Delaware State Police spokesman Sgt. Paul Shavack confirmed that a DNA sample was taken Wednesday from 46-year-old David Matusiewicz, who was sentenced last week to six months in federal prison for violating probation on kidnapping and fraud charges. Those charges stemmed from the 2007 abduction of his three daughters in a custody dispute.

Shavack refused to say whether investigators believe Matusiewicz was involved in the Feb. 11 shooting, in which his father killed Matusiewicz’s ex-wife and a friend before a scheduled child support hearing.

Matusiewicz told his family in an email obtained by The Associated Press that officials apparently are trying to build a case against him.

(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

[listicle id=55129 align=left show_title=true]

First, students practice loading “fake” gels with a blue-dyed sugar solution. The micropipettes are inserted into the tiny wells (slots) in the Jello-like material. Blue-dyed sugar solution, substituting for DNA material, is deposited in the wells.

Once they master this, the students go on to load actual agarose gels with “fake DNA crime samples” – i.e., samples from a victim, the crime scene evidence, and two suspect DNA samples. These gels are then placed in a chamber and an electrical current is run through the chamber so that the various-sized DNA fragments are carried across the gel. Different-sized fragments travel different distances through the gel material. At the end of the process, the gels are stained and then bar patterns emerge. These represent the various DNA fragments from each of the 4 samples that stopped at different distances from the well. Students look to see if one of the suspects’ DNA samples matches the “evidence” one.

In the process of doing these activities they learn not only the procedures to do this test but why the process works the way it does. They also perform a DNA extraction from wheat germ.

Here are some shots from the class. In part II of this topic, videos of the class in action will be posted.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

NaJarred Walker, 28, was sentenced Tuesday in Frederick County Circuit Court. Walker, in a statement in court, denied the charge.

The News-Post of Frederick reports that the victim, a teenage girl, was attacked in November 2004 under a downtown Frederick bridge.

Walker moved to Tennessee, where he was convicted in Davidson County of offenses including attempted robbery, aggravated assault and drunken driving from 2008 to 2010.

In March 2011, Maryland State Police notified Frederick police that Walker’s DNA in a national database matched evidence collected from the rape victim.

By then, Walker was living in Hagerstown and wanted for a Tennessee probation violation.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

A jury convicted NaJarred, 28, Walker of first-degree rape and other offenses Thursday after two days of testimony. He faces the possibility of life in prison at his sentencing May 8.

The victim was attacked in November 2004 under a downtown Frederick bridge.

Walker later moved to Tennessee, where he was convicted in Davidson County of offenses including attempted robbery, aggravated assault and drunken driving from 2008 to 2010.

In March 2011, Maryland State Police notified Frederick police that Walker’s DNA in a national database matched evidence collected from the rape victim.

By then, Walker was living in Hagerstown and wanted for a Tennessee probation violation.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

In a First Appellate District Court of Appeal decision in California, People v. Buza (2011 DJDAR 11741), the court reversed Buza’s misdemeanor conviction for refusing to provide a DNA sample.  More recently, a federal trial judge in Sacramento, in U.S. v. Tuzman (11-427 (Feb. 24, 2012) ruled that it was unconstitutional for police to collect a DNA sample before a felony arraignment.  However, just one day prior to the Tuzman ruling, a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which outrank federal trial courts, issued a ruling in Haskell v. Harris (2012 DJDAR 2462) that the collection of DNA was constitutional.

A little background is helpful to appreciate the nature of the public concern with misuse of a DNA data base.  In 1998, California passed the DNA and Forensic Identification and Data Base and Data Bank Act.  It required DNA testing of adults convicted of only certain crimes.  The intent was multifold, but one goal was to solve unsolved crimes.

In 2004, Proposition 69, also known as the DNA Act, was voted into effect by California voters.  It expanded the scope of the 1998 act to allow the collection of DNA samples from all adult felony arrestees.  The samples are then entered into a national database called the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS.

Prop 69 did not become effective until January 1, 2009, but once it became effective, litigation arose quickly over its apparent violation of the Fourth Amendment’s right against unreasonable search and seizure, especially given the principle that one is presumed innocent until proven guilty.  It merits mention that in Tuzman, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton noted 41 percent of Americans have been arrested by age 23.  In other words, the constitutional issue is more than merely academic in nature.

