Michele Kestler served as the head of the LAPD Crime Lab and became a key defense witness on the question of evidence security. Called by Peter Neufeld, her testimony revealed that DNA results in the case had been leaked to the press before prosecutors themselves received them — a damaging point the defense used to build its narrative of a compromised investigation. Her appearances spanned from the preliminary hearing in June 1994 through extensive examination in August 1995, where both Neufeld and Christopher Darden pressed her on the lab's information-handling protocols and access controls surrounding the physical evidence.