KPBS Investigates

We still have no strong leads on who actually killed Bob Dorotik. This episode goes through how DNA evidence led to Jane’s charges finally being dismissed, and why that same DNA evidence can’t lead police to the actual killer. It also looks at what’s next for Jane and how she is devoting all her time to activism, lobbying the government for prison reform. This episode looks at why Jane has changed...

The bad science in Jane’s case has implications for many other cases in San Diego County as well. The work of Jane’s lawyers led the District Attorney’s office to send out a Brady letter to defense attorneys warning them that evidence used in other cases could be questionable. But there’s no list of all those cases, and the DA deletes emails after 90 days so tracking them all down is difficult. We...

Popular culture and the media are obsessed with forensic science. There are TV shows, podcasts and documentaries devoted to it. But much of that science does not always hold up to scrutiny, especially as our technology advances. Things like bite mark analysis, tire track analysis, hair analysis and other techniques are regularly used in courtrooms but do not always produce accurate results.

Jane Dorotik’s luck had finally begun to change. While she was still in prison for her husband’s murder, she was able to get the attention of lawyers with the Innocence Project. They reviewed her case and found much of the evidence and scientific analysis used in court appeared faulty. This episode details how Jane’s lawyers reviewed her case, and how things began to change once they got additiona...

Jane Dorotik had always believed the justice system worked just fine, and people who were in prison likely deserved to be there. When she was convicted of her husband’s murder, she quickly realized that was not the case. Then when she went to prison, she met more women who had also been treated unfairly. She began to see how broken the system is, even for women who were guilty of their crimes. Thi...

Jane Dorotik’s trial began in March 2000 and it was a media circus. While the prosecution focused on scientific evidence — tire tracks, blood pattern analysis, contents of Bob’s stomach — the defense didn’t tackle that evidence and instead took the unusual strategy of blaming Jane’s daughter Claire for the murder. This only added to the circus aspect — a wealthy white woman or her attractive daugh...

On Sunday, Feb. 13, 2000, Jane Dorotik’s husband Bob went out for a run and never came back. He was found dead by the side of the road early the next morning, and Jane’s life changed forever. Three days later, she was arrested for his murder. This opening episode gives the details on who Jane was and what happened the day Bob was murdered. It also points at what’s to come — the media’s role in Jan...

On Sunday, Feb. 13, 2000, Jane Dorotik’s husband Bob went out for a run and never came back. He was found dead by the side of the road early the next morning, and Jane’s life changed forever. Three days later, she was arrested for his murder. Over the next two decades Jane would become a convict, a martyr, an advocate, and she would play a key role in exposing fatal flaws in the criminal justice s...

The American freeway is born in a time of intense optimism around the promise of the automobile. President Eisenhower sees the country's dilapidated road network as a barrier to economic growth and national defense. Jacob Dekema, the father of San Diego's freeway network, sees freeways as lifesavers. How did our optimism blind us to the freeway's dark side? Magic Highway USA: https://www.youtube.c...

An architect has a radical idea for San Diego's oldest freeway, SR-163, which cuts through Balboa Park. An environmental justice activist dreams of someday reconnecting her community that was divided by Interstate 5. If San Diego is serious about its goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2035, how will our relationship with freeways have to change?

When pandemic-inspired protections for homeowners and renters expired, renters especially have become vulnerable to evictions in San Diego’s hot housing market. In this second part of a two part series on evictions, KPBS Race and Equity reporter follows one family that has been forced out of their apartment and their search for new housing. Like thousands of other low-income renters in San Diego,...

The pandemic inspired a slate of local, state and national eviction bans, and other protections for homeowners and renters to keep people housed. But those protections are going away, leaving renters especially vulnerable to eviction as the San Diego rental market heats up. In Part 1 of a 2 part series, KPBS Race and Equity reporter Cristina Kim looks at the efforts to keep people housed here in S...

Today on KPBS Investigates, Aaron Harvey’s journey from wrongful gang charges to UC Berkeley graduation. In the summer of 2014, a swarm of police arrested Aaron Harvey near where he was living outside Las Vegas. Harvey is from San Diego, and was charged as a test case by San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis using a law that had never been used before. It said someone could be charged for con...

Increasing numbers of asylum seekers are being allowed to enter the United States. But with the asylum system still severely curtailed, thousands remain stuck in dangerous conditions in Tijuana. KPBS reporter Max Rivlin-Nadler has been following the story for months. His reporting is featured in a new special report for the “KPBS Investigates” and “Port of Entry” podcasts. In the episode, Rivlin-N...

The KPBS Investigates podcast is where our news team is able to dive more deeply into the stories we cover. Today, investigative reporter Claire Trageser brings us the story of one woman and her struggle to keep her massage business afloat during the past turbulent year. Her story is emblematic of what has happened to many small businesses all across San Diego county because of the economic fallou...

As San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer gets close to signing a new deal with a private company, activists push for “municipalization,” which means the city takes over the power grid. You're listening to "KPBS Investigates," a podcast from the KPBS newsroom bringing you in-depth stories that help us better understand our region. Support our work: www.kpbs.org/donate

More than 15 years after the Dr J's shooting, a lot of people are thinking about what's next. Southeast San Diego residents want the government and police to change, and they want their communities to change for the better.

After the shooting at Dr J's, police and prosecutors looked for informants who would trade information for reduced sentences and money to move away from San Diego. One informant in particular shows what a difficult decision that can be.

In the case against James Carter, the prosecutor used a common tactic when trying people from Southeast San Diego, especially young black men. He established a link between Carter and a gang, and then used that link to establish a motive.

The shooting at Dr J's has had ripple effects throughout the community and the rest of the city. But it also impacted the people directly involved—the families of the women who were killed, and the family of the man who was eventually convicted of their murder.

A gang shooting in Lincoln Park killed two women on their way home from church. After the shooting, some people said the police department flooded the streets with officers arresting everybody. Others became more willing to work with police.

The crime was so perfectly horrific — two women on their way home from church, two kids in the back seat — that it made people pay more attention to Southeast San Diego, a lower income and predominantly African-American pocket of the city.