Expert Witness Blog

Jurors will have to decide which expert witness to believe in the murder trial of 40-year-old Jeffrey Martinson. Martinson is charged with the first-degree murder of his 5-year-old son. Medical examiner, Dr. John Hu, wrote that the child was murdered and that the boy was poisoned with muscle relaxer. He wrote that asphyxia is also a possibility in the death. The defense has hired Dr. Janet Ophoven, an assistant coroner in rural St. Louis County, Minnesota, who will testify that the cause of death is only Wu’s opinion, and not a scientific fact. Coroner expert witness Ophoven will argue that there is no standard for the lethal dose of the muscle relaxer in a child. Reports the Ahwatukee Foothills News:

Police say that Joshua Eberle-Martinson was discovered dead on the top bunk of a bedroom in his father’s apartment. Martinson was discovered in the nearby master bedroom, unconscious with cuts on his wrists. All around the apartment, police discovered empty prescription bottles, over-the counter medicine, an empty liquor bottle and plastic bags that may have been used to suffocate the child.

In the federal government’s case against terrorism suspect Jose Padilla, Dr. Rohan Gunaratna is the leading expert witness. Author of Inside al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, Gunaratna will explain Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network to jurors. Terrorism expert witness Gunaratna has described how Padilla formed a cell in Florida as part of the global terrorist network. The Miami Herald.com reports that Gunaratna stated the:

…”defendants shared the same goal as bin Laden — to create Islamic states through any means necessary.” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley praised Gunaratna, telling U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, “He’s the leading scholar in this area.”

.

Seattle undercover detectives may have violated police department rules on June 21st when they pursued a driver in a high speed chase. The department’s rules state that “unmarked cars shall not participate in pursuits.” Police say that Jesse James Toro II cut off three undercover officers in traffic which resulted in a high speed chase. Prosecutors say Toro then shot the tires out of the officers’ SUV.

Police conduct expert witness D.P. Van Blaricom, a former Bellevue police chief, says there is good reason for the regulation against unmarked cars getting involved in high speed pursuits. The problem of chasing somebody in an unmarked car is that they don’t know who the hell is chasing them,” said Van Blaricom, who frequently testifies as an expert witness regarding police conduct.

Toro’s defense claims the officers chased Toro at speeds of more than 100 miles an hour and broke departmental rules reports the SeattlePI.com http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/.

Pain management expert witness Dr. Forest Tennant testified July 2nd that untreated chronic pain will break down the human body. Tennant heads a pain research clinic and is an expert witness for the defense of Dr. William Mangino, a Pennsylvania doctor being prosecuted for violations of the state’s drug act. Reports the New Castle News, Tennant viewed files of 11 of Mangino’s patients and commented that the guidelines for pain management “were quite well followed.”

Tennant, a founder of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, said the standards are that a doctor has to believe the patient and provide enough relief for the pain without sedating or impairing the patient….”Pain itself is a deadly disease,” Tennant said, noting it can cause detrimental hormone changes in the brain, spinal cord and adrenal glands. “People with acute pain start rusting out from the inside if they don’t get pain relief, and it’s important to treat pain,” he said.

Deptford, NJ, Police Patrolman John Gillespie is charged with aggravated assault and official misconduct after allegedly choking and beating Joseph Rao Jr., 20, during a traffic stop and arrest in February 2006. Last week the jury heard testimony from Rao himself. Expert witnesses then called to testify in the case included William Pearson, a law enforcement veteran from Morristown and the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice. The second witness called to the stand by the prosecution was Deptford Patrolman Sandra Reid. Ried processed the arrest of Rao on Feb. 2, 2006. The trial will resume Thursday with use of force expert witnesses. The trial is expected to last through the week of July 13th reports the CourierPostOnline.

Last week the divorce trial of Peter and Nancy Tauck topped Connecticut records for time and money spent. Over $10.5 million has been spent and even the FBI got involved when Nancy Tauch claimed her husband’s laptop had child pornography on it. Mrs. Tauck’s attorneys told Robert Rabetsky, a computer expert witness, to deliver copies of a CD of images downloaded from the laptop’s hard drive to the Westport police and the U.S. attorney’s office. “I was told to make sure an FBI agent received it,” Rabetsky testified.

But that charge is not likely to stick. By examining the cache or memory on the computer, expert witnesses on both sides testified that Peter Tauck could not have downloaded the pornographic images. Mr. Tauck was in Tahiti at the time and there was no evidence that the computer was accessed remotely. Someone did access the computer and it it likely that it was Mrs. Tauck. W. Anthony Whitledge, Nancy Tauck’s computer forensics expert witness, testified that he could not rule out the possiblity that the wife did it, reports The Hartfort Courant.

Family law expert witness David Pollock testified in Donna Moonda’s murder trial that she would have received between $1.2 million and $1.6 million in a divorce settlement and more than $3million if her husband died. Moonda, a former nurse, faces death penaly charges in the death of her 69-year-old physician husband. Prosecutors accuse her of conspiring with drug dealer Damian Bradford to collect an inheritance.

The defendant originally gave authorities a description of the gunman, who would have been much smaller than Bradford. A psychology expert witness is expected to testify about how common it is for witnesses at a traumatic event to wrongly recall details and descriptions, as reported in The Tribune Chronicle.

Many expert witnesses do not realize that they can file suit against the law firm that retained the expert if the expert is sued for negligence.

In the 2005 California case of Forensis Group, Inc. v. Frantz, Townsend & Foldenauer, an expert witness was sued for professional negligence for his work in a wrongful death case involving a forklift. The law firm Frantz, Townsend & Foldenauer sued the forklift manufacturer on behalf of the family and retained a mechanical engineering expert witness. At his deposition, the expert did not identify any applicable safety standards, but when the manufacturer later moved for summary judgment, the expert stated in a declaration that the vehicle failed several safety standards. The court granted summary judgment, noting that the expert had contradicted himself. The family filed a malpractice suit against the law firm, and the expert. The expert cross-claimed against the law firm for equitable indemnity, alleging that because he was retained by the law firm, the lawyers should share the loss attributable to the expert’s unsuccessful opposition to the motion for summary judgment. The expert charged that the lawyers had not provided him with adequate information, had failed to rehabilitate him at his deposition, and had failed to brief the court on the law regarding the admissibility of evidence regarding industry standards.
Continue reading