The DNA/Serology Section of the HPD Crime Lab has been shut down after the head of the DNA testing lab resigned and two other crime lab employees were suspended following an investigation into proficiency exam cheating.

Employees were told at an afternoon meeting that the lab would be down at least until a new technical leader can be found to run it.

Vanessa G. Nelson, the DNA Section Chief of the HPD Crime Lab, left the department Thursday after tendering her resignation. Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt suspended Sujatha Yarlagadda, a criminalist for the lab, indefinitely.

Another unidentified crime lab employee was placed on temporary suspension according to an HPD press release.

The resignation of the section chief and the two employee suspensions come after 11 News revealed that members of the crime lab were alleged to have cheated on mandated proficiency exams.

The testing is required for the lab to keep its accreditation.

J. Phillips, a former crime lab employee, felt so strongly about the alleged cheating that she quit her job.

In an exclusive interview last November, Phillips said The DNA section chief, Vanessa Nelson, told two of her employees taking the test how to answer questions.

“She was willing to just throw that all away and make it convenient for her,” said Phillips.

Phillips said she confronted Nelson.

“When I said (the American Society of Crime Laboratory Division) is not going to like that. That's when she said, ‘Well ASCLD doesn't have to find out. When they come we won't pull those folders.’ I said, all due respect, but I thought that we were trying to do the right thing."

Now, Phillips feels vindicated.

Nelson resigned effective yesterday and the two employees who were having trouble on the test have both been suspended.

This is far from the first trouble for the HPD lab. It shut down the first time in December of 2002 after an exclusive 11 News investigation uncovered serious problems.

This is what DNA expert Bill Thompson told us last year as we discovered the new allegations: “Well you know you can put new apples into the barrel but if it is a bad barrel they still spoil don’t they."