2015 - SEX CRIMES ACADEMY

Forensic Solutions, LLC and the International Association of Forensic Criminologists are pleased to sponsor this three day training event, April 27-29, 2015. It is a basic sex crimes academy for those working in the criminal justice system as investigators or legal professionals (e.g., mandated reporters, attorneys, nurses, and mental health professionals). 

Course Text: Rape Investigation Handbook, 2nd Ed. by Savino and Turvey.

Note: The book for this course is, Rape Investigation Handbook, 2nd Edition, by Savino and Turvey. Registrants will need to purchase their own copy, available at the door ($60.00 USD), or online at Amazon.com.

Registration details below.

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DAILY SCHEDULE

DAY 1
Topic: Introduction 

• Human Sexuality and Sexual Deviance
• Sex Crimes
• Rape and sexual assault - legal constructs

Topic: The Investigative Response

• The First Investigative Response
• The Crime Scene
• Biological Evidence and the Medicolegal Exam
• Interviewing Suspects and Victims

DAY2
Topic: The Victim

• Forensic Victimology
• Eyewitness ID and Testimony
• False Allegations of Sexual Assault

Topic: Physical Evidence

• DNA for Detectives
• Reconstructing the crime

DAY3
Topic: The Offender

• Rapist Motivations
• Rapist Modus Operandi and Signature
• Investigating Serial Rape
• Sex Crimes on Trial

This course is open to the public, however it is intended primarily for front-line criminal justice professionals including:

Patrol officers Criminal investigators Sex crimes investigators Forensic Nurses Criminal Attorneys

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LOCATION

Education Service Center - Region 19
6611 Boeing Dr. 
El Paso, Texas 79925

SEMINAR DATES/ TIMES
April 27-29, 2015
8:00AM - 4:30PM Daily

CONTACT
Brent Turvey, PhD
Email: bturvey@forensic-science.com
Phone: 907-738-5121

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INSTRUCTORS

Lic. Manuel Esparza
fmr. Prosecutor

Lic. Manuel Esparza 
Forensic Solutions, LLC
Manuel Esparza was a Prosecutor and Investigator at the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office from November 1992 to November 2004. He also headed the Organized Crime Homicide and Women's Homicide Investigation Units between 1998 and 2004 in Juarez, Mexico.

He was assigned to Special Investigations by the Attorney General, focusing on Sexual Homicide, Domestic Homicide, Multiple Homicide, Serial Rape and Homicide where case linkage and crime analysis was required. He also handled Missing Persons Cases and headed the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program Initiative.

He worked as a private defense attorney from 2006 to 2010, both in the Inquisitorial and Adversarial Judicial System, handling cases in State Federal Court, and Juvenile Court, as well as the appeals and Habeas Corpus process when required.

He is a Diplomate of the Academy of Behavioral Profiling, and is currently a Junior Partner in Forensic Solutions, LLC involved in research, instruction and casework.

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Brent Turvey, PhD
Forensic Scientist

Brent E. Turvey, Ph.D.
Forensic Scientist/ Criminal Profiler 
Brent Turvey holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, with an emphasis on Forensic Psychology, and an additional Bachelor of Science in History. He went on to receive his Masters of Science in Forensic Science after studying at the University of New Haven, in West Haven, Connecticut. He also holds a Ph.D. in Criminology from Bond University.

Since graduating in 1996, Brent has consulted with many government agencies, law enforcement agencies, and private attorneys in the United States, Australia, China, Canada, Barbados, Korea and Scotland on a range of rapes, homicides, and serial/ multiple rape/ death cases, as a forensic scientist and criminal profiler. This includes cases under investigation, as well as those going to trial. He has also been court qualified as a forensic expert in the areas of criminal profiling, forensic science, victimology, and crime reconstruction, providing expert examinations and courtroom testimony in legal jurisdictions throughout the United states since 1996.

He is the author of Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis, 4th Ed. (2011); and co-author of  Rape Investigation Handbook, 2nd Ed. (2011); Crime Reconstruction, 2nd Ed. (2011); Forensic Victimology, 2nd Ed. (2013); and Ethical Justice (2013) - all with Elsevier Science.

