The Detroit Free Press
More than a year after the Detroit Police Department shuttered its error-troubled crime lab, the facility might be making a comeback.
A plan announced in June to convert the old MGM Grand Detroit casino into a new police headquarters includes plans to build a state-of-the-art crime lab there.
This time, the lab would be staffed, not by city police, but rather by the Michigan State Police as its eighth testing facility, said Detroit police spokesman John Roach.
City and state officials, as well as prosecutors throughout the region, have applauded the idea, saying that the new lab would help alleviate the State Police's months-long testing backlog that was aggravated with the 2008 shutdown of the Detroit lab.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said that given the problems with Detroit's lab -- specifically, a 10% error rate found in its firearms testing -- it would be better for the state to staff the new facility.
"This affects timely justice not just in the city of Detroit, but in the whole state of Michigan," Worthy told the Free Press in an e-mail.
New lab could solve crimes, problems
Just days after Timothy Prince's murder trial began, Macomb County assistant prosecutor Bill Cataldo got some startling news.
A fillet knife discovered at the crime scene -- one that had been immersed in water for five days, cleaning it of any blood -- had minute remnants of the victim's muscle tissue stuck to the blade more than 10 months after the crime was committed.
It was potentially crucial evidence against Prince. But because the DNA lab result came back after the trial began, Cataldo couldn't present it to jurors because Prince's lawyers didn't have time to prepare a defense.
"We were lucky; the jury came back with a guilty verdict anyway," Cataldo said, "but we realize we're having problems."
The trouble lies in the statewide backlog of evidence that has piled up at the seven State Police crime labs, which have been handling an estimated 20,000 extra cases annually since Detroit's lab was shuttered at the end of 2008 because of a 10% error rate in its firearms cases. That's on top of the 110,000 cases the state already handled each year.
State and Detroit police officials said the backlog could be alleviated if the city proceeds with plans to move its police headquarters to the old MGM Grand Detroit casino site downtown. The state-of-the-art headquarters would feature a new crime lab that would be staffed by State Police workers.
"We took on a large caseload that we never had to take on before," said John Collins, director of the state's forensic science division. "This lets us recover from the compression we've experienced from the influx."
The new lab would be fully accredited and regularly audited to avoid the rampant mistakes that plagued the city-run lab, officials said.
An instant backlog
An October 2008 audit discovered the firearms testing errors in the Detroit lab, prompting Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and then-Police Chief James Barren to announce the closing of all operations.
The workload, which included fingerprint and DNA analysis, fell to the state -- and the influx caused an immediate backlog.
"The slowdown has come from the state having to assume Wayne County's work," said Cataldo, who is Macomb County's chief homicide prosecutor. "Wayne is the largest county in the state and has the highest crime rate. It still has more than 300 homicides a year. Macomb only has 30-40 a year."
Cataldo called the possibility of a Detroit-dedicated crime lab "marvelous." DNA testing has become an especially lengthy process, he said.
"TV shows like 'CSI' and 'NCIS' have created the terrible illusion that you get DNA back before the next commercial, and that's not the case," he said.
Since Detroit's lab shuttered, most of the city's cases have been routed to state labs in Sterling Heights and Northville, which had to convert closets into evidence overflow rooms as the cases piled up.
Two labs had been scheduled to close because of state budget cuts, but both ultimately were spared the ax. The state also rerouted funds to the overburdened labs to hire nearly 40 employees.
Still, the workload remains: The state is backlogged with 3,079 cases needing biological testing, which includes DNA analysis, Collins said. Firearms backlogs increased from 2,695 at the end of 2008 to 4,437 now. Collins said 84% of those cases are from Detroit.
Plans still being worked on
Details of the proposed new Detroit lab -- such as how big it might be and how much it would cost -- haven't been worked out yet, police spokesman John Roach said. City officials announced plans last month for the proposed new headquarters, which comes with a $53-million price tag: $6.32 million for the former casino property, and $47 million for renovations.
Collins said staffing the lab would come at the state's expense, while the city likely would maintain the facility. The lab would need to be sizeable to handle the huge caseload, he said, and have proper ventilation because of the chemicals used in some forensic testing.
"It would need good security of the evidence and good security of the scientists," Collins said.
For Cataldo, the what-ifs presented by the Prince case were sobering. The 43-year-old Armada Township man was convicted by a jury of fatally stabbing his neighbor, 87-year-old Dorothy Cezik, on March 7, 2009.
Cataldo considers himself lucky that jurors weighed the circumstantial evidence in favor of a guilty verdict. He is now outspoken about the importance of waiting for all testing to be finished before moving forward to trial, no matter how long it takes.
