"How can people like Smith, Morrison and Carter fool eminent lawyers and judges year after year? Shouldn't it be remarkably simple to ferret out these rogue expert witnesses?
How about this for starters: Any lawyer who retains an expert witness must check the credentials of the witness. Failure to do so should be considered professional negligence.
Too difficult and time consuming? Rubbish. In many cases, one call to a governing body would suffice."
ALAN SHANOFF: SUN MEDIA: (Alan Shanoff was counsel to Sun Media Corp. for 16 years. He is currently a freelance writer for Sun Media and teaches media law at Humber College.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background: The inquiry focused largely on the flawed work of Dr. Smith — formerly the province's chief pediatric pathologist — whose errors led to innocent people being branded as child murderers.
The 1,000-page report by Justice Stephen Goudge slammed Dr. Smith, along with Ontario's former chief coroner and his deputy, for their roles in wrongful prosecutions and asked the province to consider compensation.
The provincial coroner's office found evidence of errors in 20 of 45 autopsies Dr. Smith did over a 10-year period starting in the early 1990s. Thirteen resulted in criminal charges.
William Mullins-Johnson, who was among those cases, spent 12 years in prison for the rape and murder of his four-year-old niece, whose death was later attributed to natural causes.
In another case, Dr. Smith concluded a mother had stabbed her seven-year-old girl to death when it turned out to have been a dog mauling.
The inquiry heard that Dr. Smith's failings included hanging on to crucial evidence, chronic tardiness, and the catastrophic misinterpretation of findings.
The cases, along with other heart-rending stories of wrongful prosecutions based in part on Smith's testimony, also raised a host of issues about the pathology system and the reliance of the courts on expert evidence."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"We seem to be living in an era of proliferating rogue expert witnesses," Alan Shanoff's powerful Sun Media column, published earlier today under the heading, "flushing out bogus experts not rocket science," begins.
"Dr. Charles Smith was the subject of a highly publicized 2008 public inquiry report which found he made questionable conclusions of foul play in 20 pediatric autopsies that led to the wrongful prosecutions of several parents and caregivers," the column continues.
"The inquiry found he "actively misled" his superiors, made "false and misleading statements in court" and exaggerated his own expertise.
Smith never trained as a forensic pathologist, nor was he ever certified as such, yet he testified as an expert in that field on dozens of occasions in criminal trials, leaving an epidemic of miscarriages of justice in his wake.
We may never know how many innocent people were wrongly convicted of murder or manslaughter due to Smith's testimony.
Gregory Carter, of Whitby, Ont., held himself out as a doctor of psychology in numerous family court hearings.
He referred to himself as a doctor even though his registration with the College of Psychologists, as a psychological associate, didn't allow the designation. His PhD came from a university recognized as a diploma mill.
His so-called expert evidence was relied on by judges in making custody rulings.
He is facing fraud and perjury charges. Carter pleaded guilty to professional misconduct two months ago for referring to himself as a doctor and providing diagnosis without supervision. He was suspended for three months by the College.
English authorities are still grappling with the Gene Morrison debacle.
Morrison posed as a forensic scientist for more than 20 years, providing expert opinions in about 700 cases.
Morrison had no education or training in his purported areas of expertise.
His professed BSc in forensic psychology, an MSc in forensic investigation, and a PhD in criminology were bogus, downloaded from a website upon payment of a fee.
Morrison was nothing more than a con artist who referred to himself as Dr. Gene A. Morrison, director of the Criminal and Forensics investigations Bureau.
Morrison received a five-year sentence for fraud in 2007.
Aubrey Levin, an Alberta psychiatrist, currently faces 21 sex assault charges involving patients. Levin is alleged to have assaulted the patients during court-ordered psychiatric and counselling sessions.
While there's no suggestion he wasn't qualified to provide expert evidence, his testimony in 38 criminal cases is under review for obvious reasons.
How can people like Smith, Morrison and Carter fool eminent lawyers and judges year after year? Shouldn't it be remarkably simple to ferret out these rogue expert witnesses?
How about this for starters: Any lawyer who retains an expert witness must check the credentials of the witness. Failure to do so should be considered professional negligence.
Too difficult and time consuming? Rubbish. In many cases, one call to a governing body would suffice.
Governing bodies can also assist by making their records available via the Internet.
Expert testimony often forms the basis of court rulings. That's why we need experts to testify and provide opinions on a diverse range of topics in virtually every field of law.
Our legal system could not function without expert witnesses. But that need for expert witnesses opens up an opportunity for rogues and that opens the door to potential miscarriages of justice.
Shame on all the lawyers and judges who have been fooled by rogue experts."
The column can be found at:
http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2702311
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be accessed at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-feature-cases-issues-and.html
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
