Friday, September 30, 2016

Melissa Calusinski: Illinois: Bulletin: Major Setback; A judge has denied the caregiver's bid to reverse her conviction for murdering a toddler. Reporter Robert McCoppin........."Judge Daniel Shanes, who oversaw Calusinski's trial five years ago and sentenced her to 31 years in prison, said her lawyers' claims that she didn't get a fair trial "fall apart like a house of cards." He said that nothing that was presented during three days of recent testimony in the case convinced him that new evidence exists or undermined his confidence in the verdict the trial jury reached. "Having lost at trial, much of these claims now amount to Monday-morning quarterbacking," Shanes said."........."Melissa Calusinski's lawyer Kathleen Zellner said after the hearing that the judge "totally missed the point" about the evidence her team presented but said she was "just pleased the judge made so many mistakes in his ruling."........"The case took a turn after the new Lake County coroner, Thomas Rudd, looked at the autopsy evidence and found slides that he said showed an old injury similar to a scab inside the brain. Former Cook County Medical Examiner Nancy Jones was called in as a consultant and agreed that the boy had suffered a prior injury. A software expert testified that the X-ray images became visible only after going back to view the coroner's original images. But prosecutors maintained any old injury was insignificant, and they relied on experts who testified that Benjamin died of a sudden severe injury that day." The Chicago Tribune; (September 30);



PICK OF THE DAY:  Illinois Innocence Project: he Illinois Innocence Project has continued to overturn the wrongful convictions of innocent incarcerated individuals for years.
To honor in a broader sense this injustice, the group based at UIS, will host one of the dozens events taking place across the globe recognizing International Wrongful Conviction Day. The group's event will host a screening of the recently released documentary, "Bloodsworth: An Innocent Man," Tuesday, October 4th from 6-8:00 p.m. in the Student Life Building at  2380 Theodore Dreiser Lane.
The film depicts Kirk Bloodsworth's life in 1985, where he was sentenced to die in a Maryland penitentiary for the brutal rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl. A crime he did not commit. He eventually won his freedom in 1993, making him the first death row inmate exonerated by DNA evidence.

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"Melissa Calusinski's long quest for a new trial in the death of a Deerfield toddler was dealt a major setback Friday, when a Lake County judge rejected a bid to reverse her conviction. Judge Daniel Shanes, who oversaw Calusinski's trial five years ago and sentenced her to 31 years in prison, said her lawyers' claims that she didn't get a fair trial "fall apart like a house of cards." He said that nothing that was presented during three days of recent testimony in the case convinced him that new evidence exists or undermined his confidence in the verdict the trial jury reached. "Having lost at trial, much of these claims now amount to Monday-morning quarterbacking," Shanes said. Calusinski, who turns 30 on Tuesday, sat stoically as the judge announced his ruling in the high-profile case. Outside court, her father Paul Calusinski said he was disappointed in the outcome but not surprised. Attorneys for the Carpentersville family have vowed to press on and have already said they will appeal. "They framed my daughter for a murder she didn't do," Paul Calusinski said after decision. His daughter confessed to the crime, but advocates have long asserted the admission was coerced. Melissa Calusinski's lawyer Kathleen Zellner said after the hearing that the judge "totally missed the point" about the evidence her team presented but said she was "just pleased the judge made so many mistakes in his ruling."........The day he died, Jan. 14, 2009, Benjamin was found unresponsive in his bouncy chair at Minee Subee in the Park day care center in Lincolnshire, with foam and blood coming from his nose. Paramedics tried to revive him but could not, and he was pronounced dead an hour later — before his parents could see him. During a 9-hour interrogation by police, Calusinski, who worked at the day care center and was supervising Benjamin when he fell ill, repeatedly denied harming the boy. But eventually, she confessed to slamming Benjamin's head on the floor shortly before his death. At a hearing this summer to reconsider her conviction, defense attorneys said that newly discovered X-rays show Benjamin did not have a skull fracture the day he died, as alleged, but suffered from a prior head injury. Zellner said the X-ray files that defense attorneys received before her trial had been compressed to a fraction of their original size, so that they were unreadable at trial, which she said amounted to a prosecutorial violation. In addition, the doctor who performed the boy's initial autopsy, Eupil Choi, later admitted that he failed to diagnose a chronic subdural hematoma, a collection of blood on the brain's surface from an old injury. Prosecutors responded by saying that the X-rays were not new, merely the same images that the defense could have brightened with software at any time. In addition, Choi maintained that the discovery of the old injury did not change his opinion that the boy died of a recent head trauma. And prosecutor Jason Humke argued that doctors debated the nature of the boy's injuries during the trial, and the jury weighed that at the time. In comments leading up to his ruling, Shanes also dismissed the notion that the X-rays in question were new. Zellner attacked the judge's statements after the hearing, saying the X-rays previously given to defense lawyers were unreadable. "It isn't that there's a second set of X-rays. It's that the original X-rays ... were compressed. ... The original set was not turned over in the format it existed in," she said........ Calusinski, a 2005 graduate of Barrington High School with no criminal history, did not testify at her trial or the recent hearing. Before Benjamin's death, court records indicate, Calusinski lived with her parents, and had worked in retail, food service and at her parents' bait shop. She had done a lot of baby-sitting, including four years as a nanny, and earned praise from parents. One of the complicating factors of the case is that testimony indicated that Benjamin had a habit of "head-banging," or throwing himself back while sitting, hitting his head on the floor. But his doctor testified that this was not uncommon in other children and did not normally lead to serious injury. Slightly more than two months before his death, workers discovered a golf-ball-sized bump on the back of Benjamin's head. Two days later, he had a high fever, and his mother, Amy, took him to a doctor, and three days after that, he still had a fever, was prescribed antibiotics and recovered. At a well-baby visit about six weeks before Benjamin died, his primary pediatrician said he was "growing beautifully." Two days before his death, Benjamin vomited numerous times at the day care, went home and slept through the night. Two days later, day care workers reported that he seemed happy and behaving normally, and ate grilled cheese and soup at lunch. That day, a co-worker testified, she thought Benjamin fell and hit his head on the floor, though she did not see it, but she heard him cry and found him lying on the floor. She took him to his bouncy chair, where he was starting to fall asleep when the co-worker left with Calusinski in the room. Calusinski later found Benjamin unresponsive and called for help. The case took a turn after the new Lake County coroner, Thomas Rudd, looked at the autopsy evidence and found slides that he said showed an old injury similar to a scab inside the brain.
Former Cook County Medical Examiner Nancy Jones was called in as a consultant and agreed that the boy had suffered a prior injury. A software expert testified that the X-ray images became visible only after going back to view the coroner's original images. But prosecutors maintained any old injury was insignificant, and they relied on experts who testified that Benjamin died of a sudden severe injury that day. The case drew national attention after CBS News ran an episode of "48 Hours" about the case, with excerpts from Calusinski's video interrogation, and an interview with her in prison. Shanes, a former Lake County prosecutor himself, granted Calusinski's request for a hearing on the matter, but Zellner said it's extremely rare for trial judges to reverse the outcomes of their trials.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-day-care-worker-murder-hearing-decision-met-20160930-story.html

Chester Kwitowski: Florida; A truly unexpected post for The Charles Smith Blog: The story of a defence expert witness alleged to have gone very, very, wrong:........"On Thursday, the 57-year-old Tampa resident was arrested in Polk and charged with five counts of lying under oath about his educational background, professional certifications, military service and time spent working on sensitive government projects. He specialized as a defense witness in cases involving sexual abuse and child pornography. The Tampa Bay Times found another apparent inconsistency. Kwitowski claimed to have held "information technology and systems support contracts" with the Hillsborough County Clerk of the Circuit Court and the County Administrator's office. Those offices report no record of any contracts with, or payments made to, Kwitowski or his company, Brightside Enterprises. Legal experts say the case exposed a breakdown in a judicial system that aims to uncover the truth. "Somehow or other this guy squeaked by," said Jack Townley, president of the Florida chapter of the Forensic Expert Witness Association. "It's hard to believe he went as far as he did without someone getting after him or attacking his credentials."... Reporter Tony Marrero; Tampa Bay Times;



PUBLISHER'S NOTE: A reader raises an excellent point: "This happens every now and again with state experts with little consequence, interested to see what happens here." I couldn't agree more. Another thought: After years of trying to pull information out of the police both as a criminal lawyer and a reporter, I couldn't help but notice the flood of  details in the Sherrif's department's press release announcing the charges laid against the defence expert. HL.

Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;

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STORY: "Defrocked expert witness in child sex cases 'squeaked by' with little vetting," by reporter Tony Marrero, published by The Tampa Bay Times on September 29 2106. (Thanks to CSIDDS (Forensics in Focus) for bringing this case to our attention. HL);
 
GIST: "Josh Adams thought he'd found a solid expert witness for his client. The Orlando lawyer was representing Jason Eugene Daniels, who faced more than a dozen felonies involving sexual abuse of a child. Adams said Daniels' cellmate William Teets had mentioned Chester Kwitowski, who had already appeared as computer forensics expert in other Polk County cases including Teets'. Adams called Kwitowski and asked for his resume. "He certainly seemed very confident and knowledgeable, and I never had any reason to be suspicious," Adams said Friday. But when Adams put Kwitowski on the stand in a Polk County courtroom, the story his resume told began to unravel. A Polk sheriff's detective appearing as an expert witness for the prosecution grew suspicious about inconsistencies in Kwitowski's qualifications and the agency launched an investigation. On Thursday, the 57-year-old Tampa resident was arrested in Polk and charged with five counts of lying under oath about his educational background, professional certifications, military service and time spent working on sensitive government projects. He specialized as a defense witness in cases involving sexual abuse and child pornography. The Tampa Bay Times found another apparent inconsistency. Kwitowski claimed to have held "information technology and systems support contracts" with the Hillsborough County Clerk of the Circuit Court and the County Administrator's office. Those offices report no record of any contracts with, or payments made to, Kwitowski or his company, Brightside Enterprises. ........Legal experts say the case exposed a breakdown in a judicial system that aims to uncover the truth. "Somehow or other this guy squeaked by," said Jack Townley, president of the Florida chapter of the Forensic Expert Witness Association. "It's hard to believe he went as far as he did without someone getting after him or attacking his credentials.""......... Kwitowski's resume states that he has testified as an expert witness on more than 50 occasions in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk counties. At a news conference Thursday, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said detectives were uncertain whether that was true. It's also unclear when Kwitowski first testified as a witness. Whenever it was, that first case gave him instant credibility that made other attorneys less likely to thoroughly vet his credentials before hiring him, said Townley, the FEWA president. "Once you can prove you've been accepted as a witness in court and have verifiable testimony as an expert, an attorney is less likely to go through the process," Townley said. "Every hour an attorney spends vetting somebody costs their client." Anyone who wants to be an expert can pay to be listed on a website like JurisPro or SEAK Inc. Those sites don't vet backgrounds, Townley said. FEWA has its own directory and verifies court experience but does not check education or certifications.......... Kwitowski had been arrested three other times in Florida, all between 2001 and 2007. He was acquitted in one case and the charges were dropped in two, including a Pinellas charge of making a false report of a crime. Prosecutors routinely ask witnesses if they've ever been arrested and Kwitowski was forthcoming about his arrest history in a prior deposition, said Brian Haas, chief assistant state attorney for the 10th Judicial Circuit, which includes Polk County. "But since he hadn't been convicted there was nothing we could do," Haas said. Haas said it's not financially feasible for his office to check every witness' resume. The system ultimately worked and caught Kwitowski, he said, though "maybe not as quickly as everybody would have liked." "This man committed a crime and we can't lose sight of that," Haas said. "This isn't a mistake or an error. He intentionally misled a whole lot of people interested in seeking the truth and doing their jobs.".........Adams' client, Daniels, was convicted of several counts and faces a mandatory life sentence. He said he will likely seek a new trial on the grounds that Kwitowski's alleged lying under oath compromised the case. Haas, the Polk chief assistant state attorney, said the cases Kwitowski testified in are strong enough for the convictions to stand without his testimony. Donna Wood, a spokeswoman for Judd, said detectives were still investigating and don't yet know what motivated to Kwitowski to lie about his credentials. It could have been the money, the prestige of being called an expert, or both, Wood said. "We don't know if we'll ever have a solid answer.""

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/defrocked-expert-witness-in-child-sex-cases-squeaked-by-with-little-vetting/2295080


See Polk County Sherrif's Department release announcing criminnal charges aganst Kwitowski at the link below:  "PCSO Deputies Arrest Tampa Man for Five Counts Felony Perjury ; On Thursday, September 22, 2016, PCSO Deputies arrested 57-year-old Chester Kwitowski of Tampa, for two counts Giving False Statements During Prosecution of Capital Felony (F-2), and three counts Giving False Statements In Official Proceeding (commonly known as Perjury) (F-3). He lists his occupation as President/CEO of Brightside Enterprises, Inc. According to the affidavit, Kwitowski appeared as a subject matter expert witness for the defense, during five sexual battery on a minor and/or possession of child pornography jury trials or depositions in the 10th Judicial Circuit, and provided sworn testimony that he has formal education and certifications including: 
See related CSIDDS (Forensics in focus) post from  forensic Blogger Dr. Mike Bowers,  at the following link; "Here’s a criminal lawyer’s worst nightmare: Hiring a forensic expert with a faked resume.*             Master's Degree from USF in Computer Science and Engineering*             Secret and Top Secret Clearance from the Federal Government *             An Officer in the U.S. Air Force*             Multiple computer forensics certifications from different software companiesDetectives have determined that none of the above are true, and that Kwitowski lied under oath about his certifications, education, and level of expertise. "We are early in this investigation, and still awaiting documentation from other government entities and private companies that Kwitowski has claimed to have certifications with - at this point in time, it's difficult to tell what, if anything, he has told the truth about, and what he has completely made up." - Grady Judd, Sheriff  During each of the trials and depositions, Kwitowski testified on behalf of the defense for four defendants, all of whom were charged with felonies including sexual battery on a minor and possession of child pornography. Kwitowski's curriculum vitae (CV) lists a Bachelor's Degree from UCF; a Master's Degree from USF; a secret clearance from the Department of Defense; a top secret clearance from NASA; served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force; 36 years' worth of experience in computer forensic techniques; certified forensic digital analyst for Cicso, Novell, Microsoft, En Case, and numerous other software companies.  Kwitowski testified as a subject matter expert witness in the following trials, during which he swore to the following under oath:  *             September 14, 2016 - During the trial of Jason Daniels, who was charged and convicted by a jury of 5 counts capital sexual battery on a child under 12 years old, and 4 counts felony sexual battery on a child under 12 years old, Kwitowski swore under oath that he obtained a Master's Degree from USF; was certified by En Case and Cisco; and held a Secret and Top Secret clearance. He did provide a false statement under oath during a capital felony proceeding, in violation of FSS 837.02(2) which is a 2nd degree felony. *             September 7, 2016 - During a deposition prior to the trial of the aforementioned Jason Daniels, Kwitowski swore under oath that he obtained a Master's Degree from USF; held certifications from Novell, En Case, and Cicso; served in the USAF from 1982-1986; was a computer forensics examiner in the military; and held a top secret clearance. He did provide a false statement under oath during a capital felony proceeding, in violation of FSS 837.02(2) which is a 2nd degree felony. *             August 30, 2016 - During the jury trial of William Jason Teets, who was charged with six third degree felonies (Possession of Child Pornography), Kwitowski swore under oath that he obtained a Master's Degree from USF; held certifications from Novell, En Case, and Cicso; and was certified by the military in computer forensics. He did provide a false statement under oath in official proceeding (commonly known as perjury), in violation of FSS 837.02(1) which is a 3rd degree felony. *             June 8, 2016 - During a deposition prior to the trial of Dennis Morgan, who is charged with 13 felonies (Possession of Child Pornography), Kwitowski swore under oath that he obtained a Master's Degree from USF; and held certifications from Novell, En Case, and Cicso. He did provide a false statement under oath in official proceeding (commonly known as perjury), in violation of FSS 837.02(1) which is a 3rd degree felony. *             November 20, 2014 - During the jury trial of Jesse Rittenhouse, who was charged with Possession of Child Pornography, Kwitowski swore under oath that he held certifications from Novell, En Case, and Cicso; he had a Master's Degree; he spent five years in the USAF. He did provide a false statement under oath in official proceeding (commonly known as perjury), in violation of FSS 837.02(1) which is a 3rd degree felony. During the investigation, the following was learned: *             The University of South Florida provided official, certified transcripts for Kwitowski, which indicates he has completed only three courses of non-degree seeking and exploratory education - he does not have a degree from this school.*             Cisco Systems, Inc., does not have certifications, refuting Kwitowski's claims to be a Cisco certified engineer and trainer.*             The parent company of "En Case" digital forensics software verified there is no record of Kwitowski being certified as an "En Case" certified examiner or forensic analyst, refuting Kwitowski's claims.*             Micro Focus Training provided that there is no record that Kwitowski completed any certification through their parent company Novell, and there is no such thing as a "Novell Systems Engineer," refuting Kwitowski's claims.*             The USAF Office of Special Investigations indicate Kwitowski was enlisted as a second Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force for a period of five months - April 15, 1982 until September 8, 1982 - and then he was terminated.*             The Office of Personnel Management and NASA Protective Services indicated Kwitowski has never held a Secret or Top Secret Clearance from the federal government, and has never been employed by or contracted by NASA.  Kwitowski's criminal history includes a 2001 arrest by HCSO for Battery, Domestic Violence; a 2003 arrest by HCSO for Aggravated Battery With A Deadly Weapon; and a 2007 arrest by Pinellas Park PD for False Reports of Commission of Crime."  Kwitowski's criminal history includes a 2001 arrest by HCSO for Battery, Domestic Violence; a 2003 arrest by HCSO for Aggravated Battery With A Deadly Weapon; and a 2007 arrest by Pinellas Park PD for False Reports of Commission of Crime.

