OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington’s Supreme Court has vacated a man’s child rape conviction over concerns about how investigators obtained his DNA.
Alejandro Garcia-Salgado was sentenced to more than nine years in prison for a sexual assault on an 11-year-old at the home of his friend’s mother-in-law in 2006.
The justices unanimously overturned his conviction, saying that a court order requiring Garcia-Salgado to submit to a cheek swab for his DNA was not based on a sworn statement of probable cause and thus violated his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure.
The King County Prosecutor’s Office can try to obtain a new court order or warrant for Garcia-Salgado’s DNA.
