What dreams may come

Today is the day that Casey Anthony's Team of Dreamers rolls into town to inspect evidence the defense hand selected. Judge Belvin Perry had set a deadline date of last Thursday to give the prosecution and the Orange County Sheriff's Office their wish list of evidence it wants to see. Interestingly, B&M (Jose Baez and Cheney Mason) bypassed the Orange County Clerk of Courts and turned this list of receipts over to Judge Perry's office. The judge was on vacation last week and the defense must have been aware of that fact. What it expected to gain by the maneuver is somewhat of a mystery, but the odds on bet is on keeping the receipts away from public inspection. Both the prosecution and defense have until 4:00 PM today to file motions if they are opposed to the release. The chances the prosecution would file a motion like this are out of the park, and if the defense does, bet the farm league that this will be one more motion it loses. The list will become another part of the public record.

Let's take a look at the Team of Dreamers as they find their way to Orlando and the Orange County Sheriff's Office on west Colonial Drive. In honor of tonight's MLB All-Star Game, let's call them the Field of Dreamers who are coming to bat for Casey. Judge Perry will be the umpire.

Play Ball!

The SAOs have home field advantage. Part of the visiting team, the B&Ms, has arrived, and on first base, we have Dr. Henry Lee, the famed criminologist/pathologist who covered the bag during the OJ Simpson trial. According to his Web site profile, he is "Chief Emeritus of the Connecticut State Police, Founder and Professor of the Forensic Science Program at the University of New Haven, Editor of Seven Academic Journals, author/ co-author of 30 books and over 300 articles."

His biography states that, "Dr. Lee’s testimony figured prominently in the O. J. Simpson trial, and in convictions of the “Woodchipper” murderer as well as hundreds of other murder cases. Dr. Lee has assisted local and state police in their investigations of other famous crimes, such as the murder of Jon Benet Ramsey in Boulder, Colorado, the 1993 suicide of White House Counsel Vincent Foster, and the reinvestigation of the Kennedy assassination."¹

Playing second is Nicholas Petraco, an associate professor of chemistry and forensic science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. Coincidentally, that's the same school where Dr. Lee earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Forensic Science way back in 1972. According to a fellow John Jay professor, Thomas Kubic, a co-author with Petraco on crime scene investigation books, the forensic expert has spent a lot of time in the NYPD's crime lab peering through microscopes and spectrophotometers to find fibers and trace evidence the human eye cannot detect. The former police detective is now "teaching physical chemistry I (classical equilibrium thermodynamics), physical chemistry II (quantum mechanics and theoretical spectroscopy), computational quantum chemistry and general introductory chemistry. Conducting research into the application of statistical pattern recognition to physical evidence in forensic science. Also conducting research on the application of quantum chemistry to forensically important molecules."² In other words, this man is no second-string ballplayer.

At third, we have Dr. Tim Huntington, an assistant professor at Concordia University, Nebraska, and a board-certified entomologist. I guess you could say that he should be playing in the outfield since his expertise is in going after fly balls, but as a forensic expert in the world series of bugs, he studies insects and other arthropod biology as they apply in criminal matters. Usually associated with death investigations, he may be able to establish Caylee's time of death - from a defense standpoint - and whether any drugs or poisons were present. He may add evidence regarding whether any post-mortem movement occurred. This is very important.

According to his Concordia Bio, "Professor Huntington is one of 15 board certified forensic entomologists, and is a forensic entomology consultant for several law enforcement agencies. He has consulted on more than fifty death investigations spanning seven states and four countries, and is a member of the American Board of Forensic Entomology, American Academy of Forensic Sciences, Entomological Society of America, North American Forensic Entomology Association, and Nebraska Chapter of the International Association for Identification. In 2007 he was awarded the Young Alumnus of the Year Award by Concordia."³

Playing shortstop is a tag team of Dutch forensic scientists,Richard and Selma Eikelenboom, who are well-known for pioneering the field of Touch DNA. Touch DNA was so named because it analyzes microscopic skin cells left when an assailant touches a victim, a weapon, or something else found at a crime scene. It's been around for about seven years and it was the technology that cleared JonBenet Ramsey's family of her murder. Boulder police had wrongly suspected her parents. The Eikelenbooms identified full DNA profiles from parts of her clothing where the perpetrator grabbed hold of her. In another crime, with Richard and Selma's help, Touch DNA was crucial in having the murder conviction of Tim Masters thrown out. Masters became the first convict in Colorado to be exonerated due to DNA evidence, but it was actually the absence of his DNA on the victim's body that cleared him. (See also:48 Hours: Drawn to Murder)

Well, there you have it. Here's part of the line-up for the thrilling game that will be underway next season. In the field of forensics, these four came with one intent - to strike the state out. On the mound is team captain, Jose Baez. Catching is the guy with bad knees, Mr. Cheney Mason, himself. The rest of the field will follow. Until then, is this really a Dream Team, or are they playing out in left field somewhere?

♦

In Memory Of New York Yankees Owner

George Steinbrenner

July 4, 1930 – July 13, 2010

GO YANKEES!

Comments

[cali patti]

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