Expert Witness Blog
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.