I have a breath test trial coming in November, and the defense will be calling James Booker as their "expert." At the moment our office is suffering some issues with the long distance phone system, so I can't call Spencer Giles in Bryan as the Expert Witness bank suggests. Can anyone out there help me find Booker's CV or any other useful information?

Thanks much!

Georgette Stovall
Travis County Attorney's Office
(512) 854-9281
georgette.oden@co.travis.tx.hatespam.us

Email Spencer at sgiles@co.brazos.tx.us

I've got about an inch worth of stuff on him as well, including some transcripts and articles. Probably some is a repeat of what Spencer has.

Sounds like you are well taken care of!! I have some transcripts on him as well although they will probably be redundant. Email me if you need any additional stuff. I have had Booker on three of my intox. mansl. cases.

Georgette, Sorry we have not been able to connect!
My booker file is on it's way to you. I am currently bouncing between 5 different J.P. courts, so I am out of the office more than in it!

Let me know if I can be of further assistance!
Spencer Giles

I have to say how gratifying it is to work in such a wonderful network of people. Spencer, I am pouring over your great package of information. I will definitely share with anyone interested all I learn. Apparently DPS also has a giant file on this guy. Contact Richard Baxter, DPS, (512) 424-5201. I also understand Booker may have published something on nystagmus?? I'm starting a thread in a moment on nystagmus publications as well.

Right now I have transcripts from:
State v. Lake (Wilson Co. 3/7/00)
State v. Carruth (Parker Co. 1/28/99)
State v. Williamson (Eastland Co. 12/16/98)
State v. Waltz (Brazos Co. 10/30/96)

I am probably doing overkill on this guy, but there's no such thing as too little credibility when you're talking defense experts, right? If anyone has more recent transcripts from this guy that would be great.

Again, I really appreciate everyone's help and encouragement. When I get a kill file together on him I'm happy to make copies and send them out.

I had the opportunity to cross Booker back in march. Spencer provided a vast amount of information on him. I also did additional research. call me at the Hunt County Attorney's Office to see if I have anything else you may need. When the transcript of his testimony is ready, I will forward it to whoever wants it. By the way the defendant got 99 years. Keith Willeford
903-408-4112 or willie@huntcounty.net

Well, risking some teasing from colleagues who wonder if I just didn't have enough work to keep me busy, I sent quite a few subpoenas to basically everything on Booker's resume. Some declined to respond to an out-of-state subpoena, but some didn't, and now I have quite a stack of good juicy stuff. For instance-- he claims to have been a police officer in Wyoming (false), to have taught at the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy (false), to have taught chemistry at Cal State Stanislaus (false), to have taught at U-Wisconsin Oshkosh (false), to have had a Q security clearance for 2 yrs at Lawrence Livermore Lab (false, only 8 months-- piddly but interesting.) And a few others. I have admissible documentation for all of this.

I'm considering recording all these documents with our County Clerk's office, so I can avoid using these in only one trial. Thus if anyone wants this stuff for your own trial, I can get certified copies of public documents for you.

Looks like I'll have a trial with JB next week Tues-Wed. I will keep you posted.

Thanks again to everyone who was so helpful!

Georgette,
I would certainly like to have a copy of all the new info you recieve to supplement my "stack"!
Sounds MOST interesting!!!
Spencer Giles

I couldn't remember if this was the same guy or not but after reading all this I went back and checked and sure enough it was. Had a murder case several years ago where the defense hired this guy to do some firearms testing. He claims to be an expert in everything. After watching this guy fire a weapon through some kind of contraption that no one had ever seen before, we decided to check out his resume. Found the same problems mentioned above. The lie I remember most was that he claimed to be an instructor at TSTI in Waco at the time. Nobody there had ever heard of him. This guy should be easy to shoot down.

He claimed to be an instructor *where*? And do you have a transcript? (No such thing as beating a dead horse...)

Spencer, I am delighted to give you everything I've got. Trial is next week plus I'm prepping for an oral argument. If you're not in a hurry for it, I will send it in about 2 wks. Just let me know.

Ditto to everyone else!

g

If my memory serves me correctly it was the Texas State Technical Institute in Waco, a trade school. The case did not go to trial so I don't have a transcript but I will dig the old file out of storage and see if I can get my hands on the information that we dug up on him and get it to you.

Tim, got your message, delighted to do whatever I can for a perjury setup.

Spoke with Booker on the phone several times today and it got pretty deep. My tech supervisor, Alvin Weathermon, looked over Booker's records of his experiments with the Intoxilyzer, and told me he was laughing so hard he thought he was having a coronary. Murphy's law, one of my Booker trials set for next week has a MAJOR problem with wheeling the defendant thanks to sloppy work by a trooper with an attitude problem! Fortunately I have a backup trial.

*sigh*

thanks all... same bat time, same bat channel...

No problem, Georgette. I am in the middle of getting ready for two trials next week so I may have to stop thinking about this for a few days but I will be back in touch. I have an injury to a child case involving a female driver who ran over a child getting off a school bus. Turns out the driver had meth in her system. Defense attorney consults Booker who issues a written opinion that the meth, and I quote, "is inconsequential to the normal use of mental and physical faculties." Who woulda thunk it. So why's it illegal? I have not had pretrial in the case so I am thinking I will file a motion challenging Booker's opinion and invite him to the pretrial with a little official invitation. It's time this guy is shown to be the liar that he is ... under oath.

Georgette,
Please concentrate on your case!
The material can be sent when it is over.

Tim, if you could, please send me a copy of anything you dig up on Booker. If you wish it,
I will send you a copy of my file on him.

Sounds like you both have lots in store for his future appearances!
Thanks!

Spencer

When I finish my trials this week I am going to put my investigator to work compiling all this information. Will be in touch with everyone who has stuff and will be glad to share it with anyone.

Now recorded in the Travis County Clerk's Office, for your certified copying-pleasure:

Amer. Optometric Assoc. resolution on HGN: TRV2003250268

Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy (never heard of Booker): TRV2003257499

U. Wisconsin Oshkosh (never heard of Booker): TRV2003257500

Wyoming Peace Officers Certification (again): TRV2003257501

sometime soon I'll post the numbers for the other stuff.

g

Shoot. Wouldn't you know it, neither of my Booker trials went this week. One pled, one got a defense continuance. Oh well. But I hear Booker was a no-show in the Johnson County trial!

I think it's time for me to turn my focus to investigating some other expert. Taking votes on who...

We had an expert witness yesterday who testified about Intoxilyzer results (explaining to the jury why there might be a .083 followed by a .079). He nicely countered all of defense's hypotheticals and was afterwards asked about Booker. They go "way back" and his take was, "the only way to handle Booker is to pin him on the witness stand, put the results in front of him, and ask, 'Can you testify that these results are inaccurate?'" He claimed that while he might just make stuff up out of thin air, he (Booker) would not make that statement on the stand. We will have 'Booker' cases after the first of the year and will see how that tactic plays out.

Was your case with Booker on the defense? if not just curious how he came up...