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Dr. Mordrid
GERMANTOWN, Maryland (AP)
The world's largest private DNA testing firm has fired an analyst for allegedly falsifying test data.
Officials with Orchid Cellmark -- with labs in Maryland, Texas, Tennessee and Britain -- said the alleged falsification occurred in 20 tests for the Los Angeles Police Department and the FBI.
The alleged tampering prompted the Los Angeles County public defender's office to begin reviewing all pending cases involving Cellmark. Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, said that the cases involving the analyst have not gone to trial.
"Cellmark isolated the problem very quickly, they moved on it very quickly," she said. "We don't believe that any cases are going to be ultimately affected by this because all of the cases are being re-analyzed."
A spokeswoman for the FBI lab at Quantico, Virginia., refused to comment on the matter. Charlotte Word, the laboratory director for Cellmark in Germantown, also would not comment.
But in a letter sent to the LAPD in September that was obtained by The (Baltimore) Sun, a Cellmark official disclosed that the company had fired analyst Sarah Blair for "professional misconduct."
Blair, in a telephone interview Wednesday with The Sun, denied the allegations. "I explained everything to the company when I left," said Blair. "I'm still sticking to the same story that I'm innocent."
Cellmark has analyzed evidence in several high-profile cases, including those involving O.J. Simpson, JonBenet Ramsey, the Unabomber and the Green River killer. Police departments throughout the world have used the lab's services.
The world's largest private DNA testing firm has fired an analyst for allegedly falsifying test data.
Officials with Orchid Cellmark -- with labs in Maryland, Texas, Tennessee and Britain -- said the alleged falsification occurred in 20 tests for the Los Angeles Police Department and the FBI.
The alleged tampering prompted the Los Angeles County public defender's office to begin reviewing all pending cases involving Cellmark. Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, said that the cases involving the analyst have not gone to trial.
"Cellmark isolated the problem very quickly, they moved on it very quickly," she said. "We don't believe that any cases are going to be ultimately affected by this because all of the cases are being re-analyzed."
A spokeswoman for the FBI lab at Quantico, Virginia., refused to comment on the matter. Charlotte Word, the laboratory director for Cellmark in Germantown, also would not comment.
But in a letter sent to the LAPD in September that was obtained by The (Baltimore) Sun, a Cellmark official disclosed that the company had fired analyst Sarah Blair for "professional misconduct."
Blair, in a telephone interview Wednesday with The Sun, denied the allegations. "I explained everything to the company when I left," said Blair. "I'm still sticking to the same story that I'm innocent."
Cellmark has analyzed evidence in several high-profile cases, including those involving O.J. Simpson, JonBenet Ramsey, the Unabomber and the Green River killer. Police departments throughout the world have used the lab's services.