"THE GROUP PLANS TO SHARE ITS FINDINGS WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT ACROSS THE STATE. THE INNOCENCE PROJECT WOULD ALSO LIKE TO MAKE A FORMAL COMPLAINT TO AN OUTSIDE LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY IN HOPES OF TRIGGERING AN OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION, BLACKBURN SAID."
SIDEBAR; LESLIE WILBER; THE VICTORIA ADVOCATE;
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background: This Blog has been delving into the havoc caused by the late John Preston and his magical dog who could purportedly trace scents across water. The focus now turns to Deputy Keith Pikett, another so-called dog-scent "specialist", a canine officer with the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office, just southwest of Houston. Time Magazine has reported on two apparent miscarriages of Justice involving Pikett; The first case studied involves Calvin Lee Miller, who was charged with robbery and sexual assault after Pikett's bloodhounds alerted police to a scent on sheets that Pikett said matched a scent swipe from Miller's cheek. DNA evidence later cleared Miller, but only after he served 62 days in jail. In a second case, former Victoria County Sheriff's Department Captain Michael Buchanek was named as a "person of interest" in a murder case after Pikett's bloodhounds sped 5.5 miles from a crime scene, tracking a scent to Buchanek's home. Another man later confessed to the murder.
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A sidebar to reporter Leslie Wilbers August 12 story on Keith Pikett tells us that, "A report detailing the Innocence Project of Texas' investigation into Keith Pikett's scent lineups should be finished within weeks."
""We have done hundreds of hours of work so far in the last month," said Jeff Blackburn, the group's chief counsel. "It's pretty disturbing,"" the sidebar continues;
"The Innocence Project is investigating several cases in which Pikett's testimony was used to get a conviction, Blackburn said.
"This is a very flawed witness who is giving very flawed testimony," Blackburn said.
The group plans to share its findings with law enforcement across the state. The Innocence Project would also like to make a formal complaint to an outside law enforcement agency in hopes of triggering an official investigation, Blackburn said.
When the report is finished, it will be available online, Blackburn said."
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
Showing posts with label michael buchanek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label michael buchanek. Show all posts
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
MILLER/BUCHANEK CASES: GREAT REPORTING; LESLIE WILBER ON THE SCENT OF SCENT-LINEUP'S FOR THE VICTORIA ADVOCATE;
"THIS IS JUNK SCIENCE. THIS ISN'T EVEN SCIENCE. THIS IS JUST JUNK," SAID JEFF BLACKBURN, CHIEF COUNSEL FOR THE INNOCENCE PROJECT OF TEXAS. THE GROUP WORKS TO FREE THE WRONGFULLY CONVICTED AND BEGAN INVESTIGATING PIKETT RECENTLY."
REPORTER LESLIE WILBER; THE VICTORIA ADVOCATE;
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background: This Blog has been delving into the havoc caused by the late John Preston and his magical dog who could purportedly trace scents across water. The focus now turns to Deputy Keith Pikett, another so-called dog-scent "specialist", a canine officer with the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office, just southwest of Houston. Time Magazine has reported on two apparent miscarriages of Justice involving Pikett; The first case studied involves Calvin Lee Miller, who was charged with robbery and sexual assault after Pikett's bloodhounds alerted police to a scent on sheets that Pikett said matched a scent swipe from Miller's cheek. DNA evidence later cleared Miller, but only after he served 62 days in jail. In a second case, former Victoria County Sheriff's Department Captain Michael Buchanek was named as a "person of interest" in a murder case after Pikett's bloodhounds sped 5.5 miles from a crime scene, tracking a scent to Buchanek's home. Another man later confessed to the murder.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporter Leslie Wilber has done a superb job of exposing the brutal injustice caused to innocent individuals such as Calvin Lee Miller and Michael Buchanek when a justice system blindly embraces a scientifically bereft charade such as "scent-lineups" as practiced by snake-oil salesmen such as John Preston and Keith Pikett;
I particularly admired Ms. Wilber's thorough examination of scent line-ups in a story which appeared in the Victoria Advocate on July 12, 2009, under the heading: "Does it pass the smell test?"
On the trail:
"A tall, soft-spoken black man robbed one elderly woman of her life's savings and sexually assaulted another. He attacked the women in their homes, early in the morning, as they left for church," the story began."
"Shops in the small town of Yoakum sold out of Mace. Women took self-defense classes," it continued;
"As pressure mounted on law enforcement to make an arrest, an unnamed source told investigator Collin Lee Campbell Jr. that Calvin Lee Miller was unemployed and "had been buying a lot of cocaine with cash."
Miller, a 43-year-old Yoakum native, is a former high school football player of imposing bulk. He speaks quietly. Police know him as an habitual - though petty and non-violent - criminal.
To divine Miller's connection, the investigator swabbed the suspect with a gauze pad. He took that pad and scent from the victim's sheets to Deputy Keith Pikett in Fort Bend County.
Pikett is the only dog handler in the state who performs scent identification lineups. Pikett's three bloodhounds indicated Miller's scent was on the sheets.
Miller spent 62 days in jail. Finally, he was cleared by DNA evidence and the victims' failure to identify him.
"It was just like my life was taken away from me," he said.
No laws or regulations govern scent lineups, but they're admissible in courts across the nation. Only tighter oversight can keep shoddy - and sometimes shady - scent IDs from becoming key evidence, a growing number of critics say.
"This is junk science. This isn't even science. This is just junk," said Jeff Blackburn, chief counsel for the Innocence Project of Texas. The group works to free the wrongfully convicted and began investigating Pikett recently.
Miller's case and several others across the country reveal problems with scent dogs:
- During a murder investigation, the home of a former Victoria County sheriff's captain was searched after Pikett's dogs led officers there, then identified his scent in a lineup. Another man later confessed to the murder.
- A California man, accused of arson, awaited trial in jail for two years. His arrest was based largely on scent evidence collected from charred shrubs. He was acquitted.
- Two Florida men each spent more than 20 years in prison - one convicted of rape, the other of murder. The evidence against both included testimony from a dog handler the Arizona Supreme Court later called a charlatan.
How scent IDs work
Two ideas underlie scent identification: Dogs have a keen sense of smell - sometimes 10,000 times more sensitive than humans - and everyone has a unique scent. The challenge is to train dogs to overtly and accurately alert observers to matching smells.
The best-run scent lineups can provide results as accurate as witness identification lineups, said Kenneth Furton, the chairman of the federally funded Scientific Working Group on Dog and Orthogonal Detector Guidelines. Furton is a chemistry and biochemistry professor at Florida International University. For a model, he points to the Netherlands, where lineups are closely regulated and happen in near-sterile rooms without human interaction.
But training for dogs in the United States is often left to lone handlers or agencies.
"There isn't really any requirement to adhere to any kind of best practice," Furton said. Lineups are not as widely used as other scent evidence - for example, drug sniffs - so the technique has glided under regulatory radars, he said.
The National Police Bloodhound Association quit endorsing the technique years ago, calling scent lineups unreliable.
"We don't even want to take a chance on that," said Doug Lowry, the group's president and a chief instructor.
Kevin Kocher, president of the National Bloodhound Training Institute, said he doesn't run lineups and finds them hard to defend.
Critics list several potential weaknesses of scent identification:
Handler or observer influence. Dogs are eager to please and can pick up subtle cues, especially if lineups are conducted on leash, said Steven Nicely, a police-dog handler-turned-defense witness. Handlers can read observers and unintentionally relay that information to the dogs.
"They learn about the pressure on the leash and the way you stand," Nicely said.
Sample contamination. Lineups typically include a suspect's scent and scents from five other people. The samples should all be fresh and about the same age because scent fades over time.
The pads should be handled carefully, to avoid contamination, and lineups should be conducted in clean rooms, without distracting smells. Human scent is best stored in glass jars at room temperature and out of direct light, Fulton said.
Handler reliability. Dogs can't talk, so handlers are their voice in the courtroom. Affidavits should be precise. Records should be detailed, showing errors and successes.
"As a dog handler, you'd better be acting as a scientist," Nicely said. "Otherwise, you're acting on myth and folklore."
Troubled cases
Michael Buchanek's federal lawsuit in January 2008 was the first complaint about Pikett's work, said Randy Morse, an assistant Fort Bend County attorney representing the deputy. A scent lineup and trail identified Buchanek as a suspect in the high-profile murder of Sally Blackwell.
