Court records say a 73 year man was a “person of interest” and was tracked down by police for his DNA in an earlier search of DNA records pursued in 2017. He was not the perp arrested this week. A closer look at how far they went investigating the wrong man might be hard to get.

“Officials did not need a court order to access GEDmatch’s large database of genetic blueprints, Holes [one of the cold case detectives] said. Major commercial DNA companies say they do not give law enforcement access to their genetic data without a court order.”

How hard would that have been to get? Maybe, harder than you think, if the cops fudged by getting the real perp’s DNA from private property. Apparently someone was in a hurry. Detective Holes retired one day before the arrest of DeAngelo occured.

There is a nice quote from Law Prof Erin Murphy about all this.

“It seems crazy to say a police officer investigating a very serious crime can’t do something your cousin can do on a Tuesday,” Murphy said. “If an ordinary person can do this, why can’t a cop? On the other hand, if an ordinary person had done this, we might think they shouldn’t.”

http://www.kdrv.com/content/news/Oregon-Misidentified-as-Golden-State-Killer-in-2017-481110551.html