The private lab that is helping the District clear its massive DNA backlog lost a major state contract last year after that state claimed to have found errors in a quarter of its tested samples.
Earlier this year, Bode Technology Group was awarded a nearly $60,000 contract with D.C. police to test samples from 100 unsolved rapes. Bode completed the tests two weeks ago and handed the results to the Metropolitan Police Department.
Beyond catching rapists, the contract with Bode had symbolic importance: Many in the D.C. government had hoped that, after years of delays, the District was finally tapping into DNA’s vast crime-solving potential.
But Bode has had troubles of its own. In August — eight months before the District signed its deal with the company — the Illinois State Police canceled a $7 million contract with Bode after auditors found that the firm’s scientists committed errors in 25 percent of the cases Illinois was sending them.
Bode technicians didn’t find sperm in dozens of samples even though the sperm was there, according to a report from the Illinois State Police.
“There were no wrongful convictions. But obviously, we can’t take chances,” Illinois State Police spokesman Lt. Lincoln Hampton told The Examiner on Wednesday.
Bode officials say they are the victim of Illinois politics — that the Illinois State Police exaggerated the error rate so they could lobby for their own lab.
“It’s easy to point the finger at someone else when things aren’t going right for you,” said Bode General Manager Maureen Loftus.
Loftus said Bode didn’t make any errors in its DNA analysis. However, there were “a couple” of interpretative errors in thousands of fluid samples that could have been made by any scientist, she said.
But some critics of the District’s DNA efforts say they aren’t convinced that D.C. is committed to “getting DNA done right.”
“Given that Bode’s work was of insufficient quality for the Illinois criminal justice system, it certainly shouldn’t be seen as acceptable for the District of Columbia,” said Julia Leighton, general counsel to the D.C. Public Defender Service.
“DNA is powerful evidence, but when poorly processed and analyzed, it can put thewrong person in jail. This does not advance justice — or protect our citizens.”
D.C. police refused comment on the issue Wednesday.