Pikett's dogs, Quincy and James Bond, walked from the site where Blackwell's body was found, along Zac Lentz Parkway, to her home more than five miles away. From there, they went to Buchanek's house nearby.
The hounds also picked the former Victoria County sheriff's captain's scent in a series of lineups. The identifications were used to get a search warrant for Buchanek's home.
His lawyer, Rex Easley, represents Calvin Miller in another civil suit that names Pikett.
In one motion, Easley wrote Pikett's lineup was "so recklessly flawed that it violated the constitutional rights of the plaintiff. First, the dogs were leashed during the lineup, which fails to exclude handler input. Second, the site, the pads and the cans were contaminated with countless other scents so as to render it unreliable and impermissible to base a warrant upon."
Easley hired Bob Coote, who led a police-dog force in the United Kingdom and worked with scent dogs guarding the British border, to review Pikett's work in Buchanek's case. The lineup was "the most primitive evidential police procedure I have ever witnessed. If it was not for the fact that this is a serious matter, I could have been watching a comedy," Coote wrote.
In California, Michael Espalin spent two years in jail awaiting an arson trial. Firefighters saw Espalin walking his dog near a Riverside, Calif., landscape fire in 2004. Fire Capt. Robert Rappaport knew bloodhound handler and community college professor Lisa Harvey.
Harvey used a method similar to scent lineup and claimed her bloodhound, Dakota, connected a scent from a matchbook wrapped in toilet paper to a series of fires. Then, she linked the fire-starting device to Espalin's home.
Espalin was arrested, although another suspect - a reported firebug - fit witness descriptions. The other man's truck looked like one seen near several fires.
"She was all fired up about this," said attorney Joseph De Clue, who represents Espalin in a civil suit filed in federal court in California. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. She looked at it as a new way of solving crimes."
A jury heard Harvey's testimony in January 2007 and deadlocked. Harvey did not testify in the second trial. Espalin was found not guilty.
Discredited handler
Dog handlers and criminal justice advocates draw parallels between current scent identification cases and the work of a man discredited more than 20 years ago.
John Preston's German shepherd, Harass II, gained a super-canine reputation for his work on high-profile, violent crimes. The team's techniques included scent lineups and trailing.
The Pennsylvania state trooper and his dog were called to investigations around the country in the early 1980s.
Florida authorities used Preston in scores of investigations, estimates Seth Miller, executive director of The Innocence Project of Florida. Preston's testimony was part of the evidence that convicted William Dillon of murder and Wilton Dedge of rape.
By the mid-1980s, the Kings County District Attorney in New York gathered a list of 14 dog handlers who said Preston's claims were "highly improbable." The Arizona Supreme Court called Preston a charlatan.
Dedge and Dillon were exonerated in recent years after each spent more than 20 years in prison. The state of Florida paid Dedge a $2 million settlement. Dillon has not been compensated for his 27-year prison stay, which is as long as any exonerated inmate's, Seth Miller said.
Preston has since died.
Agencies, including the FBI, continued to use scent identification even after Preston's work was debunked, former dog handler Nicely said.
Special Agent Ann Todd with the FBI office of public affairs responded to several requests for interviews with an e-mail.
"The FBI does not wish to participate in an interview at this time. The FBI Laboratory's Forensic Canine Program does not currently use dogs to do scent ID lineups," she wrote.
Handlers, too, resist the idea of regulation.
During a pretrial hearing, Harvey said no group would be qualified to evaluate her dogs.
Although Pikett works full time for a sheriff's office, supervisors have not set guidelines for his work, his lawyer said. No one else understands what he does.
"He would just be writing regulations toward himself," his lawyer, Morse, said.
Morse advised against allowing his client to comment for this article.
Legal standing
How does evidence few people understand, and no one monitors, make it into court?
Some prosecutors and investigators support scent identification because it can offer leads where there were none.
San Jacinto County District Attorney Bill Burnett used Pikett as an expert witness to prosecute three co-defendants in a murder case. One was convicted of murder, another of capital murder and the third was acquitted.
"I felt like this evidence was certainly credible," Burnett said. He grew up around hunting dogs and knows they can do incredible stuff, he said.
Big investigative agencies - the FBI, the Houston Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives - have used Pikett, Burnett said.
An outright ban on a type of evidence is rare, said Eric Ferrero, director of communications for The Innocence Project.
"It's the jobs of courts to police whatever evidence should be allowed into the courtroom," Ferrero said.
Getting binding appellate court decisions about evidence is often a difficult, inefficient process, said Blackburn of The Innocence Project of Texas.
"It takes a good lawyer who raises the issue correctly at trial," Blackburn said. Many public defenders are ill-equipped to mount meaningful criticisms of questionable evidence, he said.
Because it is unmonitored, seeing the full picture of scent ID, with all of its potential flaws, is difficult, Blackburn said.
"As far as we know, no one disallows it," Blackburn said. "That doesn't mean it's being used."
But in prosecutor-friendly states like Texas, California and Florida, he said, scent IDs can get into courtrooms unchecked.
Pikett was disqualified from testifying twice when held to standards for scientific forensic evidence.
"There is no way to adequately examine the theory behind a dog's identification of a suspect," Houston defense attorney Daphne L. Pattison wrote in a motion that successfully barred Pikett's testimony. "We have no way to interview the dog and determine what the dog is smelling, no way to examine the dog's biology to determine the mechanism employed, in short, no way to understand the science."
Pikett's credibility has been upheld by at least one Texas court of appeals. The decision relied on Pikett's testimony that his dogs were almost flawlessly accurate.
The court also noted Pikett's experience and education, including a master's degree in chemistry.
According to transcripts from a pre-trial hearing, Pikett twice told the court he earned the advanced degree.
In a deposition for the Buchanek case, Pikett said that wasn't his testimony. Instead, he has a master's in education from the United States Sports Academy.
The Rin Tin Tin factor
Heroic, loyal dogs lope through the American consciousness in folklore, television and books. Consequently, scent evidence can be compelling once it's in front of a jury, Blackburn said. Most people are raised to trust cops and dogs, former handler Nicely said, and people are reluctant to question those values.
"They don't want to step on the nose or the ears or the tails of Rin Tin Tin or Old Yeller," Nicely said.
The demand for Pikett's services remains, and he performs scent lineups daily in the parking lot of Pilgrim Journey Baptist Church in Rosenberg. Although his attorney, Morse, contends the lineups are legitimate, he said more suits could halt Pikett's work.
"If he becomes a target, I don't know if it's going to be worth it," Morse said.
Waiting for courts to flush bad science from the legal system is slow, Nicely said, so he wants a legislative solution. Detailed records of training and field work should be mandated, he said.
"We need to make it a criminal act to fail to do this," Nicely said.
The Scientific Working Group for Dog and Orthogonal Detection Guidelines is drafting scent lineup guidelines. The group will likely suggest an international board to oversee certifying agencies, chairman Furton said. The agencies would regularly vet dog and handler teams, he said.
Even with certification, Furton said, no criminal case should be built on scent lineups alone.
The lasting effects
Innocence Project volunteers could work for years, Blackburn said, and never find out how many people are wrongfully imprisoned based on what one man says his dogs smelled. The group learns of cases slowly, one at a time.
The Innocence Project of Florida is still searching for cases in which John Preston testified, more than 20 years after the fact, executive director Seth Miller said.
In South Texas, Calvin Miller is trying to pick up the life he had before his arrest.
Good news came to Miller slowly in jail. In April, his defense lawyer, Bill Caraway, called to say DNA evidence proved Miller was not the rapist. The case against Miller unraveled from there, but he was not released until May 5.
Caraway met Miller in the lobby of the Lavaca County Jail. Both men cried. They drank ice-cold, bucket-sized soft drinks in celebration.
But Miller's relief and joy have not tempered his outrage or his fear of police. He moved away from Yoakum, the town where he grew up, attended high school and lived most of his life. He visits his parents there, but never strays far from their houses.
"The place you call home, you can never go there," Miller said.
The crimes he was accused of remain unsolved.
Miller still can't understand how an innocent man can be so easily locked away.
"His question was, 'If I didn't do it, how could those dogs say I did it?'" his attorney Easley said. "And I told him dogs can't talk.""
