Articles Posted in Expert Witness Testimony

Bank of America Corp. received a blow from U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff in their civil trial with the SEC, as Rakoff granted a request from the SEC to forbid finance expert witnesses for Bank of America to use media reports to support their claims that shareholders were aware of the huge bonuses Merrill Lynch & Co. were offering their top executives.

The trial stems from the same judge who threw out a $33 million settlement between the SEC and Bank of America last year, clearing the way for the civil trial. In the case of two of the witnesses for Bank of America, they were going to use media reports as their primary evidence for asserting shareholders had knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the bonuses offered by Merrill Lynch.

For more, see americanbankingnews.com.

Ohio Licking County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Marcelain ordered C-TEC to pay $3.8 million in damages for uncompensated work to a Newark company in favor of Claggett & Sons Inc. Marcelain also ordered both sides back into court to address punitive damages and attorney fees, costs that could push the cash-strapped Career and Technology Education Centers of Licking County’s bill much higher. Claggett attorneys also intend to seek interest for the company’s damages accrued since 2006. “None of the defendant’s architecture expert witnesses realized this was the method in which the building was constructed,” Marcelain wrote.

“The architect took advantage of the lack of knowledge of C-TEC in construction methods,” Marcelain wrote as he described problems such as ventilation pipes designed to go through a steel beam near the roof. The judge wrote that C-TEC’s witnesses, especially its architects, were not credible and that Claggett demonstrated construction delays were not its fault. He also noted board members were not aware the project was 90 percent complete and school largely occupied when they voted to fire Claggett.

For more, see newarkadvocate.com.

GMAC Inc. has appealed a federal jury’s November verdict that it pay $4 million in damages to Donald M. Mente, whose Kutztown auto dealerships GMAC suddenly shut down in July 2007. In federal court filings, GMAC is asking U.S. District Judge Juan R. Sanchez to order a new trial, arguing he improperly allowed Mente’s finance expert witnesses to testify at trial and improperly prohibited GMAC’s expert rebuttal witnesses.

In response, however, Mente’s attorneys said their witnesses were proper and GMAC missed several deadlines imposed by the judge to name its own expert witnesses. GMAC, once the auto-financing arm of General Motors Corp., now is a stand-alone bank offering many types of financing. On July 19, 2007, GMAC accused the dealerships – Mente Chevrolet in Richmond Township and Mente Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Maxatawny Township – of being in default to GMAC for the cars Mente bought from the automakers.

Rather than allow the dealerships to sell the cars at full price, GMAC immediately auctioned them off at reduced prices, causing the dealerships to go into foreclosure and 77 people to lose their jobs, according to trial testimony. The expert witnesses were used to summarize auto dealership financing practices and the value of the dealerships at that time.

The trial of Fulton County, OH, alleged arsonist Charles Bryan Jr. will be continued until March 9, 2010, and a change of venue may be sought, attorney Jerome Phillips says. Discovery materials the defense team received from the county prosecutor’s office in October require Phillips to obtain an expert witness dealing with arson. The defense may also have to find a forensic accounting expert for related accounting issues. Phillips had argued that the requirement made the trial’s original starting date of Jan. 11, 2010, unrealistic, since expert witnesses have yet to be retained by the defense.

Bryan was indicted in August on 14 counts related to the April 2007 downtown Wauseon fire, including arson, aggravated arson and insurance fraud. If found guilty on all charges he could face a maximum sentence of more than 46 years in prison and fines totaling up to $115,000.

For more, see foxtoledo.com.

A twelve year old boy accused of killing his 5-week-old cousin, Millan Young, is on trial in Cobb County, Ga. “I believe it’s a homicide,” said Dr. Brian Frist, Cobb County’s chief medical examiner. “It is consistent with the child being held, shaken and eventually the head being struck against some hard object.” The medical expert witness said no medical condition could have caused all of the injuries he saw, and that if the baby had been this severely injured before being placed in the car, anyone would have noticed.

Autopsy photos show that the 6-pound, 9-ounce baby sustained two kinds of brain hemorrhages, retinal hemorrhages, bruises on her mouth and body, and unrelated fractures on opposite sides of her skull. The medical examiner said he believes the injuries weren’t accidental because they were so widespread.

For more, see tampabay.com.

Two retired police officers who now testify as police procedures expert witnesses in officer-involved shooting cases say it appears Redding, CA, police were justified when they fired more than 30 rounds at a bank robbery suspect Monday. Richard Lichten, a retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s lieutenant who once shot and wounded a suspect with his service revolver, said: “It sounds like the officers were justified in firing their rounds. Cops don’t want to admit it, but you’re scared to death,” he said. “It’s a terrible, scary thing. There isn’t a cop around who wants to do this.”

The two independent experts offered their opinions after reading and watching video accounts on Redding.com of Monday’s fatal shooting of Brandon Michael Reuter, 20, of Los Gatos.

For more, see redding.com.

The Connecticut state Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a Superior Court jury verdict awarding two black firefighters hundreds of thousands of dollars for their complaint that the city of New Haven unjustly denied them promotions based on their race. The unanimous decision, written by Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers, went against plaintiffs Lt. Christopher Texeira and retired Lt. John Brantley, who won the jury ruling in July 2005.

However, attorney Martyn Philpot Jr., who represents the two firefighters, cited testimony during the trial from economics expert witness Gerald Jaynes, a Yale professor of economic and African-American studies. According to Rogers’ ruling, Jaynes testified underfilling “favored white males because they were the greater portion of individuals who were, in fact, underfilled.”

For more, see nhregister.com.

State District Judge Jose Longoria ruled this week that former Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce CEO Terry Carter’s lawsuit can continue but without two of his planned defamation expert witnesses. Carter filed a lawsuit in March 2008 against the chamber, former and current board members, the Caller-Times and others, saying they knowingly disseminated false statements about him and the chamber’s finances which caused him to lose his job.

All the defendants have denied Carter’s accusations and the chamber has counter sued Carter alleging a breach of contract. Attorney Jorge Rangel, who represents the Caller-Times and E.W. Scripps, said Monday that because the case involves first amendment rights the newspaper immediately can appeal on the summary judgment issue. Rangel said that will be the next step.

Jamie and Jarrod Bacon are facing 10 firearms charges stemming from the discovery of a secret gun compartment containing weapons the day after Jamie was wounded in a shooting outside the family’s home. Defense lawyers for the Red Scorpion gang siblings are challenging the legality of the vehicle search as well as the police conduct in the Bacon house after the shooting and before the gun compartment was found.

Police procedures expert witness Paul Vogt of the Canada Border Services Agency says the Bacon brothers’ secret gun compartment is the work of a specialist. The compartment in the Suburban in which four loaded handguns and five magazines were found had carpet installed to “stop any contraband from moving around,” Vogt said. “It is a very sophisticated compartment professionally installed by someone who knows what they are doing,” he testified.

For more, see vancouversun.com.

Trucking industry expert witness John Johnson, a Michigan Technological University professor of mechanical engineering testified last spring before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment as part of a review of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Vehicle Technologies research and development programs. The expert said more research is needed to improve the safety and fuel economy of the nation’s truck fleet.

Johnson expressed concern over the decline in federal funding for the 21st Century Truck Partnership. In 2000, DOE launched the Partnership to explore technological improvements in commercial and military trucks and buses. Funded through the DOE, the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency, the Partnership also involves several national research laboratories and many industrial partners.