DNA ‘Fingerprinting’ Unreliable, Defense Says

A defense attorney Thursday attacked the credibility of a controversial “genetic fingerprinting” technique, saying it is too unreliable to be used to prosecute a man accused of sexually assaulting and robbing two North Hollywood women.

“This may be a great technology. Maybe a year, year and a half down the road it will be, but the work hasn’t been done to prove it,” said Ralph J. Novotney Jr., who is fighting a request by prosecutors to use DNA evidence against his client, Henry Wilds.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Lisa Kahn, who is prosecuting Wilds, 33, argued that DNA testing has been accepted by the scientific community as valid and reliable and should be admissible as evidence.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge James M. Coleman said he will decide by Monday whether to allow what would be the first use of DNA evidence in a Los Angeles County trial.

Wilds is accused of two counts each of rape and robbery, five counts of forcible oral copulation and one count of residential burglary in connection with attacks on the women on Dec. 26, 1986, and Feb. 22, 1987.

Prosecution experts testified that there is an infinitesimal chance that sperm samples from the victims came from someone other than Wilds. But Novotney said the fact that Wilds is black may invalidate the statistical computations.

“There have never been sufficient studies to determine if a substructure exists in the American black population,” Novotney said. Outside of court, he explained that studies have shown that inbreeding among certain populations, such as the Amish, has created a greater incidence of certain gene patterns. Inbreeding among slaves may have had similar results, he said.

But Kahn said Wednesday that prosecution witnesses have included some of the most respected genetic scientists in the world and accused the defense of using witnesses lacking in genetic expertise.

She accused the defense witnesses of having “financial bias,” saying that one witness was paid $6,000 for his testimony and another earns 70% of his income testifying against DNA testing.

Coleman, noting that he has been studying reams of trial transcripts and documentation on complex DNA testing, said he is eager for the trial to proceed. “This is something that’s been ruining my life for the past two or three months,” he said.

DNA, short for deoxyribonucleic acid, is found in all human cells such as hair, blood and semen cells. In genetic fingerprinting, DNA samples taken at a crime scene are analyzed and compared to DNA samples taken from the suspect’s blood. The probability is then computed of another individual having the same pattern.

In Wild’s case, authorities analyzed semen found in the bodies of the two rape victims.

In September, a 35-year-old Ventura woman became the first person in California to be convicted with genetic evidence.