The story can be found at:
http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2009/jul/12/lw_scentlineup_071209_56411/?counties
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
REPORTER LESLIE WILBER; THE VICTORIA ADVOCATE;
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background: This Blog has been delving into the havoc caused by the late John Preston and his magical dog who could purportedly trace scents across water. The focus now turns to Deputy Keith Pikett, another so-called dog-scent "specialist", a canine officer with the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office, just southwest of Houston. Time Magazine has reported on two apparent miscarriages of Justice involving Pikett; The first case studied involves Calvin Lee Miller, who was charged with robbery and sexual assault after Pikett's bloodhounds alerted police to a scent on sheets that Pikett said matched a scent swipe from Miller's cheek. DNA evidence later cleared Miller, but only after he served 62 days in jail. In a second case, former Victoria County Sheriff's Department Captain Michael Buchanek was named as a "person of interest" in a murder case after Pikett's bloodhounds sped 5.5 miles from a crime scene, tracking a scent to Buchanek's home. Another man later confessed to the murder.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporter Leslie Wilber has done a superb job of exposing the brutal injustice caused to innocent individuals such as Calvin Lee Miller and Michael Buchanek when a justice system blindly embraces a scientifically bereft charade such as "scent-lineups" as practiced by snake-oil salesmen such as John Preston and Keith Pikett;
I particularly admired Ms. Wilber's thorough examination of scent line-ups in a story which appeared in the Victoria Advocate on July 12, 2009, under the heading: "Does it pass the smell test?"
On the trail:
"A tall, soft-spoken black man robbed one elderly woman of her life's savings and sexually assaulted another. He attacked the women in their homes, early in the morning, as they left for church," the story began."
"Shops in the small town of Yoakum sold out of Mace. Women took self-defense classes," it continued;
"As pressure mounted on law enforcement to make an arrest, an unnamed source told investigator Collin Lee Campbell Jr. that Calvin Lee Miller was unemployed and "had been buying a lot of cocaine with cash."
Miller, a 43-year-old Yoakum native, is a former high school football player of imposing bulk. He speaks quietly. Police know him as an habitual - though petty and non-violent - criminal.
To divine Miller's connection, the investigator swabbed the suspect with a gauze pad. He took that pad and scent from the victim's sheets to Deputy Keith Pikett in Fort Bend County.
Pikett is the only dog handler in the state who performs scent identification lineups. Pikett's three bloodhounds indicated Miller's scent was on the sheets.
Miller spent 62 days in jail. Finally, he was cleared by DNA evidence and the victims' failure to identify him.
"It was just like my life was taken away from me," he said.
No laws or regulations govern scent lineups, but they're admissible in courts across the nation. Only tighter oversight can keep shoddy - and sometimes shady - scent IDs from becoming key evidence, a growing number of critics say.
"This is junk science. This isn't even science. This is just junk," said Jeff Blackburn, chief counsel for the Innocence Project of Texas. The group works to free the wrongfully convicted and began investigating Pikett recently.
Miller's case and several others across the country reveal problems with scent dogs:
- During a murder investigation, the home of a former Victoria County sheriff's captain was searched after Pikett's dogs led officers there, then identified his scent in a lineup. Another man later confessed to the murder.
- A California man, accused of arson, awaited trial in jail for two years. His arrest was based largely on scent evidence collected from charred shrubs. He was acquitted.
- Two Florida men each spent more than 20 years in prison - one convicted of rape, the other of murder. The evidence against both included testimony from a dog handler the Arizona Supreme Court later called a charlatan.
How scent IDs work
Two ideas underlie scent identification: Dogs have a keen sense of smell - sometimes 10,000 times more sensitive than humans - and everyone has a unique scent. The challenge is to train dogs to overtly and accurately alert observers to matching smells.
The best-run scent lineups can provide results as accurate as witness identification lineups, said Kenneth Furton, the chairman of the federally funded Scientific Working Group on Dog and Orthogonal Detector Guidelines. Furton is a chemistry and biochemistry professor at Florida International University. For a model, he points to the Netherlands, where lineups are closely regulated and happen in near-sterile rooms without human interaction.
But training for dogs in the United States is often left to lone handlers or agencies.
"There isn't really any requirement to adhere to any kind of best practice," Furton said. Lineups are not as widely used as other scent evidence - for example, drug sniffs - so the technique has glided under regulatory radars, he said.
The National Police Bloodhound Association quit endorsing the technique years ago, calling scent lineups unreliable.
"We don't even want to take a chance on that," said Doug Lowry, the group's president and a chief instructor.
Kevin Kocher, president of the National Bloodhound Training Institute, said he doesn't run lineups and finds them hard to defend.
Critics list several potential weaknesses of scent identification:
Handler or observer influence. Dogs are eager to please and can pick up subtle cues, especially if lineups are conducted on leash, said Steven Nicely, a police-dog handler-turned-defense witness. Handlers can read observers and unintentionally relay that information to the dogs.
"They learn about the pressure on the leash and the way you stand," Nicely said.
Sample contamination. Lineups typically include a suspect's scent and scents from five other people. The samples should all be fresh and about the same age because scent fades over time.
The pads should be handled carefully, to avoid contamination, and lineups should be conducted in clean rooms, without distracting smells. Human scent is best stored in glass jars at room temperature and out of direct light, Fulton said.
Handler reliability. Dogs can't talk, so handlers are their voice in the courtroom. Affidavits should be precise. Records should be detailed, showing errors and successes.
"As a dog handler, you'd better be acting as a scientist," Nicely said. "Otherwise, you're acting on myth and folklore."
Troubled cases
Michael Buchanek's federal lawsuit in January 2008 was the first complaint about Pikett's work, said Randy Morse, an assistant Fort Bend County attorney representing the deputy. A scent lineup and trail identified Buchanek as a suspect in the high-profile murder of Sally Blackwell.
Pikett's dogs, Quincy and James Bond, walked from the site where Blackwell's body was found, along Zac Lentz Parkway, to her home more than five miles away. From there, they went to Buchanek's house nearby.
The hounds also picked the former Victoria County sheriff's captain's scent in a series of lineups. The identifications were used to get a search warrant for Buchanek's home.
His lawyer, Rex Easley, represents Calvin Miller in another civil suit that names Pikett.
In one motion, Easley wrote Pikett's lineup was "so recklessly flawed that it violated the constitutional rights of the plaintiff. First, the dogs were leashed during the lineup, which fails to exclude handler input. Second, the site, the pads and the cans were contaminated with countless other scents so as to render it unreliable and impermissible to base a warrant upon."
Easley hired Bob Coote, who led a police-dog force in the United Kingdom and worked with scent dogs guarding the British border, to review Pikett's work in Buchanek's case. The lineup was "the most primitive evidential police procedure I have ever witnessed. If it was not for the fact that this is a serious matter, I could have been watching a comedy," Coote wrote.
In California, Michael Espalin spent two years in jail awaiting an arson trial. Firefighters saw Espalin walking his dog near a Riverside, Calif., landscape fire in 2004. Fire Capt. Robert Rappaport knew bloodhound handler and community college professor Lisa Harvey.
Harvey used a method similar to scent lineup and claimed her bloodhound, Dakota, connected a scent from a matchbook wrapped in toilet paper to a series of fires. Then, she linked the fire-starting device to Espalin's home.
Espalin was arrested, although another suspect - a reported firebug - fit witness descriptions. The other man's truck looked like one seen near several fires.
"She was all fired up about this," said attorney Joseph De Clue, who represents Espalin in a civil suit filed in federal court in California. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. She looked at it as a new way of solving crimes."
A jury heard Harvey's testimony in January 2007 and deadlocked. Harvey did not testify in the second trial. Espalin was found not guilty.
Discredited handler
Dog handlers and criminal justice advocates draw parallels between current scent identification cases and the work of a man discredited more than 20 years ago.
John Preston's German shepherd, Harass II, gained a super-canine reputation for his work on high-profile, violent crimes. The team's techniques included scent lineups and trailing.
The Pennsylvania state trooper and his dog were called to investigations around the country in the early 1980s.
Florida authorities used Preston in scores of investigations, estimates Seth Miller, executive director of The Innocence Project of Florida. Preston's testimony was part of the evidence that convicted William Dillon of murder and Wilton Dedge of rape.
By the mid-1980s, the Kings County District Attorney in New York gathered a list of 14 dog handlers who said Preston's claims were "highly improbable." The Arizona Supreme Court called Preston a charlatan.
Dedge and Dillon were exonerated in recent years after each spent more than 20 years in prison. The state of Florida paid Dedge a $2 million settlement. Dillon has not been compensated for his 27-year prison stay, which is as long as any exonerated inmate's, Seth Miller said.
