The New York City Medical Examiner’s Office is reviewing hundreds of cases as part of an investigation into serious misconduct by three of its analysts.
A member of the state Forensic Commission publicly described the scandal in the making like a “shit storm…”.
Three criminalists from New York City’s Medical Examiner’s Office (OCME) They are under investigation for violating laboratory rules in more than 30 cases and for cheating on a promotion exam. A fourth analyst is being investigated for falsifying timesheets, he summarized. Daily News.
The only activity of the analysts who signed the reports was to add their signature.”
Mirtha Sabio – Attorney at the NYC Office of the Medical Examiner (OCME)
The investigations are open, medical officials told the Forensic Commission in testimony on Friday, December 15. The three investigated participated in thousands of forensic analyzes.
“Don’t think I don’t realize the implications of this. “This is a shit storm,” the commission member said at the meeting. William Fitzpatrick, district attorney for Onandaga County, which includes Syracuse.
Veteran NYC criminalist Matthew Benintendo and junior criminalists Steven Kranes and Luke Dalto removed from work after the deception was discovered in the August promotional test, documents revealed. Further investigation discovered a discrepancy in a forensic analysis carried out by Benintendo.
After that discovery was made on Nov. 20, a further review found that Benintendo performed forensic analysis on 33 cases that Kranes and Dalto approved, records show.
Mirtha Sabio, general counsel for the NYC coroner’s office, revealed Friday at the meeting that neither Kranes nor Dalto actually worked on those analyzes before approving them. “The only activity of the analysts who signed the reports was to put their signature“, said.
Kranes and Dalto have been implicated in 2,600 cases. Benintendo, who has worked for OCME since at least 2008, has handled thousands of cases and testified in 89 trialsofficials with the Medical Examiner’s office said.
Among those cases was the notorious group homicide of fifteen-year-old Lesandro “Junior” Guzmán Feliz, in June 2018. During the trial Benintendo told the jury that blood found in a vehicle that fled the scene came from the victim.
At Friday’s Forensic Commission meeting, OCME officials said that In addition to the initial 33 cases, they have reviewed an additional 251 out of a sample of 1,400 that they believe merit further examination.
They plan to search the agency’s computer system for cases in which, generally, an analyst was also the technical reviewer.
The Brooklyn Defenders Service and Legal Aid Society have asked the city to conduct a broader external review of the lab.
OCME spokeswoman Julie Bolcer declined to comment Friday. She only confirmed that the three analysts were suspended from work and that the investigation was continuing.
2023-12-19 20:55:00
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