Forensics Talk

Trayvon Martin Shooting: Forensics & Injuries Can Tell The Tale!

The News is out that George Zimmerman has been charged with second degree murder today.

To say that this whole incident is a tragedy would be an extreme understatement. I believe there were wrongs on both sides. One person has died, and the other has had to hide for fear of his life and may now spend the rest of his life in jail.

That person, instead of having his rights as a citizen protected, has been essentially tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death, in the public forum - all occurred almost immediately after the shooting.

And all thanks to the unconscionable actions of the media, and of others, who deliberately fan the flames of hatred for their own personal agendas.

There are aspects of Zimmerman's story that I do question. I question the claim of his head being banged on the sidewalk, as perhaps, opposed to hitting his head on the soft, wet ground. Reprotedly he had grass stains on the back of his jacket. The injuries were not clear enough to determine exactly what caused them.

If zimmerman's head was being banged against a hard sidewalk, I question why he wasn't knocked out, or received more injury than he did. Having one's head banged against a hard surface like a sidewalk, could cause significant injuries, such as a concussion and brain damage, and even death.

I question the fear factor involved. Fear is individual to each person. However, using the reasonable person standard, used by the courts, I have to question whether a reasonable person would fear more for his life in the banging his head on the sidewalk vs the grass and ground scenarios?

I was surprised to see the number of stock photos on Fotolia showing young males, both black and white, all wearing hoodies! So, I tried another key word. Same thing happened. Another one. Again, same thing. What does that say about the general public perception of youth and crime?

It indicates there is a general public perception that hoodies are worn by only young criminals, would it be so strange for Zimmerman to have that perception as well and be suspicious?

I also question Martin's behavior. It's reported that he was beating Zimmerman. The police report stated Zimmerman had injuries consistent with an assault.

The rest has to be proven in a court of law with a fair trial and an impartial jury. I am very interested to hear the forensics reports, including gunshot wound and residue, and the trace evidence found.

Attorney: Strauss-Kahn May Take Civil Court Action

Yahoo News

By JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press Jennifer Peltz, Associated Press – Tue Aug 23, 8:03 pm ET

NEW YORK – "Former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn might take legal action in civil court against the hotel maid who accused him of sexually assaulting her in a now-dismissed criminal case and in her ongoing civil suit, one of his lawyers said Tuesday.

Strauss-Kahn, a former French presidential candidate, could file his own claims to counter housekeeper Nafissatou Diallo's lawsuit, "and that's certainly a consideration," lawyer Benjamin Brafman said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Because she did lie, and he has suffered enormous damages as a result of those lies."

A court Tuesday dismissed the attempted-rape and other charges against Strauss-Kahn, who resigned his IMF post, spent five days in jail and then spent about six weeks on high-priced house arrest before being freed from it July 1. The dismissal came after prosecutors said they couldn't pursue the case because of doubts about Diallo's credibility and a lack of other evidence to prove a forced sexual encounter.

Diallo wasn't truthful with prosecutors about several aspects of her life and changed her account of what she did right after when she claims she was attacked, prosecutors said.

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have long said the encounter at a luxurious Manhattan hotel, though brief, was consensual. But while Diallo's account of it has been recounted in interviews, in her lawsuit and in the now-defunct prosecution, the married Strauss-Kahn doesn't want to detail his version of what happened, Brafman said.

"What happened in that room, so long as we have now confirmed that it wasn't criminal, is really not something that needs to be discussed publicly," Brafman said in the AP interview. "You can engage in behavior that you're not proud of, and maybe some people might consider it inappropriate — it doesn't mean that you committed a crime. And it's not something that you may want to discuss, at the end of the day."

Diallo's lawyer, Kenneth Thompson, didn't immediately respond to an email inquiry about the possibility of Strauss-Kahn filing his own claims in civil court. Thompson has said it's "utter nonsense" to say the encounter was consensual. Earlier Tuesday, he blasted the dismissal of the case, saying prosecutors "would not allow a woman to have her day in court."

Diallo says Strauss-Kahn chased her down in his hotel suite on May 14, grabbed her crotch, propelled her to the ground and forced her to perform oral sex. His semen was found on her uniform, and a gynecological exam found a mark that her lawyer holds up as evidence of an attack but prosecutors say could have resulted from a number of other things.

From the start, Strauss-Kahn's lawyers considered her account implausible, partly because neither she nor Strauss-Kahn had bruises reflecting a forceful attack, Brafman said.

