Kerry Kotler cried tears of joy when he was freed after 11 years in prison for rape, becoming one of the first convicts in the United States to be liberated by DNA technology.
He went on to receive a standing ovation at a black-tie banquet of defense attorneys, attending as the guest of his lawyers, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, who would later use their DNA expertise to help free O.J. Simpson.Now the very weapon that Kotler used to gain his freedom will be used against him. And instead of championing DNA testing, Kotler's lawyers this time will have to tear it down.
The reason: Last week, four years after being released from prison, Kotler was charged with another rape. DNA tests matched him to semen found on the victim's clothing, prosecutors say.
"Not even John Grisham could have fashioned such a turn of events," said Suffolk County District Attorney James Catterson.
The victim, a 20-year-old college student, was raped in August after being forced off a Long Island highway by a man posing as a police officer. She gave police a partial license plate number and a description of the attacker's car. It turned out to belong to Kotler's girlfriend.
Despite the attacker's attempt to eliminate evidence by douching the victim with a plastic water bottle, semen was recovered from her clothing.
Five unique DNA markers from the semen matched markers from Kotler's blood, and the odds that the semen came from someone other than Kotler are just 1 in 7.5 million, prosecutor Randy Hinrichs said. Also, dog hairs on the victim's clothing matched hairs from Kotler's German shepherd found in his girlfriend's car, investigators said.
Kotler, 37, is free on $25,000 bail. He could get up to 50 years in prison if convicted.
His lawyer, Jack Litman, predicted that Kotler will be vindicated. He said he will attack the integrity and reliability of the DNA tests and explore whether there was any contamination.
As shown in the Simpson trial, that has become a common defense tactic when prosecutors are armed with powerful DNA evidence. Scheck and Neufeld have long contended that while DNA can be used to exclude someone as a suspect, it isn't reliable enough to prove someone committed a crime because of problems with collecting and handling the evidence.
"Chain of custody is crucial," said Dr. Mark Bloom, assistant director of the DNA Learning Center at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
It was only four years ago that Kotler's lawyers were defending DNA evidence.
Kotler had been convicted of raping a 34-year-old Long Island mother of three at knifepoint in 1978 and attacking her again in 1981.
Kotler was sentenced to 21 to 45 years in prison. At the time, DNA testing was not yet used in criminal cases.
Eight years after the conviction, Kotler hired Scheck and Neufeld, who were at the forefront of the new movement to exonerate convicts with DNA evidence.