CMPD analyst pleads guilty to manipulating DNA testing inside lab
A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department DNA analyst has pleaded guilty after a lengthy state investigation found she manipulated DNA testing inside a local crime lab that also tests federal evidence.
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Kelly Elizabeth Shea pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in a plea deal Wednesday afternoon, and a judge sentenced her to a year of probation and community service.
Shea, 40, worked in CMPD’s lab for nearly 10 years. The State Bureau of Investigation led a two-year-long probe into her faulty testing, under Mecklenburg District Attorney Spencer Merriweather’s direction. Her supervisor caught one manipulation, and Shea later told investigators she may have manipulated once before.
Prosecutors said the investigation uncovered “no additional irregularities … and there is no suggestion that [tests] resulted in a faulty identification of a criminal defendant.” But Shea’s falsification delayed trials, resulted in retested evidence and “was costly in both time and labor,” prosecutors with Merriweather’s office said Wednesday. The tampering also “called into question” the work of the “accomplished and accredited” lab, prosecutors said.
The SBI originally charged her with making a false police report, but Merriweather’s office substituted that for a higher charge of common law obstruction of justice.
When analysts test new DNA samples, they at the same time test a known DNA sample to make sure their procedures are working correctly. The known sample is called a positive control. When one of those control tests failed, Shea “intentionally substituted” it with a different sample, according to a letter the department sent to to a national lab accreditation board.
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Shea’s supervisor confronted her when Shea’s findings in a cold case could not be replicated. Shea initially lied about the discrepancy but later confessed, according to prosecutors. She told investigators “she could remember only one other time where she manipulated positive controls.”
Shea’s tampering was first revealed publicly during a 2024 trial for a 2010 murder and rape, when public defender Michael Kabakoff asked a testifying DNA expert about the issues.
While Merriweather’s office said the problem “did not compromise any cases,” that could only be determined after an expensive review of the cases she worked on. In charging documents for this case, he said Shea “prevented public and legal justice.”
In presenting the case to District Judge Keith Smith Wednesday, prosecutors said they proceeded on a misdemeanor charge and plea deal “in lieu of felony prosecution” because Shea’s “transgressions are limited … her remorse for her offense appeared sincere to investigators, and [she] amassed a number of years of diligent and credible work in the public interest.”
CMPD and Shea’s attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This story was originally published October 14, 2026 at 5:36 PM with the headline “CMPD analyst pleads guilty to manipulating DNA testing inside lab.”
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