Thursday, 4:30 PM
State's top forensic official resigns
By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff
The state official who oversees the State Police crime laboratory and the medical examiner's office is resigning amid a raft of investigations into blunders at the operations that have led to several highly publicized firings and suspensions.
LaDonna Hatton, who was appointed by the Romney administration in 2005 as undersecretary for forensic sciences to fix the troubled agencies but ended up struggling with one crisis after another over the past six months, is leaving to become general counsel for the State Police.
"I look forward to returning to my first love, the practice of law, as General Counsel to the State Police," Hatton said in a statement. "There are still many challenges facing the [Office of the Chief Medical Examiner] and Crime Lab, but with strong support from Governor Patrick and Secretary Burke, the important changes that have been identified will be made."
Her departure comes amid four inquiries into the crime lab's alleged mishandling of DNA test results in about two dozen unsolved sexual assault cases. Those problems led to the resignation of the longtime director of the lab and the dismissal of the administrator who oversaw the database.
Hatton's resignation also follows high-profile problems at the medical examiner's office, including the disappearance of the body of a Cape Cod man who was mistakenly buried in another man's grave and had to be dug up last month. The chief medical examiner was suspended as a result of the macabre mistake, and a state-hired consulting firm that is scheduled to complete its analysis of the crime lab by June 30 has expanded its inquiry to include the medical examiner's office.
Although the upheaval had put Hatton under scrutiny, Kevin M. Burke, the head of the Executive Office of Public Safety, vigorously defended her supervision of the lab and medical examiner's office. He told the Globe on March 14 that she had nothing to do with the problems that have roiled both operations and was crucial to fixing them.
"If I had four more LaDonna Hattons, I'd be very pleased," he said tartly.
