The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

DNA samples lead to arrest of criminal suspects

7-month-old program mandates collection from suspects in felonies.

Chris Stewart/Dayton Daily News Staff Photogra Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said DNA samples led to 132 suspects in cold cases.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Man, 68, drowns at Caesar Creek Lake
5/26/12
Water rescues prompt warning from health officials
5/25/12
Beach Waterpark sued for failure to deliver
5/25/12
Raleigh Trammell’s defense opens in felony trial
5/25/12
UD to move satellite campus to Dublin
5/25/12
> More headlines

By Jessica Heffner, Staff Writer 9:51 PM Wednesday, February 15, 2012

LONDON, Ohio — A program requiring DNA samples from anyone arrested in Ohio for a felony has led to 132 prime suspects in cold cases, the state Attorney General’s office said Wednesday.

Since Senate Bill 77 went into effect in July 1, the Bureau of Criminal Investigation has processed 4,500 DNA samples monthly. One of those samples led to the arrest of Robert Bernardi, who is accused of raping a 14-year-old Englewood girl after crawling into her bedroom through an open window in 2001.

Attorney General Mike DeWine highlighted the case at a press conference Wednesday at the BCI crime lab in London.

Authorities performed a DNA swab on Bernardi when he was arrested July 2, 2011 on an abduction charge in Miami County. He now faces two counts of rape and single counts of aggravated robbery, kidnapping and gross sexual imposition in connection to the Englewood case. He’s being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $1 million bond, according to court records.

To date, 132 people have been arrested in connection to cold cases using the DNA collected upon a felony arrest. The cases include rapes, murders, robberies and burglaries.

The lab is processing 63 percent more DNA, and connects those samples to an average of 127 cases per month, DeWine said.

While the American Civil Liberties Union has raised concerns that the new law infringes on civil liberties because samples are taken before people are convicted of a felony crime, DeWine said the “safety of the community certainly outweighs that arrestee(’s)... rights at that moment.”

Had officers had to wait until after a conviction to test the sample, Englewood police Sgt. Mike Lang — lead investigator on the 2001 rape case — said law enforcement may have never “connected the dots.”

“I can unequivocally state that if it had not been for the DNA collection requirements of Senate Bill 77, Bernardi would not have been identified as a suspect,” Lang said.

Collected samples are processed into profiles that are then entered into a state and national database. A new state bill would further expand law enforcement’s ability to collect DNA samples for the database.

Ohio Senate Bill 268 will allow the genetic material to be collected from those charged with a felony, but not arrested. This includes those summoned to court rather than held in jail. It would also allow the state to retroactively collect DNA from people arrested for a felony prior to July 1, 2011.

The legislation also stipulates that those whose DNA was taken but were not convicted of the felony can petition judges to seal those records and/or remove the sample from the database.

The Ohio Senate unanimously passed the bill and it is now being considered by the state House of Representatives.

Share this article