| When it comes to court time, the prosecution | | | | strict instruction list on how to answer. The |
| (police or sheriff's department) will often | | | | instructions explained to the witness on what |
| use evidence from their key witness in the | | | | to say verbatim, not what their experience |
| crime lab. The expert that provides evidence | | | | was or anything that they knew unique to the |
| of toxicology is the crime lab's | | | | case. |
| blood-alcohol expert. These key witnesses, | | | | |
| often called forensic toxicologists, will | | | | If fact some of the questions where basically |
| often go to the stand and describe what | | | | saying to play dumb and state that "it's |
| amount of alcohol was found in the blood, | | | | impossible to remember each blood draw." This |
| what is done to find this level while | | | | was the prosecutions method of putting away |
| describing the steps in laymen's terms. They | | | | DUI cases without a matter of a doubt simply |
| are probably the singe most important | | | | to make their toxicologist follow along a set |
| witness, because they back up the evidence of | | | | of guidelines on what to do rather than what |
| blood alcohol levels -- something that a | | | | they know happened during testing -- a true |
| breathalyzer may not do 100 percent of the | | | | conflict and a pretty blatant case of |
| time. | | | | dishonesty. |
| | | | |
| The honesty of all those in the chain of | | | | Another 'Expert Witness' Gone Wrong |
| evidence gathering at the police department | | | | |
| is important to the case at hand, but | | | | Another toxicologist was found, not to have |
| recently a San Diego DUI lawyer found the | | | | been giving testimony with scripted lines, |
| toxicologist's testimony odd since most of | | | | but scripting a false resume instead. During |
| his account seem to come from a paper he was | | | | an employee record audit at the San Diego |
| referring to during questioning. | | | | Sheriff Department's Crime lab, it was found |
| | | | that an often used key witness, Raymond Cole, |
| Afterwards, San Diego attorney Cole Casey | | | | had falsified his resume. It was found that |
| approached the toxicologist and asked him | | | | Cole's resume states that instead of |
| what he was reading during the testimony. To | | | | graduating from Berkeley in pre-med, he had |
| his surprise the witness showed him the paper | | | | actually graduated with a bachelor's in |
| he was referencing and found it to be a | | | | political science. |