Preston has since died.
Agencies, including the FBI, continued to use scent identification even after Preston's work was debunked, former dog handler Nicely said.
Special Agent Ann Todd with the FBI office of public affairs responded to several requests for interviews with an e-mail.
"The FBI does not wish to participate in an interview at this time. The FBI Laboratory's Forensic Canine Program does not currently use dogs to do scent ID lineups," she wrote.
Handlers, too, resist the idea of regulation.
During a pretrial hearing, Harvey said no group would be qualified to evaluate her dogs.
Although Pikett works full time for a sheriff's office, supervisors have not set guidelines for his work, his lawyer said. No one else understands what he does.
"He would just be writing regulations toward himself," his lawyer, Morse, said.
Morse advised against allowing his client to comment for this article.
Legal standing
How does evidence few people understand, and no one monitors, make it into court?
Some prosecutors and investigators support scent identification because it can offer leads where there were none.
San Jacinto County District Attorney Bill Burnett used Pikett as an expert witness to prosecute three co-defendants in a murder case. One was convicted of murder, another of capital murder and the third was acquitted.
"I felt like this evidence was certainly credible," Burnett said. He grew up around hunting dogs and knows they can do incredible stuff, he said.
Big investigative agencies - the FBI, the Houston Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives - have used Pikett, Burnett said.
An outright ban on a type of evidence is rare, said Eric Ferrero, director of communications for The Innocence Project.
"It's the jobs of courts to police whatever evidence should be allowed into the courtroom," Ferrero said.
Getting binding appellate court decisions about evidence is often a difficult, inefficient process, said Blackburn of The Innocence Project of Texas.
"It takes a good lawyer who raises the issue correctly at trial," Blackburn said. Many public defenders are ill-equipped to mount meaningful criticisms of questionable evidence, he said.
Because it is unmonitored, seeing the full picture of scent ID, with all of its potential flaws, is difficult, Blackburn said.
"As far as we know, no one disallows it," Blackburn said. "That doesn't mean it's being used."
But in prosecutor-friendly states like Texas, California and Florida, he said, scent IDs can get into courtrooms unchecked.
Pikett was disqualified from testifying twice when held to standards for scientific forensic evidence.
"There is no way to adequately examine the theory behind a dog's identification of a suspect," Houston defense attorney Daphne L. Pattison wrote in a motion that successfully barred Pikett's testimony. "We have no way to interview the dog and determine what the dog is smelling, no way to examine the dog's biology to determine the mechanism employed, in short, no way to understand the science."
Pikett's credibility has been upheld by at least one Texas court of appeals. The decision relied on Pikett's testimony that his dogs were almost flawlessly accurate.
The court also noted Pikett's experience and education, including a master's degree in chemistry.
According to transcripts from a pre-trial hearing, Pikett twice told the court he earned the advanced degree.
In a deposition for the Buchanek case, Pikett said that wasn't his testimony. Instead, he has a master's in education from the United States Sports Academy.
The Rin Tin Tin factor
Heroic, loyal dogs lope through the American consciousness in folklore, television and books. Consequently, scent evidence can be compelling once it's in front of a jury, Blackburn said. Most people are raised to trust cops and dogs, former handler Nicely said, and people are reluctant to question those values.
"They don't want to step on the nose or the ears or the tails of Rin Tin Tin or Old Yeller," Nicely said.
The demand for Pikett's services remains, and he performs scent lineups daily in the parking lot of Pilgrim Journey Baptist Church in Rosenberg. Although his attorney, Morse, contends the lineups are legitimate, he said more suits could halt Pikett's work.
"If he becomes a target, I don't know if it's going to be worth it," Morse said.
Waiting for courts to flush bad science from the legal system is slow, Nicely said, so he wants a legislative solution. Detailed records of training and field work should be mandated, he said.
"We need to make it a criminal act to fail to do this," Nicely said.
The Scientific Working Group for Dog and Orthogonal Detection Guidelines is drafting scent lineup guidelines. The group will likely suggest an international board to oversee certifying agencies, chairman Furton said. The agencies would regularly vet dog and handler teams, he said.
Even with certification, Furton said, no criminal case should be built on scent lineups alone.
The lasting effects
Innocence Project volunteers could work for years, Blackburn said, and never find out how many people are wrongfully imprisoned based on what one man says his dogs smelled. The group learns of cases slowly, one at a time.
The Innocence Project of Florida is still searching for cases in which John Preston testified, more than 20 years after the fact, executive director Seth Miller said.
In South Texas, Calvin Miller is trying to pick up the life he had before his arrest.
Good news came to Miller slowly in jail. In April, his defense lawyer, Bill Caraway, called to say DNA evidence proved Miller was not the rapist. The case against Miller unraveled from there, but he was not released until May 5.
Caraway met Miller in the lobby of the Lavaca County Jail. Both men cried. They drank ice-cold, bucket-sized soft drinks in celebration.
But Miller's relief and joy have not tempered his outrage or his fear of police. He moved away from Yoakum, the town where he grew up, attended high school and lived most of his life. He visits his parents there, but never strays far from their houses.
"The place you call home, you can never go there," Miller said.
The crimes he was accused of remain unsolved.
Miller still can't understand how an innocent man can be so easily locked away.
"His question was, 'If I didn't do it, how could those dogs say I did it?'" his attorney Easley said. "And I told him dogs can't talk.""
The story can be found at:
http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2009/jul/12/lw_scentlineup_071209_56411/?counties
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
Friday, August 14, 2009
CALVIN LEE MILLER/ MICHAEL BUCHANEK CASES: MORE FROM REPORTER LESLIE WILBER OF THE VICTORIA ADVOCATE ON KEITH PIKETT AND HIS LINEUP SNIFFING HOUNDS;
"SAN JACINTO COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY BILL BURNETT PROSECUTED TAYLOR'S CLIENT AND TWO CO-DEFENDANTS, ONE OF WHOM WAS ACQUITTED. BURNETT WOULD CALL PIKETT AS WITNESS AGAIN WITHOUT HESITATION, HE SAID."
REPORTER LESLIE WILBER; VICTORIA ADVOCATE;
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background: This Blog has been delving into the havoc caused by the late John Preston and his magical dog who could purportedly trace scents across water. The focus now turns to Deputy Keith Pikett, another so-called dog-scent "specialist", a canine officer with the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office, just southwest of Houston. Time Magazine has reported on two apparent miscarriages of Justice involving Pikett; The first case studied involves Calvin Lee Miller, who was charged with robbery and sexual assault after Pikett's bloodhounds alerted police to a scent on sheets that Pikett said matched a scent swipe from Miller's cheek. DNA evidence later cleared Miller, but only after he served 62 days in jail. In a second case, former Victoria County Sheriff's Department Captain Michael Buchanek was named as a "person of interest" in a murder case after Pikett's bloodhounds sped 5.5 miles from a crime scene, tracking a scent to Buchanek's home. Another man later confessed to the murder.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporter Leslie Wilber shed light on Keith Pikett's career in a story which appeared in the Victoria Advocate on July 12, 2009, which appeared under the heading, "Handler's credibility questioned in court," and the sub-heading, "Teacher turned hobby into a career of sniffing out suspects in more than 1,000 cases," on July 12, 2009;
"In 1989, a high school teacher and his wife bought a bloodhound named Samantha. For fun, they taught her to follow scents," the story begins;
"Two years later, Keith and Karen Pikett volunteered Samantha to search for lost children around Houston. The couple bought another bloodhound, and demand for their services grew," it continues;
"In 1998, Keith Pikett turned his hobby into a career with the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office.
Since then, police, prosecutors and the media have praised the deputy and his dogs' work in more than 1,000 investigations.
But Pikett's credibility is being tested in both civil and criminal court. Two federal lawsuits, filed little more than a year apart, claim Pikett's scent lineups are designed to implicate suspects - not to gather objective evidence.
Meanwhile, judges have twice excluded him from testifying as an expert because of questions about the science supporting his work or his honesty.
In 2007, Pikett testified that three of his dogs, Jag, James Bond and Clue, never erred in scent identifications, despite having sniffed hundreds of lineups. A fourth hound, 12-year-old Quincy, performed 1,483 scent lineups and made only two mistakes early in her career, Pikett said.
Victoria attorney Rex Easley represents both plaintiffs suing Pikett.
"The scent line-up was not performed according to any identified, recognized or established protocol, but were rigged to be result-oriented, that is, to maliciously and intentionally implicate plaintiff," Easley wrote in Calvin Miller's complaint.
Yoakum police used results of the scent lineup to get an arrest warrant charging Miller with robbery and aggravated sexual assault. Miller was later cleared by DNA results.
Easley's other client, former Victoria County Sheriff's Capt. Michael Buchanek, was briefly a person of interest in the high-profile murder of Sally Blackwell, of Victoria. Another man later confessed.
Victoria police and sheriff's investigators relied on a lineup and a trail run by Pikett's hounds to get a search warrant for Buchanek's Victoria home.
Before the lawsuits, news coverage of Pikett was overwhelmingly positive.
The 62-year-old's deep-creased grin, patient voice, khaki shorts and walking shoes seem like holdovers from his teaching past.
He's begun to curb his openness with reporters, though. Randy Morse, assistant Fort Bend County attorney, advised Pikett not to grant an interview because he feared it would turn into a debate.
After several phone calls, Morse agreed to a limited meeting. Advocate journalists could watch a morning of scent lineups and take photographs, but not film anything.
Pikett presented his work with flair and a clear intent to dispel common criticisms.
Conducting lineups on leash, as Pikett does, makes it difficult to exclude handler influence, said former K9 handler Steve Nicely, now an expert witness who has been hired to testify against Pikett at least three times.
Pikett does not know where the suspect's scent is during each lineup, his attorney said. As a Houston police officer laid out the scents for lineups, Pikett turned away and chatted with his audience.
But there seemed to be some clues - intentional or not - that pointed to the location of the suspect's scent. In the first lineup of the day, the bags in cans 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 were rumpled. A crisp sample in a sharp-cornered bag sat in can 4. The dogs picked can 4.
As Pikett trotted the first hound back to its crate, the officer nodded, not hiding his pleasure from the handler.
Kenneth Furton, the head of the federally funded The Scientific Working Group on Dog and Orthogonal Detector Guidelines, recommends double-blind lineups - in which neither the handler nor the observer knows where the suspect's scent is.
Such precautions are designed to keep the observer from influencing the handler, who in turn can influence the dog, said Furton, also a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Florida International University.
The hounds aren't swayed by tugs on the leash, only by their noses, Pikett said.
During one lineup, James Bond walked down the line of cans without indicating a match.
"This is how I'm leading them and cueing them," Pikett said facetiously, then walked through the lineup again, this time jerking Bond's leash at every can.
The hound plodded on, ears and jowls waggling.
But the dogs seem to respond to some of Pikett's cues. In another lineup, each dog showed mild interest in can No. 2, where a suspect's scent had been placed.
Quincy, who typically spins and barks when she's found a match, walked in a small circle, but was silent.
"What happened to your voice?" Pikett asked, his arms spread in a questioning gesture. Quincy jogged down the line and barked as she passed can No. 5.
Clue's interest was similarly cool, merely a tail wag, though she typically plants her paws on Pikett's chest.
"Make it big," he prompted. Clue jumped up on him.
The hounds always pick the suspect's scent or no scent at all, and supporters say that proves the identifications are legitimate.
Stephen C. Taylor is so enthusiastic about Pikett's work that it's easy to forget the Conroe attorney defends criminal suspects.
He represented a convicted murderer in a case in which Pikett's evidence was key.
Pikett's hounds wowed Taylor by finding another client in a live lineup of six men.
"When they can do a live lineup like that, how do you explain it, unless my guy's scent is on it?" Taylor said.
San Jacinto County District Attorney Bill Burnett prosecuted Taylor's client and two co-defendants, one of whom was acquitted. Burnett would call Pikett as witness again without hesitation, he said.
Because dogs can't testify or be cross-examined, reliable testimony from handlers is crucial, Victoria County District Attorney Stephen Tyler said.
"A dog might be great, but if a dog handler is not good or not credible, it's only as strong as their weakest link," Tyler said.
According to transcripts from a pre-trial hearing, Pikett twice said he had a master's degree in chemistry. He does not.
In a deposition for the Buchanek case, Pikett denied the earlier testimony.
"It came out that way, but I didn't say it," Pikett said.
"It came out that way?" Easley asked. "The court reporter took it down wrong?"
"Well, I'm not gonna accuse them of that, but it came - I mean, I didn't see this until it came out in the appellate court ruling, and it said that, so I didn't have any idea what it said until I was given a copy of the appellate court ruling."
Pikett clarified that he has a master's degree in education from the United States Sports Academy.
Defense lawyer Steven Gilbert highlighted that discrepancy during a June hearing in Fort Bend County. Pikett was excluded as an expert witness in the case, but Gilbert's client was convicted of aggravated robbery.
Gilbert also questioned Pikett's scent lineup methods.
"There's no standards, no examination, no test," Gilbert said. "They're doing this stuff all over Europe, and there's strict peer review. Here, you make up the rules as you go along."
Houston defense lawyer Daphne Pattison successfully challenged Pikett's qualifications by questioning the science behind the lineups. The burglary charge against her client was dropped.
"The State has not provided any information to show that Deputy Pikett is competent to render an opinion on the identity of the suspect in this case," Pattison wrote in her motion. "Independent research has revealed absolutely no scientific analysis of this scent line-up procedure."
Pikett continues to lead his hounds in scent lineups daily, he said. Morse said the lawsuits might eventually halt Pikett's work.
That's good news to former handler Nicely, who summed up his thoughts on Pikett: "He needs to be stopped.""
http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2009/jul/12/lw_pikett_071209_56469/?counties
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
REPORTER LESLIE WILBER; VICTORIA ADVOCATE;
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background: This Blog has been delving into the havoc caused by the late John Preston and his magical dog who could purportedly trace scents across water. The focus now turns to Deputy Keith Pikett, another so-called dog-scent "specialist", a canine officer with the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office, just southwest of Houston. Time Magazine has reported on two apparent miscarriages of Justice involving Pikett; The first case studied involves Calvin Lee Miller, who was charged with robbery and sexual assault after Pikett's bloodhounds alerted police to a scent on sheets that Pikett said matched a scent swipe from Miller's cheek. DNA evidence later cleared Miller, but only after he served 62 days in jail. In a second case, former Victoria County Sheriff's Department Captain Michael Buchanek was named as a "person of interest" in a murder case after Pikett's bloodhounds sped 5.5 miles from a crime scene, tracking a scent to Buchanek's home. Another man later confessed to the murder.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporter Leslie Wilber shed light on Keith Pikett's career in a story which appeared in the Victoria Advocate on July 12, 2009, which appeared under the heading, "Handler's credibility questioned in court," and the sub-heading, "Teacher turned hobby into a career of sniffing out suspects in more than 1,000 cases," on July 12, 2009;
"In 1989, a high school teacher and his wife bought a bloodhound named Samantha. For fun, they taught her to follow scents," the story begins;
"Two years later, Keith and Karen Pikett volunteered Samantha to search for lost children around Houston. The couple bought another bloodhound, and demand for their services grew," it continues;
"In 1998, Keith Pikett turned his hobby into a career with the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office.
Since then, police, prosecutors and the media have praised the deputy and his dogs' work in more than 1,000 investigations.
But Pikett's credibility is being tested in both civil and criminal court. Two federal lawsuits, filed little more than a year apart, claim Pikett's scent lineups are designed to implicate suspects - not to gather objective evidence.
Meanwhile, judges have twice excluded him from testifying as an expert because of questions about the science supporting his work or his honesty.
In 2007, Pikett testified that three of his dogs, Jag, James Bond and Clue, never erred in scent identifications, despite having sniffed hundreds of lineups. A fourth hound, 12-year-old Quincy, performed 1,483 scent lineups and made only two mistakes early in her career, Pikett said.
Victoria attorney Rex Easley represents both plaintiffs suing Pikett.
"The scent line-up was not performed according to any identified, recognized or established protocol, but were rigged to be result-oriented, that is, to maliciously and intentionally implicate plaintiff," Easley wrote in Calvin Miller's complaint.
Yoakum police used results of the scent lineup to get an arrest warrant charging Miller with robbery and aggravated sexual assault. Miller was later cleared by DNA results.
Easley's other client, former Victoria County Sheriff's Capt. Michael Buchanek, was briefly a person of interest in the high-profile murder of Sally Blackwell, of Victoria. Another man later confessed.
Victoria police and sheriff's investigators relied on a lineup and a trail run by Pikett's hounds to get a search warrant for Buchanek's Victoria home.
