Politics & Government
AG: Virginia Beach Police Forged DNA Evidence Presented To Court
Police in Va. Beach forged forensic science reports used in criminal interrogations at least five times, according to the attorney general.
Police in Virginia Beach forged forensic science reports used in criminal interrogations at least five times, according to Attorney General Mark Herring, who announced Wednesday that the department had agreed to end the practice following an investigation by his Office of Civil Rights.
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In a news release, Herring’s office said the forgeries were discovered in April after a local prosecutor attempted to obtain a certified copy of a forged DNA analysis from the state’s Department of Forensic Science. The department said that in at least one instance, a forgery was presented to a court as evidence.
“This was an extremely troubling and potentially unconstitutional tactic that abused the name of the Commonwealth to try to coerce confessions,” Herring said in a statement. “While I appreciate that Virginia Beach Police put an end to this practice and cooperated with our investigation, this is clearly a tactic that should never have been used.”
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Herring said his office is alerting defendants in the five cases in which the tactic was used and that the police department had agreed to “immediately discontinue the use of any inauthentic certificates of analysis, DFS letterhead, or templates used to make inauthentic documents, and prohibiting personnel from making or using any inauthentic or altered certificates, letterhead, or formats of any department outside the agency.”
Observers said it’s legal and not uncommon for police to lie to suspects during interrogations, but that they’d not heard of cases in which officers forged official documents in an effort to trick a suspect.
“One thing to bear in mind that most people don’t know is that police are absolutely permitted to lie to suspects,” said Steve Benjamin, a criminal defense lawyer in Richmond. “The question is, whether actually manufacturing false evidence to present crosses a line.”
The Virginia Beach Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This story was originally published by the Virginia Mercury. For more stories from the Virginia Mercury, visit Virginia Mercury.com.
