AUSTIN, Texas — The second-in-command of the Travis County District Attorney's Office has put the Austin Forensics Science Department on notice, saying it has not fulfilled its legal duty to surrender key information in ongoing criminal cases.
The KVUE Defenders obtained a memo sent Friday by First Assistant District Attorney Trudy Strassburger to Dana Kadavy, the agency's director. The memo says the district attorney's office wants to know within 30 days how the city agency will correct those issues.
Under the law, prosecutors are required to give defense attorneys any information that might be favorable to a defendant. The letter says the district attorney's office couldn't do that because it wasn't told about several matters in the forensic department's operations and personnel for nearly a year.
Those matters include an email from a supervisors about her concerns about an analyst's ability to do her job. They also include allegations of criminal conduct by employees and management of the facility, withholding errors discovered by the department and a lack of supervision so that evidence was stored for two years without being entered into a chain of custody.
The letter gives no additional details, and officials said they can't comment further because of ongoing investigations.
Austin's crime lab came under scrutiny in 2016 by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which found employees misinterpreting data, among other issues. Two people were exonerated based on those mistakes, and six other cases – including a death penalty case – are winding their way through the courts.
The district attorney's office also notified the commission about the latest concerns.
In a statement, the City said: "We value our ongoing partnership with the Travis County District Attorney's Office in criminal justice matters. We received their letter on Friday and are looking into concerns addressed in the letter."
Officials from the district attorney's office said they could not comment on the number of cases that could be impacted.