Expert Witness Blog

Marshal Denhoff, a confined-space expert witness, testified this week that the small water-sampling shed where four people suffocated and tumbled into a mine shaft should have been clearly marked as a confined space. Denhoff said the shed at the Sullivan Mine in southeastern B.C. requires a sign under WorkSafeBC regulations. According to the Vancouver Sun,

Water sampler Doug Erickson, Teck Cominco worker Bob Newcombe and paramedics Shawn Currier and Kim Weitzel died between May 15 and 17, 2006, when they suffocated in the shed. Expert witness Denhoff said “It does take some expertise to recognize a confined space.” He also said confined spaces should be monitored continuously for changes in atmosphere and everyone entering a confined space should have a monitor. Denhoff had several recommendations he hoped the jury would consider, one being that mine regulations need to match WorkSafe BC standards. Mine safety regulations do not require a sign. A five-person jury has been listening to testimony this week and will be able to make recommendations on how a similar tragedy could be avoided.

Celebrity Nicole Richie is fighting a DUI charge from last December and requested a extension until August so that her expert witness can appear. Her lawyers say that drug expert witness Dr. Terence Sean McGee is crucial to the case because he will be able to “challenge the prosecution’s scientific evidence and the conclusions reached by the drug recognition expert.” Richie was arrested on December 11 after she headed the wrong way on a freeway in Burbank. She failed a sobriety test and admitted to having smoked marijuana and taken a prescription painkiller. The next stage of the case will be a trial unless Richie takes a plea deal reports CelebrityCafe.com.

Years before he allegedly shot actress Lana Clarkson, Phil Spector angrily declared that women “all deserve a bullet in their heads,” a former security guard testified Monday. Spector had been escorted out of Christmas parties at Joan Rivers’ New York home two years in a row in the 1990s after ranting about shooting women. Another setback in Spector’s defense is the uncertainity that forensic science expert witness Henry Lee will appear as an expert. As reported in LATimes.com:

The defense is counting on Lee to convince jurors that bloodstains on Spector’s clothing show that he was standing too far from Clarkson to have pulled the trigger. But Lee was rattled earlier in the trial when Fidler ruled that the scientist had hidden a piece of evidence from prosecutors. Lee told the Connecticut newspaper in a June 27 article, “My findings [are] not that important at all. Nine to 10 other expert witnesses will say the same thing. They don’t really need me.”

Buena Park, CA’s $5 million settlement with the family of a man shot by a police officer is one of the largest in Orange County history. Experts say it shows that Buena Park was afraid a jury would award even more. Expert witnesses were prepared to testify that the officer made several “tactical blunders” in confronting the suspect and the attorney for the family said he had evidence that contradicted the police version of the story. OCRegister.com reports:

George Wright, criminal justice chair at Santiago College, said it would have cost far less to defend the case, if city officials thought they had a chance. “I’ve never heard of a settlement that large in an officer-involved shooting,” Wright said….According to court records, veteran gang officer Ron Furtado shot and killed Juan Herrera two days before Christmas in 2004, testifying later that he believed Herrera was leaning over as if to grab a weapon from under his car seat. However, Herrera, 23, was sitting upright, according to testimony from a forensics expert witness hired by Sayre.

San Diego Gas & Electric Co. has proposed a $1.3 billion, 150-mile superhighway of electricity known as Sunrise Powerlink. A month of hearings on the controversial power line began Monday with only expert witnesses taking the stand. The proceedings will study whether there are more affordable alternatives and the California Public Utilities Commission will decide in January whether to permit the project. San Francisco Bay Area electricity expert witness David Marcus will make the case that the power line is not needed. The NCTimes.com reports:

On Aug. 3, the company plans to release a report examining the project’s likely impact on the environment and backcountry communities, said Jennifer Briscoe, a spokeswoman for San Diego Gas & Electric, in a phone interview. That report will trigger another round of commission hearings. “During the first phase (this month), evidence will focus mostly on the question of the need for the proposed new line,” said Terrie Prosper, a commission spokeswoman in San Francisco, by e-mail.

