Panel: SBI analyst deserved demotion, should get back pay
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- A state commission has ruled a controversial former blood analyst fired in 2011 during the scandal at the State Bureau of Investigation should get back pay.
Sources told ABC11 that the North Carolina Human Resources Commission determined Friday that Duane Deaver was wrongly fired from his job.
Deaver was fired in 2011 after his handling of dozens of cases involving blood stain evidence was questioned as part of a larger outside review of the SBI crime lab.
The review flagged some 200 cases as improperly handled. Investigators said some of the most egregious violations were linked to Deaver. In two of the cases, Deaver's final report on blood analyses said his tests "revealed the presence of blood" when his notes indicated negative results from follow-up tests.
Problems with Deaver's work and testimony led to a new trial for Durham novelist Michael Peterson - who was convicted in 2003 of the 2001 killing of his wife. Deaver also admitted he withheld blood evidence at the trial of Greg Taylor - who spent 17 years in prison for the murder of a Raleigh woman before he was finally exonerated.
The panel said Deaver should have been demoted with a ten percent pay cut, instead of losing his job.
