Thursday, Sept. 2, 2004 | 9:41 a.m.
Sitting in an envelope in the Metro Police forensics lab, among thousands of others, there could be a DNA sample that would solve a crime.
But the department is so strapped for funding that it could take years before a particular sample is linked to a crime, a situation illustrated Tuesday when a man believed to be the notorious East Flamingo rapist was arrested almost two years after Metro obtained his sample.
"Until we get more folks in the forensics lab we will probably have (these delays) coming up from time to time," said Capt. Tom Hawkins, head of the criminalistics bureau.
Metro has three scientists who test DNA, but their main focus is testing samples that come in on major, active cases -- cases in which people are sitting in jail for murder, robbery and rape and waiting for the results to prove their guilt or innocence and ones that are heading to trial, Hawkins said.
In those cases, the turnaround rate is satisfactory, Deputy Chief Greg McCurdy, who is in charge of the investigative services division, which includes the forensics lab.
But in the case of Dushon Green, the 38-year-old man accused of being the East Flamingo rapist, his DNA sample was taken as a matter of routine after he was convicted in 2002 of pandering.
State law requires parole and probation officers to take DNA samples from those convicted in 198 different crimes so they can eventually be tested against specimens collected in unsolved crimes.
Green's mouth was swabbed and the sample was added to thousands of others waiting to be compared to unknown specimens. The DNA specialists get to them when they have time, McCurdy said.
Over the past three fiscal years, Hawkins said he requested additional funding so more DNA specialists could be hired, but the funds never came through because hiring more police officers always came first.
"If we had more money to allocate to the crime lab we would do it, but the current funding is such that we have to prioritize things," Undersheriff Doug Gillespie said, noting that Sheriff Bill Young made a committment to the residents of Clark County to put more cops on the streets.
Metro is seeking more funding through a ballot initiative in November, but if it passes the money would go toward hiring more police officers, not hiring civilian lab personnel.
Because of the department's limited funds, "we were instructed to look at other sources" to get the routinely-taken samples tested, Hawkins said.
In January 2003 Metro and Washoe County applied jointly to the National Institute of Justice for a grant so the speciments could be sent elsewhere for processing.
Early this year the $127,600 grant was approved. Metro sent 2,840 of its 3,800 untested samples and Washoe sent 1,430 to a private lab in Nashville, Tenn.
Upon getting the results in 915 cases back, police discovered that Green's specimen matched DNA collected from scenes of the serial rapist's attacks.
Investigators got what are believed to be matches for eight other unsolved cases -- two homicides, five sexual assaults, a gun case and a burglary -- but as of this morning the results had not yet been confirmed, Hawkins said.
The remaining specimens that Metro sent to the lab are still being tested.
Based on the size of Metro, Hawkins said the department should have eight to 10 DNA analysts, but he would be happy with two more, bringing the total to five.
The DNA analysts have been working overtime, but that's not the answer, Hawkins said.
"This work is very mentally fatiguing and you don't want to take the chance in risking the quality," he said.
Until more funding comes through, the department will continue to apply for grants and the samples will be tested as time allows.
"It's frustrating to know we could probably put some other bad folks in jail," he said.
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