Fast forward to 2012 and Haskell v. Harris mentioned above.  Haskell was arrested by San Francisco police at a peace demonstration.  She was told she would be charged with a misdemeanor under state law if she refused to provide a DNA sample through a buccal swab of the inside of her cheek.

Haskell then became a class representative in a federal class action challenging Prop 69.  Their case first sought a preliminary injunction of the act.  The district court denied the motion.  On appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, Haskell lost again.

In affirming the lower court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that Haskell failed to show a likelihood of success on the merits of the class action, namely that Prop 69, as applied to felony arrestees yet to be convicted, violated the Fourth Amendment.

The Court held that Haskell could not show the arrestees’ privacy interests outweighed the government’s need for DNA samples to solve unsolved crimes and exonerate innocent suspects.  Moreover, the buccal swab was a minimal privacy invasion only after a probable cause determination leading to the arrest.  In addition, the court felt assured that the DNA samples could not be used for more than just identifying the individual, as the act provides for significant penalties for any misuse of the database or DNA.

It is quite possible that Haskell v. Harris will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, especially in light of the recent opinion in U.S. v. Jones (2012 DJDAR 895), which seemed to strengthen Fourth Amendment rights in invalidating police use of a GPS without a warrant on a drug suspect’s car.

If you are arrested, trust your defense to an experienced lawyer who understands your rights.  Greg Hill is an attorney in Torrance, California.  He is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate (B.S., 1987), Boston University graduate (M.B.A., 1994), Loyola Law School graduate (J.D., 1998) and former Marine aviator.  Greg Hill & Associates represents clients in Torrance, Long Beach and the surrounding areas in many crimes, including DUI, domestic violence and violation of restraining orders, among other crimes. Visit the firm’s website at http://www.greghillassociates.com or the firm’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/greg-hill-associates/198954460153651.  Call us at (310) 782-2500.

No.

Will I write about an auction that took place on February 9-11, 2012 that included The Amazing Spider-Man No. 1 comic book from 1963. The comic book was rated as an 8.5 (10 is the considered best) and sold for $23,400.00

No.

So, what will I write about? Hair, namely celebrity hair. Believe it or not, I learned that that Paul Frasier Collectibles in England is selling strands of hair from celebrities such as Katherine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, even Justin Bieber, just to name a few. Most of the strands sell for £49.95 ($78.69 USD), yet one strand sells for £149.95  ($236.24 USD) and a collection of hair, not just a few strands, sells for £35,000 ($55,142.51 USD).

Wow, some people will buy anything and more power to Paul Fraser for making a profit out of the hair. The thing is, what is someone going to do with a strand of hair? Clone the celebrity once it is possible to create a human being hair or tissue samples? Put it in a display case to astound friends and confuse enemies? I can see the point of buying a piece of clothing or jewelry that a celebrity owned, even a movie prop. They are things that are either pleasing to the eye or artfully rendered and, in the case of clothes and jewelry, they can be worn. You can’t wear a strand of hair.

Also, what about the case of celebrities that didn’t have children and any parents and siblings have since died. How can it be proven that the hair is really theirs? Do you call up relatives and a say “Excuse me, we have a strand of hair that may be from your cousin, Marilyn Monroe. Can you please give us a DNA sample, so that we can prove that the hair is really hers?” Personally, if there was a famous person in my family and his or her hair were to be auctioned off, I would charge for having to give a DNA sample. How much would I charge? Whatever the going price for the hair is, that is how much my DNA is worth.

I must say that having a strand of hair from a celebrity, especially a dead one, is creepy. No matter how tastefully the hair is displayed, it still came from a human being. It’s like displaying a skull or a jar with an eyeball floating in formaldehyde. As wonderful as the human body is, and it is, the body looks better and is less creepy when the parts aren’t disassembled and scattered hither and thither.

Then there’s the question of how the hair was acquired in the first place? In the case of Justin Bieber, it was acquired when he cut it on The Ellen Show. How did people get a hold of the hair of Elizabeth Taylor or Marilyn Monroe? Did a maid save some strands after Taylor or Monroe washed their hair? Did a beautician put a collection in a jar after a cut and styling session? Elvis’ barber did something like that and his collection of The King’s hair sold at auction for $33,657 in April 2003.

