LEGAL CONSULTANT/EXPERT WITNESS
LEGAL CONSULTANT/EXPERT WITNESS
QUALIFICATIONS AND ACTIVITY
1. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COMMUNITY CRIME PREVENTION PROGRAM, NEW YORK CITY.
My work over a 5 year period as Director of a Crime Prevention
Program for the Morningside Heights, Inc. community improvement agency, organized
and financially supported by fourteen major educational, religious and medical institutions,
comprises an important part of my qualifications me for my work as a legal-consultant
and expert witness in the criminal justice system. The institutions I worked for,
as Director of the Crime Prevention Program, included: Columbia University, Barnard
College, Teachers College, St. Lukes Hospital, Julliard, and Riverside Church. As
Director of the program, I coordinated various community crime prevention projects
on the upper West Side of Manhattan for these institutions who were experiencing
a variety of criminal activities including burglaries, violent offenses, and gang
vandalism and violence. I was a consultant on appropriate security prevention methods
for security systems and dealt with over hundred security guards who were protecting
these 14 prominent institutions. My role involved advising the security personnel
of these institutions on effective crime prevention and security measures for preventing
crime in the buildings and surrounding areas. My work included analyzing crime scenes
and situations to determine the legal and financial responsibility of the institutions
in various criminal, civil cases and law suits brought against the institutions.
This work also involved me in providing consultations to the institutions on relating
appropriately to the New York Police Department, and the judicial processes in various
court cases.
2. LEGAL CONSULTANT/EXPERT WITNESS ACTIVITY.
My research and experience over the past 50 years as a criminologist
has involved me in almost every facet of the American crime problem. My research
into all aspects of crime and delinquency, my therapeutic treatment of both criminals
and juvenile delinquents in prisons and psychiatric hospitals, the writing of numerous
books-including two widely adopted textbooks, my work in the field of crime prevention,
and my role as a professor at several major universities has provided me with a wide
array of knowledge that qualifies me for the role of legal consultant and expert
witness in the criminal justice system. In the context of this background and experience,
I have participated In the criminal justice system through aiding lawyers in the
preparation of testimony, given depositions, and testified in court as an expert
witness in over 35 judicial cases. I have been approved to serve as an Expert-Witness
on issues of violent gangs, homicide, domestic violence, and business security in
the Superior Courts of Los Angeles County; San Diego County; San Francisco County;
Riverside County; Ventura County; Sacramento County; Orange County; Pima County (Tucson);
and New York County.
Following are some of the cases I have participated in as a legal-consultant and
expert-witness: A violent gang murder trial in New York County Court. Based on my
book THE VIOLENT GANG I testified on the structure and behavior of violent gangs;
Consulted In preparation of testimony related to a Hells Angels Gang murder; Testified
on the nature of gang behavior in a trial involving the first degree murder of a
gang member by another violent gang member in Hollywood; Consulted on a case related
to the value of security guards in a homicide incident in a community center; Participated
in a case related to the responsibility and liability of a Home Savings and Loan
bank in the robbery of a client outside the bank; Participated in a case involving
the legal responsibility of a shopping center corporation related to a gang youth
shot in front of an arcade in the mall by another gang member; Consulted and testified
in a case related to an insurance companies legal responsibility for a client's relative
involved in an accident that killed a woman. Based on my book GANGSTERS I have consulted
and testified in over 15 cases involving gang shootings and the determination of
the definition of a gang member with regard to the California "gang enhancement
law" 186.22; Participated as an expert witness in a case involving the murder
of two police officers by a gangster drug-dealer; Testified as an expert witness
in the penalty phase of a gangster convicted of 1st degree murder; Served as an expert
witness on a case involving alleged domestic violence; For an insurance company defending
against an alleged fraudulent case of vandalism damage; and most recently participated
in several gang homicide cases involving my testimony on the level of participation
of the defendants in violent gang membership and behavior.
