Evidence dumped in room cleanup could affect more than a thousand cases
More than 20,000 pieces of evidence were destroyed—potentially endangering more than a thousand criminal cases—when deputies cleaned out a property room in January, a Texas district attorney said on Friday.
Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson said prosecutors are being asked “to try to resurrect these cases as best they can,” report the Houston Chronicle and KHOU. “It will make me sick if we have to dismiss a violent case because of this. It will make me ill if we have to do that,” Anderson said.
The evidence was destroyed when deputy constables cleaned out the evidence room in Harris County Precinct 4. The DA has already dismissed 142 criminal cases as a result of the lost evidence.
Constable Mark Herman says he has fired the deputy responsible for the cleanup. But a lawyer for the deputy said his client was just following orders from a superior who has since retired, according to the Houston Chronicle story.
Hat tip to the Marshall Project.