Brent is currently a full partner, Forensic Scientist, Criminal Profiler, and Instructor with Forensic Solutions, LLC (http://www.forensic-science.com), as well as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Sociology and Justice Studies at Oklahoma City University. He is a Diplomate of the Academy of Behavioral Profiling, and serves on the board of directors for the International Association of Forensic Criminologists.

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Paul J. Ciolino
Private Investigator

Paul J. Ciolino, Investigator
Paul J. Ciolino and Associates, Inc.

Paul J. Ciolino is an internationally known investigator who has specialized in catastrophic civil and high profile murder investigations for over thirty years. He has appeared on network and cable television stations as commentator, analyst, panel member, and expert on sex and murder cases on over one hundred occasions. He is also a paid investigative consultant for CBS News.

Mr. Ciolino is the author of In The Company of Giants: The Ultimate Investigation Guide For Legal Professionals, Journalists and The Wrongly Convicted. He is also a co-author of the best selling and critically acclaimed textbook Advanced Forensic Civil Investigations,  published by Lawyers and Judges Publishing Company. And he is the co-author of Advanced Forensic Criminal Defense Investigations.

Mr. Ciolino is a Diplomate of the Academy of Behavioral Profiling.

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REGISTRATION

Those interested in registering for this workshop may pay by check, money order, or Visa/ MC. ECC students can enroll for course credit. 

Visa/ MC
Click on the appropriate link below.

1. Law Enforcement/ Government
    Individual rate:                                 $50.00= Click here.

2. Law Enforcement/ Government 
    Group rate*:                                      $65.00 = Click here.

3. Student rate**:                                 $50.00 = Click here.

4. Non-Student/ Public:                      $100.00 = Click here.

*Group rate = 3 or more registrants from the same organization.
**Must be enrolled in an accredited college or university; student ID required.

Check or Money Order
Make all checks or international money orders payable to Forensic Solutions, LLC in US Dollars. Also, provide your name, employment/ student information, and contact information including phone and email so that we can contact you and send updates.

Mail to:
Forensic Solutions, LLC
P.O. Box 2175
Sitka, Alaska 99835 
Re: Sex Crimes Academy

The Oklahoman: Report sparks debate over innocence of Karl Fontenot

Karl Fontenot was convicted in the 1980s for the killing of Donna Denice Harraway, a 24-year-old Ada woman. But a recent effort is underway to prove his innocence. Meanwhile, Pontotoc County District Attorney Chris Ross says the facts still prove Fontenot is guilty.

By Jaclyn Cosgrove Published: August 4, 2013

ADA — Chris Ross is the only person left in his office who was there when Donna Denice Haraway went missing. Haraway's murder was one of the first murder trials he worked on as a 27-year-old prosecutor.

Chris Ross, district attorney for Pontotoc County

And almost 30 years later, nothing has changed his mind on who killed Haraway.

Meanwhile, efforts are underway to free Karl Fontenot and Tommy Ward from prison, the two men convicted of the 1984 killing of the 24-year-old Ada woman.

The Oklahoma Innocence Project, an initiative based out of Oklahoma City University's law school, filed a brief in support of application for post-conviction relief on July 24 that outlines why the organization's legal staff believes Fontenot should be released from prison

“There were many inconsistencies throughout the investigation into Ms. Haraway's disappearance, many of which help our case for post-conviction relief for Karl,” Tiffany Murphy, the Oklahoma Innocence Project director, said during the July 24 news conference. “We firmly believe an innocent man has been in prison for nearly 30 years for a crime he did not commit."

And Ward, also convicted of Harraway's murder, awaits a similar brief to be filed.

His attorney Mark Barrett said he has been working on Ward's case for several years and anticipates that a brief will be filed for Ward. It will outline issues similar to what can be found in the Oklahoma Innocence Project brief, although it won't likely be identical.

Barrett said he believes that Ward and Fontenot are both innocence.

“You can expect something that will be filed on Tommy Wards' behalf not too far in the distant future,” Barrett said. “Exactly when, we're not sure.”