The Associated Press does not usually name people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, as Diallo, an immigrant from Guinea, has done."

  Opinion

     Given that the criminal investigation was dropped, amid questions concerning Ms. Diallo's credibility, Mr. Strauss-Kahn has every right to file suit against her. No one has a right to sexually assault another person. However, no one has a right to file false claims against anyone else either. If either occurs, then that person (s) should be held accountable, either in criminal or civil court.

Agents Dismantle Alleged Pill Mills That Netted $40 Million

Yahoo News

By Dale K. DuPont Dale K. Dupont – Tue Aug 23, 9:10 pm ET

MIAMI (Reuters) – "State and federal agents cracked down on Tuesday on South Florida pill mills, dismantling what was described as the nation's largest criminal organization involved in illegally distributing painkillers.

Authorities charged 32 doctors, pain clinic owners and workers with illegally prescribing more than 20 million painkillers and reaping more than $40 million in profits from 2008 to early 2010.

The indictment reflects a "multi-pronged attack on those who contribute to illegal diversion of pharmaceutical drugs from the pill mills of Florida to the streets of communities across the United States," said Mark R. Trouville, special agent in charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The clinics wrote prescriptions for large quantities of oxycodone, which authorities said were used by traffickers and addicts.

People "would often travel great distances, as far as one thousand miles or more, with complaints of alleged intractable pain," the indictment states.

Demand for the prescription drugs has grown to epidemic proportions in Florida and other parts of the United States, where dealers can sell a 30-milligram oxycodone pill on the street for $10 to $30 or more, authorities have said.

Florida leads the nation in diverted prescription drugs, according to the Attorney General's Office. Seven people die in the state each day from drug overdoses.

The indictment says that many in the newly charged group were also involved in the illegal Internet distribution of anabolic steroids, and some engaged in wide-ranging violence, including kidnapping, extortion and other crimes against competitors and people they suspected of disloyalty.

The five-count indictment unsealed on Tuesday includes racketeering, money laundering, and wire and mail fraud conspiracy charges. Thirteen of those charged were doctors ranging in age from 36 to 76 who worked at the pain clinics. . . " Read more

Metro Doctors, Pharmacists Charged in 1 of Largest Drug Scams in Michigan History

Detroit Free Press

     BY TRESA BALDAS

DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

          "A dozen pharmacists. Four doctors. A psychologist and an accountant.

All are targeted in what the government dubbed Tuesday as one of the largest prescription drug scams in Michigan history, triggering criminal charges against 26 people accused of engaging in health care fraud at more than 20 pharmacies statewide.

According to an indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court, the defendants were part of a scheme that billed insurers for millions of dollars worth of bogus prescriptions for OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and cough syrup with codeine.

Doctors got kickbacks for writing the prescriptions, and so did patients, who agreed to let their insurers be billed for the drugs, the indictment said.

"These individuals abused their positions of trust and endangered the lives of countless people by illegally distributing more than 6 million doses of opiate painkillers and depressants throughout southeast Michigan and beyond," said Robert Corso, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Detroit Field Division.

The 34-count indictment alleges that Babubhai (Bob) Patel, 49, a Canton pharmacist, owned and controlled about 26 pharmacies statewide, but hid his ownership and control through the use of straw owners.

According to the indictment, Patel gave kickbacks, bribes and other inducements to doctors in exchange for them writing prescriptions and directing the patients to fill the prescriptions at one of Patel's pharmacies, the indictment said. Patel and his pharmacists would then bill insurers for dispensing the medications, the indictment said. . . " Read More

Forensic Cases: Colin Pitchfork, First Exoneration Through DNA

Explore Forensics

        One of the keystones of forensic science is DNA testing. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the genetic material present in every cell. Each individual has a Unique DNA Profile. There are even a few differences between the DNA of identical twins.

A British scientist, Sir Alec Jeffreys, developed DNA profiling in the 1980s. DNA for profiling can be extracted from samples of human cells found at a Crime Scene, including blood, semen, skin, saliva, mucus, perspiration and the roots of hair, and Profiling can even be carried out on old and dried out samples.

The case of Colin Pitchfork was the first murder conviction based on DNA profiling evidence (there was a previous rape conviction based on this type of evidence).

The Exoneration

After going missing, Lynda Mann, a 15-year-old schoolgirl, was raped and murdered in the grounds of Carlton Hayes psychiatric hospital in Narborough, Leicestershire, in November 1983. Forensic examination of semen sample showed that it was a type found in only 10% of men, and was from someone with type A blood. However, the police did not find a suspect.

