HOUSTON — Dozens of sex crime cases that the Houston Police Department suspended for lack of manpower had DNA matches to named suspects, the Houston Forensics Center Science said.
HPD Chief Troy Finner had asked the crime lab to review sex crime and special victims division cases dating back to 2016 that had been coded “suspended-lack of personnel.”
According to Houston Forensic Science Center’s Dr. Peter Stout, 1,147 of those cases had sexual assault kits that were tested, of which 291 were complete enough for DNA profiles to be uploaded into CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System. The database produced 96 DNA matches to known offenders or a separate criminal offense.
“Then we report that hit, what's called a CODIS hit, back to law enforcement," said crime lab CEO Stout. “We report both to the DA's office and to HPD.”
Stout said for every CODIS hit, the crime lab emailed the results to the submitting HPD officer, anyone who requested to be copied and also what he called “the bucket,” a general e-mail address for the special victims' division. Additionally, Stout said his team routinely follows up to make sure Houston police received the notifications.
“We go back and check on a monthly basis if those CODIS hits have gone through," Stout said. "So we send them a list of the hits that we know we’ve sent that month. We sent them another list of that."
But Houston police never followed through on the 96 hits as the cases remained classified as suspended. Stout said his team has taken a deeper look at about half of the DNA matches.
“And so far we had 39 that went to a known individual,” Stout said.
The Houston Police Officers’ Union said DNA can be key to prosecuting sex crimes.
“That is firm, solid evidence that locks them up,” HPOU President Douglas Griffith said.
Instead, those suspects remained on the streets.
“We still got that same suspect that's out there reoffending because, as we know, rapists don't just stop with one,” Griffith said.
Griffith said he blames HPD leadership for the botched sex crime investigations. Chief Troy Finner previously said he learned about the controversial “suspended-lack of personnel” code in November 2021. While Finner claimed he ordered command staff to stop using it, Griffith said more should have been done.
“We should have conducted an audit in 2021,” Griffith said. “We should have gone back and looked at those cases that we had CODIS hits for in 2021 and did something then. Now we're trying, we’re behind the 8 ball.”
An HPD spokeswoman had no comment about the DNA matches on Tuesday.
On social media Monday, Finner said he will provide an additional update to the public “later this week.”
As for prosecuting the cases, some of which are years old, Harris County District Attorney provided the following statement:
“The District Attorney’s Office has been working with HPD to ensure that any offender with a CODIS hit is a top priority case for HPD detectives to investigate and present to our prosecutors for charges. Clearly, serial rapists present the greatest threat to other victims and we look forward to bringing these suspects to justice as quickly as possible.”