Before the lawsuits, news coverage of Pikett was overwhelmingly positive.
The 62-year-old's deep-creased grin, patient voice, khaki shorts and walking shoes seem like holdovers from his teaching past.
He's begun to curb his openness with reporters, though. Randy Morse, assistant Fort Bend County attorney, advised Pikett not to grant an interview because he feared it would turn into a debate.
After several phone calls, Morse agreed to a limited meeting. Advocate journalists could watch a morning of scent lineups and take photographs, but not film anything.
Pikett presented his work with flair and a clear intent to dispel common criticisms.
Conducting lineups on leash, as Pikett does, makes it difficult to exclude handler influence, said former K9 handler Steve Nicely, now an expert witness who has been hired to testify against Pikett at least three times.
Pikett does not know where the suspect's scent is during each lineup, his attorney said. As a Houston police officer laid out the scents for lineups, Pikett turned away and chatted with his audience.
But there seemed to be some clues - intentional or not - that pointed to the location of the suspect's scent. In the first lineup of the day, the bags in cans 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 were rumpled. A crisp sample in a sharp-cornered bag sat in can 4. The dogs picked can 4.
As Pikett trotted the first hound back to its crate, the officer nodded, not hiding his pleasure from the handler.
Kenneth Furton, the head of the federally funded The Scientific Working Group on Dog and Orthogonal Detector Guidelines, recommends double-blind lineups - in which neither the handler nor the observer knows where the suspect's scent is.
Such precautions are designed to keep the observer from influencing the handler, who in turn can influence the dog, said Furton, also a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Florida International University.
The hounds aren't swayed by tugs on the leash, only by their noses, Pikett said.
During one lineup, James Bond walked down the line of cans without indicating a match.
"This is how I'm leading them and cueing them," Pikett said facetiously, then walked through the lineup again, this time jerking Bond's leash at every can.
The hound plodded on, ears and jowls waggling.
But the dogs seem to respond to some of Pikett's cues. In another lineup, each dog showed mild interest in can No. 2, where a suspect's scent had been placed.
Quincy, who typically spins and barks when she's found a match, walked in a small circle, but was silent.
"What happened to your voice?" Pikett asked, his arms spread in a questioning gesture. Quincy jogged down the line and barked as she passed can No. 5.
Clue's interest was similarly cool, merely a tail wag, though she typically plants her paws on Pikett's chest.
"Make it big," he prompted. Clue jumped up on him.
The hounds always pick the suspect's scent or no scent at all, and supporters say that proves the identifications are legitimate.
Stephen C. Taylor is so enthusiastic about Pikett's work that it's easy to forget the Conroe attorney defends criminal suspects.
He represented a convicted murderer in a case in which Pikett's evidence was key.
Pikett's hounds wowed Taylor by finding another client in a live lineup of six men.
"When they can do a live lineup like that, how do you explain it, unless my guy's scent is on it?" Taylor said.
San Jacinto County District Attorney Bill Burnett prosecuted Taylor's client and two co-defendants, one of whom was acquitted. Burnett would call Pikett as witness again without hesitation, he said.
Because dogs can't testify or be cross-examined, reliable testimony from handlers is crucial, Victoria County District Attorney Stephen Tyler said.
"A dog might be great, but if a dog handler is not good or not credible, it's only as strong as their weakest link," Tyler said.
According to transcripts from a pre-trial hearing, Pikett twice said he had a master's degree in chemistry. He does not.
In a deposition for the Buchanek case, Pikett denied the earlier testimony.
"It came out that way, but I didn't say it," Pikett said.
"It came out that way?" Easley asked. "The court reporter took it down wrong?"
"Well, I'm not gonna accuse them of that, but it came - I mean, I didn't see this until it came out in the appellate court ruling, and it said that, so I didn't have any idea what it said until I was given a copy of the appellate court ruling."
Pikett clarified that he has a master's degree in education from the United States Sports Academy.
Defense lawyer Steven Gilbert highlighted that discrepancy during a June hearing in Fort Bend County. Pikett was excluded as an expert witness in the case, but Gilbert's client was convicted of aggravated robbery.
Gilbert also questioned Pikett's scent lineup methods.
"There's no standards, no examination, no test," Gilbert said. "They're doing this stuff all over Europe, and there's strict peer review. Here, you make up the rules as you go along."
Houston defense lawyer Daphne Pattison successfully challenged Pikett's qualifications by questioning the science behind the lineups. The burglary charge against her client was dropped.
"The State has not provided any information to show that Deputy Pikett is competent to render an opinion on the identity of the suspect in this case," Pattison wrote in her motion. "Independent research has revealed absolutely no scientific analysis of this scent line-up procedure."
Pikett continues to lead his hounds in scent lineups daily, he said. Morse said the lawsuits might eventually halt Pikett's work.
That's good news to former handler Nicely, who summed up his thoughts on Pikett: "He needs to be stopped.""
http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2009/jul/12/lw_pikett_071209_56469/?counties
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
Thursday, August 13, 2009
CALVIN LEE MILLER AND MICHAEL BUCHANEK CASES: LAWSUITS AGAINST DOG-SNIFFING "SPECIALIST" KEITH PIKETT ALLEGE DISHONESTY; VICTORIA ADVOCATE REPORTS;
"IN THAT TRIAL, PIKETT TESTIFIED HE EARNED A BACHELOR'S DEGREE IN CHEMISTRY FROM SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY AND A MASTER'S IN CHEMISTRY IN HOUSTON. IN A 2000 PRE-TRIAL HEARING, PIKETT SAID HE HAD A MASTER'S DEGREE IN CHEMISTRY.
BUT IN DEPOSITION FOR BUCHANEK'S SUIT, PIKETT SAID HE HAD A MASTER'S DEGREE IN EDUCATION FROM THE UNITED STATES SPORTS ACADEMY.
EASLEY FILED COPIES OF PIKETT'S DIPLOMAS FRIDAY: A BACHELOR'S OF SCIENCE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN ALABAMA AND A MASTER'S OF SPORT SCIENCE IN SPORT COACHING FROM THE UNITED STATES SPORTS ACADEMY.
"HE APPEARS TO TESTIFY TO THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE," EASLEY SAID."
LESLIE WILBER; THE VICTORIA ADVOCATE;
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background: This Blog has been delving into the havoc caused by the late John Preston and his magical dog who could purportedly trace scents across water. The focus now turns to Deputy Keith Pikett, another so-called dog-scent "specialist", a canine officer with the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office, just southwest of Houston. Time Magazine has reported on two apparent miscarriages of Justice involving Pikett; The first case studied involves Calvin Lee Miller, who was charged with robbery and sexual assault after Pikett's bloodhounds alerted police to a scent on sheets that Pikett said matched a scent swipe from Miller's cheek. DNA evidence later cleared Miller, but only after he served 62 days in jail. In a second case, former Victoria County Sheriff's Department Captain Michael Buchanek was named as a "person of interest" in a murder case after Pikett's bloodhounds sped 5.5 miles from a crime scene, tracking a scent to Buchanek's home. Another man later confessed to the murder.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporter Leslie Wilber has been reporting on dog-scent "specialist" Keith Pikett for the Victoria Advocate;
"Court filings accuse a Fort Bend County Sheriff's deputy of lying about his schooling and the accuracy of his bloodhounds," Wilber's story begins, under the heading, "Pikett subject of two federal lawsuits" and the sub-heading: "Evidence mounts against dog handler named in lawsuits."
"Keith Pikett is the only Texas dog handler who performs scent lineups, and his technique is the subject of two federal lawsuits," the August 11, 2009 story continues;
""It would be irresponsible for any prosecutor to use him as a witness," Jeff Blackburn said in response to the latest documents filed in one suit against Pikett. Blackburn is the chief counsel for the Innocence Project of Texas, a group that works to uncover wrongful convictions and is currently investigating Pikett.
The lawsuits, filed in Victoria, accuse Pikett of using shaky scent identification techniques that produce unreliable results.
In June, Pikett's attorney, Randy Morse, filed a motion asking Judge John Rainey to throw out former Victoria County Sheriff's Capt. Michael Buchanek's suit against Pikett.
Buchanek's home was searched after Pikett's bloodhounds picked his scent from lineups during the high-profile investigation of Sally Blackwell's murder.
Jeffery Grimsinger later pleaded guilty to killing the 55-year-old Victoria woman and is serving life in prison.
Rex Easley, who represents Buchanek, filed a lengthy response to Morse's motion on Friday.
