Sunday, March 12, 2006

Expert Perjury Watch (New York Edition)

From the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:

Sentencing is Tuesday for Talibah Amatullah Akili, who pleaded guilty to first-degree perjury for falsely claiming that she possessed multiple graduate degrees and other credentials that allowed her to testify as an expert witness in a child custody case in Family Court.

Akili, who had only a high school diploma, ran the foster care and adoption program at Ibero-American Action League. She is expected to receive five years' probation and mandatory mental health treatment.

Update 3/16/06: Ms. Akili has been sentenced to five years' probation conditioned on her obtaining mental health treatment. When prosecutors complained at sentencing that Akili has taken no action to date to secure treatment, her lawyer explained that she had been unable to do so, because she has no birth certificate for her real name of Arlene Susan Schwartz.

posted by pn at 7:11 PM  

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Fed. R. Evid. 702: If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise, if (1) the testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data, (2) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods, and (3) the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case.