Recently in Criminal Category

MontgomeryNews.com reports: A bill that would allow experts to testify about the impact of sexual violence on victims recently passed the House by a 197-0 vote.  State Rep. Kate Harper, R-61, who worked with Philadelphia state Rep. Cherelle Parker to write the bill and help get it to a vote, said in a press release that the legislation will “aid in the prosecution of rape and sexual assault cases.”  An expert’s testimony could put the victim’s behavior in the proper context, the legislation states.

Read more: montgomerynews.com.

A judge in southeast Ohio is the second in the state to issue a decision casting doubt on a portable breath tester used on suspected drunken drivers.

Athens County Municipal Court Judge William Grim ruled this week that in some cases it's allowable for defense attorneys to present expert testimony challenging results from the Intoxilyzer 8000. The judge wrote the machine might be vulnerable to interference from smart phones and that blowing into the device longer might skew the reading.

Read more: zanesvillerecorder.com.

Charles J. Key, a retired city police officer who wrote the Balitmore police department's rules of force, testified as an expert witness on behalf of Gahiji Tshamba.  Tshamba is the Baltimore police officer who shot an unarmed Marine a dozen times during a confrontation outside a Mount Vernon nightclub. He spoke for the first time on June 9th at his trial, saying he was being chased, backed into a corner, and shot the man as he advanced on him.

Read more: thebaltimoresun.com.

Former Children's Hospital of Philadelphia General Counsel Roosevelt Hairston, Jr., has been charged with one count each of mail fraud, money laundering and filing a false tax return for his embezzlement of $1.7 million from CHOP.

Hairston was employed in various senior positions at CHOP, including most recently as general counsel and executive vice president. Hairston allegedly used dozens of false invoices he created for shell companies to steal from CHOP between 1999 and February 14, 2011, including  33 fraudulent invoices related to expert witnesses, collecting $225,000 from CHOP.

Read more: westmorelandtimes.com.

The Pittsburg Tribune Review reports that lawyers for a woman charged with killing an FBI agent can't use expert witnesses on police procedures in an attempt to argue the agent's death was the result of sloppy police work.  Christina Korbe, 41, of Indiana Township is charged with fatally shooting Special Agent Sam Hicks on Nov. 19, 2008, as he led officers into her home to arrest her husband on drug charges.

Korbe claims she thought the officers were burglars. U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry ruled that "evidence of police standard operating procedures and police training ... is not relevant to the pertinent inquiry of whether defendant acted in self-defense."  Korbe's trial is scheduled to start March 7 in federal court.

Read more: pittsburglive.com.

The trial of Ingmar Guandiqueis in the death of Chandra Levy is in its second week of witness testimony.  Guandique is charged in the death of Levy, a federal intern who went missing in 2001. Tests for fingerprints, blood and semen all failed to return any usable, confirmed results, witnesses testified Wednesday at D.C. Superior Court.

A retired Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprint technician who testified as an expert witness told the court that he examined a sneaker, shoe and heel inserts, a radio cassette player, headphones, a tube of lipstick, and broken sunglasses for latent finger prints. The expert said no usable latent prints were recovered and comparing fingerprints from a car found near the Levy crime scene with the fingerprints of Guandique and another person, did not get any conclusive results.

Read more: tbd.com.

Jurors in the Morning Star Boys’ Ranch trial began deliberations Tuesday afternoon after opposing attorneys tried to define the case as all about accountability or all about profit.  “This case is about years and years of a gross violation of the public trust that continues today,” said Daniel Fasy, attorney for Kenneth Putnam, who is suing the group home for troubled boys where he was a resident in 1988-89.

Fasy pointed to the testimony of plaintiff’s witness Douglas Poppen, an expert in group homes for boys, who said he was “shocked and appalled” by the standard of care at Morning Star, particularly its methods of corporal discipline. Fasy asked the jury to consider why Morning Star’s attorneys did not bring their own expert witness to counter that testimony.

For more, see The Spokesman Review.

The a jury was seated in Eldorado, TX, late Wednesday for the trial of Allan Eugene Keate.  Keate will be the second member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to stand trial on a charge of child sexual assault as an outcome of the state’s historic April 2008 raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Schleicher County.  Following jury selection Wednesday, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther accepted motions from the lawyers and approved one to exempt expert witnesses from the rule that normally excludes them from being seated in the courtroom and listening to the testimony of other witnesses.

Last month in the same makeshift courtroom, another FLDS member, Raymond Merril Jessop, was sentenced by a Schleicher County jury to 10 years in prison on charges similar to those brought against Keate.

For more, see gosanangelo.com.

Prosecutors will be allowed to use all of their intended witnesses in the upcoming competency hearing of accused Elizabeth Smart kidnapper Brian David Mitchell, including their forensic psychiatry expert witness, Dr. Michael Welner.  Welner, a renowned forensic psychiatrist from New York City, has prepared a 206-page report on Mitchell in which he concludes Mitchell is competent to stand trial. In his report, Welner lists 161 sources of information, according to court records.

On Monday, U.S. Magistrate Dale Kimball denied several motions by Mitchell aimed at preventing the testimonies of Welner.  With the exception of Smart, who already delivered her testimony in October, and growing speculation that co-defendant Wanda Barzee will take the stand against her estranged husband, Welner is expected to be the government's key witness during the competency hearing.

Excerpted from deseretnews.com.

The Louisiana Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously rejected arguments that the convicted killer of a Baton Rouge police officer should be spared the death penalty because he is diagnosed as mildly mentally retarded.  Justice Greg Guidry authored the decision, which affirmed the conviction and death penalty for Shedran Williams, 39.

A store detective sought Lt. Vickie Wax’s assistance after noticing that Williams was leaving the business without paying for two cameras in his back pockets, court records show. Williams seized Wax’s pistol, fatally shot her, wounded the detective and another witness, then bolted from the store and hijacked a car in the parking lot, according to Guidry’s summary of the case. Williams later surrendered. A jury rejected Williams’ claim that he is mildly retarded. They heard conflicting testimony on that issue from expert witnesses for the defense and prosecution, Guidry noted.  "We do not find the jurors were confused on the issues or the evidence before them,” Guidry wrote.

Excerpted from 2theadvocate.com.