The effects of Hurricane Sandy are still being felt, including in New York City courtrooms, due to evidence lost or damaged during the super storm.

Prior to the natural disaster, the New York Police Department (NYPD) had stored more than 10,000 barrels of evidence containing sensitive DNA material in two Brooklyn warehouses. The evidence included rape kits and other materials collected for the courts to use in upcoming trials.

But some of those trials have been postponed because the warehouses flooded during Sandy, creating a mess for police to sift through. An NYPD team of nearly 30 people are at work trying to salvage the damaged materials, and a private contractor may soon be recruited to join the effort. The flood included a variety of contaminating substances, including raw sewage.

At least half a dozen criminal trials were affected in recent weeks, with police telling the courts that evidence was “inaccessible”. Prosecution and defense lawyers speculate that this is only the tip of the iceberg, with many more affected cases likely to emerge.

In the case of a sexual assault trial, a rape kit may no longer be admissible if water contaminated the contents. The flooding may also have compromised about 5,000 “narcotics items” stored in one of the buildings.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, Danny Biederman

To Learn More:

Flooding of 2 Police Warehouses Destroys Evidence Needed for Criminal Trials (by J. David Goodman, New York Times)