Location

Defendant(s)

Date of Alleged Crime

Dog Scent Evidence

Earl Henry Rhoney IV was convicted of the murder of 46-year-old Patricia Lea Pratt.  Pratt was beaten and strangled during a burglary at her home in the upscale Turtle Rock neighborhood of Irvine, CA.  Rhoney had committed a burglary with six other teenagers about a mile from the Pratt residence more than a week prior to the murder.  He was arrested for it two weeks after the murder.  Eight months later, police followed Rhoney with a bloodhound upon Rhoney's release from juvenile hall for the prior burglary.  Police had given the bloodhound, named Duchess, material extracted from Pratt's sweatshirt to sniff and videotaped the dog allegedly tracking the scent of Pratt's killer.  The scent material was removed from the sweatshirt using a Dustbuster type device that was called a Scent Machine.  This device was patented by the dog's handler, Larry Harris.

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William Dillon was convicted of the murder of James Dvorak.  Dvorak was found murdered at Canova Beach.  He had been beaten to death and left in a wooded area, an apparent homosexual meeting place near the beach.  A motorist, John Parker, had picked up a hitchhiker near the scene of the crime and drove him to a tavern three miles away.  Along the way, Parker stopped his truck and performed oral sex on the hitchhiker.  After dropping off the hitchhiker, Parker found that his passenger had left behind a bloody yellow T-shirt which he disposed of in a trash can near a grocery store.  After he saw a news story about the murder, he called police, and police recovered the T-shirt.

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Ear Print Evidence

Mark Dallagher was convicted of the murder of 94-year-old Dorothy Wood.  Wood was found dead at her home on Whitby Avenue in Huddersfield.  She had been smothered with a pillow.  A burglar had entered the home through a transom window above her bed.  Wood was profoundly deaf and slept downstairs because of a heart condition.

Ear prints were found on the glass immediately below the transom.  West Yorkshire police sent these prints along with prints of Dallagher's ears to Cornelis Van der Lugt, an alleged ear print expert.  Police suspected Dallagher might be the culprit because he was a small-time burglar who lived in the area.  Van der Lugt was Dutch police officer for 27 years and a lecturer at the Dutch Police College.  He had no formal qualifications, but he had become interested in ear print identification and read what was available on that topic.  He had built up a portfolio of about 600 photographs and 300 ear prints.

At trial, Van der Lugt testified that he was "absolutely convinced that the prints of [Dallagher's] left ear were identical with the prints of the left ear on the window."  Another Crown expert, Peter Vanezis, considered Van der Lugt to be the ear print expert in the world, and testified that "it was very likely that it was this defendant who made those prints," although he could not be one hundred percent certain.  Vanezis was Regius Professor of Forensic Medicine and Science at the University of Glasgow.

Following Dallagher's conviction, two other criminal convictions that relied on ear print evidence were overturned, one in the U.S. (David Kunze), and another in the Netherlands.  Both relied on Van der Lugt's testimony.  In 2002, an appeals court also overturned Dallagher's conviction because it found fault with the manner in which the experts expressed their opinion of Dallagher's guilt.  Following the reversal, an initial report given by Van der Lugt surfaced in which he stated that the ear prints found on Wood's window were definitely not those of Dallagher.  The words "definitely not" were underlined twice.

A retrial for Dallagher began in 2003, but it was halted after 10 days as the prosecution sought to gather additional evidence.  However, additional evidence was not forthcoming and DNA tests of the ear prints showed they did not belong to Dallagher.  As a result, charges against Dallagher were dropped in 2004.  He was released from imprisonment after serving seven years of a life sentence.  (Innocent) (Forensic-Evidence)  [11/09]

Foot Impressions

Ontario, Canada

Dimitre Dimitrov

Feb 21, 1996 (Vanier)

