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Hatch promotes rapid DNA bill as he tours Utah crime lab

Legislation • Goal is speed processing to turn around test results in hours rather than days.

Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Sen. Orrin Hatch, escorted by Pilar Shortsleeve, left, the deputy director of the Utah State Crime Lab, tours the gun vault at the lab, Thursday, July 6, 2017.

Taylorsville • As Sen. Orrin Hatch toured Utah's newest crime lab Thursday, he reacted to each room with much the same awe and intrigue.

The vault storing 1,200 guns and rifles? "That's impressive."

The shooting range with a plexiglass wall? "This is good. This is good for me to see."

The drug-analysis lab that tests evidence for traces of cocaine and marijuana? "Well that's interesting."

Hatch was perhaps the most enraptured, though, when the facility's forensic scientists discussed their efforts to speed up DNA processing — which has been a pet project for the senator over the past two legislative sessions.

"It's taken years, sometimes, to develop DNA. And that's ridiculous," he said. "We want to be able to get it down to where it takes us a few days."

The crime lab's current turnaround is about two months, though new robotic equipment and an influx of recently trained employees could bring that down to about 30 days, said Pilar Shortsleeve with the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services.

Hatch's "Rapid DNA" legislation, which has passed in the Senate and is pending in the House, looks to expedite that testing even further: 90 minutes or less, including comparing those results to the national database.

The bill would lift regulations on collecting DNA samples to allow police officers to conduct cheek swabs on individuals booked into jail and bypass using results only from accredited labs. That could mean more quickly linking suspects to unsolved crimes or exonerating innocent individuals, Hatch said while pitching the bill Thursday.

Some civil-rights groups have expressed concerns about the increasing practice of taking DNA samples from suspects before conviction and keeping results in an ever-expanding database. Stewart Gollan, executive director of the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, is concerned about the reliability of results that don't come from an accredited facility.

"Taking somebody's DNA is, in some sense, invasive," he said, hoping also that the bill wouldn't lower standards for probable cause.

Still, Hatch has the support of Elizabeth Smart, who accompanied him on the tour and has provided input on the bill. She hopes the quicker testing will return the focus to victims, who "get left in the dust" once a perpetrator is named.

"Anyone who kidnaps a child definitely deserves to be in prison," she said. "Anyone who sexually abuses a woman, a child, a man deserves to be in prison. And this will help that."

Smart was held captive for nine months in the Utah mountains. Her convicted kidnapper and rapist, Brian David Mitchell, and his wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee, pulled the then-14-year-old Salt Lake City girl from her bed at knifepoint in June 2002.

She was rescued in March 2003 and since has become a child-safety activist.

On Thursday, Smart pushed a stroller around the crime lab with her two-year-old daughter, Chloe, and baby son. Hatch greeted the kids, cooing "Who's this?" and "How are you?"

Smart's father, Ed Smart, stood nearby and smiled; he believes faster DNA results are critical in "getting answers that families are looking for."

The group of about 25 staffers and administrators — including Utah's U.S. Attorney John Huber — slowly crept through the building, opened in early June, discussing bullet casings and fingerprint charts for more than an hour. Hatch, wearing a striped suit and black sneakers, shook hands with employees in white lab coats. When his voice faltered during one such introduction, the 83-year-old senator joked, "I'm afraid it's my age."

He pushed on, though, touting the facility and his bill as the better, smarter, faster approach.

"Utah is setting a standard that I think a lot of other states would do well to follow, especially in this era of drugs and crime," he said.

Hatch, a key player in modifying the current health-care legislation, also briefly answered questions from reporters Thursday on the Senate's bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.

A vote on the measure was postponed last week as GOP favor began to fade. The Senate cannot afford to lose the support of more than two conservative senators, though at least five have announced their intentions to vote against the measure — that includes Utah's Republican Sen. Mike Lee.

While Hatch commended Lee as someone "sincere" and "dedicated" to reducing regulations in the bill, he encouraged his colleague to embrace the "art of the doable" in voting to pass the legislation.

Hatch added: "There's no absolute way to solve every problem we have with one bill."

ctanner@sltrib.com

Twitter: @CourtneyLTanner

Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Sen. Orrin Hatch hugs Elizabeth Smart, as he greets her and her father Ed Smart, right, prior to touring the Utah State Crime Lab, Thursday, July 6, 2017.

Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Sen. Orrin Hatch is offered a balloon by Elizabeth Smart's daughter Chloe prior to the group touring the Utah State Crime Lab, Thursday, July 6, 2017.

Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune A workstation at the Utah State Crime Lab, Thursday, July 6, 2017.

Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Sen. Orrin Hatch, with Ed and Elizabeth Smart, and John Huber, US Attorney for Utah, second from left, are shown the gun range by Senior Forensic Scientist Justin Bechaver during a tour of the Utah State Crime Lab, Thursday, July 6, 2017.

Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune John Huber, US Attorney for Utah, left, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, are shown one of the labs by Deputy Director Pilar Shortsleeve, as they toured the Utah State Crime Lab, Thursday, July 6, 2017.

Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Forensic Scientists at work in the Utah State Crime Lab, Thursday, July 6, 2017.

Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Sen. Orrin Hatch, with Ed and Elizabeth Smart, spoke to the media as they toured the Utah State Crime Lab, Thursday, July 6, 2017.

Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune With John Huber, US Attorney for Utah at left and Sen. Orrin Hatch, and Ed Smart behind her, Elizabeth Smart addresses some questions about the importance of the work being done at the lab, as the group toured the Utah State Crime Lab, Thursday, July 6, 2017.

Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Forensic Scientists at work in the Utah State Crime Lab, Thursday, July 6, 2017.

Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Elizabeth Smart, holding her daughter Chloe, passes by an area of the fingerprints section of the Utah State Crime Lab, as she toured the lab with her father Ed Smart, and Senator Orrin Hatch, Thursday, July 6, 2017.

Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Senior Forensic Scientist Justin Bechaver holds an AK-47 - one of the many guns stored in the gun vault at the Utah State Crime Lab. Sen. Orrin Hatch, with Ed and Elizabeth Smart, toured the lab, Thursday, July 6, 2017.

Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Senior Forensic Scientist Justin Bechaver displays one of the many handguns stored in the gun vault at the Utah State Crime Lab. Sen. Orrin Hatch, with Ed and Elizabeth Smart, toured the lab, Thursday, July 6, 2017.

Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Spent bullets on display at the Utah State Crime Lab. Sen. Orrin Hatch, with Ed and Elizabeth Smart, toured the lab, Thursday, July 6, 2017.