DNA Data Bank Oversight Panel
Minutes of meeting of December 20, 2023 meeting
The meeting convened at 9:31 a.m.
Participating in the meeting were Lab; Cheryl Carreiro, DESPP-Forensic Lab; Daniel Renstrom, DESPP-Forensic Lab; Megan Olt, DESPP-Forensic Lab; Sevasti Papakanakis, DESPP Forensic Lab; Mandy Young – DESPP; Lisamaria Proscino, Office of the Attorney General; Robert Meredith, OCPD; Lisa D’Angelo OCSA; Regina Herbert, Judicial Court Support Services; Elizabeth Tugie, Department of Correction; Joe Sanford, DESPP, Sex Offender Registry; Philip Chapell, DESPP, Sex offender Registry; Michael Gailor, DCJ.
The minutes of the meeting on September 13, 2023, were unanimously approved.
The lab reported that as of December 1, 2023, a total of 135,006 convicted offender samples have been submitted to the lab; 670 since September 1, 2023. Of these samples, approximately 7537 were determined to be duplicate submissions. One hundred twenty seven thousand nine hundred forty are searching in CODIS. Approximately 216 convicted offender samples are waiting to be processed/entered into CODIS. There are approximately 23,200 profiles in the Forensic Index. The lab reported that 10,805 investigations have been aided so far by 11,355 confirmed hits. Approximately 188 candidate matches are under evaluation. The average time it takes to send out notification of the hit once it has been obtained is fourteen days.
Regina Hebert reported that Judicial sent 432 letters to persons sentenced to a period of probation advising them to submit to the taking of a biological sample, 285 of the letters were first notices while 147 were follow up letters to individuals who had not provided a sample. In non-probation cases, Judicial sent 48 initial letters and 27 follow up letters. Judicial sent 13 memos to the Department of Correction advising them of the need to collect a sample. In total, Judicial collected 255 samples from July to September 2023.
The Sex Offender Registry Unit reported that added 68 new offenders to the sex offender registry and 187 new offenders to the deadly weapon registry from September 1 to December 1, 2023. The unit obtained 28 biological samples from sex offenders for the purpose of developing a DNA profile and 8 samples from persons on the deadly weapon registry.
The Department of Correction reported that it has collected 1127 samples in the year to date, 368 since the last Oversight Committee Meeting on September 13, 2023. DOC also reported that 70 collections are pending and that 60 inmates have refused to provide a sample.
Additional business:
The agencies that are required to collect samples agreed to continue to work together when ordering the kits used to obtain the samples. To that end, the agencies will report on their inventory of kits at the quarterly meeting.
The Committee agreed that, in cases where other forms of identification may be lacking, the collecting agency should note the docket number of the case in which the offender obtained the qualifying conviction.
The Committee set the following meeting dates for 2024:
March 13, June 12, September 11, and December 11.
The Committee went into Executive Session at 10:03 a.m. to consider matters related to individuals from whom samples had been obtained. Upon coming out of Executive Session at 10:17 a.m. the Committee reported the following:
Sample 12/20/23-A – Should be retained but should not be included in the index of profiles searched.
Sample 12/20/23-B – Should be retained but should not be included in the index of profiles searched.
Sample 12/20/23-C – Should be purged from the Data Bank
Sample 12/20/23-D – Should be purged from the Data Bank.
Sample 12/20/23-E – Should be purged from the Data Bank. -
Sample 12/20/23-F – Should be purged from the Data Bank.
Sample 12/20/23-G – Should be purged from the Data Bank.
Sample 12/20/23-H – Should be purged from the Data Bank.
The meeting adjourned at 10:18 a.m.