STORY: "DNA expert challenges Mayer Herskovic's tie to Taj Patterson's assault," by reporter Duncan Osborne published by Gay City News on September 19, 2016.
GIST: "A defense expert testified that the DNA testing method used to link Mayer Herskovic to
a brutal 2013 assault on a gay black man in
Williamsburg was invalid and that his DNA may have ended up on the
victim’s sneaker because a third person first touched Herskovic and then
touched the sneaker. “There is a question of potential secondary transfer to the sneaker,”
said Heather Coyle, an associate professor at the University of New
Haven who previously worked in Connecticut’s criminal forensics lab, in
Brooklyn Supreme Court on September 19. Herskovic is charged with multiple counts of unlawful imprisonment,
assault, gang assault, and menacing in the early morning December 1,
2013 attack that left Taj Patterson blind in one eye. Patterson was
brutally attacked by a mob of men, and two among them, both affiliated
with a private Hasidic community patrol, earlier pleaded guilty to
unlawful imprisonment. While no witness has identified Herskovic as the assailant,
Patterson testified on August 31 that
the man who punched him in the face, jabbed a thumb in his eye, and
kicked him in the face is the same man who removed his sneaker and
tossed it onto a nearby roof. Police recovered the sneaker from the roof, and it was checked for
fingerprints and DNA. On August 30, a criminalist from the city medical
examiner’s office testified that Herskovic’s DNA was found on the
sneaker that police recovered from the roof. The testimony on the DNA testing method, called high sensitivity DNA
testing, was technical and focused on the amount of DNA tested and the
software used in analyzing the results. The city medical examiner’s
office is the only public crime lab in the US that does this type of
testing. One Brooklyn court would not allow DNA evidence developed with
this method to be used at a trial. High sensitivity testing uses DNA samples that are measured in
picograms, or trillionths of a gram. The medical examiner uses the
method to test samples that are less than 100 picograms. DNA test kit
manufacturers recommend using DNA samples of at least one nanogram, or
1,000 picograms, Coyle said. The DNA is amplified, or has copies of it reproduced, and then
compared to known DNA samples, in this case those from Herskovic and
Patterson. The medical examiner’s office uses its own proprietary
software, called the Forensic Statistical Tool, to perform an analysis
and offer an opinion on how likely it is that a particular individual
contributed DNA to a sample. Coyle said that the small sample was prone to error being introduced
during amplification and when the software performs the analysis on the
sample. Pointing to the medical examiner’s evidence, she said that it
supported the view that a third person’s DNA was in the sample, which
would back up an assertion that Herskovic’s DNA was transferred to the
sneaker by that third individual. “In my opinion, there’s at least three,” she said. “This chart represents three individuals.” Tim Gough, the prosecutor on the case, repeatedly questioned Coyle’s
qualifications, as he did when she was first offered as an expert
witness. Coyle has not done any DNA testing since she left the
Connecticut lab in 2004. Her graduate degrees are in plant biology. The
sample in this case was 97.9 picogram. “It’s still a relatively robust sample, correct?” Gough said of the sample. “Yes,” Coyle said. With his questions, Gough noted that evidence produced by high
sensitivity DNA testing had been used in New York courts on “at least 20
different occasions” and that evidence produced by the Forensic
Statistical Tool had been used by New York courts 43 times. Coyle, who
co-authored a 2016 law journal article about the Forensic Statistical
Tool, was unaware of those courts allowing that evidence in. There are other public and private labs around the world that do high
sensitivity DNA testing, but the medical examiner’s office appears to
be the only lab that uses the method to develop evidence in criminal
trials. Some European labs use it to develop leads in criminal
investigations.........The defense rested on September19. The trial resumes on September 21,
and the DNA lab technical leader will be called as a prosecution
rebuttal witness. Closing statements are expected that day as well."
The entire story can be found at:
http://gaycitynews.nyc/dna-expert-challenges-mayer-herskovics-tie-taj-pattersons-assault/
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.