"Most judges will wait," he said, "but it's very frustrating because the cases just languish."
A plan announced in June to convert the old MGM Grand Detroit casino into a new police headquarters includes plans to build a state-of-the-art crime lab there.
This time, the lab would be staffed, not by city police, but rather by the Michigan State Police as its eighth testing facility, said Detroit police spokesman John Roach.
City and state officials, as well as prosecutors throughout the region, have applauded the idea, saying that the new lab would help alleviate the State Police's months-long testing backlog that was aggravated with the 2008 shutdown of the Detroit lab.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said that given the problems with Detroit's lab -- specifically, a 10% error rate found in its firearms testing -- it would be better for the state to staff the new facility.
"This affects timely justice not just in the city of Detroit, but in the whole state of Michigan," Worthy told the Free Press in an e-mail.
New lab could solve crimes, problems
Just days after Timothy Prince's murder trial began, Macomb County assistant prosecutor Bill Cataldo got some startling news.
A fillet knife discovered at the crime scene -- one that had been immersed in water for five days, cleaning it of any blood -- had minute remnants of the victim's muscle tissue stuck to the blade more than 10 months after the crime was committed.
It was potentially crucial evidence against Prince. But because the DNA lab result came back after the trial began, Cataldo couldn't present it to jurors because Prince's lawyers didn't have time to prepare a defense.
"We were lucky; the jury came back with a guilty verdict anyway," Cataldo said, "but we realize we're having problems."
The trouble lies in the statewide backlog of evidence that has piled up at the seven State Police crime labs, which have been handling an estimated 20,000 extra cases annually since Detroit's lab was shuttered at the end of 2008 because of a 10% error rate in its firearms cases. That's on top of the 110,000 cases the state already handled each year.
State and Detroit police officials said the backlog could be alleviated if the city proceeds with plans to move its police headquarters to the old MGM Grand Detroit casino site downtown. The state-of-the-art headquarters would feature a new crime lab that would be staffed by State Police workers.
"We took on a large caseload that we never had to take on before," said John Collins, director of the state's forensic science division. "This lets us recover from the compression we've experienced from the influx."
The new lab would be fully accredited and regularly audited to avoid the rampant mistakes that plagued the city-run lab, officials said.
An instant backlog
An October 2008 audit discovered the firearms testing errors in the Detroit lab, prompting Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and then-Police Chief James Barren to announce the closing of all operations.
The workload, which included fingerprint and DNA analysis, fell to the state -- and the influx caused an immediate backlog.
"The slowdown has come from the state having to assume Wayne County's work," said Cataldo, who is Macomb County's chief homicide prosecutor. "Wayne is the largest county in the state and has the highest crime rate. It still has more than 300 homicides a year. Macomb only has 30-40 a year."
Cataldo called the possibility of a Detroit-dedicated crime lab "marvelous." DNA testing has become an especially lengthy process, he said.
"TV shows like 'CSI' and 'NCIS' have created the terrible illusion that you get DNA back before the next commercial, and that's not the case," he said.
Since Detroit's lab shuttered, most of the city's cases have been routed to state labs in Sterling Heights and Northville, which had to convert closets into evidence overflow rooms as the cases piled up.
Two labs had been scheduled to close because of state budget cuts, but both ultimately were spared the ax. The state also rerouted funds to the overburdened labs to hire nearly 40 employees.
Still, the workload remains: The state is backlogged with 3,079 cases needing biological testing, which includes DNA analysis, Collins said. Firearms backlogs increased from 2,695 at the end of 2008 to 4,437 now. Collins said 84% of those cases are from Detroit.
Plans still being worked on
Details of the proposed new Detroit lab -- such as how big it might be and how much it would cost -- haven't been worked out yet, police spokesman John Roach said. City officials announced plans last month for the proposed new headquarters, which comes with a $53-million price tag: $6.32 million for the former casino property, and $47 million for renovations.
Collins said staffing the lab would come at the state's expense, while the city likely would maintain the facility. The lab would need to be sizeable to handle the huge caseload, he said, and have proper ventilation because of the chemicals used in some forensic testing.
"It would need good security of the evidence and good security of the scientists," Collins said.
For Cataldo, the what-ifs presented by the Prince case were sobering. The 43-year-old Armada Township man was convicted by a jury of fatally stabbing his neighbor, 87-year-old Dorothy Cezik, on March 7, 2009.
Cataldo considers himself lucky that jurors weighed the circumstantial evidence in favor of a guilty verdict. He is now outspoken about the importance of waiting for all testing to be finished before moving forward to trial, no matter how long it takes.
"Most judges will wait," he said, "but it's very frustrating because the cases just languish."
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