Last April, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer ordered a review into a star crime lab analyst accused by defense attorneys of altering her findings to support prosecutors.
Spitzer then asked the Sheriff’s Department, which manages the crime lab, to conduct the review, effectively having the crime lab investigate itself. The Sheriff’s Department now has concluded its probe and cleared former county analyst Mary Hong of having any “issues.”
Defense attorneys, however, are crying foul at the sheriff’s conclusion, alleging the department has a conflict of interest. They question why the district attorney didn’t do its own review of Hong’s analyses. They also question why the defense attorneys who first found discrepancies in Hong’s work weren’t interviewed as part of the review.
Hong’s record was again called into question last month during a rape trial against defendant Kevin Konther, but the prosecutor assured the court that Hong had been investigated and cleared.
“We were told by the OCDA that its decision not to turn over evidence regarding Ms. Hong was based upon a careful analysis by the prosecutor’s office,” said Deputy Public Defender Jessica Sweeny, who represented Konther. “Now we find out it was actually the crime lab ‘investigating’ one of its own. That’s beyond problematic.”
Konther ultimately was convicted.
The Hong probe was ordered by Spitzer after his office was forced to offer a plea deal to a man accused of the 1988 murder and rape of a Buena Park woman. Instead of facing a life sentence, defendant Daniel McDermott was allowed to enter a plea to a lesser charge and released with credit for nine years served behind bars.
The deal was made partly because Hong couldn’t support her earlier conclusion that McDermott’s DNA was found on the victim’s wrist.
Assistant Public Defender Chuck Hasse accused Hong of earlier altering her analysis to show the DNA belonged to McDermott when the data revealed…
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