Virginia Beach Police used forged DNA reports to get confessions, investigation finds

[Nevilledog]

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NPR
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An investigation found that the Virginia Beach Police Department used forged documents with fake DNA evidence in interrogations in order to get confessions on at least five occasions.

npr.org
Virginia Beach Police used forged DNA reports to get confessions, investigation finds
An investigation from the state's attorney general's office found that the Virginia Beach Police used forged documents to get confessions in at least five instances.
1:15 PM · Jan 13, 2022

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/13/1072766152/virginia-beach-forged-evidence-investigation


The Virginia Beach Police Department used forged documents with fake DNA evidence in interrogations in order to get confessions on at least five occasions, the state Attorney General Mark Herring said.

Herring's Office of Civil Rights concluded an investigation last April that found that the police department was forging documents pretending to be from the Virginia Department of Forensic Science. The department used these forged documents on at least five occasions between March 2016 and February 2020, according to the investigation.

"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 on Wednesday.

"It also abused the good name and reputation of the Commonwealth's hard-working forensic scientists and professionals who work hard to provide accurate, solid evidence in support of our law enforcement agencies. 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," he said.

*snip*

[2naSalit]

1. Ruh roh!

[PTWB]

2. I didn't think that was lawful.

My understanding has been that the police can lie to suspects during interrogation but not forge documents to support those lies.

They could tell a suspect they’d recovered his DNA from a crime victim but couldn’t produce a forged crime lab document to support that lie, for example.

[gohuskies]

3. Lying even if you are a LEO is a right wing family value

This has always been a dark and dirty reality that is finally being exposed to daylight. Along with planting evidence to wrongly convict citizens.