Articles Posted in Expert Witness Testimony

In Get the Most From Engineering Experts, Christopher L. Brinkley writes on how thorough preparation of engineering expert witnesses is the key to winning your case. In this excerpt Brinkley discusses the reliability of the expert witness’s work.

You also must prepare engineering experts to address the jurisdiction’s substantive law with respect to the existence of a defect. These standards vary widely from state to state. For example, in West Virginia, a product is defective if it is not reasonably safe for its intended use, giving the general state of the art at the time the product was made. But in Georgia, a defect is evaluted by balancing the risk inherent in the product against its utility, taking into consideration a wide range of factors.

More to follow…Excerpted from Trial Magazine, November 2007

In Get the Most From Engineering Experts, Christopher L. Brinkley writes on how thorough preparation of engineering expert witnesses is the key to winning your case. In this excerpt Brinkley discusses the reliability of the expert witness’s work.

One other aspect of the reliability analysis that frequently arises relates to the concept of engineering judgment. Engineers routinely draw conclusions from their understanding to general principles of engineering and prior experience in similar circumstances. For example, extrapolation through engineering judgment is employed by manufacturers to reduce the inefficiency and economic burdens associated with testing every conceivable permutation of a design. Where the basis for an expert’s application of engineering judgment has been well articulated, it is considered an acceptable methodology.

More to follow…Excerpted from Trial Magazine, November 2007

One of the four handwriting expert witnesses used to examine the authenticity of documents relating to President Bush’s service with the Air National Guard has surfaced in the Javier Cortez weapons trial. U.S. attorneys filed a motion in the Eastern District of Texas to compel Cortez to provide prosecutors with “acceptable handwriting samples.” Cortez’s attorney, Don Bailey of Sherman, said there were “known problems” with Linda James, the document examination expert witness who tested the signature on the ATF form that Cortez allegedly forged to buy a weapon used in the Truett Street murders in McKinney. Danny Gallagher of the McKinney Courier Gazette also reports:

Cortez faces four federal charges which include two counts of possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance and one count of making a false statement to a licensed firearms dealer for allegedly forging his brother Raul Cortez’s name on an ATF form.

The Cortez brothers and Eddie Williams were arrested in July 2007 in connection with the March 12, 2004, murders of Rosa Barbosa, Mark Barbosa, Austin York and Matthew Self at Rosa Barbosa’s home on Truett Street.

Lisa Greene, 42, of Midland, NC, could face the death penalty for the death of her two children, Daniel Macemore, 10, and Addison Macemore, 8, in a January 2006 mobile home fire. Greene claims that a candle overturned in her child’s room but Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Special Agent Van Tuley, the prosecution’s fire expert witness, testified that burn patterns and tests taken from Lisa Greene’s home disprove her explanation of the fire. Prosecution witnesses told of a mother who didn’t care about her children and wanted out of the responsibility of parenthood. Josh Lanier of IndependentTribune.com also reports that John Lentini, the defense attorneys’ arson expert witness will take the stand Monday.

Five years ago Rohm & Haas, a chemical company in Montgomery County, PA, alerted employees about a mysterious series of brain cancers. Now Rohm & Haas says its latest study has turned up no problems. But an epidemiology expert witness from Columbia University has concluded that even 12 brain cancer deaths at the Spring House research center “significantly exceeds the expected number.” The expected number is 3.45 cases per 100,000 people, expert witness Richard Neugebauer wrote in his analysis. Philly.com also reports:

He estimated that brain cancer deaths among Spring House workers were at least three times more than expected, and possibly eight times more, depending on the size of the work force.

“Their own panel is saying ‘We don’t think you got all the deaths; something doesn’t look right,’ ” Freiwald said, referring to the critique by the three outside experts. “Epidemiology is a science where it’s very easy to turn it into a shell game.”

UMass Dartmouth Professor Brian Glyn Williams was called as a law and legal expert witness in the judicial proceedings to determine the legal status of Osama bin Laden’s driver, Salim Hamdan. Hamdan is being held as an “alien unlawful enemy combatant,” which denies him Geneva Convention rights as prisoner of war. Glyn’s role as an expert witness was to shed light on the military command structure of the Taliban and Al Qaida armies. SouthCoastToday.com also reports:

…Capt. Allred denied Mr. Hamdan’s appeal, in essence ruling that he was neither a member of a full-fledged army such as Dr. Williams described on the stand nor a low-level employee somewhere in the rear.

