The Maryland Supreme Court agreed with the Court of Appeals unanimous decision that a Frye-Reed hearing is necessary to determine the validity of expert witness testimony in the case of Josephine Chesson, et al. v. Montgomery Mutual Insurance Company. The plaintiffs, employees of Baltimore Washington Conference of the United Methodist…
Lisa Handley, political scientist statistics expert witness for the federal government, testified in the 2007 Port Chester mayoral election voting-rights trial. Handley said: She is very confident that the village election system dilutes the Hispanic vote and testified that there is an overall pattern of racially polarized voting in the…
The perjured testimony from Joseph Kopera, Maryland’s police ballistics expert witness who killed himself this month after being confronted with evidence that he had falsified his credentials continues to affect the cases in which he testified. Maryland prosecutors and defense attorneys have said that revelations about Kopera’s falsified credentials could…
James Earl Edmiston, who fraudulently testified he was a computer expert witness, has recently pleaded guilty to federal perjury charges. Federal agents arrested Edmiston in September, 2006 after they became suspicious of the qualifications listed on his curriculum vitae. For example, Edmiston had featured degrees from the California Institute of…
Robin Clifton’s 21-day arson trial, for which 800 potential jurors had been called, has been postponed for an expert witness to continue preparing. Stephen B. Spies, a retired special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, is the arson expert witness mentioned in the motion. Clifton is accused…
Former FBI fingerprint expert witness testified that terrorism suspect Jose Padilla’s fingerprints match at least seven of 45 latent prints found on an alleged application for Al Qaeda holy war training. Padilla and his two codefendants are charged with conspiracy to kill, kidnap or maim people abroad and with providing…
The U.S. Court of Appeals, 10th Circuit, affirms lower court ruling on expert witness testimony. In Mariposa Farms, LLC. v. Westfailia-Surge, Inc., 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 473, Westfalia unsuccessfullly tried to discredit farm equipment expert witness testimony. The higher court found that Dr. Sybren Reitsma’s and Dr. Corbett’s testimony provided…
On January 30, 2007, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that plaintiffs’ epidemiology expert witness Dr. Richard Allen Lemen presented scientifically reliable, and therefore legally admissible, evidence drawing a causal connection between mesothelioma and inhalation of brake-lining dust. Chapin v. A&L Parts, et al., 2007 Mich. App. LEXIS 156. The…
Marie Lindor has retained a well known expert witness in her Brooklyn federal court case, UMG v. Lindor. RIAA alleges copyright infringement due to shared files on Lindor’s home computer. Professor Johan Pouwelse, P2P technology expert, will testify regarding file sharing networks. Prof. Johan Pouwelse, Chairman of the Parallel and…
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee heard expert witness testimony in an attempt to find causes behind record-high gasoline prices. Oil and gas expert witnesses described years of a lack of investment in refinery capacity as a primary factor in rising prices. Deutsche Bank’s Paul Sankey, oil and gas…