I guess this is just a case of there are people in the world with more dollars than sense. Yes, a person is entitled to spend his or her money as he or she sees fit and if that person wants a strand of Elizabeth Taylor, and can afford it, then fine, spend your money on Liz’s hair.  Yet, all the money in the world doesn’t take away the creep factor.

Sources:

http://www.paulfrasercollectibles.com/News/MEMORABILIA/‘Little-Caesar’-movie-poster-–-‘holy-grail’-of-gangster-films-–-auctions-in-Texas/9781.page?catid=78

http://www.morphyauctions.com/auctions/article?id=195

http://morphyauctions.auctionflex.com/showlot.ap?co=31120&weid=21297&weiid=7787056&archive=n&keyword=Spider&lso=lotnumasc&pagenum=1&lang=En

http://store.paulfrasercollectibles.com/famous-hair-s/1830.htm

http://finance.yahoo.com/currency-converter

MastroNet Inc., Americana Premier Catalog Auction, Lots 1-670. #583 “Enormous Quantiy of Hair From the Head of the “King” – Elvis – Saved by His Personal Barber”, pages 206-207. April 23, 2003.

http://www.kovels.com/201008258031/News-News-News/elvis-presley-hair-a-bargain.html

On Jan. 6 Kyle Todd Villeneuve, 25, learned that he will spend the next 44 months behind bars as a result of his actions that caused the death of Joey Robert Merasty in September of 2008.

At the sentencing hearing at court in North Battleford, Merasty’s twin sister, Joanne, said the family can now move on.

“It’s finally over,” she said of the three-and-a-half year wait. “Joey’s kids, his older sister and one of his nephews were all at the courthouse to hear the verdict.”

Villeneuve pled guilty to the original charge of manslaughter and had been on court release since September 24th of 2008.

“He was sentenced to 48 months, but was given 38 days credit for remand time and he was given a further 90 days credit for the period of time that he spent in court release condition,” said Scott Bartlett, the Acting Regional Crown Prosecutor for the Meadow Lake office. “And I gather part of the judge’s reasoning in that was because in that period of time, Villeneuve was not able to live in the community.” Also as part of the sentence was a 10-year firearms prohibition order and an order for a DNA sample for the DNA databank.

Merasty died following an early morning altercation with Villeneuve outside Darby O’Rourke’s bar at 1:30 a.m. in Meadow Lake on Sept. 6, 2008.

Chicago FBI spokeswoman Cynthia Yates said the bureau wants DNA from “numerous individuals” including Kaczynski, although she wouldn’t provide details about any of the others. The FBI’s efforts to get Kaczynski’s DNA became publicly known because of a court motion he filed seeking to keep materials he claims would exonerate him in the Tylenol case: items from his Montana cabin that the U.S. Marshals Service is auctioning off.

[worldnow id=5868256 width=480 height=360 type=video]

Kaczynski lived in the tiny cabin as he sent off mail bombs that killed three people and wounded several others in attacks that began in the late 1970s. The FBI dubbed the man the Unabomber because the bombs originally targeted university professors and airline executives.

Kaczynski, who grew up in the Chicago area, was captured in 1996, pleaded guilty two years later and is serving a life sentence in federal prison in Colorado.

Photo Gallery: Evidence In The Unabomber Case

He has declined to voluntarily provide a DNA sample to agents investigating the Tylenol poisonings, which left seven people dead in the space of three days beginning Sept. 29, 1982. The victims took cyanide-laced Tylenol from packages that had been tampered with.

The deaths triggered a national scare and a huge recall, and eventually led to the widespread adoption of tamperproof packaging for over-the-counter drugs.

Kaczynski’s attorney, John Balasz, said he’s “completely convinced” that Kaczynski had no involvement in Tylenol case, and added that he thinks the FBI wants his DNA not because they have evidence linking him, but because they want to definitively rule him out as a suspect.

“You’ve got to ask the FBI how serious they are. I think it’s probably more that they want to exclude him,” Balasz said.

Yates declined to say whether the FBI would try to compel Kaczynski to give a sample. In the motion he filed over his belongings, Kaczynski said the officials who notified him of the FBI’s request told him the agency was prepared to go to court to get the DNA.

