Articles Posted in Expert Witness News

In Exoneration Using DNA Brings Change in Legal System, New York Times Solomon Moore discusses how misidentification by witnesses has led to wrongful convictions and how that is changing with DNA evidence. Lt. Kenneth A. Patenaude, criminalistics expert witness and police commander in Northampton, Mass., states “It’s become clear that eyewitnesses are fallible.” “Technology has made a big difference,” said Margaret Berger, a DNA expert witness and member of the National Academy of Sciences panel that is looking into the changing needs of forensic scientists. “We see that there are new techniques for ascertaining the truth.”
To read more, go to Moore’s article.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation plans to open its lab for a rare weekend testing to accomodate expert witnesses hired by defense attorneys in the murder case against Clint Baker. Baker is accused of beating and cutting the throat of Todd Rich in March. The small amount of blood found for DNA testing would not be sufficient for separate tests. Previously the OSBI had told the court it was not permitted to allow outside DNA expert witnesses into its lab to observe testing due to “confidentiality requirements.” NewsOK.com also writes:

A few days after the OSBI alerted prosecutors that the forensic evidence would be consumed during testing, attorneys for Baker protested the testing and asked that an expert hired by the defense be allowed to test the samples. In July, a judge ruled that experts hired by the defense should be allowed to be present when forensic testing was done on the DNA evidence.

Buffalo, NY, attorney Joseph J. Marusak writes:

This tribute is written to acknowledge the debt Western New York owes to Erie County’s former chief medical examiner. I first met Uku as a homicide prosecutor in the late 1980s…You soon learned that if Uku did the autopsy, there would be no reasonable doubt as to the cause of death. Defense counsel’s skills were irrelevant. Cross-examination only enhanced Uku’s credibility, for he always carried himself with an impeccable medley of modesty, candor and dignity….

His integrity was unmatched. It was not surprising to learn that O.J. Simpson’s lawyers reached across the country to solicit Uku to testify as their expert witness. Yet it was even less surprising to learn that Uku politely declined the offer, which would have given him the opportunity to close out his career on the national stage, testifying in perhaps this nation’s most celebrated murder trial. His testimony would have opened the proverbial doors of fame and fortune to him. Yet Uku simply said ‘no.’

Expert witness Dr. David S. Egilman settled with Eli Lilly after leaking confidential materials on the antipsychotic drug Zyprexa. Egilman, who was an pharmacology expert witness in a lawsuit against Lilly, will pay $100,000 which the company will donate to charity. Egilman admited that he supplied documents to a lawyer in Alaska who sent them to a reporter for The New York Times. NewYorkTimes.com also reports:

The documents were among evidence provided by Lilly as part of a lawsuit filed by patients who contended that side effects from Zyprexa caused excessive weight gain and diabetes…The New York Times reporter, Alex Berenson, wrote articles based on copies of the documents, which showed that Lilly executives had kept information from doctors about Zyprexa’s links to obesity and higher blood sugar, a contention Lilly has denied.

The WSJ reported recently that a few New York lawyers have raised their hourly billing rates above $1,000. IP expert witnesses in multimillion dollar cases can also command impressive hourly rates. Expert witnesses in costly patent cases can earn up to $2,000 an hour. “If you have an expert in a field, and the expertise is hard to come by, it would stand to reason you can charge a great deal,” said Claude Stern, the chairman of the intellectual property group at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges. Law.com also writes:

‘In the big picture, paying $30,000 to back up your case isn’t a bad deal,’ Weil, Gotshal & Manges partner Edward Reines said. ‘Clearly, there are people who lend enough value to a case that they can charge that’…Wei-Ning Yang, a Hogan & Hartson partner in L.A., said last week that the firm is currently paying an MIT professor $2,000 an hour in an IP dispute…Hogan & Hartson wouldn’t disclose the name of the expert since the trial is ongoing.

San Bernardino County, CA prosecutors may file criminal charges against an attorney and an expert witness who shocked their client with a Taser when trying to show how police injured their client with the stun gun. ABCNewsOnline also writes:

Police say they briefly used the Taser a few times on Peter Schlueter’s client George Engman to subdue him when they arrested him last year. Schlueter, who claims the police used excessive force against his client, said Engman had injuries that could only come from about a dozen zaps, or about 30 to 50 seconds, with the Taser.

But, after the tape was shown, San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney Dan Ross said that Schlueter and his consultant Roger Clark may have violated the state’s human experimentation law, which requires patients to sign waivers for medical experiments, according to Schlueter and local news reports.

Special health courts could be the answer to our medical malpractice mess writes Mark Crane, a former USA TODAY editorial writer. Ordinary citizens aren’t usually asked to decide complex legal disputes about tax law, bankruptcy, maritime cases, etc. for good reason. Crane writes:

While the principle of trial by jury is sacrosanct in America, basic fairness and common sense demand that such highly technical issues require expertise from witnesses and judges experienced in dealing with them.

Jurors hear testimony from dueling expert witnesses-hired guns who favor one party’s interpretation of events. The most personable witness may sway a jury no matter how fanciful his theories are. Jurors receive little guidance from judges as to how to evaluate that testimony or how much to compensate deserving plaintiffs.

The Marion, IN Police Department’s accident reconstruction team is made up of five officers who receive special training for the “crash team.” Officer Chris Butche says “It’s such a challenge to try to take something of little importance to an accident and to try to take that and turn it into something beneficial to the accident.” Members of the team use complex mathematical formulas to determine variables like speed and distance and must be ready to respond at any time, sometimes working quickly to find evidence before it is lost due to snow or rain. The Chronicle-Tribune.com also reports accident reconstruction expert witness and team member Amber Richards stating:
“You always work your accident backwards,” said Richards, explaining that police always begin by investigating the moment of impact then branch out to find how the cars moved after the collision, if headlights were on or if passengers were wearing seat belts, among other factors. Accident reconstruction officers can press criminal charges against drivers who cause accidents through negligence. They often serve as expert witnesses in civil and criminal trials and their research can lead to traffic signal changes at dangerous intersections.

Murray Energy Corp., the company that co-owns the Utah coal mine where six workers are trapped, has incurred millions of dollars in fines over the last 18 months. While the safety record at Utah’s Crandall Canyon mine is good, Murray has 19 mines in five states that have not fared so well. Mining safety expert witness Bruce Dial, owner of Dial Mine Safety, said the $1.46 million in fines so far in 2007 indicate that the company is not taking the necessary steps to remedy problems. According to Forbes.com:

The fine suggested to Dial, who worked for MSHA for 24 years and now testifies in cases as an expert witness, that there was a large quantity of combustible material and a chance of a spark setting off an explosion.

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.