Robert Tanenbaum - Fury

"Very well, Dr. Swanburg…but do try to limit your comments to less…uh, disparaging descriptions…and stick to the science."

"Good advice, your honor, I should know better," Swanburg said and turned to beam at the jurors. "So let me rephrase that… Mr. Villalobos's incisors protrude, which would give an elongated bite pattern."

"Could he have created the bite mark on Ms. Tyler's breast?" Karp asked.

"Objection," Louis said. "Calls for conclusion."

Karp rolled his eyes. "Your honor, Dr. Swanburg has been admitted as an expert witness in this field. Of course, he's going to reach a conclusion."

"The witness may answer the question."

"Yes, certainly. No, Mr. Villalobos could not have created that particular bite mark."

"Thank you, Mr. Swanburg," Karp said. "Let's move on." He walked over to the podium where he flipped a couple of switches, darkening the courtroom and starting a slide projector that pointed to a screen off to the jury's side. A photograph appeared showing the side of a woman's head. The face was swollen and discolored, a large white patch over her eye. "Can you identify this photograph for the jury, please."

"Yes," Swanburg said. "It is a photograph taken of Mrs. Tyler's head, I believe the day after the assault."

Karp used an electronic pointer to indicate a long, straight purple mark on the side of Tyler's skull just above her ear. "Can you identify this mark?"

"Yes, it is a severe contusion-a bruise, in layman's terms," Swanburg replied. "It is approximately five inches long and a half-inch wide. It is the result of a blow with a blunt object that also fractured the victim's skull, somewhat like tapping an egg with a butter knife to crack it open."

Karp pressed the projector button and another photograph appeared on the screen. "And this?"

"It is a blowup-greatly enhanced and sharpened with the aid of the equipment at my lab in Colorado."

"What can you tell us about this photograph that we perhaps could not see in the first version?" Karp asked.

"Well, the most significant thing is the pattern of ridges along the main contusion," Swanburg said. "Notice their regularity."

"And what does that tell us?"

"It tells us that to a high probability, the object used to administer the blow was man-made," Swanburg said.

Suddenly realizing the implications, Louis, who'd all but ignored Swanburg's reports in the pretrial hearings, objected as he wiped furiously at his face with his handkerchief. "Your honor, what is this high probability? Sounds like guesswork to me."

The judge turned to Swanburg. "Care to answer?"

"Well, yes," Swanburg said, sounding somewhat miffed that Louis had referred to his efforts as guesswork. "Very little in this world, even the world of science, is 100 percent sure. I'd say this is about 98 percent."

"I'll allow it," Klinger said with a sigh and a disgusted look at Louis.

"Could this contusion have been caused by, say, a piece of driftwood?" Karp asked.

The judge looked at Louis as if she expected him to object. But he just waved her on.

Swanburg shook his head. "No…very unlikely. The contusion is too straight, the pattern of ridges too regular to have been created by Mother Nature."

Karp picked up the bag with the piece of rebar he'd shown Villalobos and handed it to the witness. "Dr. Swanburg, are you familiar with the object contained in this bag?"

Swanburg looked carefully at the bag and the evidence slip on the back. "Yes, I am. It is a piece of half-inch steel rebar, approximately thirteen and a half inches long."

"How are you familiar with it?" Karp asked.

"Well, I have one just like it."

"Oh? And why is that?

"Because I was asked to see if I could duplicate the injury to Mrs. Tyler, using an exact copy of the piece of rebar in the People's exhibit."

"How did you go about that?"

"My associates and I used our copy of the rebar to strike the sides of pigs."

"Pigs, Dr. Swanburg?" Karp said as though surprised. "Why pigs?"

"Well, we use pigs quite a bit in forensic testing," Swanburg said. "It might be a bit embarrassing to some of us, but pigs are nearly identical to humans in the chemical makeup of their bodies, as well as certain physical characteristics. For instance, their skin is nearly hairless and reacts to injury much like ours."

"Now, Dr. Swanburg, I'm noting that some of our jurors are looking a bit squeamish," Karp said. "Did you hurt these pigs?"

Swanburg looked worried. "Well, in the sense that delivering a blow hard enough to cause a contusion, which means the breaking of blood vessels and injuring the skin-I guess you could say we hurt the pigs. However, the pigs were anesthetized during the procedure, and then given painkillers until the bruising went away. We take good care of our little piggies. They spend most of their time wandering the grounds and eating."

Karp smiled. "So then, doctor, what was the result of your experiment?"

"Please turn to the next slide. Ah yes, there…this is a photograph of a contusion caused by striking a pig with our piece of steel rebar. Note the long, straight bruise with the evenly spaced ridges."

"Dr. Swanburg, in your expert opinion, could an object such as the People's Exhibit have created the contusion we saw on the side of Ms. Tyler's head?"

Louis roared as he jumped to his feet. "I object. Why was I not told of this experiment? I demand that this so-called evidence be thrown out and the defense counsel censured for attempting to sneak false evidence into this trial."

Karp smiled. Here was the reason for not asking for any adjournments. Louis was lazy and now he was going to pay for it. "Your honor, I believe if plaintiffs' counsel will refer to his notebooks, Defense Exhibits 30-45, he will see that he received this evidence nearly two weeks ago. Again, he made no objection in any one of a half-dozen pretrial hearings after that date."

Stunned, Louis turned to his notebooks. "Give me a moment, your honor." Turning to the specified pages, he mopped at his face, then smiled broadly. "Oh, yes," he said. "Now I remember. We didn't consider this important at the time, nor do we now. Please continue, doctor."

After the lunch recess, Swanburg returned to the stand. Karp looked back at the row of benches behind his table. Repass, Russell, and Torrisi were in their seats but Tyler was missing. Good, he thought. He'd told her she might want to miss the afternoon's testimony, and she'd taken his advice.

The reason was soon clear as he put up on the screen a frontal photograph of Tyler's nude body taken after the attack. Swanburg pointed out the bruising on her arms and legs.

The next photograph was a close-up of the bruising on Tyler's legs. "Can you give us an opinion, doctor, on what caused these marks?"

"Yes, you can see the pattern left by hands as they held her down. She must have struggled quite hard."

Karp put another photograph on the screen. A close-up of Tyler's chest-with the bite mark clearly evident-as well as her upper arms. "What can you tell us about these bruises?"

"Again, you can see the marks of hands on her arms as though she was being restrained."

"Thank you, Dr. Swanburg, I have no further questions."

Klinger invited Louis to cross-examine the witness. He stood and smiled at the jury, then shook his head as if they'd all been witnesses to some sort of card trick.

"Good afternoon, Dr. Swanburg. I won't keep you or these good people long, but let's review by starting with the bite mark. Is it possible that more than one person in this world might have teeth like that?"

"Well, yes," Swanburg said. "There are any number. However, given that one of-"

"Thank you, Dr. Swanburg, I'd appreciate it if you'd just answer the question I ask rather than try to continue to testify for the defense."