Specialties

QUESTIONED DOCUMENTS, including: Signatures, handwriting, hand printing; initials, anonymous letters; graffiti; wills, deeds, contracts, notary entries, medical records; manufactured documents; alterations/obliterations, substituted pages, IR/UV/ESDA capability; photography & exhibit prep; review of opposing reports & prep of deposition/trial questions. Corporate seminars and in-house training.

Clients: Coldwell Banker, Bank of America, FedEx, UPS, Macy’s Dow Chemical, and others, + numerous law firms and individual attorneys.

Degrees/Licenses

BS.

Formal Education

BS, University of Cincinnati; U.C. Berkeley, Certificate in Marketing, Paralegal Studies, San Francisco State

Registration and Licenses

Board Certified Document Examiner, NADE
American Institute of Applied Sciences Certificate in Document Examination
Proficiency Tested, Collaborative Testing Services

Previous/Current Position

President, West Coast Forensic Specialists, Forensic Handwriting Research Institute Affiliate.

Lectures/Seminars: State Bar of California; California Judge’s Association; Northern California Fraud Investigators Assn. – Anti-Fraud Alliance; California Assoc. of Police Training; Calif. Burglary & Theft Investigators; American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants; National Assn. of Document Examiners; Scientific Association of Forensic Examiners; San Francisco Lawyer’s Network; Safeway; Pacific Bell; Golden Gate Worker’s Compensation Fraud Consortium.

Honors/Awards

Photography Scholarship, DAI. Led research study on assisted and guided hand signatures of bedridden and elderly subjects, NADE.

Prof. Affiliations

National Association of Document Examiners; Northern California Fraud Investigators Association, American Society for Testing & Materials, subcommittee on Questioned Documents; Forensic Expert Witness Association; Technical Advisory Service to Attorneys.

Publications

Document Security Integrity, the importance of watermarks in dating documents.

Prior Expert

Court Qualified since 1982; offered testimony before Municipal, Superior and Federal Courts and in arbitration; retained in 1089+ cases.

Specialties

Former government document examiners, specializing in the examination of signatures, handwriting, hand printing, and documents to determine authorship and authenticity. Wills, trusts, medical records, business records, computer generated documents, etc.

Degrees/Licenses

Certified: American Board of Forensic Document Examiners (ABFDE); B.S. Criminal Justice; B.S. Business.

Previous/Current Position

Note: Please insert contact names underneath the title on the listing (see renewal form) as follows:

Contact Names: Sean A. Espley & Joseph G. Merydith

Prof. Affiliations

Members: Southwestern Association of Forensic Document Examiners (SWAFDE)

Prior Expert

Testified in Administrative Hearings, Superior and Federal Courts throughout California in excess of 120 times

Specialties

State-of-the-art laboratory in San Ramon/nondestructive examinations/most document problems/signatures/handwriting/medical/business records/fabrications/alterations/digital imaging/reports/exhibits/consulting/testimony/presentations/complex and specialized document problems.

Degrees/Licenses

BA, MJ.

Formal Education

BA, Mills College, 1963; California Secondary Teaching Credential SF State University, 1965; MJ, Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley, 1994.

Registration and Licenses

Diplomate, Board Forensic Document Examiners (accredited by the Forensic Specialties Accreditation Board), Certified Fraud Specialist, Association of Certified Fraud Specialists, California State Bar approved Single Provider for MCLE credit.

Previous/Current Position

Vice-President, Board of Forensic Document Examiners (2016-Present). Editor, Journal of Forensic Document Examination (2005-2018). Editorial Board - 2018- Present.

Honors/Awards

Signatures of persons with parkinsonism and hepatic encephalopathy as comparison standards, co-authored with Carl E. Anderson, M.D. selected as an opening paper for the International Graphonomics 9th Biennial Conference in Singapore, June 1999. "Latent Images: the first impression, Primary or Secondary," coauthored with Leonard P. Chen, PhD, presented for the International Association of Forensic Sciences 15th Triennial Meeting, UCLA, August 1999 and for the Association of Forensic Document Examiners Educational Symposium, Phoenix, November 1999.

Prof. Affiliations

Association of Forensic Document Examiners, International Graphonomics Society, Association of Certified Fraud Specialists. Affiliate Member, Counsel of International Investigators.

Publications

20 publications. "Red Flags": Questioned Documents in Financial Elder Abuse Cases, PI Magazine, August 2014. Fisher, MP, Barabe, JG, Rantanen, W., "Rare 1972 Marilyn Monroe Oyama Photo Book - genuine or a fabrication?" Journal of Forensic Document Examination, Vol 18, 2007. Televised documentary - Analyzed the work of a document examiner for "The Most Dangerous Animal of All," the Zodiac killer", appeared on FX and Hulu, 2020.

Prior Expert

Testimony in Municipal, Superior and Federal Courts 275+ times; testimony in other legal proceedings (arbitrations, hearings, depositions) since 1976.