3. SOME RESPONSES FROM ATTORNEYS TO MY WORK AS AN EXPERT- WITNESS.
(a) Notable in my overall work as an expert witness was my testimony in a landmark
case, known as the "Denney Case." Reginald Denny was one of eight victims
in a specific violent mob situation that occurred in the April 1992 Los Angeles Riots
that followed the court decision in the police-Rodney King case . I testified as
an expert witness for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office on various
sociological theories of collective behavior as they relate to the role and responsibility
of individual criminal acts in the context of mob riot behavior, in a rebuttal to
some assertions made by a defense witness in the case. About my participation in
this case, one of the Los Angeles County District Attorneys wrote me, in part: "Your
scholarly and articulate commentary from the witness stand helped to communicate
to the jury that people must be held accountable for their violent behavior in the
context of any kind of mob action. Your testimony was significant in the trial, and
was very helpful to the prosecution in obtaining the convictions we did and gaining
some measure of justice from these tragic events. The case resulted in a published
decision by the Court of Appeal, People v.Williams (1996) 46 Cal.App 4th 1767. I
look forward to using your services as an expert witness in this area if the subject
arises in another case."
(b) In December 1998 I was invited to present a lecture to the Los Angeles County
Bar Association on my work as a gang-expert witness. My presentation was well received
and I received the following letter from the Director of the Program. "In my
position as Director of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Indigent Criminal
Defense, Appointments (ICDA) Program, I am pleased to sincerely thank you for your
excellent presentation of your paper, "The Role of a Gang Expert-Witness in
the Criminal Justice System" to our group of some 200 lawyers at our 1998 Winter
Seminar. Your lecture was not only very interesting, it provided the attorneys present
with some valuable insights into the complex legal issues of gang behavior that attorneys
around the country increasingly have to deal with in gang court cases. As you cogently
presented in your lecture, there are many myths and biases about gang members that
can significantly affect the outcome of a jury's decision to either convict or acquit
an indigent defendant. Many of the ICDA attorneys who attended your lecture have
expressed to me their appreciation of your pedagogic insight into the behavior of
gangs, and how this knowledge is useful in the rendering of just decisions in the
criminal justice system. I am sure that many of the attorneys who attended the lecture,
based on your extensive work as an expert-witness, have already used the legal and
sociological arguments that you effectively articulated in their courtroom practice.
We are most grateful for your articulate and pragmatic contribution to the work of
our ICDA attorneys, and look forward to the possibility of a return lecture engagement
sometime in the future." Sincerely, Gustavo Diaz, Director
(c) In 2000 I testifies in several gang homicide cases regarding the participation
of several defendants in violent gang behavior. Notable among these cases [5/10/00]
was a youth charged with First-Degree Murder who, in my opinion, had no gang involvement,
and "was in the wrong place at the wrong time." He had attended a wedding
and was given a ride home by two youths who were previously unknown to him. They
were violent gangsters who during the ride, spontaneously opened fire on a youth
group, shot and killed one person, and wounded 3 others. In my opinion the youth
charged with a 187 offense was more of a witness than a perpetrator. Based, in part,
on my testimony he was acquitted on all charges. The attorney in the case wrote me
as follows: "I am extremely pleased to report that the defendant, his mother,
his aunt, and I (as well as a packed courtroom) listened to the clerk read 16 verdicts
of "not guilty." What a relief! the defendant needed Kleenex as he had
tears running down his face. He periodically looked at the jury and mouthed, "thank
you." Mrs. A and her sister were also in tears in the audience. The shooters
were convicted of the most serious crimes across the board. Your name did come up
in my short discussions with some of the jurors in the hallway. There were two jurors
- one-lady in the back row and one man in the front row --who particularly liked
you. They both said they were going to go out and buy your "Gangster" book.
They agreed with my closing argument that the primary message that you brought to
this trial was that one had to look at the overall picture, not just the negative
factors, in deciding whether a person was a gangster. They felt that Detective A
[the prosecutorís expert-witness] had overreached in labeling the defendant a gang
member and your analysis was more thoughtful. The front row juror-encouraged me to
seek the removal of the defendant's name from [the California] law enforcement's
gang-database. I told him I would indeed seek that relief... I want to thank you
for your hard work and intelligent courtroom presentation. Your counsel was something
I valued and you certainly assisted me in better representing an innocent young man."
Expert Witness Article This is an expansion with more examples of Dr. Yablonsky's career as an
expert witness.
LA Times Editorial by Dr. Yablonsky
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