Monthly Archives: May 2013

MADISON, Wis. (AP) The Legislature's finance committee Thursday approved a plan in Republican Gov. Scott Walker's executive budget that would dramatically expand the state's powers to seize DNA from crime suspects.

Wisconsin currently takes DNA only from convicted felons and sex offenders. Walker's plan would require police to seize DNA from anyone arrested for a felony and a host of sex-related misdemeanors, including fourth-degree sexual assault, prostitution and exposing one's genitals to a child. The measure also would mandate that anyone convicted of any crime submit a DNA sample.

Convicts would be able to request the state crime lab expunge their DNA profiles from the state's database if the convictions have been reversed, set aside or vacated. Arrestees could request records be expunged if a year has passed and no charges have been filed, the charges have been dismissed or the person was acquitted.

The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates the collection expansion would pump an additional 68,000 DNA samples into the state and federal government's DNA databases annually. Walker's budget sets out nearly $6 million for the expansion, with most of the money coming through an existing $250 surcharge on felony convicts and a new $200 surcharge on misdemeanor convicts.

"As we look at the benefits of this, I hope you'll think carefully and recognize this is really about protecting our citizens," Joint Finance Committee member Sen. Sheila Harsdorf, R-River Falls, said before the committee voted on the plan.

DNA is considered a foolproof identifier. Law enforcement officials contend more DNA profiles in government databanks will help them identify suspects quickly and clear unsolved crimes.

Civil rights advocates, though, see expanded collection as an invasion of privacy. The fiscal bureau noted the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide within the coming weeks whether Maryland's DNA-upon-arrest law violates arrestees' expectation of privacy.

"There are better ways to use the millions of dollars in operating and capital costs this proposal will waste," Chris Ahmuty, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Wisconsin chapter, said in a statement.

The Republican-controlled committee modified Walker's plan slightly, pushing back the plan's start dates by months to give the state time to digest the Supreme Court's decision. The panel also barred taking DNA at arrest for misdemeanors. Harsdorf, who suggested the modifications, said Republicans were concerned taking DNA upon arrest for misdemeanors was too broad.

Democrats complained the expansion should be debated as a stand-alone bill.

More:
Wis. budget committee approves DNA upon arrest

TORONTO - Twenty-two years after a nine-year-old girl was lured from her apartment building lobby and sexually assaulted, a suspect has been arrested, police announced Friday.

Investigators said that after being stalled for more than two decades, the break in the case came by using forensic DNA evidence collected at the time of the incident.

Shane Daniel Garry, 45, of Brampton, Ont., was arrested Thursday and charged with two counts of kidnapping, two counts of forcible confinement, sexual assault, sexual interference, threatening bodily harm and two counts of abandoning a child under the age of 10.

Police said Garry appeared in court Friday. The allegations against him have not been proven.

Det. Ali Ansari said Garry was "known to police" but would not provide any details.

The detective, who works exclusively on cold cases, said advances in DNA testing allowed investigators to make headway on the case.

"In 1991, the DNA technology was not where it is now," Ansari said. "In fact, it was non-existent almost."

The nine-year-old girl and her five-year-old sister were playing in the lobby of their east-end apartment building on Feb. 3, 1991, when police say a man approached them and asked for help finding a place to eat.

It's alleged the man asked the girls to get in his car, then dropped the five-year-old off at a store before taking the nine-year-old to a secluded area, sexually assaulting her and then leaving her at a restaurant.

Ansari said the two sisters, now in their late 20s and early 30s, are relieved there is an arrest in the case after so many years.

Read more from the original source:
DNA evidence leads to charges in 1991 sex assault of girl, 9, Toronto police say