A fingerprint analyst with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office has been removed from all open cases following a report that he made mistakes on the job, including mislabeling print cards and making clerical errors.
At least 877 criminal cases dating back to 2001 are involved, according to authorities.
Marco Palacio has been reassigned while his office investigates what the State Attorney’s Office for Orange and Osceola counties described as “performance issues.”
Details were not immediately available, but the problem could be widespread.
Palacio has worked as a print analyst for that agency since at least 2001, said Eryka Washington, a spokeswoman for State Attorney Aramis Ayala.
He’s been taken off all open cases, she said, but it’s not clear how many there are. He handled 877 closed cases, she said.
Palacio is a witness in 66 active cases being handled by attorneys at the Orange-Osceola Public Defender’s Office, according to Assistant Public Defender Melissa Vickers.
Most are cases that have not yet come to trial, she said.
That office had no additional details about the problems with Palacio’s work, she said.
Lawyers there will now look through each case with which Palacio was connected and see what his involvement was, she said.
In closed cases where his testimony was a major part of the state’s evidence, her office may hire its own expert to review his work and testimony, then file a legal motion for post-conviction.
The process may take some time, Vickers said.
Palacio was a latent print examiner, an expert who examines fingerprints and handprints at a crime scene and offers an opinion on whether they match those of suspects.
The Sheriff’s Office told prosecutors about the problems on Wednesday, Washington said. They met Thursday to get more details and, later that day, prosecutors sent notices to attorneys involved in the 877 closed cases.
“During a meeting today, February 2, 2017, it became known to us that the performance issues of Marco Palacio consisted of clerical errors, failure to identify prints of value and the mislabeling of print cards.”
“This is something we take very seriously,” Washington said.
Defense attorneys and their clients must now decide whether they want to appeal those closed cases.
Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. Angelo Nieves said Palacio is now under investigation and has been reassigned to administrative duties.
According to his LinkedIn page, Palacio lives in Kissimmee and has worked at the Sheriff’s Office since 1998.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
glotan@orlandosentinel.com, rstutzman@orlandosentinel.com, cdoornbos@orlandosentinel.com
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