A longtime toxicologist with the city Medical Examiner’s Office was forced out of her job after she questioned the office’s use of controversial DNA testing — which may be leading to wrongful convictions, a new lawsuit charges.
Marina Stajic, who worked for 29 years as the director of the ME’s Forensic Toxicology Lab, says her bosses retaliated against her for challenging the testing method while she was a member of the state’s Commission on Forensic Science, according to her Manhattan federal lawsuit, which was filed Thursday.
While on the panel, Stajic voted for releasing data that the city ME’s Office claimed supported its use of “low copy number” DNA tests, court papers state.
The highly sensitive analysis uses a small amount of DNA in order to obtain a profile.
The ME’s Office is the only forensic lab in the country to use the testing in criminal cases, and Chief Medical Examiner Barbara Sampson and Chief of Labs Timothy Kuperfschmid have been “strong advocates” for it, the suit says.
In April, the chief ME told Stajic, who has 42 years of experience in the field, that she would be terminated immediately unless she resigned, the suit says.
Stajic submitted her retirement papers a day later.
ME spokeswoman Julie Bolcer said her office “is committed to fairness and providing the highest standards of service.”
Kuperfschmid declined to comment and Sampson didn’t immediately return messages.