“Heaven forbid that they should actually contact the actual defendants that were prosecuted with that crooked evidence. And yes, crooked is precisely the word I meant to use.”

Yup, I didn’t see any indication that any defendants were notified. So, it would also be interesting to map out how the “new findings” of those 29 percent impact the disposition of the (93 or 94) cases. I am not a statistics guy, but if this is general incompetence, I would expect to see close to a 50/50 mix of both inculpatory and exculpatory. But I wouldn’t put any money on that….

I question how “independent” these forensic experts could be if they were being paid by the State Police, especially if they could expect future business from said agency.

“…the State Police contacted the 44 district attorneys’ offices that had been provided evidence associated with Veeder and advised them of the experts’ conclusions.”

Heaven forbid that they should actually contact the actual defendants that were prosecuted with that crooked evidence. And yes, crooked is precisely the word I meant to use.

The injured parties here are not the prosecutors.

The mental image of 44 DA’s trying to cover their proverbial asses would be halarious if, it weren’t so f-ing outrageous!

From the actual Inspector General’s report (click through on the Times article)….

“All 322 cases handled by Veeder from 1993 to 2008, involving fiber and other types of trace evidence, subsequently were reviewed by a group of independent forensic experts retained by the State Police. The independent experts determined that 29 percent of Veeder’s cases were substantively deficient either in their conclusions or documentation, raising serious questions as to his competency. As a result of these findings, the State Police contacted the 44 district attorneys’ offices that had been provided evidence associated with Veeder and advised them of the experts’ conclusions.”

It take a real special mentality to be a cop.

You have to be an evil, sick person. I watched the Witch Hunt documentary last night, and it blew me away at how the current DA and sheriff, who were in charge in the 80s during the Bakersfield witch hunt, could NOT apologize and admit they destroyed lives, and showed no remorse. I am shocked these bastards are still alive. How do you have no evidence, nothing to begin an investigation, go fishing for info to mate with a conclusion that has been reached, and live to tell about it?

There was literally no evidence, very little of the interviews with kids was taped, and people’s lives were destroyed because a kid said something, and it was coerced and taken out of context. What ever happened to real evidence? Jury of your peers — which means idiots, since they didn’t vote not guilty because of ZERO evidence.

“The analyst’s training was so substandard that at one point last year, investigators discovered he could not properly operate a microscope essential to performing his job, the report released on Thursday said. ”

I understand that these are sophisticated devices and not the ones with the little twisty knobs used in high school science class. But give me a few minutes with an experienced co-worker and I’m sure I could figure it out.

ROFLMAO!

It take a real special mentality to be a cop. “Well, shit. While it’s true we were caught with our pants down around our ankles, we’ll just declare that this complete ineptitude and utter laziness didn’t affect any convictions and everyone will just have to believe us, right?