PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "As a result of the previous deposition, Hasan’s attorney Patrick White also is asking the court to depose three expert witnesses, including two current members of the Connecticut State Police Forensic Laboratory, to testify about DNA testing they did on the Puma sneakers in 2014 that contradicted what Lee testified to during Hasan’s trial. One of those witnesses, Leila Timm, graduated from Lee’s own forensic science program at the University of New Haven.White also wants to have William Bodziak, a former FBI agent who taught a footwear analysis class at the agency’s headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, examine the Puma sneakers currently being held as evidence at the Stamford criminal clerk’s office. White is seeking permission to allow Bodziak to take impressions of the sneakers to do a comparison to photos of the bloody shoe print police found in the kitchen of the Tylers’ home after the murder. At Hasan’s trial in 1986 the state presented Kenneth Zercie as an expert on shoe impressions. Zercie originally filed a report indicating the Puma sneakers seized from Hasan’s apartment “were consistent” with the shoe print found in the Tylers’ kitchen.A few months after filing that report Zercie attended an FBI seminar on footwear analysis. When he returned he filed a new report in the Hasan case stating that the sneaker seized from Hasan definitely made the bloody shoe print found at the crime scene. The class that Zercie took was taught by Bodziak, who the defense now wants to use to refute that trial testimony."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "In the third case, David Weinberg, who was convicted in the 1984 murder of Joyce Stochmal, was released from prison in 2017 based on evidence that Lee had falsely testified. In that case, the defense argued that Lee testified “trace material on hair and on the knife was blood when he knew or should have known that the material was either animal blood or not blood at all.” After the Hasan lawsuit was filed Lee held a press conference at the forensic institute he started and angrily refuted the claims he had made a mistake."
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STORY: "Henry Lee to be deposed by attorneys for man arguing he was falsely convicted of 1985 Darien murder because of faulty DNA tests by famed forensic scientist," by Investigative Reporter Dave Altimari, published by The Hartford Courant on May 7, 2020.
GIST: "Famed
forensic scientist Henry Lee will be deposed this month by lawyers for a
man seeking to have his 1985 murder conviction overturned because Lee
falsely testified about DNA evidence at his trial. Wendall
Hasan is serving an 80-year-prison sentence for the murder of George
Tyler in his Darien home. He has filed a lawsuit in New Haven Superior
Court seeking to have the conviction overturned, arguing that Lee
falsely testified about DNA evidence found on a pair of Puma sneakers
that police seized from a closet in Hasan’s Norwalk apartment a few days
after the murder. Lee
was already deposed once last September and is scheduled to continue
that deposition on March 11, according to court records. As
a result of the previous deposition, Hasan’s attorney Patrick White
also is asking the court to depose three expert witnesses, including two
current members of the Connecticut State Police Forensic Laboratory, to
testify about DNA testing they did on the Puma sneakers in 2014 that
contradicted what Lee testified to during Hasan’s trial. One of those
witnesses, Leila Timm, graduated from Lee’s own forensic science program
at the University of New Haven. White
also wants to have William Bodziak, a former FBI agent who taught a
footwear analysis class at the agency’s headquarters in Quantico,
Virginia, examine the Puma sneakers currently being held as evidence at
the Stamford criminal clerk’s office. White is seeking permission to
allow Bodziak to take impressions of the sneakers to do a comparison to
photos of the bloody shoe print police found in the kitchen of the
Tylers’ home after the murder. At
Hasan’s trial in 1986 the state presented Kenneth Zercie as an expert
on shoe impressions. Zercie originally filed a report indicating the
Puma sneakers seized from Hasan’s apartment “were consistent” with the
shoe print found in the Tylers’ kitchen.A
few months after filing that report Zercie attended an FBI seminar on
footwear analysis. When he returned he filed a new report in the Hasan
case stating that the sneaker seized from Hasan definitely made the
bloody shoe print found at the crime scene. The class that Zercie took
was taught by Bodziak, who the defense now wants to use to refute that
trial testimony. Assistant
State’s Attorney Jo Anne Sulik has filed a motion objecting to allowing
the sneakers to be retested arguing that the request is untimely. Sulik
said that Hasan is seeking a speedy trial as early as August, but to
have an expert brought in now would cause a delay. “Clearly,
if his expert’s inspection reveals favorable evidence, the petitioner’s
disclosure of such expert will be grossly untimely. Similarly, the
respondent’s ability to timely depose the petitioner’s expert in
accordance with the scheduling order would have been thwarted,” Sulik
wrote. Sulik
also warned further testing of the sneakers will degrade the evidence.
