Gazette Coverage of Coverdell Allegation

Today's Colorado Springs Gazette reports our demand for an investigation of how crucial evidence in Todd's trial was altered, either at the El Paso County Sheriff's storage facility or at the Pueblo laboratory of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

The article quoted a response from lead prosecutor Jeff Lindsey, who said, "The jury heard about it, but they still found him guilty."

Mr. Lindsey's response fails to address the substance of the allegation of negligence/misconduct we've filed. It's not about what the jury thought; it's about what forensic authorities did.

The implications of evidence mishandling--and the allegation we filed clearly shows that mishandling occurred--go beyond what the jury thought in one particular case. To quote from the allegation we filed:

That the CBI failed to reveal evidence spoliation, that the initial state response to proof of spoliation was a denial of responsibility, that the evidence in question was crucial to obtaining a controversial conviction calls for an investigation that so far has not happened. All stakeholders in Colorado’s criminal justice system deserve to find out how the evidence in question here came to be altered—to find out what went wrong, to learn what mistakes must be avoided in the future to ensure integrity in forensic analysis.

What the jury thought in Todd's case is another matter. But I invite Mr. Lindsey to satisfy his interest in the thought process of the jury by viewing this video: