by

Luzerne County, PA First Assistant District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll is using animation as evidence in the murder trial of Jeff Dennis. “We bring to life their testimony,” said Andre Stuart, forensic evidence expert witness and head of the company handling the prosecution’s animation. Determination on whether animation can be used in a trial depends on the evidence discovered. The prosecution will argue that the animation supports expert witness analysis of the evidence. TimesLeader.com also writes:

“You can’t just have someone tell a story. It’s gotta have a basis to it,” Musto Carroll said. “It’s a very technical process that they go through … to make sure the experts can say, ‘Yes, this is in compliance with the expert report.'” Lackawanna County District Attorney Andy Jarbola said the animation isn’t “like a motion picture.” It’s more of an animation of still photos and sketches to show where the suspect was standing, the position of the victim, the distance between the two, and the angle in which the bullet struck the victim.

by

Members of the Texas state dental board can no longer act as expert witnesses for other dentists facing malpractice lawsuits without first getting permission from others on the board. Earlier this year, several former board members said they saw no ethical problems with being paid as dentistry expert witnesses for dentists facing lawsuits. One board member did admit that his testimony most likely received more weight in court because of his position on the board. According to Statesman.com:

A similar provision covers the Texas Medical Board, which licenses doctors, physician assistants and others. Members of that board also have worked as experts for doctors facing lawsuits…. Gary McDonald of Kingwood, the dental board’s presiding officer, said he supports the legislation, adding that for nearly a year the board has had an internal agreement to avoid doing expert witness work.

by

Expert witness James Earl Edmiston was sentenced Friday to one year and nine months in federal prison after pleading guilty to two perjury counts. Edmiston used a phony résumé to portray himself as a computer forensics expert witness. He listed degrees from Cal Tech and UCLA which were not offered by the universities. The Fresno Bee also writes:

He had been qualified as an expert witness in computers and had submitted documents and offered testimony in court, including Tulare County Superior Court and the Fresno County Superior Court branch in Clovis….Authorities, however, say that based on information they now have, no convictions have been jeopardized by Edmiston’s actions. Mostly, attorneys say, new computer forensics experts had to be hired, leading to delays.

by

The arrest and suicide of Seattle psychologist Stuart Greenberg could result in challenges to his recommendations and the resulting decisions handed down in past sexual-abuse and child-custody cases. Greenberg, a nationally recognized expert witness in sexual-abuse cases, also consulted for the Archdiocese of Seattle in their priest-abuse cases. Greenberg was arrested and then suspended from practice after he allegedly videotaped a woman in his office bathroom. The psychology expert witness frequently served as a parenting evaluator in child-custody cases. SeatteTimes.com also reports:

King County Presiding Judge Michael Trickey said the courts – and families going through custody battles – will have to contend with a number of difficult issues in the wake of Greenberg’s arrest and subsequent death. He anticipates a flurry of challenges by parties who were unhappy with past evaluations involving Greenberg.

by

Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira filed a motion Wednesday seeking to prevent Joseph Ventura’s attorney from using three expert witnesses in support of his client’s self-defense argument. Ventura is charged with the fatal stabbing of Penn State student Michael Donahue, 22. Ventura contends he acted in self-defense in the Feb. 19, 2006 altercation at Club Love. The defense is relying on three expert witnesses: toxicology expert witness Dr. Richard Saferstein, psychology expert witness Dr. Stanley E. Schneider, and pathology expert witness Dr. Jonathan L. Arden. Madeira argued in a motion Wednesday that none of these witnesses are relevant and is asking Centre County Judge Thomas King Kistler to exclude their testimony at trial, scheduled for Aug. 8-10 reports CentreDaily.com.

by

Expert witness Dr. Matthew Levitt, director of the Washington Institute’s Stein Program on Terrorism, Intelligence, and Policy, continued his testimony Wednesday in the case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. HLF is charged with channeling material support to HAMAS, the Palestinian terrorist group. Five HLF officials are on trial in Dallas while two others live abroad and are considered fugitives. Levitt, the prosecution’s terrorism expert witness, testified as a HAMAS expert about the group’s methods of recruitment and their violent attacks.