Kaczynski said, without elaborating, that he would provide a sample “if the FBI would satisfy a certain condition that is not relevant here,” but Balasz said the government will need to go to court to get one.

Kaczynski filed the court motion May 9 in California, where he was tried. Kaczynski wants to keep certain items taken from his cabin in 1996, including journals he says could prove his whereabouts in 1982 and other evidence that could clear him in the Tylenol case.

The government auction of Kaczynski’s materials began Wednesday and runs through June 2.

Among the items available is his manifesto, which helped lead to his arrest after newspapers published it and Kaczynski’s brother recognized his writing style and anti-technology beliefs. His books, clothing, typewriters and sneakers are also up for auction. The cabin itself is on display at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

Last year, the U.S. Marshals netted about $580 million for state and local law enforcement agencies and $345 million for victims by holding auctions of items seized in asset-forfeiture cases.

In a response to Kaczynski’s motion filed Monday, federal prosecutors said the courts lack the jurisdiction to bar the government from auctioning the items. They also said Kaczynski hasn’t been indicted in connection with the Tylenol investigation and that “no such federal prosecution is currently planned.”

The FBI collected DNA samples from Kaczynski after his arrest, but that material “might have degraded to the point that it is not usable,” said Ross Rice with the FBI in Chicago. “It’s always best to have a current sample.”

Officials are barred from taking a DNA sample from Kaczynski without either his consent or a court order. Rice said it will be up to prosecutors to decide whether to go to court to get the genetic material.

“Even though he’s a prisoner, he still has rights,” Rice said.

The Tylenol poisonings case has stymied investigators for nearly 30 years, and no charges have ever been filed in the deaths.

In 2009, federal agents searched the Boston home of James W. Lewis, who served more than 12 years in prison for sending an extortion note to Tylenol maker Johnson & Johnson demanding $1 million to “stop the killing.” Lewis has denied involvement in the poisonings.

A friend of Lewis, Roger Nicholson, told The Associated Press early last year that Lewis and his wife had given DNA samples and fingerprints to investigators.

Kaczynski, for his part, said in his motion that he has “never even possessed any potassium cyanide” — the poison used in the Tylenol killings.

Helen Jensen, a former nurse who accompanied investigators to the home of one of the victims, said she hopes this latest news isn’t a dead end like so many before. She said she still occasionally talks to the grandmother of a 12-year-old girl who died and that “her whole family was destroyed by it.”

“It sure would be nice to finally get some end to the whole thing, for the people that are survivors,” Jensen said.

Kaczynski served as an assistant mathematics professor at UC Berkeley for two years in the late 1960′s. Two of his bombing victims were associated with Cal, and two others were from the Sacramento area.

(Copyright 2011 by CBSSan Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services may have contributed to this report.)

As if it’s not enough for the TSA to feel you up at the airport, now they’re experimenting with rapid results DNA scanners that can scan and analyze your DNA using just a drop of saliva. Spit at the TSA agent who is molesting you, in other words, and they can use that saliva to scan your DNA and then store it in a government database.

Why would they want to do that? We can only imagine. Remember, it wasAlex Joneswho broke the story about hospitals secretly takingbloodsamples of babies and handing them over to the federalgovernmentfor use in a nationalgenetic database(http://www.prisonplanet.com/newborn…).

The government routinely steals genetic material from people for its own nefarious purposes, as does thepharmaceutical industry. For example, the medical industry’s so-called “Hela cells” which have been exploited for decades byvaccineand drug companies, were harvested and stolen decades ago from Henrietta Lacks without her permission or consent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa). Hela cells are the foundation of hundreds of billions of dollars in profit for Big Pharma, and they are all based onDNAtheftperpetrated by the pharmaceuticalindustry.

Harvesting your DNA at the airport

Now thatthe TSAis experimenting with portable DNA scanners, their real agenda becomes apparent: They will use airportsecuritycheckpointsto harvest DNA from the publicin order to build up their government “bio bank” database of stolen DNA.

Of course, they will assure the public that they aren’t storing the DNA information …and the naked body scanners don’t store images, either. Oh yeah, and the TSA’s security procedures makeair travelsafer, too, if you can believe that.

Our source for this story is a report called “Genetic Patdown” published at TheDaily.com (http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/0…). That story reveals that a company calledNetBiomanufactures the portable DNA scanning devices.

