Marc A. Hermann for News
Defense lawyers are excited as over 800 cases handled by a sloppy DNA technician are being reviewed.
Defense lawyers are already planning on taking advantage of a sloppy technicianâs mistakes in handling evidence at the city medical examinerâs officer.
The office acknowledged Friday itâs reviewing more than 800 cases handled by the now-former tech.
The office is only halfway done with the review, which has already found that the tech missed crucial DNA evidence in more than two dozen cases.
One of the overlooked samples has since been used to secure an indictment against a Brooklyn man for a 2001 rape.
A law enforcement source said prosecutors werenât able to proceed with the victimâs case at the time because there was no DNA evidence.
But in 2011, while reviewing the techâs cases, investigators found the sexual assault kit the unnamed technician checked did indeed have DNA evidence.
The MEâs office said the probe also discovered the tech left some evidence out of some sex-assault kits, and put the wrong evidence in others.
The tech resigned in 2011, after the MEâs office first started probing her 10 years there, according to letters obtained by the Daily News.
Lawyer Alan Abramson said he planned on using the techâs involvement in one of his clientâs cases to get his DNA-based murder conviction thrown out.
âAnytime thereâs a problem in the DNA lab where there are violations of protocols and procedures, it can taint the results of the cases,â Abramson said.
oyaniv@nydailynews.com
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