Former FBI Lab Biologist Pleads Guilty to Falsifying DNA Reports

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAFR98NEUD.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - A former biologist in the FBI laboratory pleaded guilty Tuesday to submitting falsified DNA analysis reports in over 100 cases.

Jacqueline A. Blake, 40, of Upper Marlboro, Md., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Washington to a single count of making false statements on official government reports she prepared. Blake faces a maximum penalty of a year in prison and a $100,000 fine at sentencing scheduled for Sept. 20.

Blake admitted that from August 1999 to June 2002 she wrote and submitted more than 100 reports containing false statements about her DNA analysis work. In particular, she falsely certified that she had performed certain control tests designed to ensure the reliability of the DNA analysis.

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[DoYouEverWonder]

1. So how many people are in jail

because of this gal?

[Desperadoe]

2. Does this mean???

Does this mean that those 100 cases must be re-tried? And another thing.....if she submitted reports in 100 cases why is she only charged with a single count?

If there are people that are falsely imprisoned or if perps have walked, she should go to prison for life!!

[Lou_C]

3. How many have died or are on death row because of her?

She needs more then a year in prison.

[9215]

4. Get this, the falsifieds were all Bush opponents!!

(((Just Kidding)))


This story leaves alot of questions. First one being why did she do it? Was she ordered to, paid, etc.?

[Judi Lynn]

5. If she had nothing better to do, it's a shame she just didn't do her job.

From an earlier article:

The DNA unit's problems began in spring 2001, when a lab worker found that a colleague, Jacqueline Blake, had not performed "negative controls" when lifting DNA profiles from evidence from unsolved crimes. The controls are designed to make sure that a "foreign profile," such as DNA from an examiner's clothes, is not mistaken for material from the crime scene.

Blake was fired.

Dwight Adams, director of the FBI's crime lab, said the 103 cases are being retested. About half have been done, he said, and they showed Blake's findings were right. None of her work was used in a prosecution.
(snip/...)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-04-30-lab-usat_x.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Justice Department's inspector general is investigating FBI lab technician Jacqueline Blake for allegedly failing to follow proper scientific procedure when analyzing DNA in at least 103 cases over the past few years, officials said.

The officials said they have found that the technician failed to compare the DNA evidence with control samples, a required step to ensure the accuracy of tests. Blake resigned from the FBI lab recently.

Blake's work has become an issue in a prominent case in New Jersey, where five police officers are challenging blood evidence she analyzed that was used to convict them of federal civil rights violations in the death of a prisoner.

In Blake's case, 29 DNA samples that she placed into the database were removed and are being reanalyzed. The review so far has not found any instances in which her DNA analysis was inaccurate, and those samples have now been re-entered, Adams said.
(snip)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/03/17/national/main544209.shtml