Articles Posted in Expert Witness Testimony

Alcohol, Drug & DUI Testing expert witnesses can save clients in a DWI case and they would not have easy access to these expert witnesses without the criminal defense attorney. If the client chooses a public defender, they will not get the best possible defense. American Chronicle.com writes on the advantages of hiring an experienced criminal lawyer.

Public defenders, no matter how experienced they are, are only Jack of all trades. It means they handle all sorts of cases and not specific ones that need to specialized skills. They do not have specialization in handling DWI cases… You would want the best possible defense for your case, and this is possible only if you hire a specialized DWI legal professional…When you hire a DWI legal representative, you get an opportunity to take advantage of their specialized knowledge of the various aspects associated with DWI cases. They know the in and out of the DWI laws and they can easily use the same to handle your specific case in the most efficient

Maryland’s highest court is deciding whether a consumer suing a car company under the federal lemon law needs an expert witness to testify about a defect in the car. Mary Crickenberger, represented by Kimmel & Silverman, says she had numerous electrical problems with her Hyundai in the three years after she bought it, with the car sputtering to a stop one day. Hyundai filed a motion to exclude Kimmel & Silverman’s automotive expert witness. Kimmel & Silverman withdrew the expert but did not substitute another. The Maryland Daily Record also reports:

The defendant, Hyundai Motor America, wants the court to hold that not only did Kimmel & Silverman need an expert in plaintiff Mary S. Crickenberger’s case, but that the firm must show a defect in Crickenberger’s case and all of the firm’s other cases…

A group called the Product Liability Advisory Council Inc., which represents manufacturers, filed an amicus curiae brief in the case, arguing that permitting Kimmel & Silverman to pursue lemon-law cases without requiring expert testimony will drastically alter the landscape of product-liability law.

Gary Dodds, a former New Hampshire congressional candidate, is accused of faking his disappearance after a car crash in April 2006 in a plot to attract attention to his campaign. Dodds claims he wandered away dazed from the car accident with a head injury, crossed a river and collapsed but Murray Hamlet, a phycial medicine and rehabilitation expert witness who specializes in cold weather injuries testified that the damage to Gary Dodds’ feet was far more severe than what he would have suffered from crossing a river and spending the night outdoors.

Expert witness Murray Hamlet, a veterinarian and retired Army officer who spent decades studying cold weather injuries and training military and medical personnel on the subject said that based on Dodds’ medical records and reports from those who examined him, Dodds’ foot injuries were more serious than what one would expect given the scenario he described. Boston.com also reports that “Dodds faces up to seven years in prison if convicted of falsifying evidence, creating false public alarm and leaving the scene of the crash. He continued campaigning after the crash but came in third in the four-way Democratic primary.”

Former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman are charged with passing classified information. The government has hired three expert witnesses to show that the former lobbyists broke the law and exposed America to a national security threat. The first terroism expert witness is Dale Watson, who headed the FBI’s counter-terrorism operation until 2002, was in charge of investigating early Al Qaeda attacks against the United States in Saudi Arabia, as well as the bombing of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the assault on the USS Cole in Yemen. Forward.com also writes:

While details of what Watson will be asked to testify about were kept under seal, sources following the case said that he will be asked about the importance of the information given to Rosen and Weissman in terms of fighting the war against terror.

Another expert witness who will be called by the prosecution is William McNair, the former information review officer for the CIA’s directorate of operations. McNair, who retired in 2003, was the CIA’s lead official in dealing with issues regarding the release of classified information. He appeared many times in court, opposing requests based on the Freedom of Information Act. According to press reports, McNair was one of only a few officials within the agency who had access to all classified documents.

Dr. Joseph Maytal, expert witness and specialist at Schneider Children’s Hospital on Long Island, testified Friday that an infant boy taken away from his parents amid allegations that he was shaken was not the victim of child abuse. “I think that we have enough here to at least doubt that there is child abuse,” said the pediatrics expert witness. Dr. Maytal testified in St. George Family Court during the trial to determine whether Qundeel Sajjad and her husband, Sohail Sajjad, can regain custody of their two young boys from the city Administration for Children’s Services. silive.com also reports:

Mrs. Sajjad, 31, was the first Islander to be accused under Cynthia’s Law when prosecutors alleged that she violently shook her 7-month-old and caused him to be hospitalized with internal bleeding on the brain in December 2006. The mother of two and her husband claimed the infant fell 3 feet from a baby swing onto a hard kitchen floor….

Dr. Maytal, who reviewed the child’s hospital and follow-up medical records, said the baby suffered from “external hydrocephalus,” a condition that can cause bleeding on the brain in infants. “It means the child is susceptible to bleeding,” Dr. Maytal said. ‘Infants with external hydrocephalus] don’t need to have a major trauma to have a subdural hematoma,’ Dr. Maytal explained, noting that the baby’s condition could have been the result of genetics rather than a violent shaking.

