DNA swab leads to mistrial in district court

A mistrial was declared last week in the case against Steveniski Marquelle Frank by 13th Judicial District Judge John Larry Vidrine, who cited the “Brady Rule” as the reason for the mistrial.
The “Brady Rule” requires that all “materially exculpatory evidence” in the case must be disclosed by the prosecution to the defense, and it applies even if the prosecution is unaware of this evidence, as was the case in the Frank trial.
Frank, charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and illegal use of a weapon or dangerous instrumentality, was swabbed for DNA around the time of his arrest. However, according to Judge Vidrine, due to the expense and time involved in analyzing this DNA sample and the abundance of evidence against Frank already in police possession, the Ville Platte Police Department did not move forward with analyzing Frank’s DNA to either prove or disprove his guilt.
During testimony in Frank’s trial, it was discovered by both the prosecution (Marcus Fontenot and Tim Fontenot) and defense (Kelly Tate) that this DNA swab existed in evidence. Tate, acting on her client’s behalf, moved for a mistrial, arguing that analyzing the DNA swab could prove her client innocent and should therefore be explored and also since this was evidence that had not been disclosed to the defense, it fell under the “Brady Rule.”
Judge Vidrine, speaking to The Gazette after declaring the mistrial, stated he did not want to hold a jury for potentially weeks while the swab went through analysis.
Speaking about the Ville Platte Police Department’s failure to analyze the DNA swab from the defendant, Judge Vidrine told The Gazette “It’s really no one’s fault. It just fell through the cracks.”
Frank is still being held on bond in this case and should the DNA evidence come back a positive match, he will be tried again.