Forensic Report was WRONG on 'B' Blood

DNA TESTING FAULTS EVIDENCE
RESULTS COULD LEAD TO LAGUER'S EXONERATION
By David Arnold , Globe Staff, 2/15/2002

New DNA tests indicate that the blood on tissues found at a Leominster rape
scene 19 years ago belongs to the victim and not Benjamin LaGuer, who is
serving a life sentence for the crime.

Those findings and tests on semen found at the scene could open the door for
a second round of tests that could exonerate LaGuer, who has maintained that
he is innocent.

''It is but one more finding in a case that feels more and more like
something out of `Alice In Wonderland,''' said David Siegel, LaGuer's pro
bono lawyer and a professor at the New England School of Law.

A spokeswoman for John Conte, the Worcester County district attorney whose
office prosecuted LaGuer, said he would not comment on the DNA results or
other aspects the case. He has said that at the appropriate time, the facts
would become clear in court.

For many years Conte has insisted that the blood on the tissues belonged to
LaGuer. Parole boards and appellate judges have kept LaGuer in prison partly
because of that assertion. In 1991 the state Supreme Judicial Supreme Court
denied LaGuer's appeal for a new trial partly because ''the defendant's ...
blood type was the same as that found on tissues at the rape scene,''
Justices Paul Liacos, Herbert Wilkins, Joseph Nolan, Francis O'Conner, and
John Greaney concluded.

At trial in 1984, prosecutors relied almost entirely on the victim's
eyewitness identification.

Siegel said he recently learned that in 1983 the State Police laboratory
incorrectly identified the blood type on the tissues at the rape scene.
Those results were the basis for prosecutors' conclusion that LaGuer's blood
had been found at the scene.

Troubling questions about the state's handling of evidence in the case have
surfaced, according to Siegel. For example, he discovered that police had
failed to inform the court and LaGuer's attorney at the time of his trial
that four sets of someone else's fingerprints were found on the object used
to bind the victim. The actual prints have disappeared, prosecutors told
Siegel.

Another recently discovered document indicates that the prosecution
delivered eight pieces of evidence to the State Police laboratory for
forensic testing almost five months after LaGuer's conviction. This evidence
has apparently disappeared, too.

Private citizens and friends of LaGuer's raised the $20,000 to cover the DNA
tests, which were conducted at Forensic Science Associates in Richmond,
Calif., with an appointee from Conte's office present. The tests, results of
which were sent late last week to lawyers for both sides and Judge Timothy
S. Hillman of Worcester Superior Court, also analyzed semen specimens
recovered from a crime scene rape kit.

An investigator for LaGuer discovered the kit in an evidence box tucked away
in Worcester Superior Court a few years ago while trying to determine if
there was evidence they had not reviewed.

Only one person in a population of several hundred million has the DNA
profile that the tests determined, said Dr. Edward Blake, a partner with
Forensic Science.

''Basically, that's about one person in the entire United States,'' Blake
said.

A second phase of testing, which Siegel said would take place in ''the near
future,'' will profile LaGuer's DNA for comparison.

''And if the perpetrator was not LaGuer,'' said Siegel, ''there are going to
be many questions, not only about how the wrong person was suspected,
charged, arrested, and convicted, but who actually committed the crime?''

For eight hours on July 12, 1983, a 59-year-old woman (who has since died)
was raped. LaGuer was an unemployed 20-year old bar hopper with an attitude
who was living with his father next door. When the mentally ill victim told
police her assailant was ''dark skinned,'' LaGuer, the only black resident
in apartment complex, became a suspect. He offered to let police photograph
him, and the victim later identified him based on the picture.

LaGuer, who has waged an often public campaign in the media to prove his
innocence, has long maintained that DNA tests on semen samples would
exonerate him. But it took two years to get the semen tested, according to
Siegel.

''There are district attorneys in this state who would not hesitate to
confront the embarrassment of an erroneous conviction if a DNA test could
quickly get to the truth,'' Siegel said.

On March 13 last year, Hillman ordered that all physical evidence be
impounded to prevent allegations of tampering. But last month, Sandra
Hautanen, a Worcester County assistant district attorney, suggested in a
court proceeding that what remains of the evidence is far from secure.

''My understanding is that three to five state troopers spent more than a
day going through every piece of paper [evidence] ... that were [sic] about
to be shredded,'' she told the judge.