That same story also reveals that theTSArolled out these DNA screening deviceswithout even checking with theprivacycommittee of the DHS. Jim Harper, who serves on that committee, is even quoted in the story saying, “We’re plunging into the unknown here.”

But we aren’t actually. It’s not unknown. History has seen this before. It’s calledNazi Germany. It’s called the “Police State” approach to security: Use thepowerof big government totarget the Peopleas if they were all criminals. Then force them at gunpoint to consent to illegal searches and violations of their privacy. Do it all under the name of “homeland security” — orHeimatschutzin German — and keep theAmerican peopleafraid by terrorizing them with occasional scary-sounding security alerts based on stagedterrorismevents that are often planned, organized and carried out bythe FBI!

The recent Portland “terrorism”event, for example, was actually carried out by the FBI itself which recruited and then entrapped an innocent man with a Muslin name (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2…).

The government agents that carry out these kind of evil schemes — “Verfassungsschützer” — are the modern-day equivalent ofHitler’s secret police. You don’t think the name “Homeland Security” was chosen by mere coincidence, do you? (http://www.slate.com/id/2066978/)

“Mass casualty events”

TheHomeland Security Newswirepublication reveals that, in 2009, DHS awarded grant money (i.e. taxpayer dollars) to a Virginia firm to develop a portable DNA testing device.

A DHS spokesperson named Christopher Miles revealed the purpose of the device, explaining it had applications in “…mass-casualty situations, reunification offamilymembers following mass evacuations, identification of missing persons, rapid processing of crime-scene and suspect DNA, and various scientific and educational uses…”

Interesting, isn’t it? Back in 2009, they never mentioned “screening the DNA of air travelers at airports.” But today, barely two years later, suddenly it’s no longer for “reunification of family members” but rather the harvesting of DNA from air passengers –almost certainly without their consent!

After all, since when did the TSA ever ask for your permission to do anything?

And what’s the limit for all these privacy invading searchers, anyway? Where does it end? Can the TSA demandyour blood, yoursaliva, or even your sperm for its tests? Is it soon going to be a condition of flying that youhand over your bodily fluids to the U.S. governmentso they can determine whether you might be a “genetic terrorist?”

GATTACA

Hitlerwould have loved the DNA scanners for hiseugenicsprograms, of course. It would have provided a simple, “scientific” way to determine who was of Jewish descent and therefore who got loaded up and sent away on the rail cars. Fortunately for the world, Hitler didn’t have the technology to conductDNA searchesof people. But Janet Napolitano does! And she’s already proved that she will go to great lengths tospy on the American people(“if you see something, say something”).

I’ll tell you where this is all probably headed, if you’re interested to know. Before too much longer, we’re going to see calls forglobalpopulationcontrolsthat deny reproduction “rights” to those who don’t fit the genetic profiles preferred by world governments.Genetic screening will be used to identify and then sterilizeboth men and women who don’t fit the correct “genetic profile.” These sterilizations will be delivered asvaccine shots– a move that has already been perfectly described by Bill Gates himself, who says that vaccines are the key technology for “population control” and “reducing world population by 10 to 15 percent.” (http://www.naturalnews.com/029911_v…)

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in fact, has been hard at work onsterilizationtechnology called “temporary castration” that renders men infertile for six months at a time (http://www.naturalnews.com/028853_u…).

But who should you castrate? It’s tough to know. Unless, of course, you have DNA scanners set up at government-run security checkpoints! A “bad” DNA scans earns you a court-mandatedsterilization vaccination injectionright on the spot. Think that’s fiction? They’re already using similar tactics todraw blood from driversat DUI checkpoints.

This whole scenario with the DNA scanners and population control eugenics won’t happen right away, of course. It’s always step by step… ratcheting up the police state one degree at a time like boiling a live frog. With the recent passenger molestation searches introduced by the TSA, the government was trying to determine just how far they could go without people rioting in response. And it turns out that most people are so brainwashed, so devoid of critical thinking skills, and so ignorant of their own rights and powers that they will do practically anything the government tells them to do. So don’t be surprised if coming soon is the government’s forced extraction of bodily fluids for DNA scanning.

I suppose the TSA can pull this off while they’re reaching down your pants, too, eh?