Counterterrorismblog.com also reports:

Levitt also spent considerable time discussing the charitable Zakat Committees. He called them “HAMAS’ most effective tool… they build grassroots support for the organization…(and) provide a logistical support mechanism to the terrorism wing by providing day jobs to HAMAS terrorists…Hamas seeks to establish an Islamic Palestinian state in all of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank,” he said. Levitt has testified in other criminal trials in the United States including US v Marzook et al in Chicago and US v Al-Arian et al in Tampa.

Continue reading

by

Bozeman Police Chief Mark Tymrak was called as an expert witness Monday in a trial to determine whether the department’s leaders retaliated against Officer Steve Feuerstein when he complained about mishandled drugs. Feuerstein’s lawsuit also claims the city violated state employment laws by failing to properly supervise him and provide him with a safe workplace. Law enforcement and police procedures expert witness Tymrak said he believes Feuerstein did not like the outcome of his complaint about mishandled drugs in the K-9 unit. Tymrak could find no evidence to support Feuerstein’s claim that he was not properly supervised. BillingsGazette.com reports:

Feuerstein filed a lawsuit in March 2006 alleging officials in the Police Department violated his state and federal civil rights by retaliating against him…. Feuerstein alleges command officers denied him special assignments and duties after he reported fellow K-9 officers Brian Korell and Dave Punt gave illegal drugs to a civilian dog trainer. Feuerstein claims he was then ostracized by some officers who refused to respond to calls as backup to Feuerstein. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from the city.

by

The jury was selected Friday in the case against the Holy Land Foundation charity and some of its organizers. Holy Land is accused of raising millions of dollars for the terrorist group Hamas. The trial will include at least three months of testimony and a decade of secret wiretap evidence gathered on the foundation. One of the government’s expert witnesses is Matthew Levitt, author of Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad.

Prosecutors expect the terrorist expert witness will help convince the jury that Holy Land and its organizers raised money throughout the U.S. and sent it to Palestinian charity committees, who spent it on humanitarian aid. As reported in DallasNews.com:

The government says those Palestinian committees were controlled by Hamas, which the U.S. designated as a terrorist organization in 1995. Supporting any designated terrorist group is illegal.

by

Tupelo City Council members have hired an expert witness to support their efforts in annexing 16 square miles Lee County, Mississippi. Michael Slaughter of Slaughter & Associates in Oxford will testify supporting the city’s annexation plan. Urban planning expert witness Slaughter has worked on prior annexations with Tupelo. Slaughter told the Daily Journal on Wednesday that based on a preliminary review, the areas Tupelo wants to annex appear to be reasonable and meet the state criteria for annexation. The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal writes that:
….the county might oppose the city’s current annexation attempt as it did the previous one. It recently made a similar attempt in which it tried to annex 10.2 square miles of county territory and 2,500 of its residents. That attempt was opposed by county officials, black community leaders in Tupelo and residents living in the proposed annexation area. The case lingered two years and cost taxpayers more than $600,000 in city and county legal fees before retired Chancellor Charles Thomas dismissed it in October, citing concerns about the city’s evidence.

by

A gang expert witness said Wednesday that the beating in which nine men punched Sgt. Juwan Johnson more than 200 times was a Gangster Disciples rite of passage that went wrong. Detective John Bowman, head gang investigator with the Killeen, Texas, Police Department, testified Wednesday as a gang crimes expert witness during the court martial.
Twenty-two year-old Pvt. Terrence Norman is charged with involuntary manslaughter in Johnson’s death. Johnson was scheduled to leave the Army three weeks after the date of his beating. Expert witness Bowman said he never heard of a “jump-in ceremony” happening so close to the time a person was set to leave the area where a gang operated. If convicted on all charges, Norman could spend 19 years behind bars. Stars and Stripes also reports:

Expert witness Col. Kathleen Ingwersen, the medical examiner who performed Johnson’s autopsy, testified that the 25-year-old died from multiple blunt force injuries and that, medically, Johnson’s death was a homicide….The autopsy showed Johnson suffered severe injuries to his brain and heart.