HOUSTON -- Problems at the Houston Police Department's crime lab attracted the attention of state lawmakers Friday, News2Houston reported.

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HPD Grilled Over Crime Lab

Members of the Texas House Investigating Committee held a hearing at the City Hall annex.

Committee members want to know if the legislature needs to act to ensure that local crime lab problems will not happen in other Texas cities.

Mistakes with DNA testing lead to the release of Joshua Sutton.

A Houston judge granted bail in March for Sutton after an independent DNA lab determined that he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit based on evidence processed incorrectly at the Houston police crime lab.

Sutton, 21, was convicted in 1998 for the rape of a woman taken at gunpoint and then dumped in a Fort Bend County field.

Members had tough questions about the crime lab's DNA and toxicology departments.

The mistaken DNA results were blamed on a leaky roof.

"Has the roof been fixed?" a lawmaker asked.

"Yes, sir, it has. It really has. There were some issues in the recent months where small leaks developed because of protrusions through the repaired roof. The last I was told by building services -- it did not leak during the last rain," said Capt. Richard Holland with the Houston Police Department.

The lab's new director, Irma Rios, described problems in the toxicology department as severe, but assured the committee that changes are under way to win the lab accreditation.

She was asked if she is confident the work coming out of the lab now is competent.

"I would say, from the competency testing preliminary that we're looking at, especially for the drug section, everything, so far, looks good. I guess preliminary assessment -- we don't see any showstoppers so far," Rios said.

Acting HPD chief Joe Breshears also testified that he, too, is confident the lab is doing good work now.

He plans to ask Houston City Council for more people, training and money to keep improving the facility.

Last month, a grand jury investigating the crime lab chose not to return any indictments. But the panel described problems at the lab as a "disgrace."

More than 1,000 cases are being reviewed and hundreds have been retested because of the lab's problems.