Crime Lab Confidential: DA and SFPD Withheld Damaging Memo About DNA Lab Failings

Preston's boss is Attorney General Kamala Harris, who might have something at stake in questions about the memo's suppression. In December, both Harris and Gascón — at the time San Francisco's DA and police chief, respectively — said they had no knowledge of Harmon's memo. Today, Harmon says he does not know whether Harris was apprised of the report or its contents. "I never dealt with her. I would see her once in a while in the hallway," he says. Gascón declined to comment through his public-relations office.

Both the findings of Harmon's memo and the unexplained failures on the part of police and prosecutors over the past six months to share the report or describe it accurately in public statements could revive questions about ethical and scientific lapses related to the crime lab. They could call into question the soundness of evidence used in much more significant and emotionally charged cases — rapes, murders, assaults, burglaries, and more — than the low-level narcotics cases affected by the now-resolved scandal in the lab's drug unit.

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“The full story — the full, true story — is still not out there,” veteran prosecutor Rockne Harmon says.

© Michael Macor/San Francisco Chronicle/Corbis

According to a whistleblower, former SFPD Interim Chief Jeff Godown did not share an internal report critical of the crime lab with DOJ auditors.

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• Rockne Harmon
• Cherisse Boland
• San Francisco Police Department
• Trials
• Criminal Trials

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Such consequences have so far been forestalled by misinformation. Now Harmon is preparing to take the stand and tell his story. Once the whole truth is out, some of San Francisco's highest-ranking law-enforcement officials could have some things to explain.