"SAM BARDWELL, A FORMER PROSECUTOR IN BREVARD IN THE 1980S WHO USED PRESTON AS A WITNESS IN A RAPE CASE, CLAIMS THAT "EVERYONE" KNEW THAT PRESTON WAS A "TOTAL FRAUD". KAREN BRANDON, WHO WORKED IN THE SAME OFFICE AT THE SAME TIME, DENIED THAT ANYONE KNEW THIS."
WIKIPEDIA;
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Background: Bill Dillon, was 22 when he was sentenced to life in prison in 1981, for killing a man in Canova Beach on the eastern coast of the state. During the trial, Dillon was adamant that he had not committed the crime. But a man named John Preston testified in court that he and his scent-tracking German-Shepherd connected Dillon to the killer’s bloody t-shirt. Preston, who billed himself as a "scent-tracking expert", said his dog, “Harrass 2,” even tracked Dillon’s scent repeatedly in later tests. Nearly three decades later, in 2007, DNA testing proved that Dillon’s DNA did not match the DNA on the killer’s shirt. The dog was wrong. Just eight months ago, after 26 years behind bars, Bill Dillon walked out of prison a free man. Preston was exposed by a Florida judge in 1984, who became suspicious of Preston and set up his own test for Harrass 2. The dog failed terribly. CNN unearthed documents which demonstrated that Harrass 2 could not even follow a scent for one-hundred feet. The judge determined the dog could only track successfully when his handler had advance knowledge of the case. Preston and his four-legged so-called expert were discredited in 1987 - but according to CNN, "the state of Florida never reviewed cases on which he’d testified . And nobody ever told Bill Dillon – who sat in prison another 20 years before he ever knew a thing about it. It wasn’t until 2006 that he heard Preston was a fake." The Dillon case is now attracting massive media attention in response to the Florida’s Innocence Project's well publicized concerns that dozens of inmates around the country may have been wrongly convicted as a result of John Preston and his dog. The focus now shifts to Florida's response to the Innocence Project's call for an investigation of those cases. Meanwhile, CNN informs us that Preston, the dog’s handler, died last year. He was never charged with perjury or convicted of a crime."
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"John Preston (? - 2008)[1] was a dog handler and former state trooper from Pennsylvania who testified for the prosecution in criminal cases across the country in the early 1980s, including dozens of times in Florida," the Wikipedia account begins;
Preston claimed that his dog (Harass II) could perform feats of forensic detection that are beyond the abilities of other investigative dogs, smelling human traces sometimes years after a suspect walked over the ground, even on heavily trafficked streets," it continues;
As an expert, Preston was paid $300 per day; in his previous job as a Pennsylvania state trooper, he was paid $20,000 per year. Brevard county, Florida, paid Preston $37,429 in the first half of 1984 alone.
Preston's testimony was repudiated by the Kings County District Attorney in New York and the Arizona Supreme Court, who called him a "charlatan". A U.S. Postal Service investigation in 1983 claimed Preston led Harass II to the results requested by investigators, which Preston requested before using the dog.
When tested by Judge Gilbert Goshorn during a 1984 trial in Brevard, Florida, Harass II failed to track a scent much simpler and fresher than those it supposedly tracked in other cases. Goshorn offered Preston another chance at the test the next day, but Preston left town instead. He did not return to Brevard to testify again.
Sam Bardwell, a former prosecutor in Brevard in the 1980s who used Preston as a witness in a rape case, claims that "everyone" knew that Preston was a "total fraud". Karen Brandon, who worked in the same office at the same time, denied that anyone knew this.
Effect and fallout
Preston helped convict at least two men who were eventually freed by DNA evidence.
Each spent more than twenty years in prison.
Gorshon, the judge whose test Preston and his dog failed, claimed in a 2008 affidavit:
It is my belief that the only way Preston could achieve the results he achieved in numerous other cases was having obtained information about the case prior to the scent tracking so that Preston could lead the dog to the suspect or evidence in question. I believe that Preston was regularly retained to confirm the state's preconceived notions about a case.
The Innocence Project of Florida believes that as many as 60 people may have been convicted based partially or solely upon Preston's testimony. Florida Today found 15 cases in which Preston testified. The Brevard/Seminole State Attorney claimed that it would not be possible to discover which cases Preston testified in. Later, he announced that he would "re-review" those cases, but that the cases had already been reviewed.
This Wikipedia account can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Preston_(dog_handler)
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