 http://www.polksheriff.org/NewsRoom/News%20Releases/Pages/09-22-2016PCSODeputiesArrestTampaManforFiveCountsFelonyPerjury.aspx

See the CSIDDS (Forensics in Focus) post by forensic blogger Dr. Mike Bowers at the link below; Interesting story for a few reasons: "Here's a criminal lawyer's worst nightmare; Hiring a forensic expert with a fake resume." "Interesting story for a few reasons:  The opposing expert was a cop and thought this defense expert’s CV looked suspicious. This in itself isn’t unusual. Fact-checking an expert is a rather basic act by both sides in court cases. I’ve had weird questions asked of me at times. As in “Do you live in Hollywood?” That was from a DA who was on my hook for missing and not collecting biological evidence from a murder victim.. The DA files 5 charges against the expert with lying under oath. Describes some of the tricks experts of unusual deceit use to puff themselves. I’ve seen similar in the “see one, do one, and then convict one” present in the “fabricating evidence” case of Mississippi {see the Galileo of video “enhancement” in action}"


 https://csidds.com/2016/09/28/heres-a-criminal-lawyers-worst-nightmare-hiring-a-forensic-expert-with-a-faked-resume/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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 found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:  http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html  Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  
Harold Levy. Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

Annie Dookhan; Sonja Farak; Massachusetts; (And a truly awful mess caused by the failure of state crime labs to closely monitor their chemists. HL); Reporter Tom Jackman asks a question that the American Civil Liberties Union and the Massachusetts public defender are asking the courts to decide: When a state’s drug chemist lies for years, should all her cases be thrown out?..."Now the American Civil Liberties Union and the Massachusetts public defender are asking that, in light of the failed “War on Drugs” and the damage these cases have already done to mostly low-level drug users, all 24,000 of the Dookhan-related convictions should be thrown out. No way, say the prosecutors in the eight counties around Boston where Dookhan handled drug evidence. They want each case individually reviewed, in the interests of justice and the fact that Dookhan was rarely the sole source of evidence against a drug defendant. They say they have already processed about 1,500 cases from defendants who came forward after news of Dookhan’s misconduct first emerged, and there’s no need for a blanket amnesty now. It’s another blow to the crime lab business, already reeling from federal criticism of their long-trusted sciences like bullet and tread analysis, reports of sloppy work at the FBI crime lab, and now massive misconduct by a top state chemist. And then another. In the same state."..."The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will hear arguments from both sides in November." The Washington Post;




Tom Jackman has been covering criminal justice for The Post since 1998, and now anchors the new "True Crime" blog.)

Former Massachusetts crime lab chemist Annie Dookhan at a hearing in November 2013 where she pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, perjury and tampering with evidence. She was sentenced to three to five years in prison, and was paroled in April 2016. Before Massachusetts discovered in 2013 that one of the chemists in its state crime lab was actually using the drugs she was testing, it uncovered another chemist in 2012 who admitted she had been falsifying some of her drug testing results for more than nine years. Both chemists were arrested, pleaded guilty and served prison time. So what should happen to the tens of thousands of cases processed by Sonja Farak, in the Amherst lab, and Annie Dookhan in the Boston lab? In Dookhan’s case from 2012, county  The Washington Post;prosecutors determined in May of this year that her test results were involved in more than 24,000 convictions. The number of Farak cases has not yet been determined but is likely to be high as well. Now the American Civil Liberties Union and the Massachusetts public defender are asking that, in light of the failed “War on Drugs” and the damage these cases have already done to mostly low-level drug users, all 24,000 of the Dookhan-related convictions should be thrown out. No way, say the prosecutors in the eight counties around Boston where Dookhan handled drug evidence. They want each case individually reviewed, in the interests of justice and the fact that Dookhan was rarely the sole source of evidence against a drug defendant. They say they have already processed about 1,500 cases from defendants who came forward after news of Dookhan’s misconduct first emerged, and there’s no need for a blanket amnesty now. It’s another blow to the crime lab business, already reeling from federal criticism of their long-trusted sciences like bullet and tread analysis, reports of sloppy work at the FBI crime lab, and now massive misconduct by a top state chemist. And then another. In the same state.........So even though the Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts’ highest court, ruled in 2015 that a blanket dismissal of all cases was not appropriate “at this time,” the ACLU this week returned to the high court to renew their call for a “global remedy.” The defense wants all 24,000 convictions either dismissed permanently, or dismissed with the option for prosecutors to retry cases where there exists sufficient untainted evidence for another conviction. Carrie Kimball-Monahan, a spokeswoman for the Essex County district attorney, said in every case retried so far in Essex, the drug evidence was confirmed as Dookhan had tested it originally.........“The notice that the District Attorneys have started sending out is truly awful,” Keehn of the public defender wrote in a motion seeking to have the letter stopped. He said it effectively pledged to recipients there would be public defenders available to represent them, and there were not enough lawyers. “The burdens of a systemic lapse are not to be borne by the defendants who are its victims,” he wrote. Wark said the defense bar’s refusal to cooperate after May cost them the chance to review the translation, and “it was translated by a native Spanish speaker who didn’t learn English until she was 16.” The high court declined to stop the prosecutors from sending the notice, but instructed them to keep copies of the letters and any responses they received. Segal said the letter irreparably damaged the process of case-by-case appeals. Wark and Kimball-Monahan said prosecutors stand ready to handle any appeals which come in. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will hear arguments from both sides in November."


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2016/09/29/when-a-states-drug-chemist-lies-for-years-should-all-her-cases-be-thrown-out/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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 found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:  http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html  Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  
Harold Levy. Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Annie Dookhan: Massachusetts: (Annie get your...dope? HL); Top state court should toss 24,000 convictions connected to disgraced chemist, ACLU says... A brief (PDF) filed on Friday argues that public defenders would need 48 years to assign lawyers to each individual defendant, according to a press release and the Boston Herald. The brief, filed with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, says the state has labored for four years to litigate each case, yet about 24,000 cases remain unresolved. The brief was filed on behalf of three drug defendants by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, the national ACLU, state public defenders and the law firm Fick and Marx."..."“The Dookhan debacle has not been, and never will be, resolved through case-by-case litigation,” the brief (link to PDF provided) says. The convictions of the so-called Dookhan defendants “should be vacated and dismissed,” according to the brief. The brief points to a second lab scandal that could affect as many as 18,000 cases. “The commonwealth’s indigent defense system has no more capacity to litigate all these cases than it does to build a rocket ship and fly it to Jupiter,” the brief says." Reporter Debra Cassens Weiss; ABA Journal;


STORY: "Top state court should toss 24,000 convictions connected to disgraced chemist, ACLU says," by reporter Debra Cassens Weiss, published by the American Bar Association  (ABA) Journal on September 27, 2016.

GIST: "The top court in Massachusetts is being asked to toss more than 24,000 convictions that are linked to a chemist who admitted to tampering with evidence samples to favor law enforcement. A brief (PDF) filed on Friday argues that public defenders would need 48 years to assign lawyers to each individual defendant, according to a press release and the Boston Herald. The brief, filed with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, says the state has labored for four years to litigate each case, yet about 24,000 cases remain unresolved. The brief was filed on behalf of three drug defendants by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, the national ACLU, state public defenders and the law firm Fick & Marx. The case is Bridgeman v. District Attorney.  The chemist, Annie Dookhan, pleaded guilty to charges that included obstruction of justice, perjury and tampering. She served a three-year sentence, according to this Boston Globe article published in July. “The Dookhan debacle has not been, and never will be, resolved through case-by-case litigation,” the brief says. The convictions of the so-called Dookhan defendants “should be vacated and dismissed,” according to the brief. The brief points to a second lab scandal that could affect as many as 18,000 cases. “The commonwealth’s indigent defense system has no more capacity to litigate all these cases than it does to build a rocket ship and fly it to Jupiter,” the brief says. A spokesman for the Suffolk District Attorney’s office told the Boston Herald that the 48-year estimate is exaggerated."
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/top_state_court_should_toss_24000_convictions_connected_to_disgraced_chemis

The entire story can be found at:

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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 found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:  http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html  Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  
Harold Levy. Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.








Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Pillaged Braintree evidence room: Boston Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham says it's time to get serious about protecting evidence..."How did we get here, yet again? This is the third staggering evidence scandal of the last few years. Troubled crime lab chemist Annie Dookhan compromised tens of thousands of cases after she admitted to falsifying drug tests. Another crime lab chemist, Sonja Farak , consumed drug samples and evidence, and worked under the influence, compromising as many as 18,000 prosecutions. How is it that somebody entrusted with responsibility this massive crumbles in plain view of colleagues and supervisors, yet nobody seems to see it? Or, in Zopatti’s case, how is it that people could claim to have seen it but nobody removed her from her crucial post? ......... There is, incredibly, no state law compelling local police departments to meet rigorous standards for preserving evidence. Rather, they are left to set their own priorities. And we’re left to hope they’re the right ones. After Dookhan, Farak, and now poor Susan Zopatti, can’t we do better than that?" (Extremely well said. This is a hugely important public issue. It's good that the Boston Globe is paying attention. All media should. HL);



COMMENTARY: "Time to get serious about protecting evidence," by columnist  Yvonne Abraham, published by The Boston Globe on September 28, 2016.

GIST: "The evidence room at the Braintree Police Department seems to have been about as well organized as a household junk drawer — an emblem of shoddy leadership by department command staff and, even more, of the sorry state of the officer left in charge. It would be comforting to think that the resulting debacle is a local story — one troubled officer in one small town. But there is no comfort here. We have read this before and will again, unless we get serious about this obscure corner of the law enforcement puzzle. In Braintree, while Officer Susan Zopatti was in charge of the evidence room, hundreds of thousands of dollars, thousands of pieces of drug evidence, and other seized items, including guns, went missing. An audit found that bags containing drugs were torn open, their contents taken; bags of cash were sliced open at the bottom, the money gone. Two missing guns were found in the officer’s own home. Zopatti, a veteran officer, killed herself in May. Some of her colleagues said she was troubled, overwhelmed with caring for her dying mother, and possibly hiding a substance abuse problem. Her husband told the Globe last week those allegations are “lies.” The mess will affect hundreds of lives and end up wasting millions of dollars. Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey has already dropped dozens of charges affected by the breach. He figures between 200 and 400 more cases must be reassessed. Some of those convicted of drug crimes will be freed, and sentences will be cut. People on probation will suddenly be out in the world, untethered — a prospect that will delight some of them and terrify others who desperately need the safety net that court supervision provides. “A lot of police officers have put themselves in harm’s way to get these prosecutions, and . . . a lot of [defendants] now find themselves . . . hanging in the balance,” Morrissey said. “It’s unfortunate on every front.” How did we get here, yet again? This is the third staggering evidence scandal of the last few years. Troubled crime lab chemist Annie Dookhan compromised tens of thousands of cases after she admitted to falsifying drug tests. Another crime lab chemist, Sonja Farak , consumed drug samples and evidence, and worked under the influence, compromising as many as 18,000 prosecutions. How is it that somebody entrusted with responsibility this massive crumbles in plain view of colleagues and supervisors, yet nobody seems to see it? Or, in Zopatti’s case, how is it that people could claim to have seen it but nobody removed her from her crucial post? ......... There is, incredibly, no state law compelling local police departments to meet rigorous standards for preserving evidence. Rather, they are left to set their own priorities. And we’re left to hope they’re the right ones. After Dookhan, Farak, and now poor Susan Zopatti, can’t we do better than that?

The entire commentary can be found at:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/09/28/time-get-serious-about-protecting-evidence/z3vuaMuRkNfVFhhU3SkbQL/story.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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 found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:  http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html  Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  
Harold Levy. Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

Joseph Buffey: West Virginia; Bulletin: Attorneys spar over whether Buffey's prior lawyers can testify - as his trial, set to begin on October 11, draws near...He was sentenced to 70 years in prison and had served about 14 years of that when the state Supreme Court last November decided Buffey would be permitted to withdraw his guilty pleas. One of the most persuasive arguments for Buffey: The Allan N. Karlin & Associates law firm of Morgantown, and the New York-based Innocence Project, developed a perpetrator who was convicted in 2015. In February, Buffey, who insists he’s innocent, officially withdrew his pleas, sending the case back to square one."..."Marks also intervened in an evidence-sharing issue between Karlin and Romano involving interviews of individuals by police during the prosecution of Adam Derek Bowers, the man convicted in 2015 of the attack. Karlin believes the police may have interviewed individuals who could help establish that Buffey and Bowers, now 30 years old, and 16 at the time of the crime, didn’t know each other back in late 2001. Romano indicated he believes they’ve shared all potentially exculpatory materials with the defense, but he agreed to file something with the court to respond to Karlin." Matt Harvey: Assistant Managing Editor: The Exponent Telegram;


"The case of a Harrison County man accused in a 2001 rape, robbery and home invasion has taken another twist, as the attorneys spar over whether the defendant’s prior legal counsel can testify next month at his trial. Joseph A. Buffey, now 33 and of Enterprise, pleaded guilty at age 19 in 2002 to two counts of first-degree sexual assault, and one count of first-degree robbery, in the Nov. 30, 2001, attack of an 83-year-old woman. He was sentenced to 70 years in prison and had served about 14 years of that when the state Supreme Court last November decided Buffey would be permitted to withdraw his guilty pleas. One of the most persuasive arguments for Buffey: The Allan N. Karlin & Associates law firm of Morgantown, and the New York-based Innocence Project, developed a perpetrator who was convicted in 2015. In February, Buffey, who insists he’s innocent, officially withdrew his pleas, sending the case back to square one. Assistant prosecutors Dave Romano and James Armstrong have signaled their intent to put on the stand two of Buffey’s attorneys from 2002, when he pleaded guilty. And they also have listed as a witness another attorney who represented Buffey in a legal challenge of his imprisonment from 2003-2004. Bailey Glasser LLP lawyer Isaac Forman, who will be among several lawyers representing Buffey at trial, argued Tuesday that Harrison Circuit Judge John Lewis Marks Jr. would be committing reversible error by allowing the attorneys to testify.........Marks also intervened in an evidence-sharing issue between Karlin and Romano involving interviews of individuals by police during the prosecution of Adam Derek Bowers, the man convicted in 2015 of the attack. Karlin believes the police may have interviewed individuals who could help establish that Buffey and Bowers, now 30 years old, and 16 at the time of the crime, didn’t know each other back in late 2001. Romano indicated he believes they’ve shared all potentially exculpatory materials with the defense, but he agreed to file something with the court to respond to Karlin. The judge also ordered the state to provide medical records of the victim to Buffey’s lawyers. Karlin said the records could show that the woman, now in her late 90s and unable to testify due to dementia, was in the early stages of the disease at the time of the attack. Or, they might show that she wasn’t suffering from dementia during Buffey’s first legal challenge of his imprisonment, in 2003-04, and therefore could have testified at that time, Karlin indicated. The sides also sparred over whether the state should have to specify which phone records from prison it plans to use. The state has turned over a huge amount of recordings from Buffey, Bowers and another prisoner, Karlin told the court.........Marks will decide both the law and the facts in the trial, which is to start the morning of Oct. 11 and last at least four days."

 http://www.theet.com/news/free/attorneys-spar-over-whether-buffey-s-prior-lawyers-can-testify/article_f85eb67c-8c49-57e8-b53f-37ba90844d0c.html

Oral 'Nick' Hillary: New York; Major Development; Bulletin: Exonerated: He as been found not guilty in the 2011 murder of 12-year-old Garrett J. Phillips..."Earl S. Ward, a New York City attorney on Mr. Hillary’s defense team, had told Judge Catena during his closing arguments Thursday, that prosecutors cobbled together a “torn and tattered quilt” of circumstantial evidence that wasn’t able to put Mr. Hillary in Garrett’s apartment or even on Market Street at the time of the murder. And Judge Catena agreed, when he took the bench, that the case was 100 percent circumstantial. He said it was because of that fact that he took the time to “fully and fairly” review the evidence presented by both sides. Among that evidence, Judge Catena said prosecutors brought in 22 witnesses to testify and entered more than 100 exhibits into evidence in their case against Mr. Hillary. The defense brought forward eight witnesses and seven exhibits. The only physical evidence Onondaga District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick, who took the lead of the prosecution against Hillary as special assistant to St. Lawrence County D.A. Mary E. Rain, attempted to bring in at trial was a DNA sample that was produced by STRmix, a forensic software tool used in testing DNA that could implicate Mr. Hillary in the Garrett’s death."........."But the case against Hillary had prosecutorial bungles when Ms. Rain had been questioned about a convicted rapist who said he saw St. Lawrence County sheriff’s deputy John E. Jones Jr., ex-boyfriend of Garrett’s mother, Tandy Collins, entering Garrett’s 100 Market St., Potsdam, apartment building just minutes before Garrett did on the afternoon of his death. Hillary’s defense team filed a motion for a mistrial with prejudice after a hearing was held in which it was determined Ms. Rain ordered investigators to interview the potential witness in April 2015 and failed to turn over the statement and notes generated from the interview the defense." Reporter W.T. Eckert; Watertown Daily Times: (September 28);