Dimitre Dimitrov was convicted in 1999 of murdering his friend and landlord, Hristo Veltchev, 37.  Veltchev's body was found in a public parking lot, stuffed in the trunk of his car.  Evidence indicated that he had been bludgeoned to death in the garage of his house.  Dimitrov's conviction was based on expert testimony that his feet matched impressions found inside a pair of bloody boots at the victim's house.  The boots were found in a front hall closet in the house.  The closet was used by all the boarders of the house including Dimitrov.  Apart from the expert's testimony, there was no evidence Dimitrov owned or had worn the boots.  A retrial was ordered in 2003 after a court ruled that the impression evidence was inadmissible to establish positive identification unless it was accompanied by corroborating evidence.  At retrial in 2004, DNA test results were presented, which showed that the blood on the boots belonged neither to the victim, nor to Dimitrov, nor to anyone else known to have entered the house.  Dimitrov was acquitted.  He had spent 4 1/2 years imprisoned.  (JD30 p8)  [5/08]

Handwriting Analysis

(Federal Case)  After receiving a letter he considered obscene, the City Solicitor of Atlanta, Nash R. Broyles, turned it over to Federal Authorities. The letter reflected pointedly on Broyles' moral character. It was signed Grant Jackson, so a man named Grant Jackson was arrested as well as William Broughton who was considered by authorities to be a close friend of Jackson and of necessity involved in whatever mischief Jackson might be involved. Broyles had sent both Jackson and Broughton to jail at various times for a variety of misdemeanors. Both Jackson and Broughton denied writing the letter or having any knowledge of it.

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Paul Freshour was convicted of the attempted murder of his sister-in-law, Mary Gillispie, a school bus driver.  In 1976 Mary received a letter in the mail telling her that the letter writer was aware that she was having an affair with the superintendent of schools and that it had better stop.  The letter also contained the threat, “I know where you live.  I've been observing your house and know you have children.  This is no joke.  Please take it serious.”  The envelope was postmarked Columbus, Ohio.  There was no return address, no signature inside, no way to tell who sent it.

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Lip Print Evidence

Lavelle L. Davis was convicted of murdering Patrick "Pall Mall" Ferguson.  Ferguson was killed outside an Elgin apartment complex with a single shotgun blast at close range.  Davis's first trial ended in a mistrial after a key eyewitness said she was backing off testimony she gave at the earlier trial of a co-defendant. At Davis's second trial, the woman said she was finally coming forward with the truth--that she saw him shoot Ferguson.  Even Prosecutor Alice Tracy called the woman "an admitted liar" during the second trial.  A crime lab examiner, Stephen McKasson, testified that Davis's lips matched lip prints left on duct tape found near the scene of the slaying.  The prosecution theorized that Davis left his lip prints on the sticky side of the tape while demonstrating to others what he was going to do if Ferguson started to scream.

For some jurors in Davis's trial, including Doris Gonzalez, the lip print evidence was convincing--much more than the witnesses called by both sides who she said "were not very truthful people."  However, following conviction, other forensic experts of weighed in.  Andre Moenssens, the author of a book on forensics said the use of lip print evidence amounted to "pure speculation and unadulterated conjecture.”  Ronald Singer, the president of the AAFS, the nations chief forensic society said, "At this stage of the game, you can put ear prints and lip prints and nose prints and elbow prints all in the same category--unverified and unvalidated.”  In Mar. 2006, Davis's conviction was overturned and he was granted a new trial.  Charges against Davis were dropped in 2009.  (Chicago Tribune) (Forensic-Evidence)  [3/08]

Video Analysis

Amilton Nicolas Bento (aka Nico), a Portuguese immigrant, was convicted of the murder of his 26-year-old Polish girlfriend, Kamila Garsztka.  The alleged crime occurred in Bedford, England in or near the River Great Ouse.  A CCTV security camera caught Garsztka walking alone on the embankment of the river toward Priory Lake which adjoined the river.  Garsztka's coat, scarf, and shoes were found by the river bank about an hour later.  Bento reported Garsztka missing and pestered police to step up their search for her and keep him informed.  He told police Garsztka had left her handbag in his apartment, which police later retrieved.  Seven weeks after she went missing, canoeists found her body floating in Priory Lake.

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