Wild Justice Part 18

"I don't know. These are copies. Copies are suspicious."

a.n.u.se interjected demanding to know why.

Diana explained to him that she had done a great deal of research, since she had first been charged, into doc.u.ment examination.

Accomplished doc.u.ment examiners insist on original, authentic standards.

Except for a couple, all of these so-called standards are copies.

In addition, as you will recall from her answer to the questions I asked her, the examiner you engaged admitted that she did not know of her own knowledge that I had written the standards she used.

"A competent examiner would have the person in question write the standards in his or her presence. That way the a.n.a.lyst is unbiased, and can swear that the standards are authentic.

"I also learned that one should never identify copies as one's writing because copies may be altered and recopied so the alterations do not show."

"Now these came from the administration and you certainly can't think that any alteration went on," scoffed a.n.u.se.

"I certainly can think it's possible. Just as I know it's possible to forge handwriting so even the experts cannot tell."

"No, that is incorrect. The a.n.a.lysts testified that she could tell forgeries."

"She also testified that I had written these 'suspect'

evaluations but admitted that she had not authenticated the standards used nor insisted on original standards.

"As far as believing that tampering could be done, I remind you that one of these 'suspect' doc.u.ments was tampered with and Lyle admitted doing it."

"What!" blurted Henry, "what. . ."

"This one here." The accused held up the evaluation that had a three word printed comment on the course. Stapled to it was a note reading, 'Lyle, have a happy Christmas, Diana'.

"This was given the doc.u.ment examiners as 'suspect' evaluation #6, yet clearly Lyle knew that he had prejudiced it by putting six additional words on it that he knew I had written. This is original writing on Christmas paper and not part of this evaluation, yet from the report the examiners made, it was treated as part of a 'suspect' doc.u.ment."

Henry quickly told Janet that she could stop taking notes while the committee huddled off the record. Feverishly, he opened the a.n.a.lyst report and scanned the relevant paragraph.

After a few moments, Henry and Frank a.n.u.se exchanged glances.

a.n.u.se nodded and Henry told Janet they were back on record.

Immediately, a.n.u.se sarcastically claimed that he didn't under stand what all the fuss was about. He could see no tampering.

Trenchant explained again. "It is obvious. A known standard is affixed to an unknown doc.u.ment. It is made a part of that unknown doc.u.ment."

a.n.u.se seemed to deliberately misunderstand. He continued this over and over, taking different tacks but essentially he was bent on wearing Diana down.

Careful, thought Henry. A court would say a.n.u.se was badgering the witness. Henry knew this was not proper questioning, it was arguing, but he let it continue.

"Oh," a.n.u.se would say in an annoying, baiting way, "it was not altered since Lyle had stapled it there so it wouldn't get lost."

and "I don't understand where you have a problem with this."

After several minutes of this, he dismissed the whole complaint.

Scathingly, he said that it didn't matter since the whole doc.u.ment had been written by Trenchant anyway. The doc.u.ment a.n.a.lyst had said so.

"Yes they had," Diana agreed. "Despite the fact that there were three PRINTED words on the SmurFF. The WRITING they identified was only on the slip of paper that Lyle had attached.

The panel was silent. Trenchant addressed them. "When I was first charged with writing these critiques, I spoke to a few professional doc.u.ment examiners. Right off, I discovered that I could not afford to hire one to do an unbiased a.n.a.lysis.

However, they usually were willing to answer general questions on the phone for a small consulting fee.

"In talking with them and reading the material they suggested to me, I came away with some interesting information. None that I talked to felt they were infallible or claimed that handwriting was as unique as fingerprints, but they enjoyed the benefits of that illusion.

"Both tape recordings and polygraph (lie detector) evidence is not allowed in courts. The so-called expert testimony of doctors, psychiatrists, as well as various technical expertise such as fingerprint and doc.u.ment a.n.a.lysis is. Deus ex machina is evidently not looked highly upon by judges, possibly because they allow no other G.o.ds before them in their courtrooms.

"Court certification of a doc.u.ment examiner means that the court has accepted their training and experience. This is seldom checked and is fairly loosely defined by the profession itself.

It does not indicate a perfect batting average for the examiner.

"Most a.n.a.lysts that I contacted said that if they were hired in this case, they would want to examine all of the critiques-- not just the handful picked out by NERD. There is always the chance of there being another individual with similar handwriting in that many samples.

"They admitted there were people capable of forging the handwriting of another person. They directed me to check out the literature on the Hitler Diaries and the more recent White Salamander Papers.

What these two cases had in common was that the best, most expert doc.u.ment examiners in the world were fooled. Because these were sensational cases, they were highly publicized. Most forgeries get little or no attention from the media but the fact remains that a good forger can fool highly qualified doc.u.ment examiners.

"Oh, yes. There is one more thing I want to question here since most of the doc.u.ments you have listed as so-called standards are copies. These copies are mostly memos addressed to people in the department. If they are authentic, why aren't they originals?

If I had written and sent those, it would have been the originals-- if I'd made a copy it would have been kept for my files."

My G.o.d, Henry screamed to himself, why do I let her go on with this? Well, of course, it's because those women are listening and look interested so I don't dare cut her own testimony off too often. They were not happy with the way Frank was badgering her and I didn't want to alienate them any further.

Aloud, he said, "Does the panel have any more questions?"

Getting no response, the chair called a short recess.

When Diana entered the waiting room, her witnesses gathered around, full of support and questions. "All in all, it went pretty well,"

she told them. "The real victory was getting out of there without throttling Frank a.n.u.se. He asks question after question always discounting your answer. He doesn't come right out and say you're lying but it is implied in his manner.

"The rest of the panel aren't bad. Esther gets a little mixed up in what she wants to say at times and is a bit hard to understand, but she appears to be trying to be fair. I think the other two women on the panel are more sympathetic toward me now.

"It isn't much fun, but you shouldn't be in there very long, so that's some compensation."

"They were at you for a long time," Sarah's voice quavered ever so slightly.

"Yes, but I'm their designated criminal. I really don't think they will treat you badly, but if they do, get up and walk out.

I mean that, it goes for all of you," Trenchant said firmly.

"There's the summons. Go in there and give 'em h.e.l.l, Andrea.

It's party time," said Helen, patting them both on the back as they left for the hearing room.

Chapter 17

Andrea Stern was barely sworn when Esther demanded, "are you a medical student?"

Then, suddenly realizing that she had spoken out of turn since it was Diana's prerogative to question her witnesses first, she apologized.

Trenchant immediately asked Andrea to give her name and occupation for the record. Replying to further questions, Andrea testified that she had known Diana for many years and had rented a room in her house for six of them.

She attested to the overall integrity of Trenchant.

Boldly, mincing no words, she fixed the panel with a friendly smile and continued.