Allison Leotta's Blog, page 19

CSI: For Real — a guest-blog by real-life CSI John French

I'm delighted to introduce John French, a charming real-life CSI who works for the Baltimore Police.  After a fascinating conversation with John about how TV shows get their crime-scene analysis wrong, I asked John if he'd guest-blog on the Prime-Time Crime Review.  I'm delighted that he accepted.  Without further ado, here he is!  — Allison

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I've never watched the TV show Dexter. I hope it's better than its ad campaign. The poster for Dexter's second season shows the serial killer (who is also a blood stain pattern analyst) spattered with blood. The problem is – they got the spatter wrong!

 It looks as if it came straight on to Dexter, from a source at the same level as his face.  But people generally stab downward, at something below their eyes.  To be more realistic, the spatter should be more vertical, and have an upward trail, as if coming from below.

I guess I should introduce myself. I'm John L. French and I'm a crime scene supervisor for the Baltimore City Police Crime Lab. In my spare time I'm also a writer, using my training and experience to write crime, pulp and horror short stories. My latest book is "Here There Be Monsters," about a BPD detective who is the department's unofficial monster hunter. I'm also the editor of the anthology "Bad Cop, No Donut," which features tales of police behaving badly.

I met Allison when she gave an excellent presentation to the Mystery Writers of America. Afterwards we wound up talking shop and that led to her inviting me to write something for this blog about how a crime lab really works, as opposed to how things are on TV.

You've seen it, we all have. The processing of the crime scene is now a staple on television shows. The scene is searched, evidence gathered and results come in in record time. What these results are depends on the plot, but from the much missed Law & Order to the CSI franchise it seems that all the work is done by one person. Occasionally, the star of the show must to show how tough she is or how much influence he has and orders the Lab to "rush things and give this case top priority."

I'm sure it won't surprise any of Allison's readers to learn that this ain't necessarily so. So how does a real crime lab work?

No one does it all. It starts with the crime scene, which is what I do.  In Baltimore the crime scene people are called "Crime Laboratory Technicians." Our job is twofold. The first is to document scenes by taking photographs, writing reports and drawing crime scene diagrams. The next is to assist in the identification of those involved in the crime by searching for and (hopefully) recovering evidence that can be associated with the assailant, the victim or anyone else who had been on the scene. We dust for latent prints, photograph and recover shoeprints and tire tracks, collect weapons, bullets and cartridge cases, swab for blood and possible DNA, and look for trace evidence such as glass, hair, fibers and soil. Sometimes we dab suspects' hands for gunshot residue or perform presumptive tests for blood. The evidence we recover is submitted to our Evidence Control Unit (not part of the Lab) and then …

Well, for the crime scene people, that's it. It's now up to the other, in-house units of the Laboratory. Each unit has its own specialty. The Firearms Unit examines all the guns, bullets and cartridge cases recovered by the crime scene people and compares them to the case at hand as well as (with the help of a computer database) to open cases. The Latent Print Unit does the same with recovered finger and palm prints as well as chemically processing the evidence we can't do in the field.

Other units include the Photography, Drug Analysis and the always important Administrative Unit. (If I leave out the last they screw up my overtime.)

Which brings me to the Chemistry Unit. When I started with the Lab some 30-odd years ago, the entire Chemistry Unit – Drugs and Trace – fit into one medium sized room. Things have changed. What was once called the Trace Unit has grown to almost half of the 10th floor ofPolice HQ and has divided itself into Trace, Questioned Documents, Serology and DNA units. Biological evidence first goes through Serology before going to DNA. Questioned Documents examines and compares not only documents but also shoeprints and tire tracks. Trace is the catch-all for everything else.

And keeping us all straight, making sure we follow the correct procedures is the Quality Assurance Unit as well as a Laboratory Director who oversees the multi-ring circus that is the Laboratory Section.

So as you can see, that one person on TV who does it all really stands for quite a few people, each of whom does his part.

Now as for quick results and priority cases.

Sometimes results are quick. It is possible for a technician working the evening shift to recover a print from a scene and for the Latent Print Unit to examine, compare and enter the print into the computer in the morning and for an identification to be made before the tech reports back to work. The Firearms Unit can work almost as fast, but often there is no gun against which to compare the evidence. As for DNA, even with what we call a Red Ball, a case that takes precedence over all the others, the fastest a profile can come back is a week. Then it has to be matched with known profiles.

In all units, cases are prioritized by the seriousness of the offense, with Crimes Against Persons coming before property crimes. And with each detective wanting his case to take precedence, all detectives have to wait for results.

The above is for a full service lab. Police departments with just a crime scene unit – such as police in smaller jurisdictions — are dependent on State or Federal Labs to do the examinations and analyses for them, which means that they are competing with other police departments who have the same needs.

