prosecutors have since accepted Christian's explanation that he forgot he had earlier created the report to try to win a confession from Kerkeles.

False DNA report

Police detectives also created a false report bearing the name of fictional analyst Rebecca Roberts when they convinced Marino Hernandez in 2002 to give a DNA sample that linked him to a series of sexual assaults, court records show.

Serrano's partner, Todd Trayer, testified that he had invented Roberts' name when he created the false report for questioning Hernandez. Trayer told the court that he entered information into a "boilerplate faux DNA sheet" that was used in the sexual assaults unit, printed the form out and took it to his interview with Hernandez.

The form appears authentic, bearing the seal of the county district attorney, which operates the lab.

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[acmavm]

1. We have entered a really ugly era in police procedures. With rulings that

police have the green light to lie to 'suspects' came a lot of ugly and less that kosher 'tactics' by police departments all across the nation. Let's just face it, a lot of times the police don't really give a damn if they have the right person, they just want to close a case. Be able to take credit for a solve on their records.

[flashl]

2. overview ...

Highlights

• police use of the phony reports during questioning
  
• use of ruse crime lab reports as "standard procedure"
  
• falsely testified last year that a crime lab report implicated
  
• created a false report bearing the name of fictional analyst
  
• boilerplate faux DNA sheet
  
• law enforcement officials were warned
  
• district attorney's office last week failed to respond to questions
  

This is probably where there is a 'reality break' between those who are outraged by the soprano admin breaking the 'law' and those who know different from their own or someone they know experiences.

[acmavm]

3. People are lazy. They don't think. They figure if it puts a 'bad guy' behind

bars, who cars what tactics the police (or the federal goverment) uses. Until they're caught up in the crosshairs of lies and false evidence. Or until someone they know is. Then its too damn late. And then they care.

Americans have to be the laziest individuals on this poor planet.

[varkam]

4. He forgot? What bullshit.

Ooops! It completely slipped my mind that the crucial piece of evidence against this man was total make-believe!

:eyes: