Chapter 62
The next morning, Judge Silverman entered the courtroom with a decisive stride. He stepped up to the bench, and sat down. As soon as the bailiff declared the court in session, Silverman turned to the jury. “Ladies and Gentlemen, the next few days will be dedicated to presenting the court with the relevant evidence to this case. During this process, you will have a chance to examine the evidence first hand.” He gave them a thin, friendly smile. He looked at Simmons and Billycan in turn briefly and then returned his attention to the jurors. “Therefore, I will ask you to only note down your comments and reserve your arguments for your deliberation at the conclusion of the trial.”
His Honour raised his head to look at the US Attorney. “Mr. Billycan, your next witness, please.”
“Yes, Your Honour. The Prosecution calls Mr. Lieberman to the stand.”
The bailiff nodded to his colleague at the far end of the courtroom. The man went out and returned a minute later with Mr. Lieberman in tow.
He stood in front of the witness chair and faced the judge. “For the record, sir,” Silverman said, “would you mind saying your name and state your occupation?”
The witness nodded. “My name is Stan Lieberman. I am a forensic specialist at the Michigan State Forensic Research Laboratories in Flint, Michigan.”
After being duly sworn in, Mr. Lieberman sat down.
“Thank you, sir. Mr. Billycan you may now proceed.”
“Thank you, Your Honour.” Billycan got up and strode toward the witness stand. “Mr. Lieberman, good morning.”
“Good morning, Mr. Billycan.”
By stating the US Attorney’s name in open court in front of the jury, Lieberman let everyone know that he had had contact with Billycan prior to coming to court. Billycan raised an eyebrow—imperceptible to the jury. “Mr. Lieberman, can you tell us how long you have been working in the Michigan Forensic Laboratories as a forensic expert?”
“Yes, sir. I have been with the lab for almost twelve years.”
“And as part of your duties, did you have many opportunities to examine vehicles involved in accidents or in say in other forms of criminal activities?”
“Yes I have.”
“How many do you go through on average every month, would you know?”
“It depends on the weather…” Billycan jerked his head back in surprise and raised his eyebrows. “I mean, in the summertime, we seem to have more vehicles coming in that we’d have in the winter.”
“I see. Could you give us an estimate then of how many vehicles your lab analyzes over the period of a year, say?”
“It’s difficult to say, but about twelve to fifteen cars or SUV type vehicles go through the lab each year.”
“And as an expert, do you attend to the forensic analysis of each vehicle yourself.”
“Me and some other guys do, yes.”
“Would you say that every vehicle you examined were in a serious accident or only some of them?”
“Some were not involved in a vehicular accident at all and some, yes.”
“Thank you, Mr. Lieberman. Now, I’d like you to turn your attention to the report I have in my hand.” This time Billycan brought a thick binder to the witness stand. “Is this the report you wrote at the end of your forensic analysis of Mr. Ishmael Assor’s SUV, which was involved in the accident that occurred in the fall of last year in the city of Flint, MI?”
Billycan placed the binder in front of Lieberman. “Yes, that’s the one.”
“Thank you.” He turned to Silverman. “The Prosecution offers this forensics report, marked Exhibit 2 and tender to opposing counsel.”
“No objection, Your Honour,” Simmons said mechanically, not even lifting his head.
“All right, Mr. Billycan, so noted. Proceed.”
“Thank you, Your Honour.” Placing a hand on the binder, he planted his eyes on the witness. “Now, Mr. Lieberman, could you tell us what specifically struck you as peculiar concerning Mr. Assor’s vehicle, if anything?”
Lieberman shifted in his seat. He put his elbows on the armrests and retreated to the back of the chair. “There were three items that could be qualified as peculiar in the vehicle...” The US Attorney moved away from him to face the jury.
“Could you tell the court what these were?”
“Sure…,” Lieberman said, shifting his position again. “First, even before we got the car towed to the lab, I noticed that the car wasn’t fitted with airbags.”
“I see. And do you think the lack of airbags in the steering wheel, for example, was due to a manufacturing defect?”
“No, sir.” Lieberman was emphatic about this. “This vehicle was not even a year old and the manufacturers wouldn’t have sent it to the dealership without its airbags.”
“So, and if I understand you correctly, you are saying the airbags had been removed from the vehicle after it was purchased, is that your testimony?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Then, have you been able to locate proof or ascertain that the airbags had been removed?”
“Yes, we did. When we dismantled the steering column and disassembled the steering wheel, we noted that the airbag had been removed.”
“Thank you. Now, sir, what else did you notice as peculiar about this car?”
“Well, the second item was a leak in the power-steering fluid container.”
“And without being too technical about it, could you describe for the jury, what would that do when you drive a car without, or low power-steering fluid?”
“Well…, once the fluid would have escaped from the container or the steering column, the car would be going out of control.”
