Gates Hails Opening of Genetic Lab

Orange County’s new genetic testing laboratory, with its computers, radioactive incubators, freezers and cameras, was officially opened Thursday with authorities saying it will be ready for its first case in two weeks.

“Now the blood and semen left during rapes and other crimes will be used to identify the suspect and provide the district attorney with powerful evidence in court,” said a proud Sheriff Brad Gates, who fought to finance the lab and who has been training people for more than two years in anticipation of its opening in the coroner’s Forensic Science Center in Santa Ana.

The laboratory will allow investigators to study the unique genetic codes in DNA--deoxyribonucleic acid--that are found in everything from hair and skin samples to blood and other body fluids.

It is the only DNA laboratory west of the Mississippi River and one of only six in the United States. Four people will work in the testing laboratory program in Santa Ana.

Most law enforcement officials say DNA testing is one of the biggest advances in forensics during this century.

“What can we expect from this DNA laboratory?” Gates asked Thursday as he addressed the small crowd of police chiefs, county staff, FBI agents and two county Supervisors, Chairman Don R. Roth and Harriett M. Wieder, who came for the DNA laboratory dedication.

“We can expect fewer trials, as defendants plead guilty in the face of this evidence. Within the last month or two we’ve had two suspects who have pleadedguilty because of DNA and according to the district attorney’s office, this saved taxpayers $60,000 in court costs.

“A wise, cost-effective investment in the criminal justice system, that’s the bottom line here today,” Gates told the audience. “Most important, victims of sexual assaults and child molests will be saved the additional trauma of testimony during trial . . . that would affect them the rests of their lives.”

Although Gates and his forensic staff praised the new technology as a way to positively identify rapists, murders and even hit-and-run drivers, some scientists claim that the DNA fingerprints could not with certainty decide if a person is guilty or not.

The problem, according to some scientists, is that the DNA images can stretch and shift like a design printed on rubber, making them difficult to read and match.

“We see that happening,” said Frank Fitzpatrick, director of the Sheriff’s Department forensic science services. “I think the ultimate question is when you are setting up your guidelines, at what point do you say something is inconclusive and at what point do you say it’s an . . . identification.”

Fitzpatrick said the controversy of stretching images goes straight to the issue of quality control and training.

“Even though the Board (of Supervisors) authorized this laboratory in October,” Fitzpatrick said, “we have had people in training for two years. We have sent them back to school; they’ve been to the university; they’ve been to the FBI and they’ve been to conferences on DNA.”

Santa Ana defense attorney John D. Barnett said: “Law enforcement scientists appear to be willing to abandon former methods of identification that they used to depend on in order to save this new baby called DNA.”

A DNA laboratory did not come easily. Gates raised $80,000 privately for the facility through his Sheriff’s Advisory Council. At one emotional supervisors meeting in October, Supervisor Wieder questioned her male colleagues’ concern for rape victims because of their refusal to pay for the genetic laboratory immediately.

Her request for the $120,000 followed the rape of a 12-year-old Huntington Beach girl. The suspect in the case was a man who five months earlier had been acquitted of a rape charge after prosecutors were late in obtaining evidence from an outside DNA lab. The two commercial laboratories that do the DNA testing have three- to four-month backlogs, officials said.

The board approved the funds about two weeks later.