Thursday, 4:30 PM
Lawmakers look for answers in mishandling of DNA
By Jonathan Saltzman and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff
Key state lawmakers demanded answers Tuesday about the mishandling of DNA test results at the State Police laboratory as the agency acknowledged that analyses of genetic material from unsolved rape cases sat on an administrator’s desk for months while prosecutors lost their chance to pursue charges.
Senator Jarrett T. Barrios, the likely incoming cochairman of the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, said state public safety officials told him that the DNA database administrator knew last February of DNA matches in several cases but waited until September to inform police and prosecutors.
Barrios -- who was briefed Tuesday by Colonel Mark F. Delaney, superintendent of the State Police, and LaDonna Hatton, undersecretary for forensic sciences -- said the delays and false reports reveal a serious deficiency at the lab: The administrator alone appeared to control the reporting of DNA test results to police and prosecutors.
"I’m not passing judgment on this person," Barrios said. "But suppose the [positive] hit was on his brother and he chose not to tell anybody? Nobody would be the wiser."
The investigation will look at who was supposed to be supervising the DNA administrator, Robert E. Pino, said Lieutenant Detective William Powers, a State Police spokesman.
"I don’t think you’d find that this whole investigation would center on just this one guy,’’ Powers said. ‘‘It’s going to be not just why the work didn’t get done, but why it didn’t get noticed."
Barrios said the lapses were particularly alarming since the Legislature increased funding of the lab from $6.2 million in fiscal 2005 to $16.2 million in fiscal 2007. The Cambridge Democrat, who was co-chairman of the public safety committee last year and expects to be reappointed shortly, said he planned to hold hearings this year on the lab’s performance.
"The public has a right to know why their dollars, apparently, have been misspent," he said. "We need to have confidence that this is just one person and not something systemic in the lab that allowed this to happen."
State Police disclosed Friday that an internal investigation showed that the administrator had failed to tell prosecutors of DNA matches in some cases, and in other cases falsely reported that DNA found at crime scenes matched suspects.
In the statement, Delaney said he is bringing in the FBI to conduct an independent audit of DNA testing procedures at the lab in Sudbury, which he headed for about four years before becoming superintendent last year.
State Police did not name the administrator, but his union confirmed Saturday that it was Pino and blamed understaffing and inadequate funding. He was suspended with pay Thursday, Powers said.
Pino declined to comment Tuesday, saying he remains an employee and the allegations are under investigation. Pino, a 1983 graduate of Boston College, has worked at the crime lab for more than 22 years and has been the civilian DNA administrator for the last seven, according to a short biography on the BC website.
Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com; Ellement at ellement@globe.com.