“In addition, these rulings will not only now provide a basis for Hamdan to appeal any future conviction by the commission, but may also have provided a windfall for other detainees (there are 330 at Guantanamo, in Dr. Williams’ estimate).

UMass Dartmouth Professor Brian Glyn Williams was called as a law and legal expert witness in the judicial proceedings to determine the legal status of Osama bin Laden’s driver, Salim Hamdan. Hamdan is being held as an “alien unlawful enemy combatant,” which denies him Geneva Convention rights as prisoner of war. Glyn’s role as an expert witness was to shed light on the military command structure of the Taliban and Al Qaida armies. SouthCoastToday.com also reports:

The bottom line for him (Williams) is that the Taliban and Al Qaida forces, far from being a loose collection of terrorists, was and is a trained fighting force with old but serviceable weapons, with insignias, uniforms and a command structure. In short, the kinds of things that would qualify it as an army for the purposes of the Geneva Conventions. It was not just conjecture on his part; Dr. Williams has traveled repeatedly to Afghanistan and other parts of the region, and has interviewed captured Al Qaida and Taliban fighters to learn about their command structure, among other things.

Mr. Hamdan, in his view, was far from full-fledged Al Qaida but rather a low-level recruit from Yemen without the education or wealthy background to rise into the elite ranks of those such as Osama bin Laden who masterminded the 911 attacks. If anything, he was part of the army that fought off the Soviets in Afghanistan and has now turned to fighting the U.S. and its allies.

UMass Dartmouth Professor Brian Glyn Williams has been called as a law and legal expert witness in the judicial proceedings to determine the legal status of Osama bin Laden’s driver, Salim Hamdan. Hamdan is being held as an “alien unlawful enemy combatant,” which denies him Geneva Convention rights as prisoner of war. Glyn’s role is to shed light on the military command structure of the Taliban and Al Qaida armies. “As an expert witness I was supposed to be above the fray, to shed some light and personal professional knowledge” into an area that he says is routinely oversimplified, he said. SouthCoastToday.com also reports:

Most people in government and the military, he said, “discovered this zone after 911. Their view is shaped by images of people falling out of buildings on 911,” he said. As a result they have a “reductionist approach” in which every Arab, every person connected with Al Qaida or the Taliban army is considered a terrorist. “If you were caught, you had something to do with 911,” he said.

Excerpted from UMD professor testifies as expert witness at trial of bin Laden’s driver, Steve Urbon, Standard-Times senior correspondent, December 30, 2007.

Law and legal expert witness Stephen Saltzburg told the House Judiciary Committee Thursday that the CIA’s official explanation for destroying at least two videotapes depicting severe interrogation techniques “fails the straight-face test.” Expert witness Saltzburg is general counsel for the National Institute of Military Justice and a George Washington University Law School professor. RawStory.com also writes:

‘The rationale for destroying the tapes to protect the identity of the interrogators is almost as embarrassing as the destruction itself,’ said Saltzberg. He said that the tapes could easily have been modified to obscure the faces of those involved, and that regardless, the CIA keeps a written record of which officers interrogated detainees.

‘And so the explanation for destruction fails the straight-face test,’ he said. “The only plausible explanation, I believe, is that the CIA wanted to assure that those tapes would never be seen by any judicial tribunal — not even a military commission — and they would never be seen by a committee of Congress.’

Crookston, MN Police Officer Donald Rasicot was found not guilty Wednesday of misconduct and assault during a 2006 arrest of a drunken man. The man’s injuries were not consistent with a kick to the head, according to police procedures expert witness, Joe Dutton, a 30-year veteran of the Golden Valley Police Department who has trained thousands of law enforcement officers, including FBI agents, on proper use of force. He was the final expert witness and said Rasicot used appropriate force and that he would have done the same in similar circumstances. GrandForksHerald.com reports the:

Former Marine and veteran police officer who has been in trouble once before over his use of force, Rasicot faced possible time behind bars. He was charged early this year with two counts of misconduct by a public officer, both gross misdemeanors, and a count of fifth-degree assault, a misdemeanor. The first two counts each carried a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $3,000 fine. The charges came from allegations made by Jason Knutson, 24, Crookston, after Rasicot arrested him in August of last year.