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The officers refused to give the DNA because the department
"had not satisfactorily assured them that their DNA wouldn't
be put into the national database of DNA used by law enforcement
and which is for suspects in criminal offenses"
Sounds like a damn good reason for ANYBODY, to refuse DNA testings! This case from day one sounded like a suicide. The cop who was killed, Sgt. Sean Drenth, was supposed to be indicted on charges of falsifying his time cards for off duty work and probably would have been charged with a few felonies for those crimes. I suspect he killed himself for that reason. Of course the cops didn't rule the death as suicide. They ruled it as a murder. I suspect that was because the crooked cops thought his wife deserved his pension, which she wouldn't get if his death was a suicide. 6 ordered to give DNA samples in Drenth case by William Hermann - Aug. 23, 2011 12:00 AM The Arizona Republic The mysterious death of Phoenix police Sgt. Sean Drenth last year became even more puzzling when five police officers and a city employee persistently refused to give up samples of their DNA to test in the case, even though more than 330 others had voluntarily done so. Investigators recently got a court order to obtain the samples, and last week collected them when the officers and employee came to work. But the six are not happy about it. On the night of Oct. 18, 2010, Drenth, 34, was found shot to death near the state Capitol, lying on his back on the ground next to the passenger side of his patrol car. The driver and passenger doors were open. Drenth reportedly died from a blast from his shotgun, which was found resting on his chest, the muzzle pointing toward his chin. Though many of the circumstances of his death suggested suicide - particularly the shotgun being on his chest - other circumstances suggested homicide, including his service pistol having been flung away from where his body lay, and signs of a struggle at the scene. But most perplexing was that there was evidence that showed there was someone at the scene whose presence police could not explain. "So many people were at the crime scene, and so many people handled evidence from the scene, we had to get DNA samples from a great many people to explain all the DNA found at the scene," said police spokesman Sgt. Trent Crump. "So far, with all the DNA we've collected, we still can't explain some of the DNA found at the scene. Someone was there we do not know about." By last December, Crump said, most people involved in the case had voluntarily given DNA samples, leaving just the six who refused to do so. "The department doesn't have a policy on employees having to give DNA," Crump said. "This is a case of law enforcement having to catch up with modern technology." Since December, there has been a standoff, with the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, a police union, taking the side of officers opposed to giving up their DNA. PLEA President Mark Spencer on Monday said that "we have concerns that the officers are being cast in the role of suspects." "The concern of the officers, and our concern, is that the department is engaged in a search and seizure of these officers, and you should have probable cause for that," Spencer said. "Getting the court order for the DNA implies that they are perpetrators in the murder of Sgt. Drenth." Spencer also said that the officers refused to give the DNA because the department "had not satisfactorily assured them that their DNA wouldn't be put into the national database of DNA used by law enforcement and which is for suspects in criminal offenses. The officers felt it unfair that their DNA would wind up there." Crump said that the department did not intend to enter the officers' DNA in the national database. "The only people in there are suspects in crimes or deceased persons or investigative leads," Crump said. "We took these DNA tests from so many people - people who we don't consider suspects - as part of an exclusionary process. That's why we needed the last six." Crump said that once the DNA collected from the six has been analyzed, "We can see if it explains all the DNA at the scene." "If it doesn't explain the DNA we have at the scene, we are still looking at the possibility of homicide in the case," Crump said. "If it does explain all the DNA, then we are more likely looking at suicide." "Investigators just want to get the DNA aspect of the investigation done," Crump said. "That's why they wanted the remaining samples of DNA."
Check out this article and this article for more on this case of corrupt Phoenix Police officers. |