Expert Witness Blog

Phil Spector’s murder trial will go to the jury on Monday after more than four months. The nine-man, three-woman panel will decide whether to convict him of the single count of murder. Spector, 67, would face a sentence of 15 years to life.

Lots has gone wrong for Spector’s defense team. The lead attorney rubbed the judge and jury the wrong way and then quit on the final day of testimony. The lead forensics and laboratory testing expert witness for the defense, Henry Lee, was not able to testify because the judge accused him of lying about the evidence. Expert witness Lee picked up evidence at the crime scene and did not turn it over immediately. Independent.com also reports:

The prosecution has been led by a masterful deputy district attorney, Alan Jackson, who accused his adversaries of mounting no more than a ‘chequebook defence’, in which expert witnesses were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to come up with sympathetic interpretations of the facts.

Jose Alberto Felix’s murder trial took an interesting turn of events on Tuesday when DNA testing done by the defense linked him to the crime. Felix is charged with the kidnapping and slaying of Dallas restaurateur Oscar Sanchez. Expert witness Rick Staub of the Orchid Cellmark lab in Dallas testified that only one in nearly 1.8 billion people not related to Mr. Sanchez would have the same partial DNA profile. DallasNews.com goes on to write:

The tests were ordered last week when attorneys discovered in the middle of the trial that a statuette thought to have Mr. Felix’s palm print in Mr. Sanchez’s blood on it was never submitted for DNA testing. Prosecutors said they thought the tests had already been done.

Although the state and a lab hired by the defense divided each of the five DNA samples, only the defense’s tests provided conclusive results. State District Judge Lana Myers ruled that the state could call the defense’s DNA expert witness to testify about the results.

Dr. Brobson Lutz, a New Orleans physician and public health expert, was the first expert witness called in the St. Rita’s nursing home trial. Sal and Mabel Mangano are charged with negligent homicide in the deaths of 35 residents who drowned in their nursing home during Hurricane Katrina. Defense attorneys contend the Manganos feared some residents might not survive an evacuation. The public health expert witness testified that “The bottom line on all the research is that there is no evidence-based proof that you actually save lives by evacuating patients from nursing homes,” he said. The Times-Picayune.com also reports the expert stating:

Medical studies on nursing home evacuations show that the number of elderly residents in an evacuated region who die in transit is about the same as the number who would have been killed by the storm if they hadn’t left.

It was clear from the physician’s testimony that he was speaking about nursing home evacuations as a broad public health issue and was not suggesting that 35 residents would have died on the roads had they been rushed from St. Rita’s as the hurricane approached in late August of 2005.

Once you have researched and found the right expert for your case, give them the best preparation you can. This includes:

1. Make sure your expert has all the materials necessary. While this can mean giving them more than they need, it can also prevent opposing counsel from saying that the expert did not review all the materials available.

2. Review your approach to the case with your expert so that he is comfortable with the facts and your arguments.

While DUI trials are common, a trial on a charge of felony driving under the influence of drugs is rare. Palmer, AK police officer and drug-recognition expert witness Peter Steen says most defendants accept a plea agreement. Andrian Marutsheff, 40, charged with driving under the influence of a prescription sedative, decided to go to trial. The Anchorage Daily News also reports:

The problem with trials involving drivers impaired by drugs, Steen said, is that the evidence allowed into court is usually limited to toxicology reports from blood draws and officers’ observations of how impaired the driver is. Without a drug recognition expert it’s tough to knit the two pieces together, Steen said. Prosecutors could show the driver was impaired and blood tests might turn up positive for a certain drug.

Steen’s turn on the stand was the first time a drug recognition expert was certified to testify as an expert witness in Superior Court anywhere in the state, Steen said. In only one other case – a misdemeanor trial in District Court in Anchorage – did a certified drug recognition expert testify, Steen said. He hopes his testimony will set a precedent for more such testimony.

Former Detroit police officers have filed a whistle-blower lawsuit against Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and the city. The officers claim they were forced from their jobs after investigating the mayor and his personal security team. An economist expert witness testified that the mayor’s decision to remove Gary Brown as a deputy police chief cost the veteran officer over $2 million in lost wages and benefits. Kilpatrick and attorneys for the city argue that the officers retired voluntarily. The Detroit Free Press also reports:

The expert witness also testified that former mayoral bodyguard Harold Nelthrope could be out nearly $600,000. That figure includes salary Nelthrope would have received had he not retired as a police officer in 2003, as well as projected future earnings.

If the jury rules in favor of the city, the officers could receive little or no money as a result of their lawsuit.

Lt. Col. Steven Jordan, the only U.S. military officer to face a court martial in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, was reprimanded after his conviction on a single charge – failing to obey an order. Jordan was cleared of all charges including the abuse of prisoners and failing to do his duty as a senior officer. The Pentagon has stated that none of the other senior officers did anything wrong. But Stjepan Mestrovic, a Texas sociologist who has testified as an expert witness at previous Abu Ghraib trials, calls the Pentagon’s strategy to blame the abuse on a few low-ranking soldiers as “magical thinking.” Time.com also reports the behavioral science expert witness stating:

‘It doesn’t make any sense,’ he says. ‘There is no way that a handful of low-ranking soldiers could have invented techniques – all by themselves – that curiously enough were used at [the U.S. Naval detention facility at] Guantanamo and at other places in Iraq and Afghanistan.’…

Jordan, the only U.S. military officer to face a court martial in the controversy, was charged with ordering dogs to be used for interrogations; cruelty and maltreatment of prisoners who were allegedly subjected to forced nudity and intimidation by dogs; dereliction of a duty to properly train and supervise soldiers in interrogation rules; and disobeying an order not to discuss the case with other witnesses. Critics have long asked why the U.S. government has charged only low-ranking soldiers with serious crimes at Abu Ghraib, and why it did not pursue charges against civilian contractors, over whom it has jurisdiction.

A cell phone forensics expert witness brought in records of text messages, photographs and short videos taken from the phone of Raul Manuel Magallanez Jr., who is on trial in Lyon County District Court. Magallanez has been charged with raping a 13-year-old girl, as well as about 60 counts of indecent liberties with minors. Expert witness Kevin Ripa is director of computer forensics for Advanced Surveillance Group Inc. in Mount Clemens, Mich., president of Computer Evidence Recovery Co., in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and regularly presents seminars internationally about cell phone and computer forensics. Ripa had recovered general records from the SIM card within the phone as well as a number of text messages, photographs and two videos. EmporiaGazette.com also reports:

One of the videos showed a long-haired blond girl apparently acting out instructions from an audible voice: “Give me a sexy look, like, ‘you’re going to do it look.'”