 

In 1986, another 15-year-old schoolgirl, Dawn Ashworth, was similarly sexually assaulted and strangled in the nearby village of Enderby, and semen samples showed the same blood type.

Richard Buckland, a local 17-year-old with learning disabilities who worked at Carlton Hayes psychiatric hospital, had been spotted near Dawn Ashworth’s murder scene and knew unreleased details about the body. In 1986, he confessed to Dawn Ashworth’s murder but not Lynda Mann’s.

Using Sir Alec Jeffreys’ new technique, scientists compared the semen samples with a blood sample from Richard Buckland. This proved that both girls were murdered by the same man, and also proved that this man was not Richard Buckland – the first person to be exonerated using DNA. . . Read More

A Strip Search Over a Chicken Sandwich at Georgia Tech?

Above The Law

By Staci Zaretsky

     "It comes as no surprise, but going to a college football game at your alma matter is supposed to be fun, even if your team sucks. And generally speaking, Georgia Tech sucks. Okay fine, the team won the ACC title in 2009, but that title was just vacated. Nobody likes a cheater.

But even if your team sucks more than Tori Black, you can still drink the suck away at a pre-game tailgate party. And if you’re heading to a home game at Georgia Tech, you can grab some Chick-Fil-A before the game, too.

And that is exactly what Georgia Tech alum Mary Clayton did before a football game in September of last year. She might not have been drinking before the game, but she definitely wanted to “eat mor chikin,” so she tried to enter the stadium with a chicken sandwich in hand. What started for Clayton as a game to remember turned into a day she’d like to forget, due to an alleged sandwich security strip search….

 

Chicken sandwich in hand, Clayton was stopped by security as she was rushing to her seat. After being told that she wasn’t allowed to bring the food inside the stadium, Clayton says that she threw it in the trash. When she attempted to get to her seat, she was again stopped by security. WSBTV Atlanta has more information on what happened next:

   "

“People were saying I had a chicken sandwich hidden in the front of my pants,” Clayton said and consented to a search. “I believed at the time a reasonable search was they would pat my pockets down.”

Instead she said a female Georgia Tech police officer took her into a bathroom stall and ordered her to drop her pants.

“She then examined my underwear closely, all the way around, and when she didn’t find anything I was told to lift my shirt and bra and expose myself,” Clayton said. . . " Read More

Authorities Say Online Child Pornography Network Dismantled

Yahoo News 

By James Vicini James Vicini – Wed Aug 3, 4:13 pm ET

     WASHINGTON (Reuters) – "Authorities said on Wednesday they have dismantled an online bulletin board allegedly used by 600 people around the world to trade graphic images and videos of child sex abuse.

More than 70 people have been charged in connection with the private site, which was called "Dreamboard" and gave members varying access to the material. Board members who molested children themselves getting the most coveted "Super VIP" access to pictures and videos, they said.

"To put it simply, we have charged that these individuals shared a dream -- to create the preeminent online community for the promotion of child sexual exploitation," Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters. "But for the children they victimized, this was nothing short of a nightmare."

U.S. officials called it the largest prosecution of people who participated in an online child exploitation enterprise operated for the purpose of promoting child sexual abuse, disseminating child pornography and evading law enforcement.

The bulletin board, created in 2008, folded in the spring of this year when members became aware of the U.S. government's investigation, Justice Department officials said.

The 600 members of Dreamboard offered to trade images and videos of infants and children 12 and younger, contained in some 27,000 posts, the authorities said.

"The nature of this crime is abhorrent. These are some of the most disturbing images I think you will ever see," Holder said, adding that some victims were in obvious pain and crying.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said digital media recovered from those arrested in the United States included more than 1 million images of child pornography.

Of those charged in the United States, 43 have been arrested in this country and nine foreign nationals have been arrested overseas, including accused bulletin board administrators located in Canada and France, the officials said.

The board's three other administrators have yet to be identified and authorities were seeking to identify other members and the victims, they said. About one-third of the members were in the United States and the rest were overseas.

Arrests also took place in Denmark, Ecuador, Germany, Hungary, Kenya, the Philippines, Qatar and Serbia, among other countries.

"The dismantling of Dreamboard is another stark warning to would-be child predators who think they can trade in child pornography," said John Morton, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which conducted the investigation. . . " Read More

Calif. lawmaker Seeks Changes After Dugard Case

Yahoo News

By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press Don Thompson,

Associated Press – Wed Aug 3, 7:13 pm ET

     SACRAMENTO, Calif. – "A state senator said Wednesday he wants to change California law so prisoners like the sex offender who was paroled before taking Jaycee Dugard captive for 18 years would have a tougher time getting out of prison.

The proposal by Sen. Ted Gaines aims to undo a 2008 California Supreme ruling that requires the parole board to consider more than the original crime when deciding whether a prisoner is released.

Gaines and El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson said the board currently pays too much attention to mental health evaluations, and inmates like Phillip Garrido can fool psychiatrists.

Garrido was on parole after serving time for rape when he kidnapped Dugard in 1991.

"Release is the rule rather than the exception" under the state Supreme Court ruling, Pierson said at a public hearing at the state Capitol. "The burden has shifted."

Gaines, a Republican who represents the South Lake Tahoe area where Dugard was abducted, said the board has granted parole to more than 1,300 prisoners serving life terms since the high court ruling. That amounts to 42 percent of all paroles granted to life-term inmates since 1978.

Garrido pleaded guilty to kidnapping and raping Dugard while she was locked in a backyard compound at his home in the Northern California city of Antioch.. . " Read More

Judge: Try Philadelphia Priests, Official Together

Associated Press

By JOANN LOVIGLIO, Associated Press Joann Loviglio, Associated Press – Fri Jul 29, 3:01 pm ET

PHILADELPHIA – "A monsignor who is the only U.S. church official ever charged with transferring pedophile priests to unsuspecting parishes will be tried alongside four priests accused of rape, a judge ruled Friday.

Common Pleas Judge Lillian Ransom denied most of the pretrial requests made by Monsignor William Lynn, two current priests, a former priest and a former Catholic schoolteacher. The men wanted their cases to be tried separately and asked for many of the charges against them to be dismissed.

Lynn, 60, the lynchpin of the case, is charged with conspiracy and child endangerment for allegedly transferring priests he believed to be pedophiles. Lynn, who served as secretary of clergy from 1992 to 2004 under former Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, is the only U.S. church official ever charged in the sex-abuse scandal for his administrative actions.

The four others are charged in the same criminal case with raping boys in their care. Three of them are accused of raping the same child, starting when he was a 10-year-old altar boy in 1999, according to a scathing grand jury report released in February that faulted the church for knowingly harboring priests who sexually abused children.

The Rev. Charles Engelhardt, 64, and former priest Edward Avery, 68, are accused of raping the boy in the church sacristy. Prosecutors say former sixth-grade teacher Bernard Shero, 48, raped him during a ride home from school. The fourth defendant, the Rev. James Brennan, 48, is accused of raping a 14-year-old boy in 1996.

The judge on Friday dismissed only the conspiracy charges involving Shero, saying prosecutors failed to prove he was in collusion with Avery and Engelhardt. She also rejected the defense attorneys' requests for access to the mental health records of the two accusers, who are now grown men.

Lynn's attorney, Thomas Bergstrom, objected to the judge's refusal to dismiss felony child endangerment charges against his client and his refusal to separate his trial from the others, saying the monsignor had no children under his supervision and therefore cannot be guilty of endangering them. Bergstrom asked the judge for certification to appeal to a higher court, which she denied.

If found guilty of the two charges, Lynn could be sentenced to up to 28 years in prison.

David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a victim advocacy group, praised the judge's actions.

"The Catholic church isn't some loosely-knit hippie commune. It's a rigid, secretive, tightly-knit institution," he said in a written statement. "So when crimes happen, it's disingenuous for church officials to pretend that everyone involved is disconnected from one another. . . " Read More

Bus Service May be Liable for Putting Slain Girl at Risk

A New Take On Legal News

     "A jury should decide whether a school bus service is liable for dropping a 13-year-old girl off at the wrong bus stop, exposing her to harm from a man who had sexually abused her, the Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled in an unusual wrongful-death case.

Donnisha Hill

Donnisha Hill's tragic death has resulted in murder convictions for her abuser, David Damm, and the man he hired to kill her. With the appeals court's decision, it could also lead to a damages award for her parents against the bus company, First Student, Inc.

On Oct. 27, 2006, a First Student driver allowed Donnisha to get off the bus at an intersection near Damm's car dealership in Waterloo, Iowa, rather than take her to a stop near her house where her mother could see her. Damm picked Donnisha up and took her to meet his friend, Bruce Burt, who later beat her to death with a small sledge hammer.

