Opinion ID: 3153639
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The DNA Testing by the State Police Lab

Text: Lieutenant Brent Myers of the West Virginia State Police Forensic Laboratory received Mrs. L.’s rape kit and began his DNA evaluation on January 22, 2002. He had been asked to expedite testing, and by February 8, 2002, he had tentatively concluded that the 5 The Petitioner alleges that Mr. Dyer did not attempt to corroborate this alibi, interview witnesses, or obtain information from the hotel desk clerk. 5 DNA did not belong to the Petitioner. On February 9, 2002, Lieutenant Myers began the process of retesting the samples. During those procedures, he noted the possibility of more than one male DNA source. However, even that secondary source did not appear to be the Petitioner. On April 5, 2002, six weeks before the circuit court accepted a guilty plea from the Petitioner, Lieutenant Myers completed his report by concluding: “[A]ssuming there are only two contributors (including [Mrs. L.]), Joseph Buffey is excluded as the donor of the seminal fluid identified [from the rape kit] cuttings.” The report was mailed to Detective Robert Matheny of the Clarksburg Police Department on July 12, 2002. It is uncontested that Lieutenant Myers’ report was not provided to the defense before the circuit court accepted the Petitioner’s guilty plea. Mr. Dyer testified he was “desperate” to learn the test results. Despite his repeated inquiries prior to the Petitioner’s acceptance of the plea offer, Mr. Dyer was informed the results were not yet complete. He later indicated, during habeas proceedings, that he would have “put the brakes on the Judge[’s] accepting the plea” if he had known the results excluded the Petitioner as the sperm source. In particular, Mr. Dyer was asked: If you had known that by February 11th the West Virginia State Police Forensic Laboratory had reached some preliminary conclusions to the effect that if there were - if there was only two people involved that would be the victim and the 6 perpetrator, Joe Buffey was excluded . . . would you have let Joe Buffey plead? Mr. Dyer answered: “Of course not.”