BACKGROUND: ROMAN ZADOROV: ISRAEL: "Tair Rada was murdered inside a bathroom stall at the Nofei Golan School in Katzrin on December 6, 2006. Almost three years later, the Nazareth District Court convicted Roman Zadorov, a foreign citizen and resident of Katzrin, of murdering the girl. The verdict ignored a dense fabric of defense evidence that led to his conviction. Since then, however, the affair has continued to occupy the media and public opinion. Despite the firm verdict - the justice system has discussed it several more times and left the conviction intact. Zadorov, who worked in flooring at Rada's school, was arrested a few days after the murder, confessed to the murder and even reenacted it. He then retracted his confession, and as the trial progressed the defense was able to raise doubts among the public that Zadorov was indeed the killer. Subsequently, the defense presented two new opinions regarding the type of knife with which Rada was murdered as well as the marks that were on her pants. The district court reviewed the opinion, and decided at the end of the day to uphold the conviction. However, Zadorov's defense team appealed to the Supreme Court again and this time Zadorov was again convicted of murder - but only by a majority opinion. Justices Yitzhak Amit and Zvi Zilbertal convicted the defendant, while Judge Yoram Danziger acquitted him out of doubt. A year ago, Zadorov filed another appeal to the Supreme Court. About two months ago, Chief Justice Hanan Meltzer ruled that Zadorov should have a retrial."......(Jerusalem Post: Reporter Eli Ashkenazi; August 26, 2021.)...... "A blow to the prosecution in the Zadorov trial? “It is impossible to determine the size of the shoe by the imprint on the jeans of the late Tair Rada,” retired Chief of Staff Yaron Shur, a shoe imprint expert for the Israel Police, said today (Tuesday) in his testimony in the Nazareth District Court. testimony was received that the imprint of Zadorov's salamander shoe on Rada's pants was found in the arena. However, during the appeals in the Supreme Cour, doubts arose as to the reliability of the shoe imprint." Time News report: December 21, 2021.
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STORY: "New Testimony Casts Doubt on Charge in Tair Rada’s Killing," by Reporter Chen Maanit, published by Haaretz, on June 7, 2022.
SUB-HEADING: "The prosecution witness claims that the trial's focus, unidentified bloody footprints found at the scene of the murder, could have been a result of paramedics moving the body."
GIST: "New testimony by a German pathologist during the retrial of the man convicted of murdering 13-year-old Ta’ir Rada in her school in 2006 said blood could have dripped from her clothes hours after she was murdered. The retrial is focusing on unidentified bloody footprints found at the scene of the murder.
According to Prof. Marcus Rothschild, a prosecution witness who testified to the Nazareth District Court via video conferencing from Germany, the blood could have dripped as a result of paramedics attaching EKG sensors to the girl.
Rothschild, who heads the Institute of Legal Medicine at the University Hospital of Cologne, said that nevertheless, the fact that her clothes were still on her body reduces the chances that blood actually did drip from them at that time.
The question of how long Rada could have bled and whether the bleeding could have resumed after her body was moved was key to the Supreme Court’s decision last year to order a retrial for Roman Zadarov.
Rada’s body was found in a toilet stall at her school in the Golan Heights town of Katzrin a full five hours after she was killed. Bloody footprints that didn’t belong to either Zadorov or Rada were found in the stall.
This raised questions about whether Zadorov was really the killer, Supreme Court Justice Hanan Melcer wrote in his decision to order the retrial. The footprint that raised the most questions about whether Zadorov was really guilty was found on the lid of the toilet.
The defense argued that Rada couldn’t still have been bleeding five hours after the murder, and therefore, these footprints likely belonged to the killer.
This view has been backed by the head of Israel’s Institute of Forensic Medicine, Dr. Chen Kugel, as well as other experts, due to the position in which her body was found – with her head on the toilet tank and her feet on the floor – and the location of the stab wounds that killed her.
The paramedics who pronounced her dead testified that they were careful not to move the body.
Kugel wasn’t asked about the possibility that blood had dripped from her clothes. But one of his colleagues, Dr. Alon Krispin, didn’t rule out the possibility of that happening even five hours after the murder.
In a written opinion submitted to the court, Rothschild said there were two possibilities for how blood could have leaked from Rada’s clothes even hours after the murder – either because the paramedics pressed on her clothing as they worked, or because blood had been trapped in a fold of the clothing and spilled out when the paramedics shifted the clothes during the course of their work. In either case, this means the bloody footprints could belong to someone other than the killer.
During his testimony on Monday, Rothschild noted that the autopsy report showed that Rada’s clothing was blood-soaked. And when you press on a blood-soaked piece of clothing, blood drips from it, he said, adding that such pressure could have been exerted when the paramedics attached the EKG sensors.
Zadorov’s lawyer, Yarom Halevy, argued during cross-examination that blood dripping from Rada’s clothes hours after the murder is a purely theoretical possibility not backed by evidence.
But Rothschild responded that given the position Rada was found in, it would have been impossible to attach EKG sensors without pressing on the clothing.
Halevy then asked whether the fact that the paramedics didn’t remove Rada’s clothing ruled out the possibility of blood having dripped from it while they worked. Rothschild responded that this reduced the chances of dripping having occurred, but didn’t rule it out.
Zadorov was initially convicted in 2010. On appeal, the Supreme Court ordered a rehearing of his case, but he was convicted again in 2014. The Supreme Court upheld that verdict in 2015, but ordered a retrial last year in light of new evidence."
The entire story can be read 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;
