Error-prone Detroit police crime lab shut down

The Detroit police crime lab was shut down by the city's new mayor and police chief after an outside audit found errors in some evidence used to prosecute cases involving murder and other crimes, officials said Thursday.

An audit by Michigan State Police found erroneous or false findings in 10 percent of 200 random cases and subpar quality control compliance at the lab, said Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy.

The report revealed a "shocking level of incompetence" in the lab and constitutes a systemic problem, she said at a news conference. When it came to recognized work standards, the lab met only 42 percent of a required 100 percent, Worthy said.

Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. and Police Chief James Barren made the decision to shut down the Detroit lab and use the state police lab for all Detroit criminal investigations. The lab commander was also relieved of duty, Barren said.

Officials have also started what will probably be an expensive and time-consuming analysis of past cases going back years in which lab findings were used or admitted into evidence, Worthy said.

"This may be only the tip of the iceberg," Cockrel said. A more detailed audit report is due next month.

Firearms work at the city police lab, housed in a former school outside downtown, first was halted in the spring after a firearms expert hired by defense attorney Marvin Barnett told Worthy about findings in his client's double-murder case.

The lab had determined that 42 shell casings from a May 2007 shooting were from the same weapon. State police later determined two different weapons were used. Worthy then ordered the audit.

Jarrhod Williams pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree premeditated murder before the audit results, Barnett said. Williams hasn't been sentenced, and Worthy said he should be given the option of withdrawing his plea and getting a new trial, or continuing the plea.

But his attorney wants the case dismissed.

"I anticipated there would be some problems," Barnett told The Associated Press. "I never anticipated an audited error rate of 10 percent. It's not the tip of the iceberg. It's the iceberg itself. The question is, how big is the glacier?"

Criminals may have gone uncharged because of the lab's shortcomings, Worthy said.

"We have no idea how many people are walking around that have committed crimes that we don't know about," said Worthy, who also blamed the problems on human error, as well as a lack of funding, resources and training.

Barren has reassigned the lab as an evidence collection point and will move its 33 police officers to other positions. The lab's 35 civilian employees will get more training.

"As prosecutors, we completely rely on the findings of police crime lab experts every day in court, and we present this information to our juries," Worthy said. "And when there are failures of this magnitude, there is a complete betrayal of trust. We feel betrayed, as prosecutors."

The problems at the lab follow a sex scandal involving former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and a former top aide that resulted in Kilpatrick's resignation. He will be sentenced to four months in prison and five years probation on Oct. 28.