“When you say the car would ‘be going out of control,’ did you mean the driver would then be unable to control the vehicle?”
“Yes, sir, that’s what I meant.”
“And what about the third item in this series of peculiarities—what was it?”
“We found two sets of latent hand prints on the passenger side of the vehicle.”
“Could you explain to the jury—again briefly—what you mean by ‘latent hand prints’?”
“Latent prints mean they are prints that are not visible to the naked eye, but they’re there nonetheless.”
“And you were able to lift these two hand prints?”
“Yes, we did.”
The US Attorney strode to his table and picked up a transparent folder, which he handed to the witness. “Are those the developed hand prints you’ve just described?”
“Yes, these are the latent prints developed in the lab, yes.”
“Your Honour, the Prosecution offers this evidence, marked Exhibit 3, and tenders to opposing counsel.”
“So noted, Mr. Billycan. Please move on.”
“No objection, Your Honour,” Simmons uttered once again, leaning back against the chair.
“And now, Mr. Lieberman, where did you find these two handprints, exactly?”
“On either side of the glove compartment on the right hand side—the passenger side—of the dashboard.” A wave of murmurs and whispers among the audience accompanied the witness’s statement. That description got the jury’s full attention.
“Thank you, Mr. Lieberman. Now, I’d like you to turn to page 154 of the report in front of you and read the highlighted portion for the jury.” Billycan took a couple of steps and stopped, facing the jury again.
Lieberman leafed through the pages, found the page and the highlighted paragraph. “The latent hand prints found on the passenger side of the dashboard of the SUV were identified as belonging to a Mr. Samuel Meshullam.” Lieberman looked up and closed the binder amid a growing chatter in the audience.
Silverman pounded his gavel, demanding silence. Once he got what he wanted, he turned to the witness. “Mr. Lieberman, would you mind answering a question for the court?”
“Not at all, Judge, go ahead.” The expert’s casual manner seemed to take the judge aback.
“Woul
d you be able to tell the court how you determined the identity of the owner of these hand prints?”
“Well, at first we had no idea whose prints these were, but then when we were advised that they were maybe the prints of someone involved in this case, we tried matching them with the witnesses and suspects in the case, and we got a hit when we examined Agent Meshullam’s prints.”
“Thank you, sir.” Silverman looked at Billycan. “You may resume.”
Billycan nodded. “Now, Mr. Lieberman, did you come upon Agent Meshullam’s prints in the regular manner?”
The forensic expert appeared nonplussed. “I don’t know what you mean by ‘regular manner’—sorry.”
“What I meant was where these prints part of the set that you received from the police department in Flint as part of the evidence they had gathered during their investigation.”
“No, sir, they weren’t. They came later in an envelope... with some other plastic envelopes in it…”
Billycan held up a hand to stop the witness, went to the prosecution table, picked up a plastic envelope, and brought it to him. “Is that the plastic envelope you referred to just now?”
“Yes, sir—that’s it—that’s one of them.” Lieberman gestured to take the envelope from Billycan.
“Just a moment, Mr. Lieberman.” Billycan turned to the judge. “The Prosecution offers this evidence, marked Exhibit 4 and tender to opposing counsel, Your Honour.”
“Go ahead.”
“No objection, Your Honour,” Simmons replied—this time quite intent on the proceedings.
“Okay, now, Mr. Lieberman, do you recall where the package containing several of these envelopes came from?”
“Yes. The envelope came from the office of Mr. Van Dams—the CIA deputy director here in D.C.”
“And you determined that how?”
“The courier had me sign a receipt that indicated where the envelope came from.” Again, Billycan went to his table, came back with a large brown envelope, and showed it to the expert. “Yes, that’s the envelope I received.”
“Your Honour, the Prosecution offers this envelope, marked Exhibit 5, and tender to opposing counsel.”
“So noted,” the judge said as he looked at Simmons.
“No objection, Your Honour.” Simmons returned the judge’s gaze and nodded.
“Now, Mr. Lieberman,” Billycan resumed, “you testified this envelope and its content is what you received from the office of Mr. Van Dams and which helped you in identifying the hand prints as having been made by Agent Meshullam, is that correct?”
“Yes, sir, that’s correct. They matched perfectly with the hand prints we lifted from the vehicle.”
“Now, if we could return to the other two items that attracted your particular attention. By that, I meant the lack of airbags in the steering wheel and the fact that there was a leak in the power-steering fluid container. Could you tell us if you drew any conclusion from these findings, based on your long experience in forensic analyses of vehicular accidents?”
“In my experience, this vehicle was tampered with and if driven in that condition for some distance, it would have caused the driver to lose control for one thing.” The witness took a breath. “And if the car rammed into a tree, such as was the case in this accident, the driver would have been thrown against the steering wheel with such a force—given that there was no airbags in the steering wheel—he or she could have died on impact.”
