Charles Smith Blog takes brief recess while publisher struggles to meet a publishing deadline: Sympathy appreciated! Harold Levy.

Dear reader; Due to a looming publishing deadline I will be unable to  post new material until mid-November.  I invite my many impeccable, well-placed  sources around the Globe  (all three of them!) to draw issues and cases that arrive during this period to my attention, so that I can dig into them when I am back in action.   There are two cases you might be interested in  be keeping your eye on in my absence.

First case: The on-going sexual assault trial in Calgary, Alberta of Dr. Aubrey Levin:

CBC reporter Tara Weber is tweeting on the trial at:

@TaraNWeber

Reporter Daryl Slade has been covering the trial for the Calgary Herald: Search for his stories at:

calgaryherald.com;

Second case: The fallout in the arrest of former  Boston  drug analyst Annie Dookhan -  a source of potentially hundreds of miscarriages of justice, and a canary warning of what could happen in over-worked police labs throughout the U.S.A.

Reporter Brian Ballou has been covering developments in the Dookhan investigation for the Boston Globe: Search for his stories at:

bostonglobe.com;

Au revoir.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site. One word of caution: It may take several weeks for content from current posts to respond to the search. Search away!

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.

Aubrey Levin: Psychiatrist charged with sex assaults; Jury sees more graphic video taken by complainant with spy watch camera. Calgary Herald;

STORY: "Jury sees more graphic video in trial for psychiatrist charged with sex assaults," by reporter Daryl Slade, published by the Calgary Herald, on October 12, 2012.

GIST: "A jury got a second look at a surreptitiously recorded video that purportedly shows Dr. Aubrey Levin fondling a patient during a session, with enhanced audio, at the forensic psychiatrist's sex assault trial on Friday. However, without a transcript, it was virtually impossible to understand what was being said between Levin and R.B., the 36-year-old man who initiated the complaint in March 2010 after recording two sessions with a spy watch camera, any better than it was the previous day without the enhancement.........R.B. told the jury on Thursday he bought the spy watch for $240 to gather evidence against Levin, whom he said had sexually molested him in February 2010. He recorded two sessions, on March 3 and March 16, with the spy watch camera. In the first video, Levin is seen fondling R.B. twice for about two minutes each during the 70-minute session. In the second one, Levin fondles the 36-year-old patient for more than 14 minutes. R.B. testified he bought the watch because he had been previously molested by the doctor, who punctured his genitals with his fingernails during the February session at Peter Lougheed Centre’s Forensic Assessment and Outpatient Ser-vices (FAOS) unit. R.B. took pictures of the injuries from that incident. They were shown in court. Levin has shown no emotion during the times the videos have been played. R.B. had been scheduled to continue his testimony on Friday, but he was shifted to next Tuesday to accommodate Begault and other experts. A urologist and another forensic psychiatrist are scheduled testify on Monday."

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.canada.com/news/crime-and-justice/Jury+sees+more+graphic+video+trial+psychiatrist+charged/7382367/story.html

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site. One word of caution: It may take several weeks for content from current posts to respond to the search. Search away!

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.

Oregon State Police; Flawed handwriting analysis suspected; Dozens of cases under review; Prosecutors nix grand jury; The Oregonian;

STORY: "Experts examining criminal cases possibly tainted by Oregon State police handwriting analysts,"  by reporter Bryan Denson, published in the Oregonian, on October 7, 2012.

GIST: "Oregon State Police, confronted by suspected quality lapses by its handwriting analysts, have commissioned external examiners to review dozens of criminal cases to make sure they weren't tainted by mistakes. The two analysts were suspended with pay last spring and the head of the state police Forensic Services Division was reassigned after state police officials identified problems with handwriting analysis in a Umatilla County case. The number of cases under review has grown to more than 30 and may rise, said Lt. Gregg Hastings, a department spokesman. "In addition to those reviews (that) haven't been completed, other cases are also being considered for independent review," according to a state police statement on the investigation. A state police lieutenant and an investigator in the Clackamas County District Attorney's Office conducted a criminal investigation of the handwriting analysis problems last spring that concluded on June 15. A prosecutor reviewed the evidence and decided not to take the case before a grand jury, state police said.........Dingeman said state police want to make sure none of the suspected lapses in handwriting analysis tainted evidence or trial testimony. He pointed out that it is the rare criminal case that hinges solely on handwriting analysis. Fingerprint and DNA analyses are typically far more critical, he said."

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/10/experts_examining_criminal_cas.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site. One word of caution: It may take several weeks for content from current posts to respond to the search. Search away!

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.

Bulletin: Dr. Aubrey Levin: Forensic psychiatrist found fit to stand trial. Trial underway. Videotaped sessions offered in evidence. Calgary Herald.

STORY: "Videotaped session led to sexual assault charges against psychiatrist: Levin trial." by reporter Daryl Slade, published on October 11, 2012.

GIST: "The former criminal lawyer for a Calgary man who created a firestorm when he accused prominent forensic psychiatrist Dr. Aubrey Levin of sexually assaulting him said he told the complainant, R.B., that he should tape his sessions for proof. Mitch Stephensen testified on Thursday that R.B. brought in a tape of his next session with Levin, on March 16, 2010, and he subsequently turned it over to police the next month. “I knew (R.B.) had been seeing Levin for awhile, but I never heard of any improprieties until March 5 (2010),” Stephensen told Levin’s lawyer Alain Hepner. Levin is currently on trial for allegedly sexually assaulting a total of 10 men during court-ordered sessions at the Peter Lougheed Centre’s Forensic Assessment and Outpatient Services unit between 1999 and 2010. Stephensen said he advised R.B. to take the video in contemplation of civil or criminal actions, because it would serve as evidence. “I said you need evidence,” the lawyer told Crown prosecutor Bill Wister. “I just said, ‘if it happens again,’ better to have a second video. “(R.B.) was concerned nobody would believe him. He didn’t want to talk to police. He was embarrassed. Quite frankly, if I didn’t see the video, I don’t know if I’d have believed him.”......... The scheduled six-week trial before Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Donna Shelley and jury continues.

The entire story can be found at:

 http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/Videotaped+session+sexual+assault+charges+against+psychiatrist+Levin+trial/7376106/story.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site. One word of caution: It may take several weeks for content from current posts to respond to the search. Search away!

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

Annie Dookhan: "Chemist in Mass. scandal refuses to testify." Closed lab is now a crime scene. Associated Press. (Really fascinating story! HL);

STORY:  "Chemist in Mass. scandal refuses to testify," by Denise Lavoie, AP Legal Affairs Writer, published on October 10, 2102.

GIST: "The chemist at the center of a Massachusetts drug-testing lab  scandal refused to testify Wednesday in a drug case against a Boston man who once spent 15 years in prison for the slaying of a 12-year-old girl he says he did not commit.
A lawyer for Shawn Drumgold asked a judge to dismiss two drug charges against her client because chemist Annie Dookhan's initials appear on a drug analysis form in the case. The judge refused, and Drumgold's drug trial began Wednesday afternoon. Dookhan is charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly skirting protocols and faking test results at the now-closed lab. Dookhan appeared in court but did not take the stand and exercised her Fifth Amendment right not to testify.........When Drumgold was arrested on drug possession charges in 2011, he was the only person out of 14 people in a Boston apartment charged, his lawyer, Rosemary Scapicchio, said Wednesday. He denied the drugs were his and she thinks Boston police only arrested him because of his legal victory against the department. Scapicchio said Wednesday prosecutors hadn't provided her with sufficient drug testing evidence in the case. Costello said they have been unable to fulfill her request for some documents because the closed lab is a "crime scene" in the custody of the state attorney general's office as it investigates the testing scandal. State police, who took over operation of the lab from the Department of Public Health, have said Dookhan tested more than 60,000 samples covering 34,000 defendants during her nine years at the lab. State officials said last week that they have identified more than 1,100 defendants who are serving time in county jails or state prisons based on samples tested by Dookhan."

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gEy-_5eoAIdZ3KQA4MfxvF-Bh0Bw?docId=0e732446a8a3474ea9bf7e14bd019e9d

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site. One word of caution: It may take several weeks for content from current posts to respond to the search. Search away!

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

Annie Dookhan: Shocking numbers and a warning: "If you think this couldn't happen in your lab, you're naive." Nature. Link to Boston police file. Great Read.

STORY: "Chemist charged with fraud shows system under pressure," by  Eugenie Samuel Reich, published by "Nature" on October 9, 2012.

SUB-Heading: "Boston scandal exposes backlog."

GIST: "The numbers are shocking: 1,100 people are in jail on the basis of evidence that may have been tampered with, and 34,000 criminal cases could be affected. The fallout stems from the work of just one forensic chemist, who is alleged to have faked test results on suspected drug samples........“If you think this couldn’t happen in your lab, you’re naive,” says Robin Cotton, director of the forensic-sciences programme at Boston University and a former forensic-lab director. “Lab directors all over the country are paying attention.” Cotton and others say that the affair highlights a resourcing problem that is putting pressure on US forensic-lab workers and their supervisors, who need to bring cases to court fast, but without compromising the integrity of test results.........A bill now before the US Congress aims to improve the quality of forensic science by providing funding for research and for development of national standards. But the bill does not include funding to clear backlogs. Stephen Saloom, policy director at the Innocence Project in New York, which seeks to uncover wrongful convictions, says that even if the bill passes it won’t provide an immediate remedy for cases of deliberate evidence tampering."

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.nature.com/news/boston-scandal-exposes-backlog-1.11561

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site. One word of caution: It may take several weeks for content from current posts to respond to the search. Search away!

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.

Sent from my iPad

Colin Matchim: Newfoundland; "Bleeding on baby's brain not caused by shaking, expert says." CBC News.

STORY: "Bleeding on baby's brain not caused by shaking, expert says," up-dated on October 9,  2012, by CBC News.

SUB-HEADING: Defence calls expert to question baby-shaking ruling;

GIST: "Another expert witness testified in court in St. John's Tuesday that bleeding on baby August Matchim's brain was not caused by shaken baby syndrome. Testifying by video link, pediatric radiologist Dr. Julie Mack told a St. John's courtroom that the baby could have had what amounted to a stroke. She said no one could generate enough force simply by shaking the baby to cause the bleeding on the brain that August Matchim had suffered.......... Matchim's sentencing was put on hold for more than a year because his new lawyers wanted to put expert evidence before the court to show that the injuries to his baby daughter could have happened some other way. Last week, neuropathologist Dr. David Ramsay told the court that August Matchim's injuries were consistent with shaken baby syndrome, but could have also been caused if the infant had a pre-existing condition that interfered with the flow of blood in her brain. Ramsay also noted that August didn't show any external signs of trauma, such as bruising or cuts."

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2012/10/09/nl-109-shaken-baby-hearing-evidence.html

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site. One word of caution: It may take several weeks for content from current posts to respond to the search. Search away!

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.