I understand that through your involvement in the case you will have a better prospective than I can get from reading the deposition. I know all about protected areas but that was not what he described in his deposition. When he described the area with the carpet, he indicated that this was only protected by the debris that was on top. This could have been a wrong observation on his point. I do not like calling person names even when the name may be an accurate description of the person. This is just me personally.

As I have already said, I am not saying in any way the finding by this investigator was correct. I would not render an opinion without the ability to view all the evidence. What I am trying to point out is the lack of education causing the inability to answer specific question is not the professions only problem that is causing wrongful accusations against a person. I had an expert that could have easily answered all the question that attorney asked to claim the same thing you are saying this person did. There was a room that had total involvement for several minutes and he stated the patterns indicated the fire originated in the center of the room. Without laboratory conformation he was able to say the gasoline recovered in the sample could not have come from the gasoline power generator that was located where the sample was collected. He did a timeline as to where the fire originated and refused to concede that because the person was not in the structure during the part of the timeline the fire could have started before the person entered the building. This same person issued a report in a civil case addressing fire spread from one building to another. He cited code requirement that effected the spread. He has never taken a class on the codes he was citing. He is the same person that said the shit produced by termites was responsible for starting a fire in a wall. How do we address this person.

What I am saying is we as a profession have more to worry about that just not answering the question that was in that deposition.

Jim Mazerat
Forensic Investigations Group