“Thank you, Mr. Lieberman, you’ve been most helpful.” Billycan turned to Silverman. “I have no more questions for this witness, Your Honour.” He walked to the prosecution table and sat down.
“Your witness, Mr. Simmons.” Silverman reclined in his seat again and started to play with his reading glasses, folding and unfolding the branches.
“Thank you, Your Honour.” Today, dressed in a very expensive-looking grey suit, the calculating defence lawyer seemed ready to prance in front of the jury. “Good morning, Mr. Lieberman.”
“Good morning, sir.” Lieberman locked eyes with the attorney.
“My name is David Simmons. We haven’t met before today, have we, sir?”
“No, we haven’t.” The witness wondered where this was leading.
“And we haven’t discussed your testimony prior to this trial, have we?”
“No, sir, we haven’t.”
“Well then, it would be fair to say that your answers today haven’t been rehearsed, wouldn’t it?”
Billycan was on his feet. “Your Honour, where are we going with this? Relevance?”
Silverman advanced his chair to the bench. “Move on, Mr. Simmons, we’ve got a lot of grounds to cover yet.”
“Yes, Your Honour, I’m sorry.” Simmons went to stand in front of Lieberman, placing both hands on the railing. “Let me ask you the first question then, Mr. Lieberman. We have ascertained that the accident occurred during rush hour. You were aware of the fact, weren’t you?”
“Yes, it’s in my report.”
“And did you arrive on the scene of the accident immediately after it occurred?”
“I wouldn’t say immediately, no.”
“How long did it take you to get to the scene then?”
“Half an hour... About that.”
“Was the scene secured when you arrived?”
“Yes, it was. The police department had already taped the area and had put barricades to prevent traffic from entering the intersection at that corner and at the other end of the street, yes.”
“Were there a lot of people around—apart from the police officers—observing the scene, did you notice?”
“The neighbours were standing behind the tape, yes, and there was a fire truck parked just two houses down the street.”
“Ha!” With a broad grin on his face, Simmons turned to the jury. “Was there a need for the fire department to be there?”
Lieberman nodded. “In my experience, cars that meet an unmovable object at any speed are liable to burst on fire soon after impact—so yes, the fire department might have been needed.”
“Was the car doused with water before you arrived, do you know?”
“No, the car inside and out was dry.”
“Thank you. Now, do you remember if the car doors were closed or opened when you arrived on the scene?”
“I believe the passenger side door was open, yes.”
Simmons went to the evidence table and took the forensic report, leafed through it, and once he found the page he was looking for, he brought the open binder to the witness. “Does this picture depict the passenger side of the car the way you found it when you arrived?”
Lieberman looked at the picture and nodded. “Yes, that’s the way I found the passenger door open.”
Billycan was getting visibly irritated. He bent to Marcel Fauchet to his right and whispered in his ear, “Did this come up in the interview with Meshullam?” Marcel shook his head. “Let’s get him in my office tonight.” Marcel nodded.
“Your Honour, may we show the photo to the jurors?” Simmons was asking when Billycan returned his attention to the witness.
“Bailiff, please pass the open binder to the members of the jury—thank you.” The bailiff nodded, took the binder from Simmons’s hand, and showed it to each juror in turn.
Simmons returned to the witness stand and again planted his hands on the railing. “Now, Mr. Lieberman, let’s go back to your testimony; you said that you lifted a set of two hand prints from the dashboard on the passenger side of the vehicle—is that correct?”
“Yes, sir, that’s right.”
“Good. Do you have any knowledge or could you ascertain when these prints were made?”
“No, sir. We can’t be sure when prints are made—not with any degree of certainty, no.”
“Okay. But could you tell us if these prints were ‘fresh’ or ‘old’, in your expert opinion?”
“They were relatively fresh, in my opinion, yes.”
“Could you qualify ‘re
latively fresh’ for the jury then? Were they a week old, a month old or could they have been made on the day of the accident?”
“Objection, Your Honour,” Billycan burst out, trying to divert the jury’s attention. “Defence Counsel is leading the witness.”
“Overruled.” Silverman didn’t like this sort of unwarranted interruption. “Answer the question, Mr. Lieberman.” He shot a reproving glare in Billycan’s direction.
Meanwhile, if Sadir had looked bored yesterday, today he was all ears. He had turned to Simmons several times during Billycan’s questioning on direct, nodding his approval and even smiling, and was now admiring his attorney’s performance.
“Yes, Your Honour...” Lieberman shifted in his seat again. “Relatively fresh prints mean that they were made recently—but I can’t be more precise than that.”
Simmons turned to Billycan, watching for his reaction to his next question. “So would you say it is possible they were made on the day of the accident?”
“That’s a possibility, yes,” Lieberman answered to Simmons’s back.
The implication of that statement didn’t escape the jury or the audience for a moment.