The state has 30 days to respond to the Innocence Project's brief, but Ross said he plans to ask for a one-year extension to respond.

But Murphy said she believes a year is too long of an extension.

“I have no disagreement that an extension can be had, and the statute allows for an extension of another 30 days,” she said. “So he's entitled to at least 60 days under the statute. The statute was built to accommodate the need for additional time. The statute was never built to accommodate a year.”

Fontenot and Ward were tried in court in September 1985. Both men were found guilty and sentenced to death. They were scheduled to die in January 1986. Fontenot's case was appealed, and he was granted a new trial.

During the time span of Fontenot's appeal, Haraway's remains were found about 30 miles east of Ada. In 1988, Fontenot was retried, convicted and sentenced to death a second time.

His sentence was later commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the Oklahoma Innocence Project.

After talking to Ross, it becomes obvious there's little that he and Murphy would agree upon regarding the case.

Ross can spend hours outlining why he feels the men are guilty. Murphy has a 91-page brief that she and a team of lawyers and law students from OCU have worked on since last year.

The brief outlines “substantial evidence not presented during (Fontenot's) trial or appeals establishing not only his innocence but the incompetence of the police investigation which led to his false confession and violations of his state and federal constitutional rights.”

But after reading the brief, Ross is left with a growing Microsoft Word document with red notes throughout it, explaining how and why he disagrees with the Innocence Project.

“I have extreme confidence that nothing that they have presented in their brief would have changed a jury's verdict,” Ross said.

For one, Ross disagrees on how the Oklahoma Innocence Project presents Fontenot's alibi.

The Innocence Project argues that Fontenot told police during a lie-detector test that he was at a party the night that Haraway disappeared from her job at McAnally's, an Ada convenience store. Affidavits from partygoers along with police reports place Fontenot at the party for the entirety of the night, according to the Innocence Project brief.

“Both OSBI and Ada Police Department were aware of this party based upon several witness reports, dispatch records, and police reports,” the brief reads. “However, not only did this evidence not eliminate Mr. Fontenot as a suspect, it was impermissibly withheld from his trial attorney, George Butner, to use in building his defense.”

Ross said he does not believe police suppressed evidence nor does he think witness statements add up to place Fontenot at the party.

“If we can use common sense — let's say me and you are charged with a crime, and me and you say we know that we're at a party the time that crime was committed — how do the police and prosecutors keep us from telling our attorneys that?” Ross said. “They can't.

Ross said three partygoers who were initially interviewed told police that Fontenot wasn't at the party, or that they didn't know when the party was or that they didn't know who Fontenot was.

Murphy said the Innocence Project staff still continues to look for DNA to test to add to its case for Fontenot's innocence.

“The primary reason there's nothing to test is because the police destroyed it,” Murphy said.

Murphy said, for one, police did not properly collect evidence at the convenience store the night Haraway disappeared.

So far, the Innocence Project staff hasn't found anything to send off for DNA testing, but Murphy does not think they're finished looking.

Meanwhile, Ross said he has always had an open-book policy, allowing anyone to test anything he has for DNA.

“I think there is zero percent chance that there's any DNA,” he said. “DNA (is) what we believe to be a certainty, what we're taught is certainty, and past that, there is no certainty — short of crimes committed on videotape.”

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While this is an even handed article, it misses many of the important forensic issues in the case, or perhaps avoids them entirely.

For the Forensic report by the author (Brent E. Turvey, PhD) filed with Fontenot's application for relief, see: Investigative and Forensic Assessment: Abduction and Homicide of Donna "Denice" Haraway.

For the complete filing by attorney Tiffany Murphy, see: Karl Fontenot v. State of Oklahoma, District Court of Pontotoc County State of Oklahoma, No. CR-88-43. Brief in Support of Application for Post-Conviction Relief.

FALSE REPORTER HAS HISTORY

Law enforcement investigators have a hard job, no doubt about it. They are required to make difficult decisions under stressful situations in a very short period of time which can have grave consequences. So there will be mistakes. One way reduce the number of those mistakes is by ensuring that decisions are as informed as possible. 

