The following is a partial list of cases our expert witness Ed Primeau has worked on and/or testified in.
1. William Richmond
121 2nd St.
Beckley, WV 25801
Beckley Steel Inc.
Ex-employee recorded conversations of Beckley Steel management with employee. I analyzed recordings on behalf of plaintiff Beckley Steel and was deposed via the telephone. The case never went to court.
2. DiGiacomo & Baffa
16th Floor
1601 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Fitzgerald v. Skobeloff
I represented the plaintiff with counsel DiGiacomo in a medial malpractice suit against a doctor (Skobeloff) and hospital. The case involved a phone answering machine tape erasure accidentally erased by court reporter. I confirmed the erasure and explained the information could not be recovered. I testified in this case in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
3. Camile Conway
Pugh, Jones & Johnson
180 N. LaSalle St.
Suite 2910
Chicago, IL 60601
This was the well-publicized Chicago nightclub stampede disaster that made national news. I was retained by the city attorney of Chicago to examine a nightclub’s digital surveillance system. The system had been tampered with and the original footage was not available to examine.
Several people were trampled while trying to evacuate a nightclub on Michigan Avenue. The surveillance system incorporated a digital video recorder. One of the owners was behind the accidental erasure of all video evidence.
4. Patrick Coolihan
Coolihan, DeMeo & Beard, P.C.
1900 Spring Rd., Suite 508
Oak Brook, IL 60523
People of the State of Illinois v. Michael Hay:
I represented the defendant as a video expert. A CCTV video tape of a (jewelry store) robbery was provided and I captured some frames from the surveillance video and clarified them. I then made several prints of the captured video frames and sent the prints and video files (on a CD). I testified to my findings in the DuPage County courthouse.
5. Mark Bendure
Bendure & Thomas
577 E. Larned, Suite 210
Detroit, MI 48226
The Judicial Tenure Commission v. Ferrara
I represented the defendant, Judge Ferrara, with Counsel Mark Bendure. My responsibilities included voice identification and examining the tapes for tampering. The Executive Director, Allen Sobel, represented the JTC. I testified in this case here in Detroit in front of the Judicial Tenure Commission.
6. Jeff Ogren
Bochetto & Lentz
1524 Locust St.v
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Michigan Public Service Commission
Knox v. Pathfinders
I represented the defense, Pathfinders, with Counsel Jeff Ogren. My responsibilities included determining if a third-party verification recording had been tampered with and if the caller’s voice matched the defendants. I testified in front of Judge Goldstein and the Michigan Public Service Commission.
7. Deborah Marik
Newton Falls, Ohio, Circuit Court
Clark and Langley v. Patrick Layshock
I represented the plaintiff with Counsel Deborah Marik. My responsibilities were to determine whether the (8) audio tapes submitted to me were intercepted phone calls; determine how these calls were made; were they tapes made by anyone involved in the conversations and were the police involved in making the recordings. I was deposed in Michigan for this Ohio case.
8. Margolis Edelstein
1500 Grant Building
Pittsburgh, PA 15219-2203
(412) 281-4256
David Brinker v. Municipality of Marysville
I represented the Municipality of Marysville to analyze general police department tapes for authenticity and possible alteration. I testified via deposition. I was hired by the police department in Marysville, Pennsylvania.
9. Charles McKinney
Columbus, Oh
People of Ohio v. Wendell Jackson
In this criminal case I testified in, a CI made audio cassette recordings of a police officer during business transactions. He tried to entrap the officer with receiving stolen merchandise. I examined the cassette recordings, testified in court in Columbus, Ohio for this criminal case and determined that they could not be authenticated. We won the case, which went on to a civil case I also testified in.
10. Michael Gorte
Bay City, Michigan
989-894-670
People v. Edward Murray
In this case, I examined an answering machine recording and compared the voice of the accused with the voice on the evidence recording. This was a parole violation matter. I examined the answering machine and recording under the supervision of the Sheriff’s Department as well as the prosecuting attorney. I testified in court October 14, 2005.
11.Ron Snyder
Columbus, Ohio
614-461-4455
State of Ohio v Wendell Jackson
This is the civil case as described above held in City Hall in Columbus, Ohio. I testified on behalf of Wendell Jackson, the plaintiff, on March 29, 2006.
12. Steven Potter
Auburn Hills Michigan
248-377-1700
(Contact Misty)
Haddad v Indiana Pacers
I was the video expert for the defense, the Indiana Pacers, during this one week trial, took the stand once to explain the video evidence I had assembled from all network sources, including ESPN, Fox Midwest and WB20. I testified in The United States District Court, Eastern Division of Michigan. The jury returned a not guilty verdict on behalf of the Pacers.
13. Garry Weiss
Merrillville, Indiana
219-736-5297
State of Indiana V. Wesley English
This is a criminal case in the Circuit Court of Lake County in front of Judge Thomas Stefandaker Jr. that involved analog video tape. I was retained by the defense to prove to the court that video evidence submitted was not reliable as video evidence and should not be used in the trial. I testified on behalf of the defendant Wesley English.
