Expert Witnesses and Child Abuse

In this day and age, there is always someone who fashions him/herself as an “expert” in just about anything. All you have to do is watch CSI and other related police shows on TV to see how the perception is that “experts” solve cases. When your case comes to Court, we can guarantee that the Government will have numerous “experts” that will give opinions from which the jury may infer your guilt. You must have someone on your side to rebut them.

In child physical abuse cases, we have worked with numerous experts regarding the different types of injuries a child may incur which are not indicative of abuse regardless of what the State’s witnesses claim. We have worked with Dr. Jan Leestma, a world recognized expert on “shaken baby syndrome” who has been able to dispel effectively the mythology of this pseudo-diagnosis with concrete scientific evidence. In all too many cases, examining physicians become police investigators who label unexplained injuries as “abuse” because they cannot call it anything else. These “experts” are extremely dangerous since the unsuspecting jury will accept whatever they say as “gospel” unless you have your own expert to demonstrate the fallacy of their opinions.

Likewise, in child sex abuse cases we have associated numerous experts to address the various issues raised. Most notably, we have used Dr. Richard Leo and Dr. Bruce Frumkin in “false confession” cases and have successfully defended two clients who had actually “confessed” under the psychological manipulations by police interrogators. We have been able to convince juries that “deceptive police practices often lead to deceptive results”. Thus, just because someone admits that he/she committed a criminal act does not necessarily mean that that is the truth.

Thus, at Johnson, Scruggs & Barfield we will hire the best experts we can find to put forth the truth to the jury for you.