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In USA v. Dean, 221 Fed. Appx. 849; 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 6219, Dean appealed his US Dist Ct, Middle District of Georgia, convictions for armed bank robbery stating that the expert witness in the lower court should not have testified. Dean argued that the district court erred by allowing Dr. Cindy Parker, a board-certified emergency room physician, to testify as an emergency medicine expert witness and give opinions beyond the reasonable limits of her expertise. Dean also objected to Parker’s description of his behavior as “a little bit bizarre” during her examination of him and asserted claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel.

The appellate court ruled that Dean “could not carry his burden on the third prong of the plain error test — an effect on his substantial rights — given that several other government witnesses testified to the fact that Dean was not acting normally.” Under a plain error analysis, an appellant has the burden of persuading the court that: (1) there was an error; (2) the error was plain or obvious; and (3) the error materially prejudiced a substantial right. The higher court affrimed Dean’s convictions.

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Notre Dame’s head football coach Charlie Weis is suing two surgeons he says bungled his care after gastric bypass surgery five years ago. Gastric surgery expert witness Dr. Alan Wittgrove testified that one of the doctors made the wrong decisions when Weis took a turn for the worst after undergoing gastric bypass surgery in 2002.

Expert witness Wittgrove said Dr. Hodin should not have prescribed a blood thinner for Weis. The BostonChannel.com reports: “He should have operated on him to stop the bleeding. And in doing so, he would have repaired the leak that was also there,” Wittgrove said. Weis is expected to take the stand on Wednesday.

In an odd turn of events, the first trial ended in a mistrial in February after a juror collapsed and the physicans being sued rushed to his aid.

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Post traumatic disorder expert witness Maria Mouratidis testified yesterday at Camp Pendleton that brain damage and mental illness may have impaired the judgment of Marine Cpl. Trent Thomas. Thomas is charged with assisting in the kidnapping and execution of a man in Hamdaniya, Iraq, on April 26, 2006. Expert witness Mouratidis, head of the Traumatic Stress and Brain Injury Program at Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland, said Thomas suffers from mild traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from exposure to explosions and other combat factors. Mouratidis testified that the two mental problems might have caused Thomas to take part in the alleged abduction and murder plot. SignOnSanDiego also reports:

“In a situation that is high-pressured, Cpl. Thomas would have found it very difficult to act in any way other than the way his superiors wanted him to,” Mouratidis said. She testified that Thomas told her about withstanding 25 to 30 bomb blasts in Iraq, including four that knocked him out. In addition, psychological tests show that Thomas lacks impulse control and the ability to properly process and assess things going on around him, Mouratidis said.

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St. Louis-based utility company Ameren, the Missouri State Public Counsel, and the Missouri State Attorney General have asked for an appeal of the $43 million annual rate increase awarded to Ameren in May. Utility regulators relied on the testimony of an electrical power and utilities expert witness in calculating the award. The expert witness had recommended a 9.8% rate increase while Ameren had asked for a 10.9% which would translate into a $361 million rate increase for its 1.2 million Missouri electric customers.

Ameren argues that the awarded increase still leaves rates 37% below the national average. As reported on Forbes.com: State Public Counsel Lewis Mills Jr., who represents consumer interests, and Attorney General Jay Nixon, who represents the state, both say Ameren should instead be forced to lower its electricity rates.

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Guy Richard, director of structures for the Quebec Transport Department, denies his department was responsible for the collapse of an overpass that killed five people last September. Richard’s testimony contradicts every independent expert witness who has appeared before the commission to date and raises questions regarding his impartiality. Although Richard appeared as an independent transporation engineering expert witness Friday at the Johnson Commission hearings, he is a senior official at the transport department. He described the shear crack as hidden inside the overpass and that cutting into the overpass to check it would have damaged the structure. As reported in Canada.com:

Patrick Henry, lawyer for the employees of Desjardins Sauriol, the company that built the overpass, said Richard’s credibility is very low because he essentially wears several hats. “He was the boss of the men who did the last two inspections, which have been criticized by a variety of experts,” Henry noted. “He’s testifying for his own cause.” Henry said in an interview he will urge the commission in his pleadings to give very little credibility to Richard’s report.

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Finnish computer voting expert witness Harri Hursti recommended in March that the Riverside, CA, Elections Review Committee drop their electronic voting machines. On July 17, 2007, the Riverside County “Blue Ribbon” Elections Review Committee will present the Board of Supervisors with the same recommentation. Riverside County is the first in the nation to move to touch-screen electronic voting systems. Now the county is being urged to use paper ballots which will be counted by optical scanners. The committee spent thousands of hours going over evidence contained in reports, interviews, and presentations by expert witnesses. As reported in the BradBlog:

The committee’s findings also match the recommendations made by SAVE R VOTE (Secure Accurate Verifiable Elections Require Voter Observation of Touchscreen Equipment) to both the “Blue Ribbon” Elections Review Committee (ERC) and the Board Of Supervisors (BoS) earlier this year.

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The 9th Circuit Appellate Court in Seattle has overturned a Missoula judge’s decision to ban dozens of expert witnesses and nonexperts from testifying in the criminal case against W.R. Grace & Co. Grace is charged with concealing the dangers of asbestos-contaminated vermiculite mined near Libby. The three appellate judges ruled in favor of federal prosecutors who argued that U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy’s decision to exlude asbestos expert witnesses impeded their efforts to bring Grace and seven of its current and former senior executives and managers to trial last September. Missoulian.com also reports:

“I am gratified by today’s decision by the 9th Circuit,” said Montana U.S. Attorney Bill Mercer. “It moves the United States one step closer to the ultimate goal of trying the grand jury’s charge against W.R. Grace and the individual defendants to a jury with a full complement of evidence.” In February 2005, the government obtained a 49-page, 10-count indictment against Grace and its officers, alleging criminal acts spanning 26 years and creating at least 1,200 victims and 230 potential witnesses. Those charges relate to the improper disposal of disease-causing asbestos, which experts say led to hundreds of deaths and sickened thousands more in Libby.

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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.

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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.

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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.”