To that end, prior to responding to any call, whether it is a domestic disturbance or a complaint of sexual assault, a preliminary assessment of the actors involved is necessary. It involves little more than a quick database search for wants, warrants, and criminal convictions - much like is done during an average traffic stop. This simple act can better inform decisions and determinations that must be made at the scene. This includes, but is not limited to: who was more likely the aggressor in a domestic disturbance by virtue of history; who has a history of being armed; who has a history of being under the influence of a controlled substance; and who might have a history of falsely reporting crime.

Problems caused by the failure to investigate and establish the history of those involved in criminal complaints, on both sides, are discussed throughout Forensic Victimology (2008; p.293):

False reporters span all ages, all walks of life, and are capable of staging both injuries and evidence to support their claims. A thorough investigation of the evidence has traditionally been the best way to reveal the false reporter, who is more likely to confess when confronted with logical inconsistencies in his or her statements and behavior. Unfortunately, law enforcement resources are drained away from actual victims by such cases. Innocent citizens are exposed to the possibility of false accusations and damage to their personal and professional lives. Legitimate victims of sexual assault are exposed to the possibility of encountering overtaxed law enforcement resources that are inadequate to the task of investigating their cases thoroughly or competently. Building owners, private companies, and insurance companies are exposed to the threat of costly liability lawsuits. As stated in Gross (1924, 14): "Not only must the self-made victim be exposed, but innocent people who may be suspected must be protected."

A recent example illustrates the kind of problems that can averted by delaying action for just a few moments while stories are checked out and backgrounds are made clear. In involves Elisa LaCroix, a false reporter with a history.

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Child's mother faces charges for making false report

Attorney calls it a spur-of-the-moment plan that grew out of control.

By JULIA O'MALLEY

jomalley@adn.com

March 2nd, 2009

Elisa LaCroix appeared in court Monday on charges related to what police say was the staged abduction of her 3-week-old son Saturday.

LaCroix is charged with making a false report -- a misdemeanor -- as well as violating probation on a 2006 burglary conviction. She's also facing charges for faking a sexual assault in January.

She blamed the rape and, at one point, the abduction on an ex-boyfriend, prosecutors say. He was later cleared in both cases.

Each charge carries the possibility of up to a year in prison, up to a $10,000 fine and up to 10 years of probation, according to her attorney, Rex Butler. Her bail was set at $5,000, he said.

LaCroix has two children, including the 3-week-old, and both are in the custody of a family member, Butler said.

"That is what she wanted," Butler said.

He said she is also in counseling.

The abduction report led law enforcement to issue the state's first Amber Alert for a missing child overnight Saturday. The charges against her say that investigators later discovered that LaCroix handed her infant out a bedroom window to a friend because she was worried that her husband, who is due to deploy to Afghanistan, would try to take custody of him. The friend didn't know that she was part of a scheme and was not charged.

In a live interview on KTUU Channel 2 Monday evening, Butler said LaCroix, desperate to keep custody of her son, made a spur-of-the-moment plan that got out of hand. He called her a victim.

"The public doesn't know the whole story," he said.

Attempts to reach LaCroix's husband, Kaid LaCroix, on Monday were not successful.

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Brent E.Turvey, MS, also author of Criminal Profiling, 3rd Ed. with Elsevier Science (2008), can be reached at bturvey@forensic-science.com.

FORENSIC VICTIMOLOGY TEXT: VICTIM STUDY TOO POLITICAL; INVESTIGATIVE AND LEGAL OUTCOMES COMPROMISED

PRESS RELEASE - Forensic Solutions, LLC

Victims of violent crime are too often studied as stereotypical groups rather than as complex individuals. Investigators are too often pressured to accept or question victim statements based on emotional and political considerations. And worse, the justice system treats many victims as mere witnesses for the prosecution, rating their character with subjective moral standards, rather than perceiving them as real people who have suffered harm and need help. The result is less informed research, less informed investigations, and less informed legal outcomes. So argues the new textbook Forensic Victimology (Elsevier Science, 2009) coauthored by forensic scientist and criminal profiler Brent Turvey of Alaska, and Wayne Petherick, PhD, an Associate Professor of Criminology at Bond University on the Gold Coast, Australia.

