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DPS Crime Lab Makes Troubling Hire

By standdown

Roma Khanna reports, "State crime lab hired DNA chief as cheating probe proceeded here," in today's Houston Chronicle.The former DNA supervisor at Houston's troubled crime lab landed a job with the Texas Department of Public Safety even as she was under investigation ? and likely to be fired ? for improperly coaching analysts on proficiency tests, state officials confirmed Tuesday. Vanessa Nelson, 33, resigned from the Houston Police Department's crime lab Jan. 10 to avoid being fired after an internal investigation concluded she had given crime lab analysts the answers they needed to pass a DNA skills test, HPD officials confirmed. Nelson led the lab's DNA division for more than two years when it reopened after the exposure of shoddy work forced its closure in 2002...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on January 30, 2008 (boomark / email).