Articles Posted in Expert Witness Testimony

An anonymous developer is trying to bring a negotiated end to the legal dispute that erupted when Belleair, Florida granted code variances to Legg Mason real estate investors for a Biltmore project. The court is looking at whether unfair consideration was given to the developer during the quasi judicial hearing, namely that town officials were predisposed to favor the request and did not allow the complainants equal time to present their objections. During hearings, Mayor Gary Katica said, “I know the issue was about the parking spaces and when their (referring to the complainants) architecture expert witness was asked if he had ever done a parking study, his answer was no.”

Town officials aren’t saying much other than that the town had been approached by someone seeking to resolve the dispute and they were asked not to reveal the identity of the man. The anonymous man is a developer who builds condominiums, lives in Belleair, and is determined to resolve issues that potentially threaten progress on the Belleview Biltmore restoration.

Fraud investigation expert witness Brian Johnson testified Tuesday in Ottawa at the trial of four people accused of participating in a credit and debit card fraud scheme. OttawaCitizen.com writes:

Johnson, a fraud investigator with TD Canada Trust, testified that an RBC Royal Bank Visa card seized during a police search of Canadian Barcode and Plastic Card Supply Inc. did not have the same security features that would be found on a legitimate card.

Mr. Johnson was testifying as an expert witness at the trial of Robert Cattral, 38, Catherine Margaret Brunet, 38, Henry Charles Beauchamp, 39, and Ravi Rabbi Shanghavi, 28. The four have pleaded not guilty to a total of 32 criminal charges, including allegations that they were involved in purchasing, possessing and selling devices that they knew or ought to have known were going to be used for credit card forgery or fraud. Crown prosecutors say Mr. Cattral and Ms. Brunet were co-owners of Canadian Barcode, a Bank Street company that was a front for the alleged criminal organization.

Both Robert LaPointe and Terry Raye Trott apparently violated boating safety rules prior to a fatal boat crash on Long Lake, Maine, last summer, witnesses for the state testified at LaPointe’s manslaughter trial Tuesday. Milford Daily News writes:

LaPointe, 39, of Medway, Mass., was going too fast at night and did not exercise care to avoid a collision when he came up on Trott’s boat from behind, said Maine Warden Kevin Anderson and boat reconstruction expert William Chilcott.

Trott was in violation because his rear “all-around” light was not working, and he may not have had a sounding device on his motorboat, they said.But both witnesses agreed that under federal navigation rules, LaPointe was at fault for the Aug. 11, 2007, crash. His obligation as the boat coming up from behind superseded the obligation Trott had to maintain proper lighting, they said.

Cambridge Advisory Group, a financial consulting firm whose president has a murky CIA past, has earned more than $900,000 in consulting fees through Milwaukee County. Milwaukee County paid the pension adviser almost $1 million including at least $214,000 through the county’s law firm as a pensions expert witness in the county’s federal malpractice case against its former pension adviser, Mercer Inc. But after more than 2 1/2 years of work on the case, the firm’s president, Stuart S. Piltch, dropped out last month as one of the county’s key witnesses. JSOnline reports:

Mercer has been ratcheting up demands for details on Piltch’s actuarial training, efforts the county and Piltch have resisted. Though he’s not a licensed actuary, Piltch told county lawyers he received advanced training while working for the CIA and passed tests equivalent to those required for a professional license. In attacking Piltch’s credentials, Mercer appears to be aiming to discredit the county’s entire malpractice case. In one filing in the federal lawsuit, Mercer argues that a bogus expert could spoil the county’s case.

Medical expert witnesses are called to testify when patients file lawsuits against physicians or HMOs alleging that capitation played a causal factor in medical malpractice. In Physicians Win Lawsuits Over Inadequate PMPM Rates, Capitation Management Report describes two scenarios:

Non-referral to specialists:

Patients file lawsuits against physicians or HMOs because the primary care physician failed to refer, or to refer in a timely manner, the patient to a specialist. The reason for the non-referral generally cited in the lawsuit is that the doctor received a financial incentive to withhold care.

Expert witnesses from both sides agreed in testimony Thursday that Joseph E. Dodick’s failed brake system contributed to the crash that took the life of Michael Mikulin, 20, in Geneva, Ohio two years ago. Two accident reconstruction experts as well as a forensic engineering expert witness testified in the case.

Ashtabula County deputy engineer LeRoy McNeilly and Cuyahoga County coroner Dr. Frank Miller were also among witnesses called by attorneys. Dodick is charged with vehicular homicide.

Former Blue Lake, CA, police chief David Gundersen faces two dozen counts of raping his wife Darcie Seal with the use of an intoxicant, as well as charges of violating a court order, attempting to dissuade the victim of a crime, and illegally possessing a submachine gun and a pistol with a silencer attached. Gundersen’s wife feared the would kill her if she testified against him, a District Attorney’s Office investigator and a friend of Gundersen’s wife testified Thursday. Spousal abuse expert witness Diane Wetendorf testified that while domestic violence can take all shapes and forms, it is always about power and control. The TimesStandard reports:

Abusers, Wetendorf testified, often use isolation, emotional abuse, economic abuse and sexual abuse to exert constant control over their partners.

Because of these factors, as well as pressures from family and religion, Wetendorf said it is very common for it to take years for a victim to come forward. And when they eventually do, Wetendorf said, it is very common for them to later recant their statements.

Palm Beach Florida and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection are seeking $17 million for a beach project to protect properties vulnerable to storm damage. The town says the beach was damaged by the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 but it is being challenged by petitioners seeking to block the town’s plans to rebuild the Reach 8 shoreline south of Phipps Ocean Park.

Dr. Robert Dean, retired University of Florida professor of civil and coastal engineering, says a full reconstruction is necessary at the Reach 8 shoreline. Dean, author of “Beach Nourishment: Theory and Practice,” warns that if the plan is not carried out, the beach is going to continue to erode and there won’t be any nesting sea turtles, property protection or recreation. Dean challenged the expertise of two geology expert witnesses expected to testify for the petitioners. Dr. Orrin Pilkey, a geologist at Duke University, and Dr. Robert Young, director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University, will testify that it is impossible to predict how renourished beaches will perform.

Dr. Tartaglia of the Stork Climax Research Services testified as a metallurgy expert witness for the defense in a wrongful death suit involving materials testing. The plaintiff alleged that steel making byproduct and manufacturing slag fell from a passing truck and was the cause of death of his client killed in a car accident. The expert for the plaintiff performed an energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) elemental analysis on debris found in the car and asserted that the debris was from the truck.

Dr. Tartaglia consulted as an expert witness for the defense in the analysis of the disputed material. He advised that the EDS analysis was insufficient and that a molecular analysis should have been performed with an instrument such as a Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectrometer. The case was settled satisfactorily for the defense.

DuPage County, IL, Judge Dorothy French ordered the Indian Prairie School District’s to hand over records they’re hoping will show hypocrisy in the school district’s objection to reimbursements the Brach and Brodie trusts are seeking over a failed land deal. The records include contracts, bills, invoices and payments for its attorneys and finance expert witnesses as well as documents regarding its legislative efforts to secure quick-take power. The Sun-Times News reports:

The district also is contesting the validity of all fees sought for reimbursement because attorneys and expert witnesses secured by the trusts used “block billing” rather than a “task-based billing” approach that would allow their charges to be scrutinized for “reasonableness.”