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Lazaro Sotolusson Wrongly labeled DNA evidence led to assault charges against man Deputy Public Defenders Brigid Hoffman and Darin Imlay are shown Wednesday with the case file of Lazaro Sotolusson, who wrongly was accused in two sexual assaults because of a clerical error at the Las Vegas police forensics lab. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

Thursday, April 18, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

DNA EVIDENCE: Officials admit error, dismiss case

LV lab put wrong name on sample

© COPYRIGHT 2002, REVIEW-JOURNAL

Authorities acknowledged Wednesday that a clerical error at the Las Vegas police forensics lab led to a man being jailed for a year for sex crimes he did not commit.

Lazaro Sotolusson was scheduled to be tried next month in two sexual assaults involving juvenile victims. Seemingly conclusive DNA evidence formed the heart of the prosecution's case, and Sotolusson faced multiple life terms if convicted.

But prosecutors dismissed the charges Wednesday, acknowledging that the police lab accidentally had placed Sotolusson's name on another man's DNA sample.

"Once it became clear that this guy was not the perpetrator, the intellectually honest thing to do was to rectify the wrong," District Attorney Stewart Bell said.

The error was detected by an expert retained by Deputy Public Defenders Brigid Hoffman and Darin Imlay.

The attorneys said Sotolusson maintained his innocence while spending about one year in the jail on the charges.

Imlay said Sotolusson was elated when he was told earlier this week that the DNA evidence had been discredited and that authorities were dismissing the charges.

"Obviously he was thrilled to death," Imlay said. "At the same time, he was saying 'I told you so.' "

The events that led to Sotolusson being wrongly accused date to last year at the North Las Vegas Detention Center. Sotolusson was housed at the jail on an allegation of immigration law violation, Hoffman said.

A cellmate accused Sotolusson of raping him, Hoffman said. Authorities investigated the allegations and took samples of both men's DNA to the police lab for analysis.

The DNA evidence for both men was profiled, and the profiles were entered into a lab computer, Hoffman said. While the DNA profiles were being entered, Sotolusson's name and the cellmate's name were switched accidentally.

"The problem is someone typed in the wrong name," Assistant District Attorney J. Charles Thompson said.

Authorities ran the DNA profiles belonging to the two men through a computer database to see whether they would match any DNA profiles gathered from unsolved crimes in the valley. Thompson said the results tied the DNA profile mislabeled as Sotolusson's to two unsolved sexual assaults.

Hoffman said the cases involved the abductions and sexual assaults of two juveniles at gunpoint in 1998 and 1999.

Because of the mistake, Sotolusson was charged with multiple felonies, including sexual assault and first-degree kidnapping in connection with the assaults on the two juveniles.

In a preliminary hearing, one of the female victims identified Sotolusson as her attacker. Sotolusson remained adamant that he was wrongly accused.

Hoffman and Imlay said authorities said the DNA evidence indicated the odds that Sotolusson was not the offender were 1 in 600 billion.

"It looked on its face to be very strong evidence," Hoffman said.

But with Sotolusson's proclamations of innocence, the deputy public defenders sought and received permission from Assistant Public Defender Ralph Baker to hire their own DNA testing expert.

Upon examining the handwritten notes and computer records from the police lab, forensic scientist Norah Rudin concluded Sotolusson's name had been transposed with the name of his former cellmate.

"We were lucky the public defender had the resources to hire an expert as good as Norah Rudin," Hoffman said.

Rudin and the defense attorneys then contacted the police lab, which agreed to obtain more samples and retest the evidence. On Saturday, officials with the lab notified Imlay they had confirmed that a mistake had been made.

"The lab certainly stood up and took responsibility," Public Defender Marcus Cooper said.

"Our expert had never come across anything like this," Hoffman said.

Authorities said they are investigating the likelihood that Sotolusson's former cellmate is the source of the DNA evidence in the unsolved rape cases.

That man, whose name could not be confirmed Wednesday, is serving a prison sentence in California for bank robbery, Thompson said.

Bell said that given the developments in the Sotolusson case, a question exists as to whether the old sexual assaults can be prosecuted.

"I'm told there may be some difficulty in prosecuting at least one of those cases," Bell said.

Sotolusson remains charged with sexual assault in connection with the former cellmate's allegation. Sotolusson is expected to appear this morning before District Judge Valorie Vega for proceedings related to that case.

Several officials familiar with the case said prosecutors are considering dismissing that charge too.

Bell said despite the jailing of a man for a year on crimes he did not commit, the dismissal of the charges showed the criminal justice system in Clark County works.

"Through the system, charges that once looked appropriate were weeded out," Bell said.

Cooper said the work of Hoffman, Imlay and Rudin probably saved an innocent man from spending the rest of his life in prison.

"It would have been very easy for them to say 'Why even bother?' " Cooper said. "But they were concerned about their client, and they decided to go the extra mile. That ended up proving an innocent man was wrongly accused."

A supervisor at the police lab Wednesday referred all questions on the matter to police Deputy Chief Ray Flynn. Flynn, in training meetings all day Wednesday, tried to return a phone message but could not be reached later.

Thompson said that a review of procedures at the police lab has been undertaken because of the mistake and that changes are being made to "see that this never occurs again."

Prosecutors and defense attorneys differed Wednesday as to whether the Sotolusson case should affect any other local criminal cases involving DNA evidence.

"Despite the credibility commonly afforded to these (DNA) test results, this demonstrates there is always the possibility of human error," Cooper said.

Thompson said that a clerical error was behind the mistake in the Sotolusson case and that the DNA testing done at the police lab is not in question.

"There is nothing wrong with the actual testing," Thompson said.