The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office is halting all DNA analysis after contamination at the crime lab

Allard updated the office in an internal memo on Sept. 30 after speaking with Allison Dolenc, head of the DNA division in the sheriff’s crime lab.

This memo contained the following information:

The crime lab noticed the contamination two weeks before Labatt’s first email. They immediately stopped all work on these cases, but had not published any findings related to the contamination of these cases. The crime lab then began looking for other cases that may have been affected by contamination – the first cases where contamination was detected were in 2022 and the lab looked back to 2016. At the time of this email, the HCSO was investigating cases in 2018. Dolenc told Allard that the source of the contamination “likely came from plastic items” used in DNA testing.

Two days later there was an update that the crime lab had identified twelve affected cases, two of which were active.

There are three other crime labs in the state that can process DNA evidence and “forensic serology,” which is the analysis of bodily fluids such as blood, semen, saliva and urine: the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension labs in St. Paul and Bemidji and the county’s Tri Regional Forensic Laboratory in Andover.

The HCSO Crime Lab works with 35 law enforcement agencies in Hennepin County along with the State Patrol and federal law enforcement agencies. The Minneapolis Police Department works with the BCA crime lab; Her contract this year was worth $1.32 million.