Authorities are asking a judge to release evidence in a 2004 Altamonte springs rape case because there was a mistake with the DNA testing that helped convict a man of the crime.

The state attorney's office says there was a mistake made in DNA testing that connected Andrew Lingard to the rape.

Lingard was convicted of home invasion robbery and two counts of rape by threat of a deadly weapon in 2007 and sentenced to life in prison.

The state attorney's office filed a motion on Monday asking for the original rape kit to be released for further testing and for new DNA swabs from Lingard to be tested.

According to the motion, the state attorney's office believes that the sample from Lingard was switched with a sample from the victim's boyfriend, with whom the victim had told investigators she had had recent sexual contact.

During Lingard's trial, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement analyst testified that Lingard's DNA was found in swabs taken from the victim for the rape kit. He testified that none of the victim's boyfriend's DNA was found.

"Our goal is to do everything possible to ensure that this does not happen again," Joyce Dawley of the FDLE said.

Dawley said the FDLE, along with the Altamonte Springs Police Department, takes full responsibility for mislabeling the DNA samples.

The motion said the state was recently notified of the error.

"Thus, it appears that the major contributor would in fact be (the victim's boyfriend) versus the defendant (Lingard) as testified," the motion said.

Lingard is expected to give another DNA sample at a hearing on Wednesday.

Lingard could get a new trial, but the state said it plans to argue that there was an overwhelming amount of evidence against Lingard, regardless of the DNA mix up.

"The defendant in this case, we believe is guilty of this crime, is still guilty of this crime. We also believe that there is sufficient evidence remaining in the case to support that," Michael Deal of the Altamonte Springs Police Department said.

Deal said the victim identified Lingard as her attacker, and if she had to, she would testify again.