Jim Bolding

In his most recent letter, SPM quotes the investigating officer in his case, Heidi Ruiz, when she mentioned the founder of the HPD lab’s DNA section, a Mr. Jim Bolding. The decision whether or not to collect evidence was based on this guy’s training. Bolding, the lab director, was a key figure for many years and is mentioned repeatedly in the report issued by an independent investigator back in 2005.

Bolding appears to have been a self-taught serologist, and lacked the necessary education in statistics to effectively perform DNA analysis. Because of his recommendation the lab began storing evidence in rooms without temperature controls.

“Over the many years that Bolding remained in charge, the serology department became marked, according to Bromwich, by a "disregard for scientific integrity." Analysts beneath Bolding often neglected to test evidence that was presented to them; the tests they did perform were "generally unreliable." They misinterpreted, misrecorded, misreported the results. The investigator even found a case in which Bolding seemed to have committed "outright scientific fraud and perjury."”

A federal jury found that the city showed ‘deliberate indifference’ to the problems at the crime lab when they awarded George Rodriguez $5 million for the false evidence which led to his conviction.

A key piece of the case against Coy –namely, any shred of physical evidence- rested in the hands of an officer who, by her own admission was trained “year after year” by this guy.  

http://www.chron.com/default/article/5-million-award-bittersweet-for-wrongly-convicted-1720657.php

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/05/us/new-doubt-cast-on-testing-in-houston-police-crime-lab.html

http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-11-27/news/deadly-evidence-at-the-crime-lab/