Ed Poindexter, former head of Omaha’s Black Panther chapter, is appealing his conviction for the 1970 bombing murder of Omaha Policeman Larry Minard. The Neraska Supreme Court will examine two key points that emerged from testimony in May 2007 in Douglas County District Court. Michael Richardson of OpEdNews.com writes:

Poindexter and his co-defendant, Mondo we Langa (formerly David Rice), who both maintain their innocence, were convicted largely on the brokered testimony of 15 year-old Duane Peak, the confessed bomber, and dynamite allegedly found in Langa’s basement. Peak implicated Poindexter and Langa in exchange for a lenient sentence as a juvenile instead of facing the electric chair. Contradictory police testimony about the dynamite and expert witness testimony that Peak did not make the emergency call that lured Minard to his death have opened a huge breach in the prosecution case against the Panther leader.

Langa raised the issue of the voice on the tape in a 1983 appeal to the Nebraska Supreme Court. At that time, the Court noted there had been no “expert in voice analysis” examination of the tape and thus, “there is insufficient evidence to support the claim that Duane Peak did not make the call.” However, in May 2007 Judge Bowie did hear expert witness testimony about the voice on the tape. Voice analyst Tom Owen testified that in his opinion the voice was not that of Peak thus undermining the credibility of the state’s chief witness.

Bill Muzzy’s testimony is crucial in the civil trial against TRW Vehicle Safety Systems, the company that manufactures seatbelts for General Motors. The seat belt and air bags expert witness was cross examined for five hours in the 146th District Court in Killeen Texas. Muzzy maintains that a design flaw in a seatbelt led to the death of Jenny Singley. kdhnews.com also reports that the expert witness’s credentials include his role as investigator of the restraint system in the fatal Dale Earnhardt crash and 5,500 experiments on human volunteers for the Navy and Air Force during the Cold War, which involved testing human tolerance to acceleration. “We have all the evidence in total to show the seatbelt didn’t operate correctly,” Muzzy said. “This is the most likely scenario.”

Jonathan Evans and his co-counsel, Michael Edmiston, won in back-to-back arbitration hearings before Los Angeles based Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panels. In both cases, the conduct of the brokers and their firms was so shocking that both arbitration panels awarded attorney’s fees and securities expert witness fees along with sizable compensatory damages. Street Insider.com also reports that in the second hearing:

Evans represented a single-mother of two whose broker, Shapour Javadizadeh, of RJJ Pasadena Securities caused massive trading losses in her account with a high-risk option trading strategy. His client inherited the account from her father in 2002 and was using the money to pay her living expenses while rebuilding her life. In a hard-fought week of hearings, which saw numerous “attorney-only” conferences with the Arbitration Panel, including one which resulted in sanctions against the Respondents for their shenanigans in withholding documents, Evans prevailed for his client. The Panel awarded $151,000 in compensatory damages, attorney’s fees, expert witness fees, and sanctions.

“During my cross-examination of the broker, I was amazed when he literally stood up before the Panel and admitted he did everything complained about in the Claim. It was a moment out of a courtroom drama, and his admission won the case for us,” said Evans, reflecting back on the hearing. The FINRA case number is 06-04288 and the award may be found at http://www.finra.org.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and chief of staff Christine Beatty were both charged with perjury after they lied under oath about a possible affair between them from 2001 to 2003. M.L. Elrick and David Ashenfelter of FreePress.com write:

The false testimony potentially exposes them to felony perjury charges, legal experts say. Kilpatrick, a lawyer, could also face discipline if the state Attorney Discipline Board finds he lied in court. The Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct, which govern attorneys, say even nonpracticing lawyers in public office can be sanctioned for dishonesty. “Lawyers holding public office assume legal responsibilities going beyond those of other citizens,” the code states.

Lying under oath is one of the worst sins a lawyer can commit — akin to stealing a client’s money, legal ethics expert witnesses said…”It’s literally the equivalent of the death penalty for a law license,” said Michael Schwartz, former administrator of the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission, which investigates lawyers.

Jonathan Evans and his co-counsel, Michael Edmiston, won in back-to-back arbitration hearings before Los Angeles based Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panels. In both cases, the conduct of the brokers and their firms was so shocking that both arbitration panels awarded attorney’s fees and securities expert witness fees along with sizable compensatory damages. Street Insider.com also reports that in the first hearing:

…Evans represented a senior citizen and his wife against A.G. Edwards and its broker, Anthony Russo. Mr. Russo, a broker who had a prior history of discipline including both a termination from a firm and a regulatory suspension for recommending unsuitable securities, positioned much of his client’s retirement funds in high-risk equities just months before the technology bubble imploded. Despite calls from his clients, Mr. Russo did absolutely nothing to mitigate the devastating losses; rather he simply abandoned his clients to one of the worst bear markets in history…

On behalf of his clients, Evans recovered $84,000 in compensatory damages, $33,600 in attorney’s fees, and $13,000 expert witness fees. Anthony Russo, despite his checkered history, and now this arbitration award, is the branch manager of the A.G. Edwards office in Oxnard, California. The FINRA case number is 05-05647 and the award may be found at http://www.finra.org.