(264) The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants, who included the county, the county's deputy sheriff, and the California Department of Justice
serologist who had testified in the case.
By the time the package arrived, it had been contaminated with some kind of oily, greasy substance that soaked through the paper bag containing the pants, said Angela Butler, forensic
serologist with the lab.
On an individual level, one of the most notorious cases involved Fred Zain, the chief
serologist of the West Virginia State Police Crime Laboratory.
For example, in the true account of a modern murder mystery, a
serologist determined that a blood specimen that was submerged for 3 years in salt water was human blood.
In search of an unusual murder weapon for his next mystery, crime writer Jose Guber surfs the Internet for information on African snakes and comes up with the home page of a beautiful, sexy
serologist named Melissa.
Eyewitnesses and forensic experts such as the medical examiner, weapons analyst, fiber analyst, and
serologist may present their findings and testimony in similar fashion.
Serologist Fred Zain, a West Virginia state trooper and later chief
serologist in the Bexar County (Texas) Medical Examiner's office, indicted for perjury for falsifying results used to convict several wrongly imprisoned defendants.
In 1993 an independent team of
serologists discovered that, from 1979 until 1989 the head
serologist of the West Virginia State Police had "lied about, made up, or manipulated evidence" in at least thirty-six cases.(16) Also in 1993, several New York State police officers admitted fabricating false fingerprint evidence in over twenty-five different cases.(17)
Since graduating from medical technology school in 1971, I have held a variety of positions in large and small hospitals, including staff microbiologist and
serologist, staff blood banker, education coordinator, and blood bank supervisor.
Starks brought a civil suit against the two dentists and the forensic
serologist (among others) for violating his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process by intentionally misapplying the methodologies that led to their conclusions, knowingly giving false testimony to the jurors, and conspiring to secure Starks's conviction.
(99) Even worse, the
serologist improperly testified and
