Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Expert Witness Opines on Faked Car Accident

Gary Dodds, a former New Hampshire congressional candidate, is accused of faking his disappearance after a car crash in April 2006 in a plot to attract attention to his campaign. Dodds claims he wandered away dazed from the car accident with a head injury, crossed a river and collapsed but Murray Hamlet, a phycial medicine and rehabilitation expert witness who specializes in cold weather injuries testified that the damage to Gary Dodds’ feet was far more severe than what he would have suffered from crossing a river and spending the night outdoors.

Expert witness Murray Hamlet, a veterinarian and retired Army officer who spent decades studying cold weather injuries and training military and medical personnel on the subject said that based on Dodds’ medical records and reports from those who examined him, Dodds’ foot injuries were more serious than what one would expect given the scenario he described. Boston.com also reports that “Dodds faces up to seven years in prison if convicted of falsifying evidence, creating false public alarm and leaving the scene of the crash. He continued campaigning after the crash but came in third in the four-way Democratic primary.”