Audit calls for changes in police DNA lab

Keith Paul

Thursday, May 23, 2002 | 11:16 a.m.

An audit of Metro Police's DNA lab following a typographical error that wrongfully accused a man of two rapes found some "sloppy work" but no mistakes that led to other wrongful charges, officials told the Sun on Wednesday.

In an internal audit started April 18, police reviewed 254 cases from 2001 and this year where DNA testing proved useful in a case. The audit, which was finished Friday, also looked at the lab's procedures for conducting the testing.

The audit, which will conclude with a written report to be finished Friday, calls for changes in the the lab's DNA testing procedure, including a document review of each case on the paperwork, cases that have a DNA match to an unsolved crime in a database being tested a second time and finding a computer program for DNA reports to reduce the amount of transcription by analysts.

"We found some typos, misspellings and grammatical mistakes along with initials (of lab technicians) in the wrong places, but we are confident there are no people in jail wrongfully accused because of an error," Deputy Chief Ray Flynn said. "There was some sloppy work, but there was no sloppy science."

The audit came after a lab mistake put Lazaro Sotolusson's name on the DNA profile of another man last year. The DNA profile matched evidence collected in two unsolved rapes in the Las Vegas Valley through a computer database and led to Sotolusson being charged.

The charges were dismissed in April after an independent DNA consultant hired by the public defender's office found the mistake.

But Public Defender Marcus Cooper said because Metro's lab made the mistake there should be an outside independent audit conducted.

"That's like (Arthur) Andersen doing their own auditing of themselves and saying their practices are aboveboard," Cooper said. "I think after this kind of error an independent firm should come in and conduct an audit to avoid the appearance that you might try to conceal some negative findings."

Cooper wants a full review including a review of past cases.

"It's frightening to think how close this man (Sotolusson) came to spending the rest of his life in jail," Cooper said. "The stakes here are much too high for Metro to do its own audit. In my opinion they need to undergo an independent audit to assure this community."

Flynn said the National Forensic Science Technology Center will review the lab in June. The review was scheduled in March before the mistake in the Sotolusson case was found.

"(The lab) made a mistake, but the mistake was sloppy clerical work not science. We have addressed the issues," Flynn said. "How we treated the (Sotolusson) case and admitted the mistake should add to the public's confidence in us. We admitted to the mistake and are making changes."

The mistake in the Sotolusson case was found in an independent review of the evidence by California-based forensic DNA consultant Norah Rudin. The review almost didn't happened because the public defender's office couldn't initially get the money. But deputy public defenders Darin Imlay and Brigid Hoffman, Sotolusson's attorneys in the rape cases, were able to get the testing done.

Rudin said she caught the mistake only after going back and comparing the original data and realizing the DNA profile that was matched to the rape cases was not the same as Sotolusson's original DNA profile.

"I started from the original data and looked at my findings and reread it and reread it again. The DNA was was perfectly fine; the names on the samples got switched," she said. "If I hadn't looked at the original data, I likely wouldn't have found the mistake. That's one of the reasons that I always look at the original data."

Rudin said sometimes laboratory analysts can become too complacent about the paperwork involved, and in Metro's lab there appears to be too many handwritten transcription involved in lab work.

"They didn't do anything intentionally wrong. They made a mistake," said Rudin, who has worked with several police departments' DNA labs and has co-authored a book on DNA forensic analysis. "I believe every case needs to be reviewed by an independent analyst."

The lab mistake stems from an allegation make by a cellmate that Sotolusson sexually assaulted him. Immigration and Naturalization Service was holding Sotolusson in the North Las Vegas jail after he completed his sentence on aggravated stalking.

Samples were taken from both men for DNA testing. The samples were then run against a computer database of DNA profiles of unsolved case and the match was found in the unsolved rape cases. But Sotolusson's name was transposed onto the DNA profile of the cellmate. Police believe the cellmate, Joseph Coppola, has the DNA that matches the unsolved rape cases, but he has not been charged.

The case against Sotolusson involving Coppola's allegations in the jail also were dropped.

Sotolusson remains in the Las Vegas jail held by the INS.

His current attorney, Barry Levinson, said a civil lawsuit against Metro is expected to be filed in the coming weeks in federal court in Las Vegas.

The lab analyst who made the mistake and the supervisor who did not catch the mistake during a review were not disciplined, Flynn said. He said the issue was not violating department policy, but a mistake.

Rudin has reviewed the Metro DNA lab results in the past and has had some "minor disagreements on interpretation" of results but has never found an error like the one in the Sotolusson case.

"It was a horrible mistake that they are taking the steps to correct and I think it would be foolish to vilify them to the point where no one trusted them again," Rudin said. "I've reviewed a lot of labs and they are one of the better ones."