Taking a New Look at Old Cases With DNA

Lisa Kahn has a mission: Clean out all the crime lab freezers in Los Angeles County.

It’s not a simple task. The vaults house thousands of crime scene blood and saliva samples from unsolved sexual assault and murder cases, some decades old.

As head of the district attorney’s new forensic sciences division dealing with DNA evidence, Kahn is leading the effort to crack cold cases and eliminate the backlog at labs run by various police agencies. She has the lion’s share of $50 million in state grant money for DNA testing--and two years--to complete the job.

“It’s an extremely daunting, insurmountable task,” Kahn said. “Our No. 1 priority are these cold-hit cases. If we can figure out who these rapists and murderers are, that’s what we should be doing.”

Armed with the new funds, Kahn and her team of four prosecutors work with detectives and criminalists to identify unsolved sex crime cases and get scientific samples tested. Then the results are compared to DNA profiles from 200,000 convicted felons that are stored in California’s statewide database.

The team has already found one match, resulting in an arrest in a case that had been been under investigation for six years. Registered sex offender Michael Hill was taken into custody in August and charged with raping a 14-year-old girl in 1995.

“We were breaking new ground, and Kahn helped us a whole bunch,” said Inglewood Police Lt. Eve Irvine. “Once there was a hit, she and her forensic sciences division took over and filed the case and helped get him in custody.”

Kahn, 43, began her legal career at the district attorney’s office 18 years ago. After trying various robbery and drug cases, she was assigned a serial-rape case in the late 1980s that introduced her to the world of genetic profiling.

The case that earned Kahn the unofficial title of office DNA expert involved Henry Wilds, who was accused of assaulting and raping two North Hollywood women.

The victims could not identify their masked attacker. But over defense objections, Kahn got a court order and obtained samples of Wilds’ blood, and compared it to semen found in the two victims’ bodies. The DNA patterns matched.

DNA--deoxyribonucleic acid--is a kind of genetic fingerprint that is found in human tissue cells and allows criminalists to match victims with suspects. No two DNA profiles are alike, except for identical twins.

When many still doubted the scientific reliability of such testing--and some jurors thought DNA meant “Do Not Apply”--Kahn fought to get the evidence admitted in court. She succeeded, and the case became the first jury trial in California in which DNA experts were called to testify and such evidence was allowed as proof.

“After the Wilds case, I realized what a powerful [role] DNA typing was going to play in the criminal justice system in helping convict the guilty and exonerate the innocent,” she said. “When I talked to the jurors after conviction, they said [the DNA evidence] made the difference to them.”

Weaknesses in LAPD

When O.J. Simpson was charged with murder in 1994, Kahn was tapped to handle the genetic evidence for the prosecution team and set up all the testing. During the trial in which the ex-football star was acquitted, prosecutors presented dozens of DNA test results and fended off attacks about their significance.

Kahn said the case gave DNA evidence widespread exposure, but also revealed the weaknesses of the Los Angeles Police Department’s crime lab and the collection and storage of evidence.

Now Kahn is working on the development of a $96-million crime laboratory, which will be built at Cal State Los Angeles to house lab facilities of the LAPD and Sheriff’s Department. Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley and Kahn formed an advisory board that is helping determine the best use of money and space.

“We’ve seen an incredible demand for DNA in the last decade, but we haven’t even come close to keeping up with the demand,” Kahn said. “If we get a crime lab to do the testing we want to do, I can retire happily.”

Capt. Paul Enox, who runs the LAPD’s current laboratory, said Kahn has a strong vision for the new facility.

“She’s a true believer in banging the drum to raise people’s awareness of the importance of both labs having the resources they need,” he said.

Felons Seek Tests

In addition to working on the new building and on the cold-hit cases, Kahn has also started a post-conviction team to handle requests from convicted felons who claim they are innocent.

A state law enacted this year mandates that courts grant inmates’ requests for DNA testing if the results could have affected the case. Los Angeles County Superior Court has received about 100 letters asking for the tests.

The post-conviction, or innocence, project consists of Kahn and three defense attorneys, including Deputy Public Defender Jennifer Friedman. Friedman, who has filed three motions on behalf of inmates, said Kahn takes the project very seriously and has lobbied other, more reluctant, prosecutors to follow her lead.

“Because of all the work she has done with the district attorney’s office, they give what she says some weight,” Friedman said. “She really believes anybody who is potentially innocent should have a DNA test.”

Kahn spends much of her time spreading the word to lawyers and police officers on the importance of DNA evidence and testing. She says one of her mottoes is: “Have Power Point, will travel.”

Kahn, married to a fellow prosecutor, often has to mediate between the district attorney’s office, which wants samples tested, and law enforcement labs, which don’t have enough resources to handle the demand properly.

She also takes her colleagues on tours of the crime labs so they can visualize what they are arguing about in court. A few criminalists have joked about outfitting Kahn with a white lab coat because she fits right in.

Though Kahn throws around words like allele and polymorphism and has studied the science of genetic fingerprinting, she said one doesn’t need any special skills to do what she does.

“All you need is a little enthusiasm,” Kahn said. “And that’s what I have.”