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| NEWS > 09 March 2007 |
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The News Journal - Wilmington,
09 March 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Investigator who killed self h
ANNAPOLIS -- The Maryland State Police will ask for a federal review into the violent crime cases examined by a forensic scientist who committed suicide after learning questions were being raised about his credentials, which he lied about, the head of the state police said Thursday.
Col. Thomas Hutchins, the superintendent of the state police, said he will ask the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to look into the cases handled by Joseph Kopera, 61, who had been working for the state police since 1991. An internal review by the state police has begun.
Hutchins said he wasn't making any assumptions that investigations had been mishandled. Kopera testified in state courts in all 24 Maryland jurisdictions, Hutchins said. Kopera also testified in federal courts, as well as the states of Delaware, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
''We are conducting a very in-depth review and examination to determine how many cases he may have handled, how many cases he may have testified on,'' Hutchins said at an afternoon news conference.
Kopera, who worked for 21 years as a civilian employee in the Baltimore Police Department's crime laboratory, had been questioned by representatives of the Office of the Public Defender about his credentials, Hutchins said. Kopera shot himself on March 1, the day he was to retire.
An internal audit is being done to review and validate the curriculum vitae of all employees who conduct forensic science work in the lab, including 40 forensic scientists and 16 crime scene technicians, Hutchins said.
''This investigation is of the highest priority,'' Hutchins said. ''The integrity of the forensic science laboratory and the Maryland State Police is of the utmost importance. The citizens we serve need to trust law enforcement.''
''I think it's a natural progression to determine how many cases he did handle, how many cases where he testified,'' Hutchins said. ''I think the state's attorneys from those jurisdictions ... may ask that same question.''
Kopera, who was involved in examining crime scene evidence, was a firearms and toolmarks examiner. He became the supervisor of the firearms and toolmarks unit in 2000. He also supervised the Integrated Ballistics Identification System, in which data from shell casings from all new regulated firearms sold in Maryland are kept in a database for comparison with casings found at crime scenes.
Hutchins said he sent notification to the state's attorneys in each of Maryland's 24 jurisdictions about the investigation. The Office of the Public Defender and the attorney general's office also have been notified.
The Baltimore state's attorney's office is reviewing the matter internally but so far, it looks like Kopera was involved in ''very few active cases,'' according to Margaret Burns, a spokeswoman for the office. Post-conviction matters would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and because of this, it would be ''imposible to gauge'' how many convictions could be affected by the situation, she said.
Kopera claimed to have degrees from the Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Maryland; he had neither. Hutchins said it was believed he testified under oath that he possessed the degrees he did not have.
Hutchins also said he has notified the American Society of Crime Laboratory Director's Laboratory Accreditation Board, a national organization that accredited the Maryland State Police Forensic Science Laboratory in 2000. The organization reaccredited the lab in 2005.
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