I write this statement today to clear up some very important facts regarding the irresponsible and malicious handling of my memorandum I was told to write by upper management of the Austin Police Department in regard to legitimate quality assurance and personnel concerns that I brought forward to them. Through these facts, you will come to see that the dire consequences facing the casework, the District Attorney’s Office, and the Austin Police Department are the direct result of APD’s improper handling of the internal investigation and my memorandum, in an attempt to cover up the real issues that occurred within the DNA unit and the real issues that occurred after I was told to write my memorandum. APD is to blame for this situation.
In February 2010, I was instructed in writing through a memorandum given to me by Bill Gibbens, Forensic Lab Manager who was instructed by Assistant Chief Mannix to have me write my memorandum about the personnel and quality assurance issues I had seen and experienced within the DNA unit at the Austin Police Department. I was also told in writing through that same memorandum to construct my memorandum into two parts: a personnel portion and a quality assurance portion and I was told in writing to give a copy of my memorandum to Bill Gibbens, Forensic Lab Manager and Tonia Scaperlanda, Human Resources Supervisor. I was told that the internal personnel investigation would be conducted by Tonia Scaperlanda, Human Resources Supervisor and that the internal quality assurance investigation would be performed by Bill Gibbens, Forensic Lab Manager and Anthony “Tony” Arnold, Quality Assurance Manager of the forensics lab.
The first fact that I must make clear to everyone is that I did not release any information in regard to this internal investigation to the media. My union representatives did not release any information to the media either. There is no way we could have released the information that was given to the media because we were never allowed to see nor were we ever provided copies of the responses that were written by Cassie Carradine, Elizabeth Morris, Diana Morales, Claire McKenna, Bill Gibbens, Tony Arnold, Tonia Scaperlanda, and Assistant Chief Mannix. At the time that I left APD to take a new job, the internal investigation was still in progress. I have this fact in writing. When I was told that my co-workers had already written some responses to my memorandum, my union representatives and I requested copies of those responses and we were denied copies and we were denied to even see them. When the internal investigation was leaked to the media last week that was my first time to ever see or read these responses.
The second fact that I must address is that there was a specific event that occurred on February 5, 2010 that eventually led to management telling me in writing to write my memorandum and the other Senior DNA analyst in the APD DNA unit, Elizabeth Morris, is now lying about the circumstances surrounding this day. The event that occurred on February 5th and the actions that occurred by the DNA Supervisor/Technical Leader, the Quality Assurance Manager, and the Forensic Lab Director are what led me to take my concerns to the sworn upper management of APD. On Monday, February 8, 2010 Elizabeth Morris was threatened with disciplinary action by Cassie Carradine, DNA Supervisor/Technical Leader for taking concerns she had in regard to Diana Morales’ capabilities as a DNA analyst to an outside agency, even though a position she holds within the DNA unit allows her to do so. After being threatened by Cassie Carradine with disciplinary action and in fear of losing her job, Elizabeth Morris never truthfully spoke about the events that occurred on February 5th again.
I wrote my memorandum and delivered a hard copy and an electronic copy to both Bill Gibbens and Tonia Scaperlanda.
I was very, very concerned with the fact that Chief Mannix placed Bill Gibbens and Tony Arnold in charge of the internal quality assurance investigation. Bill Gibbens has absolutely no science background. He does not even possess a science degree of any kind. Bill Gibben’s boss, Ed Harris does not have a science background and does not possess a science degree. Even the Assistant Forensic Science Lab Manager, Jerry Pena does not possess a science background or a science degree. Tony Arnold is a legacy chemist who has never had any DNA experience and has always relied on Cassie Carradine for virtually all matters relating to quality assurance in the laboratory, even though he is the Quality Assurance Manager. In fact, he has always relied on Cassie Carradine to perform the internal audits of the DNA laboratory. She performs the internal audits, fills out the appropriate paperwork and gives it to Tony Arnold. Tonia Scaperlanda was a concern to me too because I had gone to her before to let her know that there were some serious problems in the DNA unit and she said there was nothing she could do.
I called upon my union representatives when Chief Mannix made the decision to place these people in charge of the internal investigation and I could clearly tell that no external DNA experts were going to be brought into the DNA laboratory to really assess what was going on. It was clear to me that they were going to leave Cassie Carradine in charge of the laboratory instead of removing her, notifying the FBI, and the Texas Forensic Science Commission. Cassie Carradine has remained in place all of this time. It was in front of my union representatives, that Leticia Paredes, Human Resources Manager told us that she and Tonia hadn’t read my entire memorandum because it was too lengthy.