A Black Hawk County judge cut short a jury trial of the wrongful-death lawsuit last year, finding that First Student did not need to protect Donnisha from “any and all possible harm” resulting from contact with Damm and her murder was not within the “range of harms risked by the defendant's conduct.”

Police were investigating the abuse allegations at the time of the murder. The identifiable risk, First Student argued, was not that Damm would have Donnisha killed, but that he would again sexually abuse her.

But the appeals court said the risk did not have to be so specific to be within First Student's “scope of liability.” “The plaintiffs presented evidence that First Student was aware Donnisha's bus route was changed for her overall safety in general, not just to prevent further sexual abuse,” it noted in sending the case back for a new trial.

“[T]he risk that made First Student negligent was the general risk that Donnisha would come in contact with and be physically harmed by Damm,” the court concluded.

Donnisha's parents found out Oct. 11, 2006 that she was having sex with Damm, a neighbor. After calling the police and keeping her out of school for two weeks, her mother asked First Student to change her bus route to one closer to home. . . " Read More

Man Charged With Sex Assault At Denver Airport

Yahoo News

By SHEILA V KUMAR, Associated Press Sheila V Kumar, Associated Press – Tue Apr 19, 10:51 pm ET

     DENVER – "An Oregon man suspected of raping a 22-year-old woman at Denver International Airport was charged Tuesday with one count of sexual assault.

Noel Bertrand, 26, of Portland, was accused of assaulting the woman just after midnight April 12 on the floor of a concourse. Two airport employees on the tarmac saw the incident through a window and intervened, authorities said.

The woman's family members said they were shocked to hear that Bertrand was only charged with one count. Several messages seeking comment from family lawyer Patrick Ridley were not immediately returned.

The Associated Press does not use the names of people who report being sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified. The AP also isn't identifying family members to protect the woman's identity.

Bertrand was being held on $50,000 bond and was due in court Thursday, when a public defender could be named to represent him.

He could face a sentence of up to 12 years in prison if convicted, but he would have to qualify for parole to be released and could end up imprisoned for life even after completing his term.

The victim's family members said the woman had missed a flight and decided to spend the night at the airport. A man struck up a conversation at a restaurant, then followed the woman to a spot where he sat next to her and tried to kiss her, according to her family.

Court documents say Bertrand hit the woman in the eye and choked her by her shirt collar as he threw her to the floor and assaulted her. . . " Read More

 

Prosecutors Say Jackson's Doctor Changed Story

LOS ANGELES – "The doctor charged in the death of Michael Jackson tried to change his story about his actions involving the pop star, telling his own experts in the upcoming trial a different story than he told police, prosecutors said Monday.

Deputy District Attorneys David Walgren and Deborah Brazil filed a motion asking a judge to bar new claims made by defendant Dr. Conrad Murray.

They said he apparently made the new assertions in conversation with two doctors who will testify on his behalf in the case.

The accounts were revealed in letters from the experts, Dr. Paul White, an anesthesiologist, and Dr. Joseph Haraszti, a psychiatrist and hospital director.

Prosecutors believe Murray spoke to the experts after a preliminary hearing in January that focused on his statements to police after Jackson's death in June 2009.

The motion quoted Murray as telling the experts he left Jackson's bedroom to make a phone call, even though he initially said he left Jackson to go to the bathroom.

Experts also said Murray claimed to have experience using propofol — the powerful anesthetic that killed Jackson — as a sedative, even though Murray didn't make such a claim in police interviews. . . " Read More

 For a review, check out my initial report/opinion on Michael Jackson's death in archive pages to the left.

Army Slow To Act as Crime-lab Worker Falsified, Botched Tests

Health & Fitness

By Marisa Taylor and Michael Doyle

McClatchy Newspapers

Posted: 03/19/2011 12:00:00 AM PDT

Updated: 03/19/2011 08:58:03 PM PDT

     WASHINGTON -- "For nearly three years, the military held the key to Roger House's exoneration and didn't tell him: A forensics examiner had botched a crucial lab test used in the Navy lieutenant's court-martial.

In fact, the military had begun second-guessing a decade's worth of tests conducted by its one-time star lab analyst, Phillip Mills.

Investigators discovered that Mills had cut corners and even falsified reports in one case. He found DNA where it didn't exist, and failed to find it where it did. His mistakes may have let the guilty go free while the innocent, such as House, were convicted.

"It cost him his family and it cost him his Navy career," House's attorney, John Wells, said in an interview. "It's certainly outrageous and unconscionable; it's the kind of action that makes you want to scream."