I hope the above gives some idea of how things are really done in a crime lab. Any questions, just ask. And finally, I'd like to thank Allison for the opportunity to guest on her blog and to thank you for taking the time to read this.

John

 

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Bad news for SVU fans!

Reports are circulating around the web: Chris Meloni won't be back next season to play Detective Elliott Stabler.  

Sob, sob, sob.  I can't imagine the show without him.   Who could possibly replace Elliott?

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Thanks to TokoBali for being the first to tell me about this. (Bad news, but I appreciate the messenger.)

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New Casting for SVU

It's hard to imagine Law & Order: SVU without Mariska Hargitay.  Luckily we won't have to … at least for one more season.  According to Hypable, Mariska has signed on for one more year, but with a much smaller role in Season 13, and with plans to phase out even more.  Her character, Olivia, will soon get promoted and become a supervisor.  The show is now looking for a new female lead to replace her.  Rumor has Jennifer Love Hewitt as the leading contender.  She did a great job guest-starring in Season 12 — I wonder if they' have her back as the same character she played (a repeat victim of a serial rapist) or create a new police-detective character for her? 

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Thanks to SVU fan and award-winning crime writer David Delee for letting me know about this!

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Tune in over the summer!

The SVU season may be over, there's still plenty of crime-show nitpicking to be done!   I'll still be posting here every Wednesday over the summer: evaluating the summer blockbusters for what they're getting right and wrong, and talking about breaking news (like the IMF chief who was just accused of raping a maid at a posh Manhattan hotel).  We'll also have some great guest bloggers, including a Baltimore Police forensics expert who will tell us why the blood-spatter on Dexter is wrong, an award-winning mystery writer who will rank the best TV crime moments, and more.  Tune in every Wednesday! 

Of course, we'll go back to truth-squading our favorite TV shows in the fall!

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SVU's Season 12 Finale

Summary:  Our final episode of the season ended with a bang.  Several bangs, actually.  I might have to visit the ER myself just from watching it; at the very least, I must have post-traumatic stress disorder. The show started with a mother and daughter sharing a touching moment, walking down the street planning for the girl's prom. Suddenly, a man in a hoodie runs up, grabs Mom's purse, and shoots her between the eyes. The girl collapses and sobs at her dead mother's side. Turns out, Mom was a rape victim two years ago. A hairdresser named Luke slipped GHB into her drink, she passed out, and he sexually assaulted her in a limo. He claimed the GHB was for bodybuilding. The rape trial was scheduled for next week. The hairdresser, we learn, hired a homeless guy to harass Mom, hoping to stop her from testifying. But the homeless guy developed his own grudge and decided to kill Mom himself. But wait, there's more! The homeless guy was working as an informant for an ATF agent hell-bent on making a cigarette bust. The ATF agent allowed the homeless guy to escape from an ATF sting to prevent the SVU agents from arresting him. The ATF agent also gave the homeless guy a gun left over from a failed ATF operation. "There are too many guns on the street!" Elliott fumed. "And ATF is the one putting them there." (I threw a slipper at the TV at this point.) The SVU detectives soon arrested the ATF agent. With all the bad guys rounded up into one SVU cell, there's only thing that could happen, right? The girl from the first scene came back, this time armed with a gun rather than a prom dress. She shot all the men in the holding cell, and also killed an innocent bystander lady who ran the homeless shelter. Elliott was forced to shoot the girl. As she died in his arms, she said, "It was so easy to buy the gun off the street."

Verdict: C-

What they got wrong: That was such blatant and baseless propaganda against the ATF, I wondered if the NRA wrote the episode. Yes, guns are a huge problem on our streets. I see gruesome crimes every day that would be mere fistfights if we lived in a country where guns weren't worshiped like false gods. You know the only federal agency that systematically tries to keep guns out of the hands of the bad guys? The ATF.  Blaming ATF for the guns on American streets is kind of like blaming a skilled veterinarian who didn't stop a Mack truck from running over your pet dog.

"I want my phone call," the homeless killer giggled in the middle of an interrogation. The detectives immediately stopped questioning him and brought him to a pay phone. Brace yourself now. There is no constitutional right to a phone call. Some police stations might have a policy allowing you to make a call, but that's just a courtesy, not a guarantee. You have a right to a lawyer. You have a right to remain silent. But a right to a phone call? Nope. Sorry.

There were several of my pet peeves in this episode:  the defense lawyer who just sits there looking constipated as the detectives get all kinds of admissions from his client; the DA who does nothing but pointlessly interrupt police interrogations; the killing off of every bad guy instead of taking him to trial.  But you've heard these rants before. Moving on . . .

