Week 42 Forensic Science Geek of the Week announced!

The Forensic Science Geek of the Week

The week 42 “www.TheTruthAboutForensicScience.com Forensic Science Geek of the Week” honors goes to: Steven W. Hernandez, Esquire

According to his website:

Steven W. Hernandez, Esq., is admitted to practice in State of New Jersey and the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. He specializes in DWI defense.

Mr. Hernandez graduated from Rutgers Business School, at the Rutgers University, Camden Campus, in 1998, with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. He graduated Rutgers University School of Law in Camden, in 2004.

Mr. Hernandez is a member of the National College of DUI Defense (NCDD). American Bar Association, the New Jersey Bar Association, and the Ocean County Bar Association.

Mr. Hernandez has been qualified by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) as a Standardized Field Sobriety Test Instructor. With these skills, he will be able to determine whether your tests were performed properly, and possibly challenge the results.

Further, Mr. Hernandez is the only attorney in New Jersey to have earned his Forensic Sobriety Assessment (FSA) Certificate, by demonstrating knowledge of the science and forensic use of roadside sobriety testing.

Congratulations to our Forensic Science Geek of the Week winner!

All hail the www.TheTruthAboutForensicScience.com Forensic Science Geek of the Week!!!

See the challenge question that our winner correctly answered.

OFFICIAL QUESTION:

: Forensic Science Geek of the Week Challenge

1. What is this device? (that should be very easy)

2. What is it used for?

3. Where is it typically deployed?

4. What are the limitations to this assay?

Please visit the www.TheTruthAboutForensicScience.com FaceBook fan page.

Our Geek of the Week answered:

We had our first facebook fan club entry to win when the Challenge this week when Attorney Hernandez wrote:

(1) IONSCAN 400B

(2) Explosive and Narcotics Trace detector

(3) Post Offices and Prisons and Airports

(4) False alarms! To clarify false alarms, I mean the machine is unable to distinguish some compounds which are similar to explosives and drugs!

[BLOGGER’S NOTE: Here is the Honorable Mention:

1. Brian Manchester, Esquire wrote “According to the manufacturer ‘[t]he IonScan 400B is a highly sensitive, analytical instrument that uses Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS) technology to detect and accurately identify trace residues of a wide variety of narcotic and explosive substances.’ How this machine works is someone takes a swab and clamps it onto the end of a plastic wand and then rubs the swab over whatever they want tested. Then the swab is removed and placed into the machine where the machine runs the scan on the swab. The machine is typically used by jails, homeland security, and police to detect for drugs and explosives. The general public mostly encounters them at the airport as this is the machine that they use to detect for bombs in your luggage. Lawyers run into them often in jails when we visit our clients to see if we are sneaking in drugs to them. The limitations are they are not very specific and anything that has a spectral range similar to drugs or different types of explosives will set them off and they can’t tell if drugs or explosives are present or if the item or person merely came into contact with the searched for items sometime in the past.”

The Hall of Fame for the www.TheTruthAboutForensicScience.com Forensic Science Geek of the Week:
Week 1: Chuck Ramsay, Esquire

Week 2: Rick McIndoe, PhD

Week 3: Christine Funk, Esquire

Week 4: Stephen Daniels

Week 5: Stephen Daniels

Week 6: Richard Middlebrook, Esquire

Week 7: Christine Funk, Esquire

Week 8: Ron Moore, B.S., J.D.

Week 9: Ron Moore, B.S., J.D.

Week 10: Kelly Case, Esquire and Michael Dye, Esquire

Week 11: Brian Manchester, Esquire

Week 12: Ron Moore, B.S., J.D.