"Oral “Nick” Hillary is a free man after being found not guilty of the 2011 murder of 12-year-old Garrett J. Phillips. Presiding Judge Felix J. Catena rendered his verdict Wednesday morning after a week of deliberation in the bench trial against the former Clarkson University men’s soccer coach which began on Sept. 12. Mr. Hillary, 42, formerly of Potsdam, was found not-guilty of second-degree murder after he was accused of strangling Garrett, between 4:56 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 24, 2011, at the 100 Market St. apartment where the boy lived with his mother, Tandy L. Collins, and younger brother Aaron Collins. Mr. Hillary stood in tears as he was embraced by his defense team following the verdict. The room was divided by cheers and sobbing, with Mr. Hillary’s sister, Pamela Winters shouting, “Thank you Jesus,” and Garrett’s uncle, Brian A. Phillips shouting, “Karma is going to get you.” But the true defining moment when Mr. Hillary was given his freedom back was that moment when he was handed back his passport that kept him from leaving the country and going back to his native Jamaica. Earl S. Ward, a New York City attorney on Mr. Hillary’s defense team, had told Judge Catena during his closing arguments Thursday, that prosecutors cobbled together a “torn and tattered quilt” of circumstantial evidence that wasn’t able to put Mr. Hillary in Garrett’s apartment or even on Market Street at the time of the murder. And Judge Catena agreed, when he took the bench, that the case was 100 percent circumstantial. He said it was because of that fact that he took the time to “fully and fairly” review the evidence presented by both sides. Among that evidence, Judge Catena said prosecutors brought in 22 witnesses to testify and entered more than 100 exhibits into evidence in their case against Mr. Hillary. The defense brought forward eight witnesses and seven exhibits. The only physical evidence Onondaga District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick, who took the lead of the prosecution against Hillary as special assistant to St. Lawrence County D.A. Mary E. Rain, attempted to bring in at trial was a DNA sample that was produced by STRmix, a forensic software tool used in testing DNA that could implicate Mr. Hillary in the Garrett’s death. The motive for that murder, Mr. Fitzpatrick said, was because Garrett’s mother broke up with him when she said she decided to put her sons first, after they expressed their displeasure with the conditions of the relationship. That was a motive that the defense also challenged. “It is not the type of theory that you bring into the courtroom and ask a judge to find a man guilty of murder on the second degree,” Mr. Ward said during his closing remarks. And the cornerstone of the case against Hillary was his left turn out of the parking lot of Potsdam High School on the afternoon of Garrett’s death because he was “hunting” the boy. Again, there was no evidence to support that theory that wasn’t purely circumstantial, the defense team argued. But the case against Hillary had prosecutorial bungles when Ms. Rain had been questioned about a convicted rapist who said he saw St. Lawrence County sheriff’s deputy John E. Jones Jr., ex-boyfriend of Garrett’s mother, Tandy Collins, entering Garrett’s 100 Market St., Potsdam, apartment building just minutes before Garrett did on the afternoon of his death. Hillary’s defense team filed a motion for a mistrial with prejudice after a hearing was held in which it was determined Ms. Rain ordered investigators to interview the potential witness in April 2015 and failed to turn over the statement and notes generated from the interview the defense."

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/news05/nick-hillary-found-not-guilty-in-murder-trial-20160928

Julie Baumer: Michigan; (Wrongful shaken baby syndrome conviction); David Gavitt; Michigan (Wrongful false arson science): Two things they both have in common; They were both convicted by misguided 'science' - and they were both wrongfully charged, tried, convicted and imprisoned in a state which does not pay a cent to the wrongly convicted victims of its criminal justice system: Michigan Radio's political analyst sheds light on this injustice - and state senator Steve Bieda who wants to do something about it..."Yesterday, Bieda told me “when a wrongfully convicted person gets released from prison, it is a major news event.” But after that, when the cameras fade and they are used to being home, they are forced to face the world penniless, their skills out of date, and they not even eligible for the sort of re-entry programs we offer convicted felons. Thirty-one states and the federal government offer the wrongly imprisoned at least some compensation, but Michigan doesn’t."...Jack Lessenberry; Michigan Radio; Political analyst;


STORY: Michigan should join states that compensate wrongly convicted," by Jack Lessenberry, published by Michigan radio on September 27, 2016. (Jack Lessenberry is Michigan Radio's political analyst);

GIST: "Macomb County resident Julie Baumer volunteered to care for her sister’s unwanted baby thirteen years ago. She was a 27-year-old mortgage broker who was engaged to be married and had a full life, but she didn’t want the little boy to be put up for adoption. But a few weeks later, she took the baby to the hospital, where doctors discovered a lot of blood on his brain. She was suspected of violently shaking the baby. She was convicted of first degree child abuse. She lost her job, her freedom, her fiancé and her life. Four years later, a new investigation revealed Baumer was totally innocent. The baby had suffered a rare stroke. Her conviction was overturned, and she was released from prison six years ago. But her life had been destroyed, and she received exactly nothing in compensation from the state  These days, she cleans office buildings at night. David Gavitt, however, had it even worse. His wife and two young children died in a house fire in 1985. He had no criminal history but prosecutors convicted him of burning the house down. Gavitt rotted in prison for 27 years until investigators for the Michigan Innocence Clinic took up the case and showed Ionia County prosecutors that the evidence had been misread. Four years ago, his conviction was overturned, and he was released. He lost a huge part of his life thanks to errors made by the state, and his compensation was also zero. For years, State Senator Steve Bieda has sought to correct this injustice, and he finally may be close to success. A Democrat from Warren, Bieda has had rare success building bi-partisan coalitions in Lansing. Three months ago, the state senate passed his wrongful conviction compensation bill unanimously. The bill had been weakened a bit, but those totally exonerated would still get $50,000 a year for every year they were wrongly imprisoned. This would be limited to victims who could prove they were totally innocent, not just guilty of a lesser crime. Yesterday, Bieda told me “when a wrongfully convicted person gets released from prison, it is a major news event.” But after that, when the cameras fade and they are used to being home, they are forced to face the world penniless, their skills out of date, and they not even eligible for the sort of re-entry programs we offer convicted felons. Thirty-one states and the federal government offer the wrongly imprisoned at least some compensation, but Michigan doesn’t."

The entire story can be  found at

http://michiganradio.org/post/michigan-should-join-states-compensate-wrongfully-convicted#stream/0

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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 found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:  http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html  Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  
Harold Levy. Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Oral 'Nick' Hillary: New York; North Country Public Radio (NCPR) provides answers to "lingering questions" about the Hillary trial (subject of a series of NCPR podcasts)..."Was there any DNA evidence found at the crime scene? A tiny DNA scraping was taken from underneath Garrett Phillips’ fingernail. That DNA sample was analyzed using three different kinds of testing. The first test from the New York State crime lab came back inconclusive, so the prosecution didn’t want to use it. Then, a statistical test was done using computer software call TrueAllele. That test didn’t support Hillary being at the crime scene either. One final test was run using a technology new to the United States call STRmix. The STRmix test showed about a dozen DNA markers in the sample matched Nick Hillary’s DNA. The problem is, we don’t have a sense of what that really means. Other scientists said the DNA sample was too small to be reliable in the first place. Why wasn’t the DNA used in court? In the end, Judge Felix Catena said the state crime lab wasn’t ready to be using STRmix just yet and ruled that DNA would not be allowed in this case. Read Catena’s ruling on the inadmissibility of the DNA here."



STORY: "Answers to your lingering questions in the Nick Hilary murder trial," by David Sommerstein, Lauren Rosenthal and Brit Hanson, published by NCPR on September 27, 2016.

