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MICHAEL L. ROBERTSON Questioned Document
Examiner 2211 Hunting Valley N.W. Special Agent, United States North Canton OH
44720-3912 Secret Service (Ret.) (330)
499-1287 Office Document examinations (330)
499-1116 Facsimile Forensic
consultations Email: emailme@cannet.com Civil and
criminal litigations Second
opinion
Review opposing opinion QUESTIONED DOCUMENT REPORT
It is my recommendation this matter be turned over
to law enforcement for criminal investigation, to obtain affidavits from the
listed voters and obtain solicited handwriting exemplars from Ms. Gingrich
for further examination by the Pennsylvania State Police or other forensic
lab. A law enforcement agency should
be in a better position to obtain the applicable voter registration cards and
other documentation needed to conduct a thorough investigation. If requested, I will provide the law enforcement
agency with the other letter forms that can identified via comparison with
known handwriting samples they may obtain from Ms. Gingrich or others. If you want me to produce a computer generated
version of Exhibit 1 or continue further with this document examination,
please call me for the costs and if approved I will proceed immediately. If
my testimony is needed for deposition/trial please provide me with enough
advance notice to reserve the date(s) and review the case. Respectfully, No signature on e-mail
copy. Original being sent via regular
mail. Michael
L. Robertson Attachments: Exhibit
1 Exhibit
2-A through 2-G Curriculum
vitae (covers both Fraud Investigator and Questioned Document Examiner) Exhibit 1
Exhibits 2A-2G IN REFERENCE TO EXHIBITS 2-A THROUGH 2-G ·
In this set of exhibits, not every letter form is color
coded, e.g., the lower than “normal” cross bar on the lower case “t” is only
marked one time even though this letter form is found throughout the
documents. To color code every
occurrence is unnecessary and confusing for the reader. ·
In the process of questioned document examination, an
opinion is formed based on the totality of the evidence and the uniqueness of
the letter forms. In this case, I was
limited by the amount of known/genuine cursive writing available with which
to compare against the questioned signatures. However, the “G” and some of the other letter forms are quite
unique therefore giving them substantial value in making my
determination. Other characteristics,
such as writing/printing the lower case “i” smaller/shorter than adjoining
lower case letters has somewhat less value than the “G” but is relevant when
the characteristics of the similar letter forms are viewed in toto.
Qualifications and Professional Credentials Questioned Document
Examiner and fraud investigator 1.
My name is Michael L. Robertson.
I am the principal questioned document examiner at Robertson
Investigations which I founded 1988 and operate in North Canton, Ohio. Robertson Investigations is licensed by
The State of Ohio and insured.
Robertson Investigations provides wide ranging forensic investigation
consulting services in both civil and criminal matters to a broad range of
clients from - private sector companies and organizations such as General
Motors; United Parcel Service; Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company; Coca-Cola,
United Auto Workers; to public sector institutions such as: Ohio State
University’s College of Medicine, University of Akron, Office of Attorney
General and Office of Public Defender for the State of Ohio, the Police
Departments for the cities of Akron and Cleveland, Ohio; to various Federal
and State Courts, among others. I
have been appointed as an expert by judges presiding over indigent felony
cases and the document expert in Death Row cases in Ohio. I have consulted for the Illinois,
Indiana, Michigan and Missouri Office of Attorney’s General on issues of
fraud and consumer protection. 2.
Throughout my career, I have received extensive academic and
continuing professional training that forms the foundation of my expertise in
forensic investigations and examination of questioned documents. I was
awarded in 1966 a Bachelor of Arts in Behavioral Science (Criminology) degree
from the Ohio State University. In 1971, I graduated from the U. S. Secret
Service Questioned Document School, which trains some of the preeminent
document examiners and forensic technicians in service to the federal
government of the United States. 3.
I have served as a Special Agent of the United States Secret Service,
Department of the Treasury, for seventeen years, and during that period my
assignments included protection of United States presidents, vice presidents,
presidential candidates and over 60 visiting head of foreign states and
governments. My investigative duties
included conducting criminal investigations of violations of U. S. Treasury
statutes, locating and interviewing suspect making threats against the
President and Vice President of the United States, as well as forgeries
investigations wherein I served as the resident examiner in the field office
to identify or eliminate suspects of forged documents. Moreover, I received
an appointment and served as the Special Agent/Instructor and Assistant
Course Director for the Questioned Document School at the U.S. Secret Service
Training Academy in Washington, D. C.
During my tenure at that pre-eminent school, I’ve worked directly with
some of the leading document examiners and forensic technicians employed by
the U.S. federal government in developing coursework and curriculum materials
employed in training of highly qualified questioned document examiners for
federal, state and local governments in the arts and science of forensic
analysis of documents, including but not limited to: paper composition and
comparison, fraudulent photocopy reproductions, paper abrasion (i.e. folds,
indentations, staple/paper clip marks, rips and tares damage, latent
markings, etc), inks, handwriting analysis and identification, typewriting
and output of computer printers.
