Articles Posted in Expert Witness News

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.

Vermont Department of Corrections Health Director Dr. Susan Wehry says her state has 46% of its inmates on psychotropic medications which is the highest of any state in the country. Vermont also has highest number of inmates getting more than one psychiatric medication. The statistics are troubling to both prison rights advocates and corrections officials. “The question is why,” said Dr. Jeffrey Metzner, a Denver-based psychiatrist and expert witness who has studied prison mental health systems around the country, including Vermont’s. “They ought to figure out why.”

The problem in prison is (drugs are) given to a lot of people to quiet them down,” said prison mental health expert witness Dr. Terry Kupers, a California psychiatrist. “They’re over-prescribed for people who are not psychotic but who are not sleeping or who are causing disruptions in the prisons,” he said.

But Dr. Wehry says high numbers of inmates on psychiatric drugs is less a function of prisons than of prisoners. As reported in Boston.com, “Many arrive with substance abuse problems and soon learn some anti-psychotic drugs provide “a little buzz”…Many also arrive with several active prescriptions. “It is not at all uncommon for an offender to come in on three, four, five, or six medications for similar conditions” says Wehry.

The SEC’s civil fraud case against former Qwest chief executive Joe Nacchio will most likely not go to trial until 2009. The SEC asserts that Nacchio and other former Qwest officials falsely inflated revenue by $3 billion from 1999 to 2002. U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer gave the parties until Oct. 15, 2008, to submit information on proposed expert witnesses. The judge said he does not expect to allow depositions of the securities expert witnesses. As reported in the Denver Post, the SEC plans to file a motion for summary judgment against Nacchio in August, asking that Nacchio be found guilty of all or part of the charges.

Nacchio, already convicted of illegal insider trading for stock sales from April to May 2001, is scheduled to be sentenced July 27 on his criminal conviction on 19 counts of illegal insider trading.

The National Ground Water Association is hosting the 5th Ground Water and Environmental Law Conference in Dublin, OH, on July 24-25, 2007. Lawyers and environmental expert witness speakers will cover groundwater litigation cases and forensic environmental investigations. Topics for day two will include new water law regulations, groundwater models, risk assessment, ethics for attorneys and expert witnesses, and a mock trial. The NGWA website states:

The first four of these conferences have been outstanding as a direct result of lawyers and expert witnesses who became part of the process providing excellent quality presentations including trial reenactments.

The 2007 NGWA Ground Water Expo and Annual Meeting will take place in Orlando, Florida, December 4-7. The educational program ranges from drilling operations to professional development and numerous networking opportunities.

Brain Meehan, Director of DNA Security Inc., is often called upon as an expert witness . Unfortunately, the DNA expert witness lost some credibility when his testimony was criticized in Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong’s disbarment hearing. As reported in The News & Observer:

Lawyers on both sides and the panel chairman criticized his testimony during the hearing. From the moment Meehan stepped down through the end of the hearing, Williamson derided the scientist’s testimony, referring to him as “Mr. Obfuscation” and calling the scientist an “erratic witness at best.” Even Nifong’s attorney stated that “I wouldn’t make much out of what Dr. Meehan said.” Meehan can expect those comments to come up when he’s cross-examined in any future cases.

A career as an expert witness can be monetarily rewarding but it is not for everyone states Rosalie Hamilton of Expert Communications, a business development firm for expert witnesses. Hamilton wants those who are considering becoming an expert witness as a second career to realize that “litigation is a high-stress production…Getting grilled in deposition, and then cross-examined in court before a judge and jury, can redefine stress!” As reported in eMediaWire:

According to Black’s Law Dictionary, an expert witness is a person who through education or experience has developed skill or knowledge in a particular subject, so that he or she may form an opinion that will assist the fact-finder. Fortunately, most of the work of an expert consultant is prior to or exclusive of courtroom testimony. Experts are used to investigate, evaluate, educate, or render an opinion, in written and/or oral format — activities that assist attorneys, insurers, judges, and juries to determine the facts in a claim, lawsuit, or other dispute. And some expert consultants confine themselves to activities other than testimony, such as reviewing potential medical malpractice cases to determine whether the case should be litigated.

Hamilton gives this advice, “Do your research, learn what it’s really like (in real life, not television), and then decide if it’s right for you.”

Leuren Moret, independent scientist and international expert on radiation and public health issues, will address the Vancouver 9/11 Truth Conference on June 22-24, 2007. Moret, expert witness at the 2004 Tokyo International Tribunal for War Crimes in Afghanistan, will speak on the public health risk posed by the use of depleted uranium (DU) weapons by the U.S. military forces in Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. Environmental expert witness Moret reported elevated radiation readings downwind from the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001. Two days after 9/11, the EPA confirmed that the crash site rubble was radioactive and that it was probably depleted uranium (DU) contaminating the Pentagon crash site rubble, as reported in the Online Journal.

The demonstrated public health effects of depleted uranium (DU) weapons include: diabetes; cancer; birth defects; chronic diseases caused by neurological and neuromuscular radiation damage; mitochondrial diseases (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s; heart and brain disorders); global DNA damage in men’s sperm; infertility in women; learning disabilities such as autism, and dyslexia; mental illness; infant mortality and low birth weights; Increase in death rates and decrease in birth rates.

DialPro Northwest CEO Dennis R. Tyler appeared as an emergency warning expert witness at the California State Senate’s hearing on campus emergency warning systems which was held in response to the tragedy at Virginia Tech. Expert witness Tyler spoke at the hearing entitled “Emergency Alert Systems – Can We Protect our Students,” conducted earlier this month by the California State Senate Governmental Organization Committee, which oversees emergency preparedness in California. As reported in The Seattle Business Wire Senator Florez remarked:

The safety of our schools and universities are of paramount concern, and today’s emergency event notification systems offer ways to quickly notify students and staff in the event of a disaster or emergency,” said Tyler. “With the advances in communications technology, it is possible to create emergency event notification systems that are multi-modal; that is, they can be customized to contact students and staff through a variety of means, from text messaging, email, pager or phone call, depending on their preference. Not only do these systems work for schools, but for business of all types as well.

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 Technology and the UCLA. It was revealed that these schools didn’t offer the degrees Edmiston had listed.

According to California’s Fresno Bee, Edmiston’s downfall came after he was retained by Fresno attorneys to work on two child pornography cases. Local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents involved in the cases noticed some inaccuracies on his résumé, and further checks found alleged multiple false statements. It was also revealed that Edmiston served time in prison for forgery.

Edmiston could receive up to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine when he is sentenced July 13 by U.S. District Judge Lawrence O’Neill.

Despite it being a departmental requirement, Jackson Police Department records show that almost one in six officers did not receive a qualifying score at the department’s firing range last year. Eighty of the 488 Jackson officers received no qualifying score because they didn’t take the test.

Charles Key, a veteran of the Baltimore Police Department and an expert witness on police training, was shocked at how many Jackson police officers were not graded on their firearms proficiency. Mr. Key told The Clarion Ledger, “That’s absurd. That’s insane. You don’t even know whether they can put holes in paper,” he said. “That’s so far below modern police standards that you must not even have state standards.” Key also testifies as an expert witness in use-of-force lawsuits, and warns that not having an adequate training program endangers the public and leaves police departments open for costly lawsuits.

The Jackson Police Department has been sued in the past over training issues such as high-speed pursuit training and civil rights issues. Departments across the nation have had their training regimens picked apart in lawsuits over the use of deadly force.