The response included an excerpt from Pikett's testimony in the 1997 murder trial of Marcus Bridger Cotton. Cotton was executed in 2004.
In that trial, Pikett testified he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Syracuse University and a master's in chemistry in Houston. In a 2000 pre-trial hearing, Pikett said he had a master's degree in chemistry.
But in deposition for Buchanek's suit, Pikett said he had a master's degree in education from the United States Sports Academy.
Easley filed copies of Pikett's diplomas Friday: A bachelor's of science from the University of Southern Alabama and a master's of sport science in sport coaching from the United States Sports Academy.
"He appears to testify to things that aren't true," Easley said.
Morse said he received Easley's response late Friday night.
"I have not even had a chance to review it," he said when asked about the allegations. Morse quickly ended the phone call.
News stories questioning Pikett's methods prompted former Harris County assistant district attorney Victor Wisner to call Easley. Wisner wrote an affidavit accusing Pikett and his hounds of picking out the wrong man in a lineup.
Wisner and Houston Police officers from the Westside Task Force were working on a case against a man accused in a series of burglaries. After the charges were filed, Wisner found out investigators from Houston's central burglary and theft had filed charges against another man. Those charges were based on a scent lineup by Pikett, Wisner wrote in his affidavit.
"The scent evidence was ludicrous and incriminated a person who was unrelated to the offenses," Wisner wrote. Wisner wrote an e-mail to all the prosecutors in the office, warning them that Pikett's evidence was unreliable.
"I also know the B&T officers he assisted had attempted to cover the incident up to protect Pikett's reputation," Wisner wrote.
Wisner did not want to elaborate on his cover-up allegations.
"I stand by everything in the affidavit," Wisner said.
The Houston Police Department did use Pikett in some cases, said Kese Smith, with the department of public affairs. He would not comment on the allegations in Wisner's affidavit."
http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2009/aug/11/lw_pikett_folo_081109_61247/?news&local-news
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
BUT IN DEPOSITION FOR BUCHANEK'S SUIT, PIKETT SAID HE HAD A MASTER'S DEGREE IN EDUCATION FROM THE UNITED STATES SPORTS ACADEMY.
EASLEY FILED COPIES OF PIKETT'S DIPLOMAS FRIDAY: A BACHELOR'S OF SCIENCE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN ALABAMA AND A MASTER'S OF SPORT SCIENCE IN SPORT COACHING FROM THE UNITED STATES SPORTS ACADEMY.
"HE APPEARS TO TESTIFY TO THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE," EASLEY SAID."
LESLIE WILBER; THE VICTORIA ADVOCATE;
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background: This Blog has been delving into the havoc caused by the late John Preston and his magical dog who could purportedly trace scents across water. The focus now turns to Deputy Keith Pikett, another so-called dog-scent "specialist", a canine officer with the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office, just southwest of Houston. Time Magazine has reported on two apparent miscarriages of Justice involving Pikett; The first case studied involves Calvin Lee Miller, who was charged with robbery and sexual assault after Pikett's bloodhounds alerted police to a scent on sheets that Pikett said matched a scent swipe from Miller's cheek. DNA evidence later cleared Miller, but only after he served 62 days in jail. In a second case, former Victoria County Sheriff's Department Captain Michael Buchanek was named as a "person of interest" in a murder case after Pikett's bloodhounds sped 5.5 miles from a crime scene, tracking a scent to Buchanek's home. Another man later confessed to the murder.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporter Leslie Wilber has been reporting on dog-scent "specialist" Keith Pikett for the Victoria Advocate;
"Court filings accuse a Fort Bend County Sheriff's deputy of lying about his schooling and the accuracy of his bloodhounds," Wilber's story begins, under the heading, "Pikett subject of two federal lawsuits" and the sub-heading: "Evidence mounts against dog handler named in lawsuits."
"Keith Pikett is the only Texas dog handler who performs scent lineups, and his technique is the subject of two federal lawsuits," the August 11, 2009 story continues;
""It would be irresponsible for any prosecutor to use him as a witness," Jeff Blackburn said in response to the latest documents filed in one suit against Pikett. Blackburn is the chief counsel for the Innocence Project of Texas, a group that works to uncover wrongful convictions and is currently investigating Pikett.
The lawsuits, filed in Victoria, accuse Pikett of using shaky scent identification techniques that produce unreliable results.
In June, Pikett's attorney, Randy Morse, filed a motion asking Judge John Rainey to throw out former Victoria County Sheriff's Capt. Michael Buchanek's suit against Pikett.
Buchanek's home was searched after Pikett's bloodhounds picked his scent from lineups during the high-profile investigation of Sally Blackwell's murder.
Jeffery Grimsinger later pleaded guilty to killing the 55-year-old Victoria woman and is serving life in prison.
Rex Easley, who represents Buchanek, filed a lengthy response to Morse's motion on Friday.
The response included an excerpt from Pikett's testimony in the 1997 murder trial of Marcus Bridger Cotton. Cotton was executed in 2004.
In that trial, Pikett testified he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Syracuse University and a master's in chemistry in Houston. In a 2000 pre-trial hearing, Pikett said he had a master's degree in chemistry.
But in deposition for Buchanek's suit, Pikett said he had a master's degree in education from the United States Sports Academy.
Easley filed copies of Pikett's diplomas Friday: A bachelor's of science from the University of Southern Alabama and a master's of sport science in sport coaching from the United States Sports Academy.
"He appears to testify to things that aren't true," Easley said.
Morse said he received Easley's response late Friday night.
"I have not even had a chance to review it," he said when asked about the allegations. Morse quickly ended the phone call.
News stories questioning Pikett's methods prompted former Harris County assistant district attorney Victor Wisner to call Easley. Wisner wrote an affidavit accusing Pikett and his hounds of picking out the wrong man in a lineup.
Wisner and Houston Police officers from the Westside Task Force were working on a case against a man accused in a series of burglaries. After the charges were filed, Wisner found out investigators from Houston's central burglary and theft had filed charges against another man. Those charges were based on a scent lineup by Pikett, Wisner wrote in his affidavit.
"The scent evidence was ludicrous and incriminated a person who was unrelated to the offenses," Wisner wrote. Wisner wrote an e-mail to all the prosecutors in the office, warning them that Pikett's evidence was unreliable.
"I also know the B&T officers he assisted had attempted to cover the incident up to protect Pikett's reputation," Wisner wrote.
Wisner did not want to elaborate on his cover-up allegations.
"I stand by everything in the affidavit," Wisner said.
The Houston Police Department did use Pikett in some cases, said Kese Smith, with the department of public affairs. He would not comment on the allegations in Wisner's affidavit."
http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2009/aug/11/lw_pikett_folo_081109_61247/?news&local-news
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
CALVIN LEE MILLER/MICHAEL BUCHANEK CASES; ANOTHER CONTROVERSIAL DOG HANDLER IN THE SPOTLIGHT; KEITH PIKETT; RECENT TIME MAGAZINE EXPOSEE;
"The notion of a crime-busting dog can be appealing, not to mention a break for jurors from mind-numbing expert-forensic-witness testimony. But experts caution that it is not the dog who testifies but rather the handler. "The animal knows what he is smelling, and everyone else has theories of what he's smelling," says Russ Hess, executive director of the U.S. Police Canine Association."
HILARY HYLTON; TIME MAGAZINE;
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background: This Blog has been delving into the havoc caused by the late John Preston and his magical dog who could purportedly trace scents across water. The focus now turns to Deputy Keith Pikett, another so-called dog-scent "specialist", a canine officer with the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office, just southwest of Houston. Time Magazine has reported on two apparent miscarriages of Justice involving Pikett; The first case studied involves Calvin Lee Miller, who was charged with robbery and sexual assault after Pikett's bloodhounds alerted police to a scent on sheets that Pikett said matched a scent swipe from Miller's cheek. DNA evidence later cleared Miller, but only after he served 62 days in jail. In a second case, former Victoria County Sheriff's Department Captain Michael Buchanek was named as a "person of interest" in a murder case after Pikett's bloodhounds sped 5.5 miles from a crime scene, tracking a scent to Buchanek's home. Another man later confessed to the murder.