14. U.S. Gold and Diamonds vs. JKD Diamond Brokers.
Dianne Marx
Dayton, Ohio
937-222-2500.
This case is in Federal Court in Dayton Ohio November 3rd, 2008. It involves my examination of a Integral Technologies digital video CCTV system examination and authentication of video evidence and the operational characteristics of the system itself. The Software is version 4.0. Integral Technologies was sold to Pelco December of 07 and is now known as Pelco; Global Leaders in Security Systems. On November 24th, 2008 the jury awarded my client a total of 6.9 million dollars in loss and compensatory damages as well as legal fees.
A letter from my client reads:
Ed,
Just writing to let you know the jury came back with a very favorable verdict: $8,400 which represents the actual cost of the diamond, plus the cost of shipping ($400); $1.7 million representing the wholesale price of the diamond and $2.3 million which represents the retail value. We are entitled to treble damages on the $2.3 million. We couldn’t have done it without you! We, obviously, are very, very pleased, as is Mr. Stafford. Thank you again for all your help.
Patty
Complete article appears in the Dayton Business Journal on November 25, 2008.
Link to article: http://dayton.bizjournals.com/dayton/stories/2008/11/24/daily21.html
15. State of Ohio V James McClellan
Jerry McHenry
Columbus, Ohio
614-466-5394
Ohio Public Defenders Office
I testified in this video case held in the Allen County Court of Common Pleas and helped the court understand the details about a poor quality police car video tape of a traffic stop.
16. People v Jeff Updyke
Patrick Dunn
Warren, Michigan
248-377-1700 Ex 13
I testified July 23, 2009 in a criminal matter where Jeff Updyke was accused of impersonating a police officer. The perpetrator called and left a voice mail message claiming the family?s daughter was dead behind a shopping center and had overdosed on heroin. This was a voice identification case which included evidence recording and exemplar created by me in our Rochester Hills location.
17. State V Poss
Parker McFarland
Cumming, GA
770-889-2522
I testified in The Superior Court of Forsyth County about an original digital audio recording that had been intentionally deleted. A copy of the audio was admitted into evidence and I testified why that was not an actual original.
Contributed to an article as voice ID expert for the Wall Street Journal:
(Letter from author of article)
Hi Ed,
Thanks again for your help with the story. Your critical ear was right; it was Pynchon. When I confronted the publisher with your findings they admitted it, so it was a great scoop for the Journal. Here?s a link to the story.
Steven Krutz
(Article in Wall Street Journal)
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2009/08/11/pynchon-revealed/
August 11, 2009, 12:01 PM ET
Yup, It’s Him: A Pynchon Mystery Solved
Last Tuesday, long-suffering fans of the reclusive writer Thomas Pynchon received a double gift. Pynchon’s latest book, Inherent Vice, a stoned-out detective story set in early-70s L.A., was released by Penguin Press (read the Journal’s review). And to promote it, the publisher put out a cool video trailer featuring a narrator whose slow, lazy cadence sounds suspiciously like that of Pynchon’s, as evidenced by a guest appearance on The Simpsons and this clip from what appears to be a German TV spot. Inquiries by GalleyCat and others as to whether Pynchon is the guy channeling the novel’s main character, beach bum private eye Doc Sportello, have been met with no comment from Penguin Press and the video’s producers, Meerkat Media. And, of course, the man himself is mum (Would Pynchon fans expect anything else?).
In an effort to solve the mystery, Speakeasy did a little sleuthing and called Ed Primeau, a Michigan-based sound engineer and voice identification expert. Like handwriting analysis, voice identification is an inexact science, often used by law enforcement to rule out a suspect rather than to provide a 100% clear-cut ID. Still, people have unique vocal timbres and deliveries, especially Pynchon, who sounds like actor John Astin (i.e. Gomez Addams from the old TV show), mixed with a Midwest corn farmer, with a dollop of aging stoner.
So is it possible to rule out the man in the Inherent Vice trailer as being the same guy in the Simpsons episode and German TV clip? Not at all, according to Primeau. In fact, he says, based on a preliminary analysis the speech pattern and inflection is virtually identical in all three clips. It’s a very unique style of delivery, Primeau says. It’s very up-and-down. He’ll hit these accented spots every few words. You know the TV show Dragnet, how Joe Friday talked? It’s the opposite of that.
We should point out Primeau is an unbiased witness, having never read Pynchon (I don’t know this guy but it looks like he has some history as an author, he said). Nevertheless, if he hasn’t been taken by the man’s work, Primeau is intrigued by his voice, which he describes as a tobacco-driven soft rasp.
Primeau’s conclusion: Beyond a reasonable degree of professional certainty, I believe these voices were delivered by the same person. Confronted with Primeau’s findings, Tracy Locke, a publicist at Penguin, came clean and admitted, It is, in fact, Thomas Pynchon doing the narration.
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