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Q&A
Contamination of forensic biology cases at OCME
4:02:40
ยท
145 sec
Council Member Lynn Schulman inquires about the contamination of eight forensic biology cases at OCME, which were discovered on July 31. Chief Medical Examiner Jason Graham explains the ongoing investigation, the root cause analysis, and the measures taken to prevent future contamination.
- The contamination involved a limited number of case-to-case events between March and August, affecting nine criminalists.
- Over 20,000 samples and 5,700 cases were evaluated during the investigation.
- No deleterious impacts were found on cases in the criminal justice system.
Lynn Schulman
4:02:40
On September 6, the council was notified of the contamination of eight forensic biology cases on July 31, which were immediately investigated.
4:02:49
A root cause analysis report was published on November 4 detailing what had happened, how OCME addressed the situation and next steps to prevent contamination.
4:02:57
Can you provide an overview of what happened that resulted in the contaminated cases?
4:03:02
Is that is that done now?
4:03:03
That investigate or it's stalled?
Jason Graham
4:03:04
It's the root cause analysis committee report has been issued.
4:03:09
The investigation is ongoing now on a smaller scale versus the initial steps that were taken.
4:03:20
And so this involved a limited number of case to case contamination events between cases involving evidence that was being examined in our lab.
4:03:33
We, through our own internal robust quality assurance measures, identified this in the late part of the summer of last year.
4:03:42
We immediately moved to form a root cause analysis committee and do a comprehensive investigation of these cases and do a complete evaluation of cases occurring from March through August.
4:04:03
And that encompassed more than 20,000 samples, over 5,700 cases.
4:04:08
And this is a limited set of events, limited to nine individual criminalists on our staff.
4:04:18
And the cases that are involved had no impact at all whatsoever with respect to their involvement in the criminal justice system.
4:04:28
So there were no impacts, no deleterious impacts to the cases in the court system.
4:04:33
And this is now reaching its final stages in terms of the investigation, which we will keep you updated about.
4:04:41
We have placed many we have implemented the recommendations of the root cause analysis committee in our lab to help ensure that this doesn't occur again going forward and have a very robust QC monitoring program to that end.
Lynn Schulman
4:04:59
No.
4:04:59
I I appreciate that.
4:05:01
And you'll when it when it's totally completed, you'll circle back with us?
4:05:04
Certainly.
4:05:05
Thank you.