What they got right: This episode was just barely about sex crimes, but the small part it covered was correct. You've probably heard of the date-rape drug GHB. It is easily made from common household items, and when ingested causes blackouts. It tastes salty and slightly bitter, so it's often slipped into salty drinks like margaritas. (Ladies, if your drink tastes funny, stop drinking it right away and get yourself somewhere safe with someone you trust.) Curiously, GHB was invented by bodybuilders who believed that it helped make them lean and ripped. It turned out that there was some serious crossover between bodybuilders and date rapists. No offense if you have a six pack. I had a case in 1999 involving a bodybuilder/student at Southern Illinois University. He concocted GHB in his kitchen and used it both to get ripped and to rape at least one college girl. I was a federal prosecutor specializing in consumer protection at the time. The state of Illinois didn't prosecute the guy for rape because there was little evidence – medical tests didn't screen for GHB in the 90′s and the girl couldn't remember all of what happened. At the time, GHB was a new phenomenon and wasn't yet a scheduled drug, so mere possession wasn't a crime. But we prosecuted him for misbranding and mislabeling the GHB, under the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act. He was convicted, and at sentencing, we got an enhancement for his sexual assault (sentencing enhancements can be proved by a lower standard than facts at trial). GHB is now a scheduled drug, which means it's a crime just to make it. So, kids, don't try this one at home. Seriously.

The other thing this episode got right is that police have incredibly dangerous jobs.  Whenever they pull someone over or go to a house in response to a 911 call, they don't know what they're walking into.  And the danger doesn't stop at the police station door.  Crazy people with a grudge do sometimes come in and target the police working there.  That happened in a Detroit police station just this January: a man walked into a police station and started shooting at the cops.  Their security camera caught the entire shootout on tape.  Check out the chilling footage: 

We don't pay our police officers enough.

The views expressed on this blog are mine alone and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Justice.

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SVU Episode #23: Delinquent

Summary: A 14-year-old boy breaks into the home of a 34-year-old woman, takes off his clothes, and falls asleep in her bed.  When she finds him in her bed (interrupting an already awkward first date), she calls the cops.  The kid is arrested and falsely accuses Elliot of "touching his junk" during the processing.  Elliot becomes obsessed with the kid and follows him around, despite a police lieutenant's admonitions to back off.  The DA charges the kid as an adult, but then allows him to plead to probation in return for dropping his lawsuit against Elliot.  A day later, a woman is raped and murdered in a NYC alleyway.   DNA testing shows that the rapist is this kid – and he's raped five other women in Oregon.  Despite mounting evidence, the kid's mother won't believe her son could do anything wrong.  But she tells the police that the kid was molested by his female babysitter when he was seven.  While she's making this revelation, the boy returns to his old babysitter's house and kills her.

Verdict: B

What they got right: Kids can be tried as adults if their crimes are heinous enough.  Each state has its own rules.  In D.C. the rule allowing prosecutors to try minors as adults is called Title 16, and it applies only to the most serious violent crimes.  Not every minor who is eligible will be tried as an adult.  In deciding whether to Title 16 a minor, prosecutors consider the suspect's criminal record, the severity crime he's accused of committing, the strength of the current case, and the likelihood that he'll re-offend.

The system where the suspect is tried is important.  In the juvenile justice system, the goal is rehabilitation, so the focus is on counseling.  In the adult justice system, the main goals are punishment and deterrence, so the focus is incarceration.  Additionally, if you're convicted in the juvenile system, you'll have no criminal records after you become an adult, and (in D.C.) your sentence can't go past your 21st birthday.

Another thing this show got right was that suspects often make claims against the cops that arrest them.  Like the beat cop said in this episode, "Every drug bust I ever made claimed that I planted the drugs."  Prosecutors and the Internal Affairs branch of the police department have to carefully sort out the legitimate claims from the countless bogus ones.

Finally, the kid's mom was very realistic.  If there is anyone who is willing to stand by the side of a serial rapist, it's his mother.  Even when evidence is overwhelming, I've seen countless mothers refuse to believe that their son could do any wrong.  I don't think there's much to be gained from tring to convince the defendant's Mom of her son's badness – she's not going to trust you over her child.  As law enforcement, the key is marshaling enough evidence to convince a jury.

What They Got Wrong: This kid wouldn't have been tried as an adult for sleeping naked in a woman's bed.  For the other stuff, yes, sure.  But the initial crime was a stretch for adult prosecution – it wasn't very serious, and the kid had no criminal history.

Elliot should have gotten off this case, and stopped making any contact with the kid, as soon as the kid accused him of molesting him.  But you knew that.

And I've never heard of a 14 year old serial rapist.  It's rare to find a 40 year old with 8 confirmed victims.  That said, if there was such a predator, he probably would have been molested himself as a child.  History tends to repeat itself with sex crimes.

Finally, in real life, Elliott would be fighting off the kid's false charges of molestation for the next two decades. 

All the views expressed on this website are mine alone, and do not necessarily represent the view of the U.S. Department of Justice.

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SVU Episode #22: Bang

Summary:  A baby is abandoned by a dumpster on a cold morning, and almost dies of hypothermia. Elliott and Olivia find the mother – a high-powered forty-something professional who recently adopted the baby. Mom is engaged to a suave lawyer – played by John Stamos – who set up the closed adoption for her. John is sleeping with Mom's hot young nanny, which the detectives discover when they find a ripped condom in the nanny's garbage can. The person who abandoned the baby, we learn, is Mom's downstairs neighbor, who was appalled by John's serial cheating and wanted the baby to have a better life. Mom forgives John for shagging the nanny – because Mom is pregnant with John's baby. Hearing the news, John embraces her and whispers, "I'm so glad that condom broke."

        "You're a reproductive abuser!" Olivia says. (Wow, based on two broken condoms? She was positively clairvoyant tonight.) Turns out, John's character likes to poke holes in condoms before sex in order to get women pregnant. A beautiful reproductive-abuse expert named Audrey is called in to educate the detectives. "Putting semen inside a woman without her consent should be rape," Audrey declares. Olivia and Audrey discover that Mom's adopted baby is actually John's biological baby (with a junkie ice-rink janitor lady). He took this baby from its biological mother without filing the correct adoption papers. They arrest him on misdemeanor adoption-paperwork charges. The DA declines to prosecute, but the detectives get every women in NY with whom John has a child – all 20 of them! – to confront him as he's being released. Although it's clear that he's ruined many lives, he's nonchalant. In fact, he says, he has 47 kids if you count the rest of America and Europe.

        Later that night, John is gruesomely killed in the Mom's garden. The killer was Audrey, the reproductive-abuse expert, who took personal offense at John's manipulative ways. When he tried to seduce her, she grabbed a special SCUBA knife that blows CO2 into its victims, stabbed him with it, and exploded his intestines all over Mom's sidewalk.

Verdict: B

What They Got Right: "Reproductive abuse" or "coerced reproduction" is a real phenomenon we're just starting to learn about. It involves a man using verbal threats, physical aggression, or birth-control sabotage to pressure a woman to get pregnant. All the literature suggests the phenomenon is a one-way street in terms of gender – the phrase doesn't cover women who manipulate men into getting them pregnant. Doesn't seem fair, really. But maybe it's because "coerced reproduction" often goes hand-in-hand with domestic abuse (which usually – although certainly not always – has a female victim of a male perpetrator). In fact, there are higher rates of unintended pregnancies in relationships with partner violence.

What They Got Wrong: Reproductive abuse doesn't look like this. In real life, it's more like one guy trying to control one girl. According to an article in Newsweek, "You have guys telling their partners, 'I can do this because I'm in control' or 'I want to know that I can have you forever.' " The real scenario looks more like your average domestic abuse relationship than a charming international Lothario. 

This episode reminded me of that creepy doctor who secretly impregnated 75 of his patients at a fertility clinic with his own sperm. Remember him?  His name was Cecil Jacobson, and he looked more like John Goodman than John Stamos.

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Shudder.

They called him the Sperminator.  (They didn't have terms like "reproductive abuse" then.)  He was convicted in 1992 of 52 counts of fraud and perjury. Click here for the transcript of a Saturday Night Live skit about this (a throwback to the days before YouTube, when we had to rely on written transcripts to re-play funnies).  He was awarded a spoof prize, the IgNobel, for "devising a simple, single-handed method of quality control."

All views on this website are mine alone and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Rerun of "Pursuit"

Tonight's episode was a rerun of  "Pursuit" — you can click on that link to see my post on that show.  Meanwhile, congratulations to Mariska Hargitay, who just announced that she adopted a beautiful baby girl! 

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Here's the full article from People magazine.  See you next week for a new episode!

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Rerun of Pursuit

Tonight's episode was a rerun of  "Pursuit" — you can click on that link to see my post on that show.  Meanwhile, congratulations to Mariska Hargitay, who just announced that she adopted a beautiful baby girl! 

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Here's the full article from People magazine.  See you next week for a new episode!

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Rerun of "Merchandise"

Tonight's show was a rerun of  "Merchandise" — click the link to see my take on it.   Next week will be a rerun too, but we can look forward to a new episode on May 4th.  Meanwhile, enjoy this video of SVU bloopers (some oldies but goodies):

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