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled Friday that death row inmate Travis Glass deserves a new sentencing hearing because his defense attorney did not call enough expert witnesses. The lower court judge also said Glass’ attorney should have called upon a neuropsychologist, a learning disability expert witness, and a toxicologist. A toxicology expert witness could have testified that Glass was so drunk that he didn’t understand his criminal actions. As reported in the Joplin Globe:

Among the potential witnesses cited by the judge was a doctor who treated Glass for bacterial meningitis in 1981, when Glass was just 23 months old. The Supreme Court majority agreed that the doctor could have provided mitigating evidence about the long-term effects of meningitis and Glass’ impaired mental abilities. Teachers could have explained that Glass had difficulties learning and had been harassed by other students for being overweight…and his probation officers could have spoken of his good behavior and cooperation.

Jurors will have to decide which expert witness to believe in the murder trial of 40-year-old Jeffrey Martinson. Martinson is charged with the first-degree murder of his 5-year-old son. Medical examiner, Dr. John Hu, wrote that the child was murdered and that the boy was poisoned with muscle relaxer. He wrote that asphyxia is also a possibility in the death. The defense has hired Dr. Janet Ophoven, an assistant coroner in rural St. Louis County, Minnesota, who will testify that the cause of death is only Wu’s opinion, and not a scientific fact. Coroner expert witness Ophoven will argue that there is no standard for the lethal dose of the muscle relaxer in a child. Reports the Ahwatukee Foothills News:

Police say that Joshua Eberle-Martinson was discovered dead on the top bunk of a bedroom in his father’s apartment. Martinson was discovered in the nearby master bedroom, unconscious with cuts on his wrists. All around the apartment, police discovered empty prescription bottles, over-the counter medicine, an empty liquor bottle and plastic bags that may have been used to suffocate the child.

In the federal government’s case against terrorism suspect Jose Padilla, Dr. Rohan Gunaratna is the leading expert witness. Author of Inside al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, Gunaratna will explain Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network to jurors. Terrorism expert witness Gunaratna has described how Padilla formed a cell in Florida as part of the global terrorist network. The Miami Herald.com reports that Gunaratna stated the:

…”defendants shared the same goal as bin Laden — to create Islamic states through any means necessary.” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley praised Gunaratna, telling U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, “He’s the leading scholar in this area.”

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Seattle undercover detectives may have violated police department rules on June 21st when they pursued a driver in a high speed chase. The department’s rules state that “unmarked cars shall not participate in pursuits.” Police say that Jesse James Toro II cut off three undercover officers in traffic which resulted in a high speed chase. Prosecutors say Toro then shot the tires out of the officers’ SUV.

Police conduct expert witness D.P. Van Blaricom, a former Bellevue police chief, says there is good reason for the regulation against unmarked cars getting involved in high speed pursuits. The problem of chasing somebody in an unmarked car is that they don’t know who the hell is chasing them,” said Van Blaricom, who frequently testifies as an expert witness regarding police conduct.

Toro’s defense claims the officers chased Toro at speeds of more than 100 miles an hour and broke departmental rules reports the SeattlePI.com http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/.

Pain management expert witness Dr. Forest Tennant testified July 2nd that untreated chronic pain will break down the human body. Tennant heads a pain research clinic and is an expert witness for the defense of Dr. William Mangino, a Pennsylvania doctor being prosecuted for violations of the state’s drug act. Reports the New Castle News, Tennant viewed files of 11 of Mangino’s patients and commented that the guidelines for pain management “were quite well followed.”

Tennant, a founder of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, said the standards are that a doctor has to believe the patient and provide enough relief for the pain without sedating or impairing the patient….”Pain itself is a deadly disease,” Tennant said, noting it can cause detrimental hormone changes in the brain, spinal cord and adrenal glands. “People with acute pain start rusting out from the inside if they don’t get pain relief, and it’s important to treat pain,” he said.