In part, the current state of academic affairs has to do with the way that different victim groups are regarded by the police and courts, and then researched and taught by theoretical criminologists. There is a tendency to avoid asking tough questions of culturally sympathetic victims, such as those who have been raped, and a desire to punish others who may be regarded as immoral or complicit, such as drug addicts and prostitutes, Dr. Petherick explains.

“Victimology, which is a sub-discipline of criminology, is meant to be the scientific study of victims. But it is taught at university almost exclusively through a narrow lens that involves feminist and restorative perspectives bundled with less than reliable victim crime data,” states Dr. Petherick. “Unfortunately, too many lecturers are there to push a particular agenda or ideology when neutrality is what’s needed. That tends to put a lot of our best students off. It’s at best naive and at worst politicized. This needs to change.”

Turvey agrees. “Science is skeptical. It asks questions. And it assumes nothing. Lose the freedom to doubt and we lose our ability to understand problems, let alone solve them,” he explains.

Turvey, a court qualified forensic expert who has worked rape and homicide cases for law enforcement and attorneys since the mid 1990s, sees the current landscape of victimology as one overpopulated with advocates – some by job title and some by way of personal philosophy. “It seems as though much of victimology has become the property of those with social and even political agendas. There is more to victimology than that – substantially more.”

For Turvey and those like him, victim study is not about broad or obscure theory; it is applied and specific – a necessary component of investigating violent crime. “My job is to figure out what happened and why. That means getting the facts. And that means asking tough questions to victims and about victims in every case – no matter what. My experience has been that politics and personal beliefs immediately get in the way of that.”

For more than ten years, Petherick and Turvey have collaborated on casework and teaching projects in both the United States and Australia. In their work, they have repeatedly been confronted by the same types of problems with respect to victims of crime: some witnesses lie about victims, some victims lie about what happened to them, and some people lie about being victims. And that’s when victim evidence is collected at all. In the current culture, the way that victims are investigated and studied, it is difficult to address this without offending someone – whether it be the victim, a victim’s advocate, an investigator, an attorney, or a judge.

They came to realize that the solution to these problems was already there, if buried beneath competing agendas. The solution was to reboot victimology as a truly scientific study with investigative and forensic implications.

Forensic Victimology as a field is defined by the authors as the scientific study of victims for the purposes of addressing investigative and forensic issues. It involves the skeptical investigation of facts and a thorough examination of the evidence. Forensic victimology, explains Turvey, provides a scientific balance against the idealization or demonization of victims, a filter for deception and false reporting, and the means for identifying a threshold of relevance for victim information and opinions already at work in the criminal justice system.

They write: “the forensic victimologist is best conceived as an objective, dispassionate, and above all scientific examiner. They are critical and skeptical, and they put the establishment of fact before politics or any other consideration. To that end, they take nothing for granted, look for corroboration of any alleged victim’s statements, seek out collateral sources of information, and investigate alternate or contributing motives for victim behavior. Most importantly, the forensic victimologist is barred from assuming that alleged victims must have been victimized. For their purposes, victimity must be established unequivocally and may not be asserted simply for ideological purposes. They investigate as scientists, they report as educators, and they understand the gravity of their eventual courtroom testimony.”

The result of their work and research is a colloborative textbook, Forensic Victimology, published in October of 2008 by Elsevier Science out of San Diego, California, with chapters contributed by a range of professionals whose work involves interpreting victim evidence. “It gives students basic methodology, and professional victimologists the permission to think, teach, and act like scientists,” explains Turvey. Dr. Petherick goes further, arguing “It moves victimology from the theoretical study of victim groups through the lens of radical agendas to an applied scientific discipline that helps solve crime and resolve legal questions. It is where criminology needs to be.”

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Brent E.Turvey, MS, also author of Criminal Profiling, 3rd Ed. with Elsevier Science (2008), can be reached at bturvey@forensic-science.com.

Wayne A. Petherick, PhD, also author of Serial Crime with Elsevier Science (2005), can be reached at wpetheri@staff.bond.edu.au.