GIST: "Last week, lawyers made their final arguments in the murder trial of Nick Hillary. Hillary is the former soccer coach accused of strangling 12-year-old Garrett Phillips in Potsdam nearly five years ago. This Wednesday morning, at 10 am, Judge Felix Catena will hand down a verdict. However, there are still lots of loose ends. Last week, we put out a call on our daily podcast about the trial, Day by Day, to find out what questions you, our listeners, have. It turns out, you had plenty. In fact, more than 40. It’s clear the public’s been following closely. Here are a few of the most asked questions: Physical evidence: Were fingerprints found at the crime scene? Yes. There were four latent fingerprints discovered at the crime scene on and around the second story window where the assailant was believed to have exited. In this case, the four latent fingerprints were lifted for evidence using tape. Whose fingerprints were tested for a match? The police said they tested 40 people’s fingerprints. Those 40 people included anyone with regular access to the Phillips family apartment. Family and friends were tested, as well as Nick Hillary and former suspect John Jones. Unidentified latent prints also get entered into a New York State database where they are automatically check against 8.4 millions fingerprints found in arrest and civil employee records. No matches have been made. Was there any DNA evidence found at the crime scene? A tiny DNA scraping was taken from underneath Garrett Phillips’ fingernail. That DNA sample was analyzed using three different kinds of testing. The first test from the New York State crime lab came back inconclusive, so the prosecution didn’t want to use it. Then, a statistical test was done using computer software call TrueAllele. That test didn’t support Hillary being at the crime scene either. One final test was run using a technology new to the United States call STRmix. The STRmix test showed about a dozen DNA markers in the sample matched Nick Hillary’s DNA. The problem is, we don’t have a sense of what that really means. Other scientists said the DNA sample was too small to be reliable in the first place. Why wasn’t the DNA used in court? In the end, Judge Felix Catena said the state crime lab wasn’t ready to be using STRmix just yet and ruled that DNA would not be allowed in this case. Read Catena’s ruling on the inadmissibility of the DNA here. Please connect with the link below for responses  to the remaining 'lingering questions."



The entire story can be  found at:
http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/32642/20160927/answers-to-your-lingering-questions-in-the-nick-hillary-murder-trial

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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 found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:  http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html  Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  
Harold Levy. Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

PCAST (9)... (President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology); Grits for Breakfast says there is no reason to gloat that Texas is ahead on forensic-science reform..."Meagan Flynn at the Houston Press is right that Texas is ahead of the feds and the rest of the country right now on forensic science reform, but that fact provides cold comfort."..."The whole field of "forensic science" is screwed up, from the FBI's labs preaching junk science at their national training center to the lowliest breathalyzer analyst interpreting black-box results from proprietary commercial software. There is an ongoing existential challenge to whole fields of forensics which never emerged from the sciences. Instead, a scientific pretense served to gloss over questionable policing practices with a phony veneer, hoping a white lab coat could give them added credibility to gatekeeper judges when the actual scientific pedigree of the evidence could not justify it. So look at what Austin PD is enduring at its DNA lab, assume most DNA labs face essentially similar challenges, then consider that nearly every other field of forensics crime labs undertake, according to this report and the earlier 2009 analysis from the National Academy of Sciences, essentially are based on subjective supposition rather than the scientific method. We're at the front end of a period of utter chaos in this nation's forensic labs. Then there's the fact that, even where Texas law is ahead of the game, the Court of Criminal Appeals has abdicated its responsibility to interpret it as written to give it force: The Legislature created a "junk science writ" for wrongly convicted defendants to get habeas corpus relief when their conviction was primarily based on junk science. But four members of the CCA - Keller, Hervey, Keasler, and Yeary - have used every trick in the book to keep the court from interpreting the new law, causing Judge Elsa Alcala to lambaste them for disingenuity. With incoming members of the court likely to bolster those four's position on legislatively mandated habeas relief, and no guidance from the CCA at all on how to reform judicial gatekeeper functions in light of known flaws with commonly used forensic evidence, one realizes that Texas is not ahead of the curve at all when it comes to fixing these problems. We were just among the first to recognize them."



POST: "Don't gloat that Texas is ahead on forensic-science reform," published by Grits for Breakfast, on September 24, 2106.

GIST:  As Grits noted in an earlier roundup, this week the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology issued a harsh critique of a variety of common "forensic science" techniques as being, in fact, highly unscientific. (It's been rightly said that when one finds the need to append the word 'science' on a field - like forensic science, political science, military science, computer science, creation science, etc. - that the endeavor is thereby virtually guaranteed not to be science.)......... Flynn offered a note of cautious optimism that, in large part because of the work of the Forensic Science Commission, Texas is in a better position than other states to weather the storm.........It's true that Texas is ahead of the curve in understanding, if not stopping, the use of junk science in the crime lab and the courtroom. But we're all at the front end of an achingly long curve. This is not cause for optimism but instead means we're a little bit closer to the series of Class A Clusterf$@ks which are about to deluge the justice system over flawed forensics.........A prime case study in that regard may be found at the Austin crime lab, where the DNA section has been closed entirely and an FSC audit found the lab neck-deep in dysfunction. Police administrators quickly found themselves answering for past prevarications on the state of the lab, Chase Hoffberger at the Austin Chronicle reported: The findings also bring into question why, when APD announced its shutdown in June, [Austin Police Chief Art] Acevedo led by saying the "voluntary" decision was the result of the death of an employee – only conceding ongoing conversations with FSC as a secondary reason. At the time, Acevedo said he'd been told "preliminarily" that the probability is low that an innocent person has been convicted as a result of APD's testing challenges. Asst. Chief Troy Gay doubled down on that assessment on Sept. 6 when he told members of the Public Safety Commission that the department and District Attorney's Office "have not located or identified any cases that have been impacted at this point." The latter by now can be classified as an untrue statement: The contamination case specifically mentioned in the audit – flagged for contamination by the District Attorney's Office as early as 2009 – has still not gone to trial because of challenges at the lab. Any case that's been tried on DNA evidence processed through APD since April 2010, when APD adopted its stochastic threshold practice, could also be subject to retesting. As Ace­ve­do noted when he first announced the shutdown, "only time will tell" how many other cases have been affected. Acevedo and Gay provide a good example of how NOT to handle these situations. Don't lie and pretend no cases are affected when they are; don't scapegoat your employees; don't downplay the concerns of rape victims who think their rape kits should be tested; don't conceal or whitewash a serious mess that will require community involvement and extra resources to fix. Own up to problems because they're not of your making: The whole field of "forensic science" is screwed up, from the FBI's labs preaching junk science at their national training center to the lowliest breathalyzer analyst interpreting black-box results from proprietary commercial software. There is an ongoing existential challenge to whole fields of forensics which never emerged from the sciences. Instead, a scientific pretense served to gloss over questionable policing practices with a phony veneer, hoping a white lab coat could give them added credibility to gatekeeper judges when the actual scientific pedigree of the evidence could not justify it. So look at what Austin PD is enduring at its DNA lab, assume most DNA labs face essentially similar challenges, then consider that nearly every other field of forensics crime labs undertake, according to this report and the earlier 2009 analysis from the National Academy of Sciences, essentially are based on subjective supposition rather than the scientific method. We're at the front end of a period of utter chaos in this nation's forensic labs. Then there's the fact that, even where Texas law is ahead of the game, the Court of Criminal Appeals has abdicated its responsibility to interpret it as written to give it force: The Legislature created a "junk science writ" for wrongly convicted defendants to get habeas corpus relief when their conviction was primarily based on junk science. But four members of the CCA - Keller, Hervey, Keasler, and Yeary - have used every trick in the book to keep the court from interpreting the new law, causing Judge Elsa Alcala to lambaste them for disingenuity. With incoming members of the court likely to bolster those four's position on legislatively mandated habeas relief, and no guidance from the CCA at all on how to reform judicial gatekeeper functions in light of known flaws with commonly used forensic evidence, one realizes that Texas is not ahead of the curve at all when it comes to fixing these problems. We were just among the first to recognize them."

 The entire post can be found at:

 http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.ca/2016/09/dont-gloat-that-texas-is-ahead-on.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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 found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:  http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html  Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  
Harold Levy. Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

PCAST: (President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology)...(Part 8): Danny Lee Hill; Ohio; Bulletin...While awaiting a decision on whether he should be granted a new trial, his lawyers have filed a motion -opposed by prosecutors - based on the release, last week, of the 'Report to the President' which found that "“available scientific evidence strongly suggests that examiners cannot consistently agree on whether an injury is a human bite mark and cannot identify the source of bite mark with reasonable accuracy.” (Judge expected to rule soon)...".Hill’s attorneys cited a September 2016 “Report to the President” of the United States with its filing Wednesday. The filing says the report affirms their belief that bite marks are “junk science. But a filing Friday from the prosecutor’s office said the report does not call bite marks junk science. Prosecutors once again reiterated that bite marks were a part of the evidence in the Hill trial, “but it was not the State’s only evidence." Vindy.com;



"Attorneys for the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s office and Danny Lee Hill have peppered a visiting judge with three filings in the past week regarding Hill’s request for a new trial. Judge Patricia Cosgrove is expected to rule soon on whether to grant Hill a new trial. Following a filing by Hill attorneys on Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office filed a response Friday, and Hill’s attorneys filed a response to that Monday. The filings address the validity of bite-mark evidence as a way to identify the person who made bite mark. The question is relevant in the Hill case because a dental expert testified at Hill’s 1986 trial that bite marks found on the privates of Hill’s victim, Raymond Fife, 12, were made by Hill.........Hill’s attorneys cited a September 2016 “Report to the President” of the United States with its filing Wednesday. The filing says the report affirms their belief that bite marks are “junk science. But a filing Friday from the prosecutor’s office said the report does not call bite marks junk science. Prosecutors once again reiterated that bite marks were a part of the evidence in the Hill trial, “but it was not the State’s only evidence. The Defendant’s own statements to authorities and eyewitness testimony combined to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, even without the bite mark testimony,” prosecutors said. On Monday, Hill attorneys filed a reply, saying the “Report to the President” found that “available scientific evidence strongly suggests that examiners cannot consistently agree on whether an injury is a human bite mark and cannot identify the source of bite mark with reasonable accuracy.”

