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She Was Fired After Raising Questions About a DNA Test. Now She's Getting $1 Million.
Officials from the chief medical examiner's office in New York City were furious when they heard that Marina Stajic, one of their longest-serving laboratory directors, had openly questioned whether they had sufficiently verified the reliability of a novel form of DNA testing being used in criminal cases.
Ms. Stajic was concerned that incorrect use of the DNA testing technique could lead to wrongful convictions, she said. But her bosses took her questioning in a different light.
"Hold me down," Dr. Barbara Sampson, the city's medical examiner, wrote in an internal email to a colleague in 2014, when she found out that Ms. Stajic had voted on a state panel to compel the office to release a study proving the technique's validity. "She sucks," a lawyer for the office wrote about Ms. Stajic, in another internal email.
Ms. Stajic, who was fired from the medical examiner's office about six months later, sued in 2016, claiming she was pushed out in part because she had challenged the controversial DNA testing technique. On Monday, the city agreed to settle her case for $1 million.
Ms. Stajic, 69, said she felt vindicated. "As a forensic scientist, I am fully aware of the importance of validating each study," she said in an interview. "My concern was if that study was not done, there could be wrongful convictions. And if the wrong people were convicted, that would mean the wrong person would be walking free."
[...] Ms. Stajic's case, even without going to trial, shed light on the inner workings of a city agency that is often assumed to be untouched by political pressure. But the case's bigger legacy may be one bit of information that her attorneys say came out in the lawsuit: They said it proved the city had never performed the study of the DNA technique as it had claimed.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday April 27 2019, @06:47PM (8 children)
I think she knew what would happen to her. There is a tendency among law enforcement to be unhappy with things like truth or reality getting in the way of the chase, and they would take any internal dissent as a personal betrayal (because after all only the bad guys would oppose anything LE does, and here we have this bint daring to do it after they took her in, gave her a career, etc...).
She deserves more than just cash. A memorial, for starters. Maybe a foundation that does exactly the kind of independent, third-party validation and auditing this kind of technology calls for, with herself as the head at the very least. If the LEOs aren't doing anything wrong then they have nothing to be afraid of, riiiiiii~ght?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 27 2019, @07:19PM (3 children)
You're just saying that because she's a woman.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 27 2019, @08:08PM (2 children)
You're just saying that because she is a woman.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday April 27 2019, @10:24PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @12:21AM
You're just saying that because she is a woman.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Saturday April 27 2019, @08:48PM (3 children)
> There is a tendency among law enforcement to be unhappy with things like truth or reality getting in the way of the chase
Oh yes, this was very much "shoot the messenger". Trouble is, law enforcement is a particularly attractive career to the sort of authoritarian dullard who can't understand that it is not disobedient or treasonous to question authority and search for the truth. I am still baffled at their indifference to facts, but that's the way they roll. They'll take a story they find pleasing over the truth any day. When governments are not also filled with the same sort of people, they must have a hell of a time managing their police.
It is of some comfort that in this age of cell phone cameras everywhere and improved DNA testing, these lying, unprincipled law enforcers have at last been outed, repeatedly. Those among the public who believed in the police and who aren't secretly sympathetic to their racism and other bigotries, are having a much harder time hiding from all the news of misguided, overzealous, and downright incompetent police work.
(Score: 5, Informative) by sjames on Saturday April 27 2019, @09:29PM (1 child)
The best explanation is that they don't really care about the law. They care about exerting authority over and causing misery to others right or wrong. The facts just get in the way of that mission.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @12:13AM
as the comedy classic "The other guys" puts it:
Captain Gene Mauch : Fellas, I'm sure you're, uh, familiar with the venerable D.A. Radford. He wanted to come out and pay us a visit.
D.A. Radford : Hello, gentlemen.
Allen Gamble : Hello, sir.
Terry Hoitz : Hey.
D.A. Radford : You know, I was talking to Gene here.
Allen Gamble : He prefers Captain.
D.A. Radford : [ignoring the correction] Yes, well, I was talking to Gene here, and you know, it's funny. I don't know what you two have been up to, but I've been getting calls from people I don't ever get calls from. In the 40 years I've been enforcing the law, I've learned one thing: When that happens, stop.
D.A. Radford : [to Mauch] Gene, how's the family?
Captain Gene Mauch : Good. Good, Louis. Thanks for asking. My son's bisexual.
D.A. Radford : Tremendous.
D.A. Radford : [to Gamble and Hoitz] Gentlemen, do we understand each other? Cut the crap!
Captain Gene Mauch : Will do.
it's totally not about business as usual!
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday April 28 2019, @01:36AM
Actually, it is often insubordinate and usually disobedient - treasonous goes a bit far, but once you've pissed off the people in power they can basically paint you with whatever brush suits them.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/