Cassie Carradine remained in place and before the internal investigation really even started Bill Gibbens and Tony Arnold gave her a full copy of my memorandum. Cassie Carradine then gave a full copy of my memorandum to Elizabeth Morris, Diana Morales, and Claire McKenna. Cassie Carradine then began disappearing for large periods of time with each of them. And then the investigation started.
In mid-May 2010, a group of external auditors were coming to the Forensics lab to perform an ASCLD/LAB reaccreditation. The Austin Police Department sent me home that week on paid administrative leave and denied me access to the laboratory when one of the auditors, who is a DNA expert, would have been in the DNA lab interviewing analysts. Cassie had remained in place for three months at this point. And then there were no findings in the DNA lab.
This fact leads me to another fact that the Austin Police Department Chief of police has misspoken about on television. At no time did FBI personnel come to the DNA lab for the audits that the chief was talking about on television. The DNA auditors who have come to audit the DNA lab are Forensic Scientists, just like me, who have been trained to audit against the FBI DNA Audit document. They are not FBI personnel. An important point to include about these DNA auditors who have performed the past external DNA audits is that they have been selected by Cassie Carradine and a lot of them are people Cassie Carradine has personally known for ten or more years. One time Cassie Carradine only brought in one DNA expert for the external DNA audit. One auditor to go through everything that an audit encompasses in the span of 3 days? Cassie Carradine told me that she would never allow an external agency like NFSTC to come into the lab to perform an audit until she had to.
Another fact is that the District Attorney made a statement at the press conference while standing beside Chief Acevedo that she had informed her prosecutors to debrief me. No one from the DA’s office has debriefed me. No one has even asked for any facts or clarification in regard to the bogus internal investigation APD performed.
Instead, what has happened it that someone from APD or someone who wanted to cover for APD leaked the information to the media. The information is filled with slanderous statements and unfounded and unsubstantiated claims that I was a disgruntled employee who brought these issues forward because of a performance evaluation and who would have done anything to have Cassie Carradine’s job. Trust me when I tell you there is absolutely no way that I wanted to be in charge of APD’s DNA lab. I wanted to be technical leader when I first started there, but once I realized how hostile the working environment is and the quality assurance issues that exist, I no longer wanted to work in the unit and this fact is exactly why I was seeking employment elsewhere.
I never received a poor evaluation and when I included my concerns in my memorandum in regard to performance evaluations it was to point out that Cassie Carradine was inconsistent with her expectations and set unattainable expectations for the volume of casework I was to perform and that she was purposefully calculating the number of cases I performed in a certain way so as to lower my numbers. My casework performed ranged from 7 to greater than 20 DNA or Serology cases total per month. I never received any bad evaluation. I was never on any performance improvement plan, and I was never a disgruntled employee. I brought legitimate concerns in good faith about the DNA unit to my chain of command and I am now being purposefully retaliated against and purposefully slandered by APD for having done so.
If I was so disgruntled, why would I have chaired APD’s REAP committee and why would I have co-chaired APD’s retiree luncheon committee? If I was such a terrible and disgruntled employee who did nothing but cause problems, then why did Cassie Carradine approve for me to receive three REAP awards and why did I receive a certificate of recognition from APD and two certificates of appreciation? Why is it that Tonia Scaperlanda nominated me for one of those three REAP awards? If I was so horrible, then why did APD allow me to keep chairing the REAP committee and co-chairing the Retiree Luncheon? Oh, that’s right because they told me I could never do it. Well that is a lie. There is no way I could have participated on these committees without APD’s permission, I would have been written up for insubordination if I hadn’t had permission. I even have a log I kept of the time I spent on the Retiree Luncheon Committee which is what I was told to do by Cassie Carradine immediately after I wrote my memorandum and I continually updated and sent her that log.
Never once did I write or say that every case coming out of APD’s DNA lab was not good. I only wrote and said that the training program needed a serious over-hall, that one analyst should not be performing DNA analysis, and that there is a very hostile working environment.
APD or someone trying to cover for APD is to blame for the leaking of this information to the media and for the intentional and vicious retaliation they are doing to me. They are to blame for the fact that the DA’s office has to perform their own investigation. APD mishandled the internal investigation and was completely irresponsible with the way they have handled the consequences of that faulty internal investigation. They only have themselves to blame. The Chief of police was not forthcoming on television when he said that they were turning the information over to the DA’s office in the spirit of transparency. They are not being transparent because they want to be, they are giving the information to the DA’s office because they have too. APD is covering up the fact that their DNA lab has issues and that they performed a bogus internal investigation and they are trying to discredit and slander me so that people will not listen when I tell the truth about what occurred during my employment there.