Now you can create your own DNA Portrait™ .  It was only a question of time until someone would find this unique way of capitalizing on your DNA.  It’s novelty, scientific ingenuity and arresting beauty are interesting to say the least.

“Now it’s time for you to enter the world of unique, personal art. We’ll send you a collection kit with everything you need to capture a sample of your DNA. (Trust us, it’s painless and effortless: nothing more than swabbing the inside of your cheek.) The tough part is choosing the style, color, size and frame from an almost limitless range of possibilities. Take all the time you need. Your personal DNA picture print will be as unique as you are.” http://www.dna11.com/how_process.asp?

Starting at $190, we’ve wasted than that on shirts and sweaters that we’ve only worn once, yet still hang in the closet.  At least this, we can hang on the wall.

With Halloween fresh on our mind, would it be creepy to have a DNA portrait made of a dying family member?

Open wide, say ahhh and check out more posts from Ahrcanum, where sometimes the conspiracy spreads as fast as the virus itself.  SUBSCRIBE NOW in the top right margin.

 http://ahrcanum.wordpress.com/swine-flu-report/

A cold case spanning more than 20 years, and involving the murder of nine women in Milwaukee, took a step nearer to being brought before the courts when a suspect was charged after being arrested on Saturday.

Walter E. Ellis, 49, has been charged in the deaths of two of the nine victims and more charges are expected this week, prosecutors said yesterday.

Ellis does have a criminal history. He pleaded no contest in 1998 to a reduced charge of second-degree reckless injury and served three years of a five-year sentence.

Police chief Edward Flynn said: “His criminal history, however, does not lend one to immediately say, you know, ‘prime suspect.’”

Police began to focus on Ellis after his name surfaced in connection with a number of unsolved murders.

He was arrested days after police matched a DNA sample from his toothbrush to samples from the victims.

An officer in suburban Franklin saw Ellis’ car outside a motel on Saturday, Flynn said. Ellis was arrested after a struggle with officers.

Police said Ellis’ DNA was found on the bodies of nine women, ranging in age from 16 to 41. They were killed between 1986 and 2007 on the city’s north side. Investigators believe eight of the women were prostitutes and one was a runaway.

Authorities previously speculated that the person whose DNA was recovered on the runaway had sex with that girl but someone else killed her.

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm would not say yesterday whether anyone else would be charged in the killings.

Ellis is charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, charges that carry a maximum penalty of life in prison. Additional charges will be filed after prosecutors have a chance to review more evidence, Chisholm said.

At a news conference, yesterday, Flynn refused to comment on a motive, characterize Ellis’ childhood or describe a possible relationship to the victims.

“I don’t think it’s possible for me to speculate what would cause someone to engage in these horrific acts,” Flynn said.

The brother of one of the victims, Joyce Mims, who was strangled in 1997 at the age of 41, said his family has carried a great burden since Mims’ death.

“We just hated that it had taken so long for them to find her killer, those women’s killer,” said 49-year-old Terry Williams, of Madison. “But justice one day is better than no justice at all.”

[Based on a report by the Associated Press.]

“You are gonna have to Taser me if you want my DNA,” an officer reported Smith saying.

So police did just that, jolting Smith with electricity before swabbing the inside of his mouth.

Now the judge in the case wants to know why.

“This isn’t pretty,” Niagara County Court Judge Sara Sheldon Sperazza told lawyers involved in the case during a recent court appearance. “I’m fearful of how he’s been treated.”

Sperazza ordered several Niagara Falls police officers and an assistant district attorney to appear in her court Monday and provide sworn testimony to explain how Smith came to be shocked by a Taser on Sept. 29, 2008.

According to police records obtained by The Buffalo News, officers involved had been told by superiors to “use any means necessary” to collect the sample.

Criminal and civil attorneys say that Smith had a constitutional right to refuse the DNA request.

The judge could have ordered Smith jailed until he gave the sample, the lawyers said, but police and prosecutors had no legal authority to force him to provide one.

“If someone refuses to give their DNA, then they can be held in contempt and be held in jail until they comply,” said Patrick Balkin of Lockport, Smith’s defense lawyer.

Balkin said he never heard of anyone in the nation collecting a DNA sample using a Taser.

“It’s the worse thing I’ve ever seen,” he said. “You don’t even see people in a Third World country treated like this.”

