Articles Posted in Expert Witness Testimony

Gustov ‘Bud’ Clark, prosecution expert witness in the death of Francisco Javier Dominguez, testified on how Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Corbett could have shot and killed the 22-year-old Mexican national. The law enforcement expert witness told jurors in federal court Friday about ‘sympathetic squeeze.’ The Arizona Department of Public Safety expert said it means if a gun is held in one hand, and the other grabs something, you’ll likely pull the trigger, as a reflex. Clark told jurors that in video training sessions with Border Patrol agents, when a scenario is presented where a suspected illegal entrant is holding a rock, the agents are trained to back up but nothing in the surveillance video indicates that Corbett backed away from Dominguez.

In Avoiding the Top 10 Mistakes with Distributor Agreements, Glen Balzer, management and forensic consultant and expert witness in domestic and international marketing and sales, shares a checklist of ten common mistakes to avoid when drafting your next distributor agreement. Mistake #6 is entitled Termination by Only One Party – Not Both.

Distributor agreements that allow for termination by only one partner are biased. Experience suggests that such lopsided agreements more frequently end in a legal dispute. By allowing both parties to terminate the agreement, some legal disputes can be avoided. The best distributor agreements allow either party to terminate the agreement.

Glen Balzer, President of New Era Consulting, can be reached at glen@neweraconsulting.com.

The San Franciso Bay Guardian reports:

An expert witness for the SF Weekly put a bunch of charts before the jury Friday, trying to undermine the Guardian’s predatory pricing case – but every one of the charts seemed to prove exactly what we’ve been trying to say.

The Guardian is suing the Weekly and its corporate parent, Village Voice Media, for predatory pricing. The claim is that the 16-paper chain poured millions into propping up the San Francisco paper, which for 12 years has lost money while it sold ads below the cost of producing them. That, we argue, was done to harm the locally owned competitor.

In Using Vocational Rehab Experts and Life-Care Planners to Prove General Damages, author Geoffrey S. Wells discusses the use of vocational rehabilitation and life-care planning experts. He begins by telling us that the use of a vocational rehabilitation expert and a life care planning expert witness is even more important today than it has been in the past.

The use of a vocational rehabilitation expert should be implemented anytime your clients have permanent injuries that either impair their ability to do their old jobs or impair their ability to do any job. One of the most importatnt aspects of a good vocational rehabilitation plan is assessing the loss of earning capacity. The loss of earning capacitiy is not just the loss of a particular job, but it is the inability to be able to earn what a person would have been capable of earning had he or she never been hurt. Many defense lawyers gloss over the lost earning capacity component of the vocational rehabiliation plan. I think it is very improtant that the jury understands through the testimony of your expert the whole issue of lost earning capapcity.

More to follow from The Advocate, November 2007.

The trial of Hans Reiser, a 44-year-old Oakland, Calif. computer programmer accused of killing his wife, has become “stranger than fiction.” Reiser’s prominence in developer circles as the founder of the ReiserFS file system software available for Linux, the fact that the body of his estranged wife has never been recovered, and national TV coverage, all add to the drama. Crime scene analysis expert witnesses have testified about biological and trace evidence found, suggesting Nina Reiser is dead, and also tying her husband to the death. Beverly Parr, a psychiatry expert witness who has known Reiser since he was a toddler, testified for the defense that he showed all the signs of having Asperger’s syndrome, which is marked by impaired social skills and a fixation on things. News.com reports that Hans Reiser’s defense portrays:

…his estranged wife Nina Reiser as an adulteress and a possible embezzler. Hans Reiser has long suggested that Nina Reiser might not be dead after all, but could be hiding in her native Russia after stealing money from her husband’s former company Namesys. The couple’s 8-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter now live with their maternal grandmother in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Transplant surgeon Dr. Hootan Roozrokh of San Francisco is charged with three felonies alleging he attempted to hasten the death of a potential organ donor, 25-year-old Ruben Navarro. In the San Luis Obispo trial, County prosecutor Karen Gray has yet to reveal the names of transplants – organ/donor expert witnesses she plans to call who are coming from out of town. Roozrokh’s attorney, M. Gerald Schwartzbach, threatened to ask for delays throughout the preliminary hearing because he says that without an expert witness list, he hasn’t been able to prepare the defense’s case. A delay would cause scheduling problems for Gray and Superior Court Judge Martin Tangeman, who both have other criminal and civil court proceedings on the calendar. San Luis Obispo.com also writes:

A visibly frustrated Tangeman said no one should assume anything about how the preliminary hearing will proceed. He told Gray that not knowing the witnesses’ names and tentative timeline for the prosecution case has become “horribly problematic.”

Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson told a federal judge in Tulsa that the poultry industry has “infested” waterways in northeastern Oklahoma with pollution that is a risk to the public’s health. The state is seeking an injunction from Federal Judge Gregory K. Frizzell barring the spread of poultry litter in the million-acres Illinois River watershed that stretches from northwest Arkansas through northeast Oklahoma.

According to NewOK.com, opening statements in the hearing were delayed as attorneys wrangled over three motions that involved the expected testimony of pollution expert witnesses and the state’s request to eliminate some data prepared by one of its witnesses. Edmondson outlined the state’s case and the list of expert witnesses it expects to call over the three days that Judge Frizzell has given it to make its case. Next will come the poultry industry defense.

Mark Jensen, 48, of Pleasant Prairie, WI, is accused of poisoning and suffocating his wife Julie Jensen, 40. Dr. Barry Rumack, a medical toxicologist and former director of the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center in Denver, testified as a poison expert witness that he read many of the prosecution experts’ reports and believes Julie Jensen committed suicide. Pathology expert witness John Scott Denton backed up Rumack’s testimony. Denton has handled dozens of ethylene glycol deaths.

The prosecution called computer expert witness Martin Koch. Koch showed the Internet history on the Jensen’s computer, which included a number pornagraphic Web sites which had been deleted by the user days before Julie Jensen died.

Chico State students Chris Bizot and Mike Murphy and Butte College student Matthew Krupp face charges for hazing pledges in 2007. All three belonged to Beta Theta Pi, a fraternity that lost university and international recognition after the police were contacted about hazing activities. Bizot’s lawyer, Bill Mayo has requested the names of medical expert witnesses used in the prosecution’s argument saying he wants time to bring in his own expert witnesses to argue for the defense. OrionOnline.com also reports:

Krupp, Murphy and Bizot allegedly forced pledges to submerge themselves to their necks in a bathtub filled with ice water, locked them in a stairwell closet, threw beer and “other disgusting things” at them and forced them to run through mud and do calisthenics, District Attorney Mike Ramsey said….Although these activities may be humiliating, there was no risk of serious bodily injury and they can’t be considered hazing under the current definition, Mayo said…”It’s a new case, it’s a new law and these guys are really trying to stretch it and make the shoe fit,” Mayo said.

Vermont prosecutors say they need more time to find an expert witness to testify against a Colchester orthopedic surgeon charged with performing improper examinations on nine young female patients. According to WPTZ.com:

Joseph Abate, head of sports medicine at Fletcher Allen Health Care’s orthopedic and rehabilitation department, is facing 14 felony charges from aggravated sexual assault to lewd and lascivious conduct. Assistant Attorney General Cindy Maguire said the surgery expert witness the state had lined up to question Abate’s examinations now could not testify. Abate’s lawyer, Eric Miller, who has called the charges a “tragic mistake,” said the state’s case is falling apart.

Despite his objections, the judge on Monday gave state prosecutors 60 days to find replacement expert witnesses.