Legislator calls for outside review of Houston crime lab

Friday, June 15, 2007

(6/15/07 - HOUSTON) -- A state lawmaker said local authorities should accept an independent investigator's recommendation to appoint a "special master" to review hundreds of criminal cases believed tainted by problems in the Houston Police Department's crime lab.

Houston Mayor Bill White, Police Chief Harold Hurtt and Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal have said they don't see a need for the independent monitor called for in a report issued this week.

But state Rep. Kevin Bailey, D-Houston, said Thursday he'll work with fellow lawmakers to pressure the city into hiring such a monitor.

"It looks like to me that they're trying to sweep some of their final problems under the rug," said Bailey, chairman of the House Committee on Urban Affairs said Thursday.

The recommendation for an independent monitor was just one part of a final report by Michael Bromwich, a former U.S. Justice Department inspector appointed two years ago to oversee an independent investigation of the lab. The report cites hundreds of "serious and pervasive" flaws in forensic cases mishandled by the lab's DNA and serology sections.

Bromwich released his report Wednesday, formally ending the independent probe into how evidence was processed in more than 3,500 cases handled by the lab in the past 25 years.

The report commended recent improvements to the lab, but it also suggested the special master be appointed to review 180 blood-analysis cases from the 1980s and early 1990s involving convicts now in prison.

Local officials responded Wednesday that such reviews should be done by the police department, the district attorney's office and the courts.

Bailey said the local criminal justice system should not investigate itself.

"That's why so many people don't have a lot of confidence in the judicial system in Harris County," Bailey said. "Not just because of the problems of the past, but (criminal justice officials) continue to not get it, and they continue to appear to ignore the facts and the proper way to resolve these cases."

Bailey said he hasn't discussed the final report with other legislators. But he said the Urban Affairs committee and the House Committee on General Investigating and Ethics, which he's a member of, could conduct a joint investigation.

"Urban Affairs has authority over the cities, so we could do it alone, but the General Investigating committee has much greater subpoena power," he said.

Rosenthal said Thursday he remains unconvinced that a special master is necessary.

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