AURORA | Aurora police’s accidental destruction of DNA evidence in more than 450 cases was an aberration and not indicative of wider problems in the department, a panel of prosecutors and former police chiefs has ruled.
Still, the panel, tasked by former Chief Dan Oates to study the evidence destruction last year, said the department should restructure its evidence unit to avoid future problems. The changes should include hiring a civilian supervisor for the property unit and sparingly using commissioned officers.
“The panel deems that the destruction of the majority of the evidence during the specified time period was proper and that the evidence that was prematurely destroyed was an aberration in the practices of the APD and not a sign of a systemic problem with the APD, command staff or officers,” the panel wrote in its 12-page report issued in early June.
Aurora police spokesman Officer Frank Fania said the department is reviewing the panel’s findings and recommendations. Some of the recommendations that would require the department to hire additional staff will need approval from city council, he said.
Police announced the destruction of the evidence last year and said in more than 450 cases, officers destroyed actual or potential DNA evidence that, under a state law passed in 2009, should have been stored for longer.
According to the panel, police destroyed evidence in 455 cases; 373 in Arapahoe County and 82 in Adams County.
In 339 of those cases, the panel said there was no violation of the DNA evidence laws. In another 58 cases, the destruction amounted to a technical violation of the law, but
the panel said those cases had already been investigated and police and prosecutors determined charges were not going to be filed.
In 52 cases, the evidence could have been used by a defendant on appeal. Many of those defendants have been contacted, the panel said, and investigators are considering how to handle the other cases.
That left six cases — all of them sex assaults or attempted sexual assaults — where charges cannot be brought because the DNA evidence was destroyed. In two of those cases, the evidence was submitted into a state database before being destroyed, so there is a chance it could be matched to a suspect, the panel said. If that happens, prosecutors will have to decide if there is enough evidence to move forward with a case.
In the other four cases, the evidence was destroyed before being entered into a state database so the panel said the cases will likely never be prosecuted.
Another perspective on the APD DNA debacle is, that this is one case where the counsel’s hatred for the police backfired on them. They have refused to properly staff the evidence room for many years. Chief Oates did not listen to his staff either when he was told that understaffing was leading to a problem. Oates has a habit of backing people who are incompetent, then covering up, or cleaning up the problems that arise from the incompetence.
Just my lil’ ole opinion. 😉