But the problem was bigger than just a lone analyst.

While a McClatchy Newspapers investigation revealed that Mills' mistakes undermined hundreds of criminal cases brought against military personnel, it also found that the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory was lax in supervising Mills, slow to re-examine his work and slipshod about informing defendants. Officials appeared intent on containing the scandal that threatened to discredit the military's most important forensics facility, which handles more than 3,000 criminal cases a year.

The military has never publicly acknowledged the extent of Mills' mistakes nor

the lab's culpability. McClatchy pieced together the untold story by conducting dozens of interviews and reviewing internal investigations, transcripts and other documents. The McClatchy investigation shows: Read More

 

Study: Hand Bacteria a Potential Source of Forensic Evidence

Cleveland.com

Published: Monday, March 15, 2010, 8:03 PM     Updated: Monday, March 15, 2010, 8:05 PM

By McClatchy-Tribune News Service

     LOS ANGELES --" Forget fingerprint dusting. Crime-scene drama fans might soon see a new forensic technique debut on their favorite TV series: hand-germ testing.

According to a study published online Monday, bacteria that live on a person's hands could one day accurately identify that individual. This could come in handy to track down a criminal who has worn gloves, removed prints and other personal physical evidence, or touched surfaces such as fabric where a fingerprint wouldn't show up, the researchers said.

The concept, outlined in a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, relies upon the fact that human beings leave a trail of bacteria on objects they touch and that the mix of microbes on each person's hand is highly individualized.

"There's a rain forest of bacteria on your skin," said lead author Noah Fierer, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. A human hand can contain on average about 100 different species of bacteria, he said, and only about 13 percent of that makeup is shared between any two people.

Fierer and colleagues compared the bacteria found on people's computer mice to a database of bacteria collected from hands of 270 individuals. The bacterial colonies from the computer mice most closely matched that of the owner's hands, the scientists found.

The technique was between 70 percent and 90 percent accurate overall, but this could be sharpened as technology becomes more sophisticated, Fierer said. . . " Read More

Unethical? Prosecutors Offered Bonuses for Conducting Trials and Getting Convictions?

Sentencing Law & Policy

     "The question in the title of this post is prompted by this fascinating article from the Denver Post headlined "DA Chambers offers bonuses for prosecutors who hit conviction targets."  Here are the details:

Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers has created an unusual incentive for her felony prosecutors, paying them bonuses if they achieve a predetermined standard for conviction rates at trial.  The threshold for an assistant district attorney to earn the average $1,100 reward: Participate in at least five trials during the year, with 70 percent of them ending in a felony conviction.  Plea bargains or mistrials don't count.

Chambers, whose office handles prosecutions in Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties, said she set up the standard to encourage her team to meet minimum requirements in line with statistics in comparable jurisdictions.  The bonus pool, which comes from an office surplus, and the use of standards to determine who gets part of it are similar to incentive compensation used in private industries.

"It is hard to find performance standards by which to measure trial attorneys," Chambers wrote in response to questions submitted by e-mail.  "This is the standard I think best meets the need to have a performance standard that attorneys know and can be aware of and that does not in any way encourage any outcome in any specific case."

But other Colorado district attorneys say they neither typically award bonuses nor tie performance evaluations to a conviction goal. . . " Read More

Gruesome photos, bogus computer entries are key to homicide case against child welfare workers

NY Daily News                                                    

BY Oren Yaniv and Rich Schapiro
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Friday, March 25th 2011, 4:00 AM

     "Gruesome photos of a battered 4-year-old girl. Autopsy reports showing she was drugged. Twine used to tie her to a bed.

Prosecutors seeking homicide convictions for the two child welfare workers assigned to protect Marchella Brett-Pierce have several pieces of dramatic evidence - but the most damning are a few bogus computer entries.

Experts say caseworker Damon Adams' alleged attempt to cover up his failure to monitor Marchella could be a silver bullet for prosecutors.

Adams, 36, is accused of never visiting Marchella's Brooklyn home despite glaring warning signs - and fudging computer records to show he checked in on her in the months before she died.

What authorities described as record tampering shows that Adams "had an understanding of the nature of his failure to act and the potential consequences for it," said Paul Gentile, a former Bronx prosecutor. "That takes the DA a significant distance to proving his case."

David Shapiro, a former Newark prosecutor, agreed.

"The false entry indicates that he knew that he blew it," said Shapiro. "That's the key." Read More