2015/04/15

The Times Union 2015: Cheating scandal fouls State Police test

A dozen State Police forensic scientists have been temporarily removed from working on criminal cases after they were implicated in a cheating scandal related to a qualification test for a new type of DNA technology.

The sanctions were abruptly announced after 4 p.m. Friday by the State Police, two days after the Times Union contacted the agency with questions about the breadth of its internal investigation. During a brief court proceeding on Monday, state Supreme Court Justice Michael V. Coccoma ordered the unsealing of a transcript from a Dec. 10 hearing in Schenectady County Court, where the cheating allegations were laid bare when State Police officials testified at a pretrial hearing in a murder case.

The judge's decision to unseal the transcript was prompted by a request from the Times Union, which argued the sealing was improper because the proceeding took place in open court and was reported on by the Daily Gazette. The Schenectady County district attorney's office initially asked the judge to keep the hearing record sealed, citing the ongoing State Police internal investigation, but then the office withdrew its opposition. more