Attorneys file three motions in a week on whether to grant Danny Lee Hill retrial



Published: Tue, September 27, 2016 @ 12:00 a.m.

danny lee hill case

Staff report
WARREN
Attorneys for the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s office and Danny Lee Hill have peppered a visiting judge with three filings in the past week regarding Hill’s request for a new trial.
Judge Patricia Cosgrove is expected to rule soon on whether to grant Hill a new trial.
Following a filing by Hill attorneys on Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office filed a response Friday, and Hill’s attorneys filed a response to that Monday.
The filings address the validity of bite-mark evidence as a way to identify the person who made bite mark.
The question is relevant in the Hill case because a dental expert testified at Hill’s 1986 trial that bite marks found on the privates of Hill’s victim, Raymond Fife, 12, were made by Hill.
Raymond died a few days after being attacked in a wooded area along Palmyra Road Southwest. Hill, then 18, and Timothy Combs, then 17, were convicted of raping, torturing and burning Raymond. Hill is on death row; Combs will be in prison until at least 2049.
Hill’s attorneys cited a September 2016 “Report to the President” of the United States with its filing Wednesday. The filing says the report affirms their belief that bite marks are “junk science.”
But a filing Friday from the prosecutor’s office said the report does not call bite marks junk science.
Prosecutors once again reiterated that bite marks were a part of the evidence in the Hill trial, “but it was not the State’s only evidence. The Defendant’s own statements to authorities and eyewitness testimony combined to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, even without the bite mark testimony,” prosecutors said.
On Monday, Hill attorneys filed a reply, saying the “Report to the President” found that “available scientific evidence strongly suggests that examiners cannot consistently agree on whether an injury is a human bite mark and cannot identify the source of bite mark with reasonable accuracy.”
- See more at: http://www.vindy.com/news/2016/sep/27/judge-expected-to-rule-soon-on-whether-t/#sthash.M3aFTgJC.dpuf

Attorneys file three motions in a week on whether to grant Danny Lee Hill retrial



Published: Tue, September 27, 2016 @ 12:00 a.m.

danny lee hill case

Staff report
WARREN
Attorneys for the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s office and Danny Lee Hill have peppered a visiting judge with three filings in the past week regarding Hill’s request for a new trial.
Judge Patricia Cosgrove is expected to rule soon on whether to grant Hill a new trial.
Following a filing by Hill attorneys on Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office filed a response Friday, and Hill’s attorneys filed a response to that Monday.
The filings address the validity of bite-mark evidence as a way to identify the person who made bite mark.
The question is relevant in the Hill case because a dental expert testified at Hill’s 1986 trial that bite marks found on the privates of Hill’s victim, Raymond Fife, 12, were made by Hill.
Raymond died a few days after being attacked in a wooded area along Palmyra Road Southwest. Hill, then 18, and Timothy Combs, then 17, were convicted of raping, torturing and burning Raymond. Hill is on death row; Combs will be in prison until at least 2049.
Hill’s attorneys cited a September 2016 “Report to the President” of the United States with its filing Wednesday. The filing says the report affirms their belief that bite marks are “junk science.”
But a filing Friday from the prosecutor’s office said the report does not call bite marks junk science.
Prosecutors once again reiterated that bite marks were a part of the evidence in the Hill trial, “but it was not the State’s only evidence. The Defendant’s own statements to authorities and eyewitness testimony combined to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, even without the bite mark testimony,” prosecutors said.
On Monday, Hill attorneys filed a reply, saying the “Report to the President” found that “available scientific evidence strongly suggests that examiners cannot consistently agree on whether an injury is a human bite mark and cannot identify the source of bite mark with reasonable accuracy.”
- See more at: http://www.vindy.com/news/2016/sep/27/judge-expected-to-rule-soon-on-whether-t/#sthash.M3aFTgJC.dpuf
http://www.vindy.com/news/2016/sep/27/judge-expected-to-rule-soon-on-whether-t/

Leo Ackley; Anthony Ball; Bulletin: Michigan; Shaken Baby Syndrome; Both defendants are seeking delays of their respective trials in which they will challenge the scientific evidence from doctors presented by prosecutors..."In July attorneys for both challenged scientific evidence from doctors presented by prosecutors. In both cases doctors concluded that the children died from severe head trauma and that the injuries were caused by intentional and violent acts and not from accidental injuries like falls or a traffic crash. At the July hearing, Andrew Rodenhouse, representing Ackley, and Kymberly Schroder argued that the science of determining the cause of deaths in young children is changing and they should be allowed to challenge the credibility of the experts before the cases go to trial. Ackley is scheduled to be tried beginning Oct. 4 and Ball's trial is scheduled for later in October."..."Both attorneys have argued that they were not able to conduct a full hearing to challenge the science of Abusive Head Trauma and Shaken Baby Syndrome." Reporter Trace Christenson: Battle Creek Inquirer; September 26;


"A Calhoun County judge said Monday he will not delay the trials of two men charged in separate homicide cases of children. But attorneys for both said they will immediately file motions with the Michigan Court of Appeals seeking delays. Circuit Judge John Hallacy denied the motions brought by attorneys for Leo Ackley and Anthony Ball to delay their murder trials while they appeal Hallacy's decision on introduction of evidence from July. Ackley, 29, was granted a new trial last year by the Michigan Supreme Court after his 2011 murder and child abuse convictions in the death of 3-year-old Baylee Stenmann in Battle Creek. Ball, 29, is awaiting trial in the Dec. 19, 2014, death of Athena Ramey, 20, months in Marshall. Both men were caring for the children of their girlfriends when the fatal injuries occurred. In July attorneys for both challenged scientific evidence from doctors presented by prosecutors.........Both defendants have filed appeals to that ruling with the Michigan Court of Appeals and both Rodenhouse and Schroder appeared Monday asking Hallacy to delay the trials while they wait for a decision. Both attorneys have argued that they were not able to conduct a full hearing to challenge the science of Abusive Head Trauma and Shaken Baby Syndrome.
http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/story/news/local/2016/09/26/judge-rejects-delays-trials-over-child-deaths/91129910/

Pillaged Braintree evidence room: Massachusetts; Bulletin: 5 Investigates reports that Braintree's Deputy Police Chief Wayne Foster has been placed on administrative leave over the evidence scandal; (Police chief set to retire Oct. 7)..."David Hinds, the lawyer representing Deputy Chief Foster told 5 Investigates, “The mayor is as culpable as the chief (Russell Jenkins) for not properly supervising the officer in charge of the evidence room.” He said it was actually Foster who went to the chief to say the evidence officer should be removed. Hinds called the town’s action “totally inappropriate.” (September 26);



"Braintree’s deputy police chief has been placed on administrative leave in the wake of the evidence room scandal at the department. Sources tell 5 Investigates that Deputy Chief Wayne Foster was put on paid administrative leave effective Monday.  5 Investigates reported last week that, according to sources, members of the Braintree Police Department had suggested there were problems with the evidence and that the officer in charge, Susan Zopatti, was disoriented at work and needed help. Zopatti joined the Braintree Police Department in 1995 and worked patrol until becoming the evidence officer in 2013.  A recent audit of the department concentrated on the years Zopatti was in charge of the evidence room and discovered the missing money, firearms and seized drugs. That tainted and missing evidence has already led to criminal charges being dropped in 41 Braintree cases.........David Hinds, the lawyer representing Deputy Chief Foster told 5 Investigates, “The mayor is as culpable as the chief (Russell Jenkins) for not properly supervising the officer in charge of the evidence room.” He said it was actually Foster who went to the chief to say the evidence officer should be removed. Hinds called the town’s action “totally inappropriate.” Officer Zopatti took her own life within a week of meeting with the auditor in May.........The attorney general is investigating and sources tell us more changes within the department may be on the way.""

http://www.wcvb.com/news/5-investigates-braintree-deputy-police-chief-placed-on-leave-over-evidence-scandal/41838736

Monday, September 26, 2016

Lana Canen; Indiana; Police officer lied on the stand about his ability to identify a fingerprint at the murder scene causing her to serve eght years in prison for a crime she did not commit. Will a panel of federal judges permit her to continue her lawsuit? Reporter Virginia Black. The South Bend Tribune..."The only physical evidence against Canen was a partial pinkie print found on a plastic container that held Sailor’s medications. A city police detective sent the “latent” prints found in her apartment to Chapman, because he believed Chapman was an expert in that type of print and the Indiana State Police lab would have taken longer. But it was revealed later that Chapman was trained in comparing inked fingerprints rolled onto cards. Latent prints, those found at crime scenes, are more complicated to match because they are more likely to be only partial, to be contaminated or to be smudged. Canen’s appeal upheld her conviction, but another attorney took up her case and filed for post-conviction release. That attorney hired a fingerprint expert who determined Canen was not the source of the print after all. Chapman conceded then that he lied about his expertise at trial. At the post-conviction relief hearing, according to court documents, a prosecutor questioned Chapman about the testimony that convicted Canen. “At any point, Detective Chapman, when you were asked to look at this latent of Ms. Canen, did you ever consider saying, ‘You know what, maybe I shouldn’t?’ “ “Yes,” he said. “Well, did you bring that to someone’s attention?” “No.” “Why not?” “Well, I was trying to help out Elkhart City.”"