After the DNA sample was obtained and tested, a grand jury last December handed up a 24-count indictment against Smith, 21, of Niagara Falls, in relation to a shooting and a gas station robbery. The indictment includes multiple counts of robbery, burglary, kidnapping, assault and criminal use of a firearm, as well as single counts of resisting arrest and menacing.

The last two charges accuse Smith of pointing a gun at a Niagara Falls police officer who responded to the robbery at a Sunoco gas station in the city on Dec. 24, 2006.

Smith also is accused in the July 27, 2006, shooting of Joseph Harris in the victim’s Niagara Falls home.

Smith’s DNA profile was on file in a state criminal justice databank because he had been jailed for two incidents that took place in 2005.

Sperazza granted him youthful- offender status in those cases.

Smith had responded to an order by Sperazza to provide a new DNA sample last August, before the latest cases landed him in Niagara County Court, but that sample was lost. After that, the court order for another new sample was obtained.

On Sept. 29, Niagara Falls Detectives Jim Galie and Frank Coney located Smith on Niagara Street and told him they needed to swab the inside his mouth for DNA, but Smith “was being uncooperative,” according to a report filed by Officer George W. McDonell.

McDonell responded to the call with Capt. David LeGault and Warrant Officer Bill Gee.

On the way to Police Headquarters, Smith said, “Man, this is messed up. I already gave them my DNA. I’m not giving it up again,” McDonell reported.

Once at headquarters, Smith told Officer Ryan G. Warme, “You are gonna have to Taser me if you want my DNA. I don’t care what the [court] paper says,” according to the police incident report.

Then Smith was taken to the Crime Scene Unit, where Officer Jason Sykes was to take the swab. When Smith again refused, Galie, Coney, Sykes, Warme and McDonell tried to reason with him, McDonell said.

“I ain’t giving up my DNA again, I already gave it up once,” Smith reportedly said. “I’ll sit in jail, I ain’t giving it up again. You’re going to have to taze me.”

Galie then contacted Detective Lt. William Thomson and Assistant District Attorney Doreen M. Hoffmann, McDonell reported.

“It was relayed the officers could use any means necessary to secure the sample,” he wrote.

At that point, McDonell used a Taser to apply a “drive stun” to Smith’s left shoulder. After that, he wrote, Smith complied with the order to provide his DNA.

According to his lawyer, Smith was handcuffed and on the floor when he was Tasered, and was rendered unconscious for a short time. He barely recalls the DNA being taken.

“You get pretty disoriented when you get hit by 50,000 volts,” Balkin said.

After the sample was taken, Smith was charged with second- degree contempt for failure to obey a court mandate.

On the report obtained by The News, the section where officers are asked if the suspect was read his Miranda rights has a check in the box marked “No.”

In any case in which a Taser is used, Niagara Falls officers are required to file a “use of force” form.

On Monday, Balkin plans to call all of the officers involved to testify except Warme, who has been jailed and suspended from his job since FBI agents charged him in October with wire fraud, conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and other charges.

Balkin said he also plans to call Hoffmann to the witness stand.

“I’d like to give [Hoffmann] some credit in this case. I sure can’t picture any district attorney thinking that they would use a Taser,” Balkin said.

Hoffmann told The News that she will offer a very different version of what happened that day than Smith did.

nfischer@buffnews.com and sscanlon@buffnews.com

Source

//

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Three women were found shot dead yesterday at an auto glass business in Pennsylvania where they worked.

Police said the bodies of Edith Cora Tietge, 81; her sister Doris Lynn Murphy, 69; and Murphy’s daughter, Kris Lynn Murphy, 43, were found at Ferguson Glass Services in a remote area near Saltsburg, about 35 miles east of Pittsburgh. All three women lived in Saltsburg.

A .22-caliber handgun owned by a relative was found near the rear door of the premises, police said. The women appeared to have been shot in the head.

An employee told police the gun belonged to the shop’s owner 48-year-old Kevin Murphy.

Police have asked permission from a judge to get a DNA sample from Murphy.

A family member found the bodies in the shop’s garage late yesterday afternoon and called the police. It is unclear who the caller was.

According to state records, Ferguson Glass Services has been owned by Kevin L. and Kris L. Murphy since 1971.

[Based on reports by the Associated Press and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.]

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