This questioned document course was the primary training ground for
most document examiners assigned to major police departments and state crime
labs across the United States. I
served two in-service training blocks with the U. S. Secret Service Forgery
Division. My U. S. Treasury Department
Job Description/Classification as a Criminal Investigator stated I am an
“…expert in the detection of forgeries.” 4.
I have attended numerous specialty and in-service schools regarding
investigation and forensic matters.
In 1986, the Secret Service selected six classic investigations from
the thousands of cases investigated all across the United States to serve as
models for the correct protocol of investigative standards. I was honored with the selection of three
of my cases to be part of the six models. 5.
I was accepted as a member of the Association of Certified Fraud
Examiners in 1995. Since entering
private practice in 1988, I have served as a questioned document examiner and
forensic investigations consultant for a variety of public and private institutions,
corporations, financial institutions, law enforcement agencies and eminent
law firms. I was court qualified as a
fraud investigator in numerous courts and by the National Association of
Securities Dealers (NASD). I was
appointed Compliance Officer by the Western District of Missouri Federal
Bankruptcy Court to oversee the operation of, and prevent the fraudulent
activities, of a large sales and telemarketing corporation that was being
monitored by the Court. I have been
appointed by the U. S. District Court in Cleveland as a defense investigator
in a RICO case. Correspondingly, my
expertise has been sought out by various legislative and judicial branches of
government. I testified as an expert
witness before the House Ethics Sub-Committee of the U. S. House of
Representatives in the case concerning the expulsion of a Member of Congress
on matters relating to evidence, investigative methodology and burden of
proof. I am the only private
investigator ever called to provide expertise before that Committee. The Ohio State Public Defender’s Office
had appointed me as a questioned document expert in several capital
punishment cases. Additionally, I have received case referrals as an expert
questioned document examiner from the Cleveland, Akron and Canton, Ohio field
offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Ohio Bureau of Criminal
Investigation and Identification, Crime Labs for Lake County, Stark County
and City of Canton, Ohio, as well as Cleveland and Akron Police Departments. 6.
During my career in private
practice, I have been called to testify as an expert witness in a variety of
cases related to questioned documents and my professional credentials have
been qualified and accepted in some 32 different judicial venues ‑
included among them: U. S. Federal District Court and Federal Bankruptcy
Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania,
U. S. Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida along with
various Common Pleas, Probate and Municipal Courts in the State of Ohio. I qualified as an expert in document
examination by N.A.S.D. in two different panels. 7. The Table below provides a log of cases in which I appeared as an expert witness. It may be noted that the vast majority of litigation cases in which I render an opinion are settled prior to the commencement of the trial.
8.
I have lectured extensively on the subject of forensic documents
examination. In 1998, I designed and presently continue to teach the
Questioned Document Course for attorneys that has been accredited by Ohio
Supreme Court for three credit-hours of continuing legal education
(CLE). I am preparing a 3 hour CLE
DVD on this subject for on-line access by attorneys in Ohio and eventually
other states. 9.
I presented my lecture titled “Questioned Documents in Medical
Malpractice Cases” at the Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers Annual Convention in
Cleveland, Ohio. I have spoken to
various law firms, paralegals and insurance companies. 10.
I have been listed as an expert with Technical Advisory Services for
Attorneys for over ten years, Martindale-Hubbell, JurisPro and ExpertPages -
all of whom monitor any complaints against an expert and will remove them
from the listing if needed. I am in
good standing with all of those entities. 11.
My background in financial fraud goes back 39 years when I conducted
investigations of violations of U. S. Treasury Department statutes and
continue today with private investigations for corporations, financial
institutions and private individuals.
I served one year full time as the Corporate Security Officer for a
subsidiary of PNC Bank and enforced the Federal Reserve regulations involving
fraud, wrote the policies to prevent check kiting, created new in-house
procedures for officers to enforce government requirements for financial
institutions and established aggressive investigative procedures to rid the
institution of fraudulent/’sloppy’ money handlers (resulted in removing 5% of
the tellers and other staff in 12 months).
12.
My expertise concentrates on identifying and documenting the elements
of fraud or other criminal conduct based on statutes and regulations in
complex matters. I am not an auditor,
CPA, lawyer, financial analyst, actuary, procurement specialist or any of a
hundred other specialties. I collect
information, intelligence, documents and statements from those sources who
are the specialists and homogenize it into an investigative mosaic. This mosaic is then reduced into an
understandable, substantive, chronological report supported with exhibits and
usually a PowerPoint presentation.
The most difficult part of completing a complex investigation is
making the final product clear and convincing. 13.
Discretion when conducting investigations is critical and part of my
work model. I have conducted
sensitive investigations for foreign governments, a major national church,
Fortune 50 companies including counter-corporate espionage, theft of
intellectual property and a drug addicted CEO, to name a few. Website: www.robertsoninvestigations.com |
