Expert Witness Blog

Former Qwest (NYSE: Q) CEO Joe Nacchio, now residing in a Pennsylvania prison camp, has received the news that the US Supreme Court may be considering a review of his conviction on insider-trading charges…The high court has requested the entire record from Nacchio’s earlier trials and appeals — a move his attorneys said signaled that the court could be leaning toward a formal review of his case.

Nacchio’s appeal is primarily based on two issues. First, he complained that the trial judge in a Denver Federal District Court improperly kept a securities expert witness from testifying on Nacchio’s behalf on matters involving the National Security Agency. Second, Nacchio is contesting insider trading charges leveled against him that involved predictions of future financial results. Nacchio is the last of the 1990s telecommunications executives to be indicted on illegal insider trading charges. He was sentenced to six years in prison earlier this year.

Excerpted from InformationWeek.com.

In Challenges in Recovering Deleted Email, electronic discovery expert witness Steve Burgess writes:

There are three main types of email in common usage – Microsoft Outlook (often paired with a Microsoft Exchange Server), text-based email client programs, and web-based email, or webmail.

In Microsoft Outlook, all emails are kept in one large, encrypted, non-text file – the PST, or Personal Folders file. Outlook has additional functions and additional content as well. There is an integrated address book, multiple mailboxes, a calendar, and a scheduler, all of which are contained in the PST file. When one looks into a PST file with a file editor or word processing application, there is little or nothing intelligible to the human eye. The file content looks like nearly random characters.

Trust and estates expert witness Mina N. Sirkin says it is likely that the nomination of guardian by Michael Jackson relating to the two children he had with his ex-wife, Debbie Rowe may fail because the court did not make the special findings necessary to terminate her paternal rights. Therefore, under California law, Rowe as the mother of those two children will have priority over any nominated “guardian of the person” by Michael Jackson. However, Debbie can’t expect the same results when it comes to guardianship of the estate of the minors. FoxBusinessNews.com reports:

The Jackson case is a perfect example of when guardianship nominations can go bad. Parents who name guardians of the person who were married to the parent of the minors can’t expect their intended results, unless the other parent has actually consented to the nomination in writing in California….

Any and all of Jackson’s life insurances are at risk at this point, even if he created irrevocable life insurance trusts for his minor kids naming those children as beneficiaries. Sirkin continues to say that large policies are subject to many exclusions and the facts of death of Jackson, along with the coroner’s findings, will greatly impact whether those insurance will be paid.

Investigators in Michael Jackson’s sudden death have turned their focus towards the prescription drugs that the pop legend had been taking and a mysterious doctor who was with him when he went into cardiac arrest. Detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Unit reportedly were seeking to question a doctor who was in the late entertainer’s Holmby Hills’ mansion Thursday, when his heart stopped.

Dr. Conrad Murray, a cardiologist with offices in Las Vegas and Houston, was identified by a Jackson advisor as the 50-year-old singer’s personal medical expert for three years. Murray was hired by organizers to assure Jacko’s health during the comeback concert series that had been planned for next month at the O2 arena in London. Murray reportedly witnessed Jackson’s collapse and went off radar shortly after Jackson was pronounced dead.

A spokesman for the LAPD said that investigators had spoken to Murray briefly Thursday but they intended to speak to him again. It is reported that Murray was performing CPR when paramedics arrived at Jackson’s house Thursday.

Forensic engineering expert witness Andrew Yarmus writes that on May 12, 2009, the Epoch Times reported that newly announced NYC legislation will enhance safety protocols, oversight, and inter-agency communication at construction, demolition, and abatement site across the city. The new legislation incorporates 33 recommendations to enhance standpipe and sprinkler safety, improve inter-agency communication, increase safety at construction and demolition sites, regulate oversight, and improve safety of asbestos abatement. From TheEpochTimes.com:

The new legislation includes 11 bills that include the following measures:

• Implementation of the uniform color coding of standpipe and sprinkler systems for ease of identification in case of emergency;

Army Corps of Engineers officials said Tuesday that water is flowing through the 48-year-old Howard Hanson Dam’s right abutment “very fast” and may mean the earth-and-rock structure could erode if too much water is stored behind the dam. By November the Corps will install a “grout curtain” to reduce seepage and will drill more vertical and horizontal drains 32 miles upstream from Auburn, WA, at a cost of over $20 million.

Planning will then begin on a permanent solution, which is likely several years away. Hydrology and dam safety experts from around the country are advising the Corps on those interim measures and possible long-term solutions. The speed at which water is seeping through a flank of the Howard Hanson Dam has, by one key measure, increased since January, and the people who operate the dam don’t know why.

Excerpted from TheSeattleTimes.com.