NYC Medical Examiner’s office reviewing hundreds of cases in budding lab scandal

New York City’s Medical Examiner’s office said Friday it is reviewing hundreds of cases as part of the investigation into serious misconduct by three of its analysts — as a member of the state Forensic Commission publicly called the budding scandal a “sh–storm.”

Three criminalists in the ME’s office are under investigation for violating lab standards in more than 30 cases, and for cheating on a promotional exam. A fourth criminalist is being probed for falsifying time sheets.

The investigation — reported in the Daily News on Thursday — is continuing, officials with the ME’s office told the Forensic Commission in testimony Friday. The three officials under probe were involved in thousands of forensic analyses, the officials testified.

“Don’t think I don’t realize the implications of this. This is a sh–storm,” commission member William Fitzpatrick said at the meeting. Fitzpatrick is the district attorney in Onandaga County, which includes Syracuse.

Veteran New York City criminalist Matthew Benintendo and junior criminalists Steven Kranes and Luke Dalto were removed from casework after the cheating on the August promotional test was discovered, documents obtained by The News revealed.

Further investigation discovered a discrepancy in a forensic analysis Benintendo performed.

After that discovery was made Nov. 20, a further review found that in 33 cases, Benintendo performed forensic analyses which Kranes and Dalto signed off on, the records show.

Mirtha Sabio, general counsel with the ME’s office, revealed Friday in the meeting that neither Kranes nor Dalto did any actual work on those analyses before they signed off on them.

“The only activity of the analysts who signed the reports was to put their signature on the report,” Sabio said.

Benintendo also did technical reviews of cases he analyzed and Kranes and Dalto approved — a violation of widely accepted lab practice, the records show.

Under standard forensic lab protocols, the person who performs a forensic analysis and the person who reviews it are required to be different analysts.

As for motive, one official with the ME’s office speculated: “Perhaps this process was to help these people in their work.”

The potential universe of cases touched by the analysts is much larger than the 33 known so far.

Benintendo, who has worked for the office since at least 2008, has handled thousands of cases and has testified in 89 trials, officials in the Medical Examiner’s office said.

Among those cases was the notorious June 2018 gang murder of Bronx teen Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz, during which Benintendo told a jury that blood found in a vehicle that fled the scene had come from the victim.

Kranes and Dalto have been involved in 2,600 cases.

At Friday’s Forensic Commission meeting, the officials in the Medical Examiner’s office said that besides the initial 33 cases, they’ve reviewed an additional 251 cases out of a sample of 1,400 cases that they believe merit further review.

They plan to search the agency’s computer system to look for cases generally where an analyst also was the technical reviewer.

“We believe we’ve identified the problematic cases,” Sabio said.

But commission member Jessica Goldthwaite, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society countered, “I’m concerned about the need for a more in-depth look at the scientific accuracy of these results, and whether this is a more systemic problem in the lab.”

The Brooklyn Defenders Service and the Legal Aid Society have called on the city to do a broader outside review of the lab.

Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman with the ME’s office, declined to comment Friday. She told The News Wednesday the three analysts were suspended from casework and a probe was continuing.

Later in the meeting, the commission moved to discuss the scandal behind closed doors in executive session because the ME’s office has not completed its investigation.

Goldthwaite objected. “Why does this have to go into executive session?” she asked.

“This is a huge issue and this impacts the integrity of at least three analysts. It impacts casework, thousands of cases. This is a matter of public concern. We should discuss it publicly.”

“Do not imply that we do not care about this,” replied Dr. Jill Dooley, director of the state Office of Forensic Science and a panel member.

The executive session was held, but no apparent action was taken.

“The likelihood of this, what we do, not becoming public is zero, at some point,” Fitzpatrick said.