Plaintiff's expert Dr. Bradley Popovich testified on direct examination about the reliability of DNA test results from the Rockingham glove and socks, affirming that results from LAPD, Cellmark, and DOJ were accurate, reliable, and unaffected by contamination. He also addressed defense expert Dr. Gerdes's testimony on DNA degradation, explaining that degradation cannot cause mistyping — only the absence of a result.
# 1 A: I did from all three labs.
# 2 Q: Did you observe some evidence of contamination in those results?
# 3 A: No. I saw no trace of any contamination.
# 4 Q: And in your opinion, are these reliable test results?
# 5 A: I believe they are.
# 6 Q: Are they unaffected by contamination?
# 7 A: I believe they're unaffected by contamination.
# 8 Q: Are they accurate results?
# 9 A: I believe they are accurate.
# 10 Q: We now have up the results of the DNA analysis of the Rockingham gloves. Did you review the test results on the Rockingham glove?
# 12 Q: Did you observe any evidence of contamination in those test results?
# 13 A: Again, I saw no evidence of contamination.
# 14 Q: And in your opinion, are these test results reliable?
# 15 A: I believe they are.
# 16 Q: Are they accurate?
# 17 A: I believe they're accurate.
# 18 Q: Are they unaffected by contamination?
# 19 A: I believe they are unaffected by contamination.
# 20 Q: And these are RFLP results where we have 5 probe and 8 probe matches, are those significant results, Doctor?
# 21 A: I think they are.
# 22 Q: Are they significant results in terms of identifying the source of the blood on that glove?
# 23 A: I think they're very significant in identifying that.
KEY QUOTE # 24 MR. LAMBERT: And finally, the socks board, please.
# 25 Q: Finally, Dr. Popovich, we have the results of the DNA analysis on the Rockingham socks. Did you review these test results?
# 27 Q: And did you observe any evidence of contamination on these test results?
# 29 Q: In your opinion, are those test results reliable?
# 30 A: I believe they are.
# 31 Q: Are they accurate?
# 32 A: I believe they are.
# 33 Q: Are they unaffected by contamination?
# 34 A: I believe they are unaffected by contamination.
# 35 Q: At 11 probe, 5 probe, 9 probe, RFLP matches, are those significant matches?
# 36 A: Highly significant.
# 37 MR. LAMBERT: You can take that down, Steve. (Indicating to board.)
# 38 Q: Now, Dr. Gerdes talked a little bit in his testimony about degradation of evidence samples, degradation of evidence samples change the DNA from one person to another?
# 39 A: Meaning, can it change the type -- the results that one gets.
# 41 A: DNA degradation -- when it degrades, DNA cannot change the actual type that one gets with any of these tests. It can make things go away, it can make the type, in other words, disappear, and sometimes it can make one of the two genes that that person has disappear first. But it cannot change the type of that. So in other words, they are not going to go from a type 1 to a type 2 or something, in some DNA tests, if the type 1 -- if the one gene is degraded, it is just not going to show up, it's not going to be a result.
KEY QUOTE # 42 Q: So degradation could not result in somebody getting false DNA test results?
# 43 A: Degradation cannot result in one being mistyped. It can result in no result. But it cannot result in mistyping.
KEY QUOTE # 44 Q: Now, Dr. Popovich, you've reviewed a lot of evidence samples in this case?
# 46 Q: Have you ever had a case where you reviewed so many evidence samples?
# 48 Q: Taking everything into account from your review of all of those evidence samples, are the test results, the DNA test results in this case, by LAPD, Cellmark, and DOJ, are they accurate?
MR. P. BAKER: Objection, argumentative, no foundation.
# 49 THE COURT: Overruled.
# 50 A: I believe these results are accurate.
KEY QUOTE # 51 Q: Are they reliable?
# 52 A: I believe they're very reliable.
# 53 Q: Are they unaffected by contamination?