STORY: "Elkhart woman suing police detective who lied at her trial," by reporter  Virginia Black, published by The Grand Bend Tribune on September 25, 2016.

SUB-HEADING: "Elkhart woman served eight years in prison on errant fingerprint testimony."

 GIST: A panel of federal judges will decide whether an Elkhart woman can continue  her lawsuit against a police officer who lied on the stand and caused her to serve eight years in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. Elkhart County police Detective Dennis Chapman lied about his ability to identify a fingerprint at a murder scene, and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Friday about whether he has immunity based on his police position.  Lana Canen was 53 when she was released from prison in 2012, having served eight years behind bars before an Elkhart County judge determined she was wrongfully convicted. Chapman admitted he lied about his ability to identify a partial fingerprint left at the home of the 94-year-old blind woman Canen was convicted of killing on Thanksgiving Day, 2002. She was arrested in 2004 and convicted in August 2005. Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano dismissed the federal civil rights action, determining that Chapman carried immunity in his actions as an Elkhart County Sheriff’s Department employee. But Canen’s attorney, Michael Sutherlin, of Indianapolis, appealed Lozano’s decision to the 7th Circuit. Attorneys for both sides made their arguments Friday in Chicago, and it normally takes months for a ruling. Canen, who protested her innocence to police, and a man who confessed to the murder but whose story changed several times over the course of the investigation, were each sentenced to 55 years in prison for the murder of Helen Sailor in the Waterfall Highrise Apartments in Elkhart. Sailor was found strangled and with peanut oil and cranberry juice poured over her body. The only physical evidence against Canen was a partial pinkie print found on a plastic container that held Sailor’s medications. A city police detective sent the “latent” prints found in her apartment to Chapman, because he believed Chapman was an expert in that type of print and the Indiana State Police lab would have taken longer.  But it was revealed later that Chapman was trained in comparing inked fingerprints rolled onto cards. Latent prints, those found at crime scenes, are more complicated to match because they are more likely to be only partial, to be contaminated or to be smudged. Canen’s appeal upheld her conviction, but another attorney took up her case and filed for post-conviction release. That attorney hired a fingerprint expert who determined Canen was not the source of the print after all. Chapman conceded then that he lied about his expertise at trial. At the post-conviction relief hearing, according to court documents, a prosecutor questioned Chapman about the testimony that convicted Canen. “At any point, Detective Chapman, when you were asked to look at this latent of Ms. Canen, did you ever consider saying, ‘You know what, maybe I shouldn’t?’ “ “Yes,” he said. “Well, did you bring that to someone’s attention?” “No.” “Why not?” “Well, I was trying to help out Elkhart City.”

The entire story can be found at:

http://m.southbendtribune.com/news/publicsafety/elkhart-woman-suing-police-detective-who-lied-at-her-trial/article_46eaca4c-87c2-5992-82c4-af14a140ef4f.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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 found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:  http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html  Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  
Harold Levy. Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Pillaged Precinct 4 Constables's Office evidence room: Texas; Bulletin: Precinct 4's evidence destruction scandal part of larger pattern in constables' offices, the Houston Chronicle reports. (reporter Lise Olsen)..."Only time will tell whether chaotic evidence handling practices reported in Precincts 3,6 and 7 will result in case dismissals, appeals or further investigations. Harris County auditors in May 2015 uncovered evidence problems - never made public - in a review of the overstuffed property room inside the Precinct  6 Constable's Office in the East End. There, auditors reported finding 28 percent of the evidence missing along with $54,000 in cash in a review of a sample of 799 items, the audit shows. Their visit to the office came only months after the previous constable, Victor Treviño, resigned after pleading guilty to misappropriating money from a charity he ran out of his office. Constable Heliodoro Martinez, who replaced Treviño, said in an interview Friday that he immediately contacted the Harris County district attorney after receiving those results. It took five months for a team of two Harris County sheriff's deputies and two of his own officers to locate the missing cash and other items. Martinez said he is still trying to impose order in an evidence room that hadn't been cleaned out or organized in 26 years. Unlike the Precinct 4 scandal, neither defense attorneys nor front-line prosecutors have been notified to review cases. So far, county lawyers have not deemed that any notifications or criminal investigations are necessary. "To this point, we haven't been made aware of any pending cases that have been affected in any way, shape or form," Martinez said. JoAnne Musick, a defense attorney who is past president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, said she is skeptical that no cases have been adversely affected. "Every property custodian comes in and testifies how great their system is - but in these audits that's not what they're finding," she said. "They're having to dig stuff up. … How do you know it's not been tampered with, it's not altered, it's not decayed?"



PICK OF THE DAY: Justice For Illinois' Wrongfully Convicted has chosen the 'Lincoln statue' in the 
State Capital  Springfield  to organize an even will be repreented by the following wrongfully convicted:  Denny Petitt, Jamie Snow, Barton McNeil, Patrick Pursley, John Horton, Randy Liebich, Lee Harris, Andre Griggs and Benita Johnson. "We will have a table, banner, and general signs. If you would like to make a sign for your wrongfully convicted loved one, feel free to do so." http://www.wherevent.com/detail/Justice-for-Illinois-OpWC-Illinois-Wrongful-Conviction-Day-Rally

STORY: "Precinct 4's evidence destruction scandal part of larger pattern in constables' offices," by reporter Lise Olsen, published by The Houston Chronicle  on September 24, 2106. (Updated September 25, 2016);

SUB-HEADING: "Evidence-keeping sloppy in 4 of 8 constable's offices."

GIST: "With Harris County's Precinct 4 Constable's Office mired in scandal over the improper destruction of 21,000 pieces of evidence, serious evidence cataloging and control problems also have been uncovered in the constables' offices in Precincts 3,6 and 7, according to interviews and audits obtained by the Houston Chronicle. While there is no proof yet that evidence has been unlawfully destroyed in those other three offices, 2,000 items were initially reported missing in Precinct 3; guns, jewelry, electronics and cash were misplaced in Precinct 6; and Precinct 7's evidence room has been described as "a shambles. In Precinct 4, where the evidence destruction scandal is still unfolding, prosecutors so far have dismissed 100 criminal cases and are still determining how many convictions could be affected by years of careless work blamed on a corporal fired for illegally disposing of drugs, guns and evidence. The episode remains the subject of a criminal probe. Only time will tell whether chaotic evidence handling practices reported in Precincts 3,6 and 7 will result in case dismissals, appeals or further investigations.  Harris County auditors in May 2015 uncovered evidence problems - never made public - in a review of the overstuffed property room inside the Precinct  6 Constable's Office in the East End. There, auditors reported finding 28 percent of the evidence missing along with $54,000 in cash in a review of a sample of 799 items, the audit shows. Their visit to the office came only months after the previous constable, Victor Treviño, resigned after pleading guilty to misappropriating money from a charity he ran out of his office. Constable Heliodoro Martinez, who replaced Treviño, said in an interview Friday that he immediately contacted the Harris County district attorney after receiving those results. It took five months for a team of two Harris County sheriff's deputies and two of his own officers to locate the missing cash and other items. Martinez said he is still trying to impose order in an evidence room that hadn't been cleaned out or organized in 26 years. Unlike the Precinct 4 scandal, neither defense attorneys nor front-line prosecutors have been notified to review cases. So far, county lawyers have not deemed that any notifications or criminal investigations are necessary. "To this point, we haven't been made aware of any pending cases that have been affected in any way, shape or form," Martinez said. JoAnne Musick, a defense attorney who is past president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, said she is skeptical that no cases have been adversely affected. "Every property custodian comes in and testifies how great their system is - but in these audits that's not what they're finding," she said. "They're having to dig stuff up. … How do you know it's not been tampered with, it's not altered, it's not decayed?"

The entire story can be  found at:
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Precinct-4-s-evidence-destruction-scandal-part-of-9278292.php

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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 found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:  http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html  Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  
Harold Levy. Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.