the crime report

Retired major league baseball star pitcher Roger Clemens was indicted today by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., on charges of making false statements to Congress about his use of performance-enhancing drugs, reports the Washington Post. (more…)

The mistrial on most of the 24 counts brought against former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich proved something that prosecutors know: It’s hard to convict politicians in corruption cases, reports National Public Radio. The fact that much of the public believes that most, if not all, politicians are crooks makes the job difficult.  “When you’re dealing with corruption cases, there is a special dimension to jury dynamics,” says Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor now on the Columbia Law School faculty. “You have a group of people who have a sense of local norms and what is tolerated and what is not.” (more…)

A new report from the Office of the Inspector General finds that the FBI has a backlog of more than 3,200 forensic  DNA cases. These specific labs evaluate forensic DNA collected from crime scenes and victims.

Read the report here.

Use the Crime Report for more information on crime labs.

The risk of the federal government’s suing Phoenix Sheriff Joe Arpaio has passed — at least for another week — but Maricopa County administrators fear the sheriff’s refusal to cooperate with a Justice Department investigation could put the county at risk of losing more than $100 million in federal funds, reports the Arizona Republic. Representatives for Arpaio and the Justice Department are scheduled to meet next week in Washington, D.C., to discuss the impasse and no legal action will be filed before that meeting. (more…)

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The Justice Department was able to create or continue at least 8,000 jobs by spending $2.5 billion under the federal recovery act enacted last year, Jim Burch, acting director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, said yesterday. Burch said the estimate was preliminary and is sure to increase once the final totals are in. Speaking at the annual forum of the National Criminal Justice Association, which ended yesterday in Fort Myers, Fla., Burch said applications for the funds were “extremely competitive,” totalling about $4.6 billion, nearly twice the total available. (more…)

The Justice Department is investigating whether hundreds of FBI agents cheated on a test of new rules allowing the bureau to conduct surveillance and open cases without evidence that a crime has been committed, reports the Associated Press. In some instances, agents took the open-book test together, violating rules that they take it alone. Others finished the lengthy exam unusually quickly, current and former officials said. (more…)

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The Justice Department is doing a poor job monitoring the effectiveness of prisoner re-entry programs aimed at reducing recidivism, says a report from the department’s Inspector General quoted by MainJustice.com. The Inspector General could not determine if Office Of Justice Programs grants were successful in reducing recidivism rates because the office does not effectively track how the programs that receive grants spend their funds. (more…)