She also expressed concerns about how and where the show testing would
be done by Bodziak. “The
process of taking impressions may alter the value of the evidence for
future use. Generally, a substance is applied to the soles of the shoes
or sneakers in order to make the impression,” Sulik wrote. “At present,
the sole of one Puma sneaker still bears much of the black fingerprint
powder applied to it by the petitioner’s expert in 1986. Depending on
the type of impression attempted, other substances may be applied." Sulik
asked the court to allow the state to have its own expert present if
Bodziak is allowed to test the sneakers and to do it in a controlled
environment and not at the busy clerk’s office. A judge hasn’t ruled yet on the experts or allowing the sneakers to be tested. George
Tyler was stabbed to death in his Darien home on July 2, 1985, and
police found a bloody shoe print in the kitchen that belonged to a Puma
sneaker. Rachel Tyler, George’s wife, survived the attack but was
severely injured. Three
days later the landlord of a South Norwalk apartment complex called a
plumber to clear a clogged toilet. When he did so, he found two credit
cards belonging to George Tyler in the drain, records show. The
apartment complex was where the Hasan family lived. When police searched
the house, they found a pair of Puma sneakers in a closet that belonged
to Hasan. He was arrested for the murder. At Hasan’s trial, Lee testified that a substance found on the bottom of one of the sneakers was human blood. He
went on to say that the blood had a “phosphate glucose mutate factor of
1." Lee testified both of the Tylers had the same factor. He added
about 40 percent of the population has that same condition. But
when the sneakers were retested in July 2014 by the state police
forensic laboratory, the stains that Lee testified were blood “were
negative for the presence of blood,” according to a lawsuit filed
Tuesday asking the verdict be set aside. The
left sneaker had two stains, a reddish stain on the side and a brownish
stain located on the sole. DNA was extracted from the stain on the sole
as well as from inside the sneaker. The DNA results showed that the
sample included mixtures of blood and that neither matched the DNA of
the Tylers. The
right shoe also was re-examined and reddish stains on both sides of it
were not blood. The lab also collected samples for a blackish stain on
the bottom of that sneaker and from a sample inside the sneaker. They
were sent for DNA analysis which concluded that the samples were
mixtures of more than one person’s DNA and that neither of the Tylers’
DNA matched those samples either. The
Hasan case is the third one in the past two years where Lee’s work has
been called into question. The state Supreme Court last year overturned
the murder convictions of Shawn Henning and Ralph Birch based partly on
the inaccurate testimony of Lee at their trials that a brown spot found
on a towel was human blood. Years
later, the forensic lab revealed the towel had never been tested and
when they did test it the substance was found not to be blood. The two
men had been convicted of the brutal murder of Everett Carr in his New
Milford home in 1985. Birch and Henning are both free on promises to
appear in court. The state has yet to decide whether to retry them. In
the third case, David Weinberg, who was convicted in the 1984 murder of
Joyce Stochmal, was released from prison in 2017 based on evidence that
Lee had falsely testified. In that case, the defense argued that Lee
testified “trace material on hair and on the knife was blood when he
knew or should have known that the material was either animal blood or
not blood at all.” After
the Hasan lawsuit was filed Lee held a press conference at the forensic
institute he started and angrily refuted the claims he had made a
mistake. After
his press conference ended Lee gave The Courant a four-page state
police forensic laboratory report dated July 17, 1985, that appears to
be test results done on samples taken from George Tyler’s home. The
report said that reddish brown stains taken from the sneakers tested
positive for human blood. “We
did conduct the tests in this case and I stand behind the science 100
percent in this case,” Lee said. “You cannot say that 30 years ago blood
wasn’t there just because of a test that you’ve done now,” Lee said.
“You aren’t testing the same thing. It is a totally different sample.""
The entire story can be read at:
