Articles Posted in Expert Witness Testimony

viralMeme writes that the Minnesota Supreme Court has upheld the right of drunk-driving defendants to request the source code for the breathalyzer machines used as evidence against them, but only when the defendant provides sufficient arguments to suggest that a review of the code may have an impact on the case.

Defendant Timothy Brunner “submitted a memorandum and nine exhibits to support his request for the source code,” which included testimony from a computer expert witness about the usefulness of source code in finding voting machine defects, and a report about a similar case in New Jersey where defects were found in the breathalyzer’s source code. This was enough for the Supreme Court to acknowledge that an examination of the code could “relate to Brunner’s guilt or innocence.”

An addiction expert witness testified Wednesday in Noblesville, IN, that Chad Cottrell was addicted to methamphetamine at the time he killed Trisha Cottrell, 29, and her two daughters from a previous marriage, Brittany Williams, 12, and Victoria “Tori” Williams, 10. Dr. Joseph Wu, an expert in PET scan brain imagining, said Cottrell’s brain showed signs of “abnormalities” in areas that normally regulate social behavior and “impulse” control.

Defense attorney Eric Koselke also called Robert Lee Smith, a psychology expert witness who testified that Cottrell showed signs of possible brain damage, paranoia, and suffered from a “borderline personality disorder.” “The combination of those factors led him not to be able to control his impulse” to commit the violent crimes, Smith said.

Excerpted from TribStar.com.

Software expert witness Robert Schumann testified yesterday for a group of Hollywood studios in the case against RealNetworks. Plaintiffs allege that Real identified and actively worked to remove the copy protections from DVD discs with its software product, RealDVD. The expert stated that he was able to copy seven movies to a thumb drive that was completely unprotected and lacked the device key that a DVD drive included. Plaintiff’s attorney Rohit Singla implied that RealDVD had circumvented the device key. PCMag.com reports:

Singla tried to make the point that DVDs contain several copy-protection mechanisms, which RealNetworks allegedly methodically identified and worked to supercede. The protections included both device and bus encryption, part of the Content Scrambling System (CSS) code that must be included with every DVD. But Singla also attempted to point out that many DVDs come with two third-party pieces of copy-protection software licensed by Macrovision and Sony DADC, called ARccOS and RipGuard, which have been placed on DVDs to give them additional copy protection.

A federal prosecutor dropped key toxicology expert witness Christopher Weis from the case against W.R. Grace & Co. saying the move would significantly curtail the government’s case after U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy had told the parties to “move the case along.”

Weis, a toxicologist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency arrived on Libby’s front lines in 1999 to investigate reports of widespread asbestos contamination. He and other emergency response workers were the impetus behind government efforts to clean up Libby and investigate Grace’s alleged criminal conduct. Grace, a global chemical and building materials company, and five former company executives are charged with a federal conspiracy involving Clean Air Act violations and obstruction of justice.

Excerpted from Missoulian.com.

W. R. Grace along with five individual defendants, filed a motion Sunday to exclude the toxicology expert witness testimony of Dr. Aubrey Miller. Dr. Miller, an investigator with the EPA, is the prosecution’s key witness. WRG was successful in an earlier attempt to limit the testimony of another key witness, Paul Peronard, who served as the EPA’s on-site coordinator in Libby after the town’s asbestos contamination first made headlines ten years ago. The Mesothelioma & Asbestos Awareness Center also reports:

The company and five one-time Grace officials are charged with a federal conspiracy involving Clean Air Act violations and obstruction of justice. The jury must find whether the company and its top employees knew they were endangering the community of Libby by mining the asbestos-laced ore and whether they were violating federal law as they did so.

Thousands of Libby residents have been diagnosed with asbestos-related illnesses, including asbestosis and pleural mesothelioma cancer. Previous testimony from another doctor revealed that approximately one new case of asbestos-caused disease is diagnosed per week in Libby.

Pennsylvania prosecutors have questioned the admissibility of criminology expert witness Allison Redlich’s testimony in the homicide trial of Frederick Anthony Robinson. Redlich testified Wednesday by phone about her educational background and the methodology of her research of false confessions. She is currently an assistant professor in the school of criminal justice at the Albany, N.Y. branch of the State University of New York.

Robinson’s attorneys have said the jury’s understanding of the pathology of a false confession is integral to their defense. “This is a topic where there is extensive, lengthy research,” Redlich stated. The expert witness would testify during the trial about the generalities of false confessions and common characteristics but prosecutors believe her testimony should be inadmissible in the trial scheduled to begin next week.

For more, see Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Mike Sexton, host of the “World Poker Tour” and a 30-year poker pro, will be called as a gambling expert witness in the illegal gambling trial of five players busted during the police raid of a home tournament three years ago. Sexton, of Las Vegas, will contend that their chosen game of Texas Hold ’em relies more on skill to win than on illegal gambling chance, which is at the heart of the players’ defense. Sexton has a long resume in the poker world, helping to coordinate corporate endorsements and sponsorships behind broadcast poker tournaments. “The success of the World Poker Tour can largely be chalked up to his credit,” according to the Poker Listings Web site.

Also scheduled to testify is Robert Hannum, a statistics expert witness and professor at the University of Denver. Both men recently gave affidavits, filed this week at Mount Pleasant’s Municipal Court, defending the merits of Texas Hold ’em and the need for skill in mathematics, money management, bluffing, card play and reading an opponent to be successful.

Excerpted from Charleston.net.

In Robertson v. Princeton, descendants of donor Marie Robertson and her husband, Princeton class of 1926 alumnus Charles Robertson, sued Princeton University to redirect the funds she gave to create the Robertson Foundation for the benefit of Princeton University in 1961. Princeton estimates that it spent more than $40 million in pre-trial costs and that a trial and appeal will cost an additional $20 million for both sides.

Princeton produced nearly half a million pages of electronic and print documents in the discovery phase of the case. Finance expert witnesses gave reports and there were more than 5,000 trial exhibits identified. The University’s defense costs not covered by insurance, will be reimbursed by the Robertson Foundation.

A Kauai grand jury indicted retired auto dealer Jimmy Pflueger last week on seven counts of criminal manslaughter in connection with the 2006 Kaloko Dam collapse that killed seven people on Kauai’s North Shore. Pflueger is accused of altering an earthen dam that led to the breach on March 14, 2006, which sent floodwaters rushing down Wailapa Stream. The flood tore several homes off their foundations and washed away seven victims as they slept.

Lawyers said they have photos and witnesses to show Pflueger blocked a spillway for excess water even though he was warned not to. Pflueger testified he was aware that there was seepage through the Kaloko Dam and “that is a very major problem according to our experts,” said attorney Rick Fried. Earlier this year a dam expert said that the state should appoint an inspection team to evaluate dams so people living downstream know what the risks are.

For more, see BirminghamBusinessJournal.com.

The Massashusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board opened hearings on Wednesday into the request by Cape Win Associates LLC for a composite permit for transmission lines that carry approvals on five state and four local permits. If Cape Wind secures the remaining permits and the almost inevitable legal challenge, the company will get to build its 130-turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound.

The composite permit, if approved by the siting board, would allow the long-delayed wind turbine project to collapse whatever further wait is involved in obtaining the state and local permits.The company presented two expert witnesses: Craig Olmsted, the vice president for project development at Energy Management Corp. and the Cape Wind project manager, and Christopher Rein, senior vice president and principal of ESS Group, the lead environmental consultant on the wind farm project.

Excerpted from CapeCodToday.