I posted in the thread that was pulled, about Stefanoni's changing stories regarding the negative controls for the PCR run on the knife sample. Obviously this is a crucial piece of evidence because the tests were run in a lab in which Meredith's DNA had been amplified many times, and what was said to have been found was a tiny amount. Actually, a tiny amount found after cranking up the sensitivity of the test beyond the manufacturer's recommendations (a process Stefanoni chose not to do for other pieces of evidence). And tested in a lab not equipped for LCN testing. So a clean negative control sample, run at the same sensitivity setting, was important. That's why the defence requested the data.
Stefanoni's responses are quite bizarre.
- Initially, the defence were told that Stefanoni didn't document such trivialities. You might as well ask for a surgeon's written declaration that he washed his hands. So no such documentation exists.
- When the defence insisted, the story changed. The documentation did exist after all, and it had actually been submitted to the court at the pre-trial stage. Hellman announced an adjournment to search for this documentation, but it could not be found. Apparently the documentation had NOT been submitted to the court.
- At the very last moment before the recent recess, Stefanoni turned up in court clutching what she claimed was in fact the missing documentation. However, on inspection the dates and serial numbers on the blurry photocopies she presented did not match the test runs concerned. Oops.
- Fourth time lucky. When the court re-convened after the recess, Stefanoni again came forward with documentation she claimed was NOW the correct negative controls. She had found it in the garage.
Please, does this woman think we all came up the Clyde on a banana boat? Are we really supposed to believe this? Consider. If one of the defendants had been asked to provide documentation vital to his or her case, and had then gone through a similar rigmarole before finally "finding" the material in the garage, would anyone be inclined to believe them? It makes "the dog ate my homework" sound eminently reasonable. Why is it OK when Stefanoni does it?
