D.A., sheriff get federal money

Ventura County District Attorney Gregory Totten recently announced that the district attorney’s office and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department have received an $188,264 award from the federal Department of Justice to help solve "cold" homicide cases in Ventura County using DNA evidence. Ventura County is one of 38 jurisdictions nationwide to receive the grant award.

The grants are part of the president’s DNA initiative, a five-year, more than $1-billion effort to eliminate casework and the convicted-offender backlog, improve crime lab capacity, provide DNA training, provide for post-conviction DNA testing and conduct testing to identify missing persons.