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Time Magazine has waded into the dog-sniffing evidence controversy with a story headed: "Dogs and the Scent of a Crime: Science or Shaky Evidence?" by reporter Hilary Hylton / Austin, published on August 3, 2009;
"In detective dramas, a dog's powerful sense of smell has become a predictable crime solver: the trusty canine takes a sniff of a suspect object and follows the scent, eventually arriving at the perpetrator of the evil deed. But in real life, is this reliable evidence — or is it junk science that has helped put away innocent people?," the story begins;
"In mid-August, the Innocence Project of Texas plans to unveil a detailed study focusing primarily on the extensive work of one Texas dog handler whose use of scent-ID techniques is under fire in the federal courts," it continues;
"At the heart of the study is the work of Deputy Keith Pikett, a canine officer with the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office, just southwest of Houston. The first case studied involves Calvin Lee Miller, who was charged with robbery and sexual assault after Pikett's bloodhounds alerted police to a scent on sheets that Pikett said matched a scent swipe from Miller's cheek. DNA evidence later cleared Miller, but only after he served 62 days in jail. In a second case, former Victoria County Sheriff's Department Captain Michael Buchanek was named as a "person of interest" in a murder case after Pikett's bloodhounds sped 5.5 miles from a crime scene, tracking a scent to Buchanek's home. Another man later confessed to the murder.
Both cases have resulted in lawsuits seeking damages from the municipalities and law-enforcement agencies that used Pikett's work. They could be costly. In a separate case, a California man, Jeffrey Allen Grant, served three months in jail in 1999 after TinkerBelle, a bloodhound, mistakenly identified him in a rape case. He won $1.7 million in damages.
Jeff Blackburn, head of the Innocence Project of Texas, has labeled the dog-scent evidence as "junk, not even junk science." He adds, "We are working on a very intense, independent investigation of Pikett's activities." Pikett, who through his lawyer has declined public comment, is being sued for civil-rights violations in federal court by Miller and Buchanek. Blackburn says the innocence team is combing Texas public records to assess Pikett's impact on other cases. In the meantime, the Innocence Project of Texas study is being supported by canine-law-enforcement experts who, while not going so far as to call dog-scent evidence junk, fear that misapplication of the undisputed canine talent for recognizing smells will discredit good cases along with the bad.
The notion of a crime-busting dog can be appealing, not to mention a break for jurors from mind-numbing expert-forensic-witness testimony. But experts caution that it is not the dog who testifies but rather the handler. "The animal knows what he is smelling, and everyone else has theories of what he's smelling," says Russ Hess, executive director of the U.S. Police Canine Association. For hundreds of years, humans have relied on the ability of dogs to distinguish scents to track prey, whether in the hunt for food or the search for a prison escapee. Bloodhounds are the recognized experts in supersensitivity to odors (some states allow scent evidence only from bloodhounds to be admitted). But even the best-trained scent dog — and Hess says the dogs require constant training — can make mistakes. "They are fallible, just like a person," says Charles Mesloh, a former canine officer and criminologist at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Dogs, he adds, respond to handlers, perhaps for reward or praise, or simply because of emotional connections, wanting to please their human partner. "Dogs aren't stupid — they cheat," Mesloh says. "What goes down the leash, comes up the leash." In the Netherlands, where tough evidence protocols are in place, a suspect scent is taken to a lab, where the dog's reactions are tested without a handler present.
Dogs have proved their value to both the military and law enforcement, Hess says, detecting explosives, working with narcotics officers and locating missing persons and bodies. But the alleged misuse of dog-scent evidence could cast a shadow over its value to law enforcement. In the 1980s, polygraph tests came into fashion and were hailed as an important forensic tool, but their misuse and overuse prompted a negative public reaction; Mesloh fears the same could befall the use of scent evidence. "The hammer fell on polygraphy, and it never really recovered," Mesloh says. "Now, [for dog scent], the blood is in the water.""
The story can be found at:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1913987,00.html
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
HILARY HYLTON; TIME MAGAZINE;
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Background: This Blog has been delving into the havoc caused by the late John Preston and his magical dog who could purportedly trace scents across water. The focus now turns to Deputy Keith Pikett, another so-called dog-scent "specialist", a canine officer with the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office, just southwest of Houston. Time Magazine has reported on two apparent miscarriages of Justice involving Pikett; The first case studied involves Calvin Lee Miller, who was charged with robbery and sexual assault after Pikett's bloodhounds alerted police to a scent on sheets that Pikett said matched a scent swipe from Miller's cheek. DNA evidence later cleared Miller, but only after he served 62 days in jail. In a second case, former Victoria County Sheriff's Department Captain Michael Buchanek was named as a "person of interest" in a murder case after Pikett's bloodhounds sped 5.5 miles from a crime scene, tracking a scent to Buchanek's home. Another man later confessed to the murder.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time Magazine has waded into the dog-sniffing evidence controversy with a story headed: "Dogs and the Scent of a Crime: Science or Shaky Evidence?" by reporter Hilary Hylton / Austin, published on August 3, 2009;
"In detective dramas, a dog's powerful sense of smell has become a predictable crime solver: the trusty canine takes a sniff of a suspect object and follows the scent, eventually arriving at the perpetrator of the evil deed. But in real life, is this reliable evidence — or is it junk science that has helped put away innocent people?," the story begins;
"In mid-August, the Innocence Project of Texas plans to unveil a detailed study focusing primarily on the extensive work of one Texas dog handler whose use of scent-ID techniques is under fire in the federal courts," it continues;
"At the heart of the study is the work of Deputy Keith Pikett, a canine officer with the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office, just southwest of Houston. The first case studied involves Calvin Lee Miller, who was charged with robbery and sexual assault after Pikett's bloodhounds alerted police to a scent on sheets that Pikett said matched a scent swipe from Miller's cheek. DNA evidence later cleared Miller, but only after he served 62 days in jail. In a second case, former Victoria County Sheriff's Department Captain Michael Buchanek was named as a "person of interest" in a murder case after Pikett's bloodhounds sped 5.5 miles from a crime scene, tracking a scent to Buchanek's home. Another man later confessed to the murder.
Both cases have resulted in lawsuits seeking damages from the municipalities and law-enforcement agencies that used Pikett's work. They could be costly. In a separate case, a California man, Jeffrey Allen Grant, served three months in jail in 1999 after TinkerBelle, a bloodhound, mistakenly identified him in a rape case. He won $1.7 million in damages.
Jeff Blackburn, head of the Innocence Project of Texas, has labeled the dog-scent evidence as "junk, not even junk science." He adds, "We are working on a very intense, independent investigation of Pikett's activities." Pikett, who through his lawyer has declined public comment, is being sued for civil-rights violations in federal court by Miller and Buchanek. Blackburn says the innocence team is combing Texas public records to assess Pikett's impact on other cases. In the meantime, the Innocence Project of Texas study is being supported by canine-law-enforcement experts who, while not going so far as to call dog-scent evidence junk, fear that misapplication of the undisputed canine talent for recognizing smells will discredit good cases along with the bad.
The notion of a crime-busting dog can be appealing, not to mention a break for jurors from mind-numbing expert-forensic-witness testimony. But experts caution that it is not the dog who testifies but rather the handler. "The animal knows what he is smelling, and everyone else has theories of what he's smelling," says Russ Hess, executive director of the U.S. Police Canine Association. For hundreds of years, humans have relied on the ability of dogs to distinguish scents to track prey, whether in the hunt for food or the search for a prison escapee. Bloodhounds are the recognized experts in supersensitivity to odors (some states allow scent evidence only from bloodhounds to be admitted). But even the best-trained scent dog — and Hess says the dogs require constant training — can make mistakes. "They are fallible, just like a person," says Charles Mesloh, a former canine officer and criminologist at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Dogs, he adds, respond to handlers, perhaps for reward or praise, or simply because of emotional connections, wanting to please their human partner. "Dogs aren't stupid — they cheat," Mesloh says. "What goes down the leash, comes up the leash." In the Netherlands, where tough evidence protocols are in place, a suspect scent is taken to a lab, where the dog's reactions are tested without a handler present.
Dogs have proved their value to both the military and law enforcement, Hess says, detecting explosives, working with narcotics officers and locating missing persons and bodies. But the alleged misuse of dog-scent evidence could cast a shadow over its value to law enforcement. In the 1980s, polygraph tests came into fashion and were hailed as an important forensic tool, but their misuse and overuse prompted a negative public reaction; Mesloh fears the same could befall the use of scent evidence. "The hammer fell on polygraphy, and it never really recovered," Mesloh says. "Now, [for dog scent], the blood is in the water.""
The story can be found at:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1913987,00.html
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
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