The leader of the Monroe County public safety laboratory has been replaced after a scathing report from the state inspector general.
Janet Anderson-Seaquist was dismissed from her position and replaced by John Clark, a firearms instructor who will serve as acting director.
The report says the Monroe County public safety laboratory made errors that caused evidence to be destroyed in dozens of cases where it could have made a difference at trial.
The report from acting inspector general Catherine Leahy Scott says Anderson-Seaquist marked 270 cases as being past the statute of limitations, leading evidence in those cases to be returned to police and, in some cases, destroyed. But the report says in at least 41 of those cases, the statute of limitations had not expired, and later testing linked DNA evidence to known offenders in at least three burglary cases and a rape case.
The report recommends changes in lab policy that would prohibit lab officials from giving legal opinions.