What an interesting evening!
Approximately, 35 people enjoyed ' Tell Me A Story ' (TELMAS) last night(2/10/10) at the Arbour Lodge. The presenter, Jerry Chism, was a crimialist who had worked for the Department of Justice as a forensic expert since 1960. Mr. Chism interjected humor throughout his presentation - starting with emphasizing what one sees on CSI TV shows in NOT what they do. CSI for him means ‘Can’t Stand It”
Some of the things that are erroneous are seeing criminalists out in the field. They rarely get to go to a crime scene. Instead they must rely on officers or detectives to collect and bring the evidence to them. Mr. Chism added that they don’t tell the detectives what to do as in the TV shows – “You don’t tell a man with a gun what to do.”
We where shown slides of ballistics, glass breakage patterns and learned that DNA is not perfect. He also touched upon divisions within forensics such as the Trace evidence and Toxicology divisions. Did you know a study of officers that have been drinking and register 0.8% blood alcohol (legally intoxicated) know their driving may be impaired but someone that registers 1.5% thinks they can drive just fine?
Mr. Chism is a co-author a forensic textbook, Crime Reconstruction. We thank him and the TELMAS group for providing such an interesting evening. The next meeting Tell Me A Story will be March 10th. Our neighbors, David and Donna McAnlis will talk of David’s life as the teenaged son of a missionary doctor in the Philippines wheen the Japanese invade. If you have a story to tell, or need more information, please call Don Marler 684-6654.
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