SAFE 2016 Conference

The SAFE Annual Conference will be held Friday Jul 29th and Friday August 26th this year! This will be held online using Zoom. We've got some great speakers and wonderful programs coming. Join us!

Rate:             Date & Time:                        

$   95.00      July 29  9:00 AM Pacific       
$   95.00      Aug 26  9:00 AM Pacific       
$ 180.00      BOTH Jul 29 & Aug 26       

Register Now! 

July 29th Speaker

Joe Barabe – Application of Microscopes for FDEs

Joseph G. Barabe is Senior Research Microscopist at Barabe & Associates LLC, at which he does consulting in art, document and historical objects materials analyses.

He also has a long-standing interest in printing process identification and other aspects of forensic document examination.

His more important projects include examination of the ink on the Gospel of Judas for the National Geographic Society, the Archaic Mark forgery for the University of Chicago, and the Clementine Hunter forgery case for the FBI.

For more details, see the website:  http://www.safeforensics.org/2016-safe-annual-conference/

July 29th Speaker

Dr. Larry Miller - The Status of Standards

Larry S. Miller, Ph.D., CDE, D-BFDE is a Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice & Criminology at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City.  Dr. Miller is a forensic document examiner holding board certifications from NADE and the Board of Forensic Document Examiners.  He is Director of the Graduate Certificate Program of Study in Forensic Document Examination at ETSU.  He is the author or co-author of numerous scholarly articles and seven textbooks, many now in sixth and seventh editions, including Police Photography and Crime Scene Investigation.

Dr. Miller is a member of the Human Factors Committee of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC). The committee is developing standards for human factors applicable to forensic document examiners. Dr. Miller will present an update on the status of the standards.

July 29th Speaker

Dave Zweig – Examination of ink and photocopies using the microscope

Mr. Zweig founded Zarbeco, LLC in 2001 to commercialize the then newly developed USB imaging technology, including USB cameras and microscopes.  The MiScope handheld digital microscope was introduced in 2004.  Zarbeco was one of the first companies to offer a compact USB microscope with IR and UV illumination, and continues to develop products that cater to the document examination community.

Dave Zweig has a Bachelors and Masters degree in Optics from the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester.  He spent 10 years working for a defense contractor in the area of large space optics, including extensive involvement with NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Telescope.

July 29th Speaker:

John Edwards, Esq.

After practicing law as a litigator for many years, John Edwards began his mediation practice in 2002. Since then he has successfully mediated hundreds of cases including commercial and residential real estate matters, professional malpractice, personal injury, employment disputes, probate and business disputes.

 John is affiliated with West Coast Resolution Group in San Diego, California. He earned his J.D. from the University of San Diego Law School and received his mediation training at Harvard Law School. He received additional training in working with high conflict personalities with the High Conflict Institute. He subsequently began presenting with Bill Eddy at High Conflict Institute seminars and co-taught the Psychology of Conflict with Bill Eddy at the Strauss Institute at Pepperdine University where he is an adjunct professor. He frequently guest lectures at California Western Law School and Thomas Jefferson Law School. John also has taught the High Conflict Personality theory for the Advanced Mediation Training Program at the National Conflict Resolution Center, as well as in many seminars given to many diverse groups including law students, lawyers, mediators, commercial and residential real estate agents and brokers, and community association managers

Register Now! 

August 26th, 2016  at 9:00 AM PDT

Thomas Spahn – privilege and confidentiality

Tom Spahn (a partner in the Northern Virginia office of McGuire Woods) will discuss lawyers’ duty of confidentiality, lawyers’ responsibility to assure that those working with them comply with those confidentiality duties, and the attorney-client and work product implications of lawyers and those working with them obtaining and disclosing confidential client information.

For the full story on Tom, please see the Safe website:
       http://www.safeforensics.org/2016-safe-annual-conference/

August 26th, 2016 at 10:10 AM PDT

Josh King – Ways to become comfortable with on-line feedback

In this webinar, Josh King, Chief Legal Officer for Avvo, will discuss ways to help lawyers and law firms get comfortable with the rapid proliferation of online feedback and the most effective – and ethical – ways to respond.

You will  learn:
– The spread of online feedback via social media and review sites, and the importance of this trend to professional services and reputation
– Why suing for defamation is the technique of last resort
– Avoid violating the ethics rules around misleading advertising and attorney-client confidences when responding to online feedback

August 26th, 2016 at 11:20 AM PDT
Carol Chaski  - Application of Science to Forensic Document Examination

Carole E. Chaski, PhD is the CEO and President if ALIAS Technology LLC, which she founded in 2007. She also serves as the Executive Director of the Institute for Linguistic Evidence, the first non-profit research organization devoted to research and development in linguistic evidence, which she founded in 1998.  Chaski began work in forensic linguistics in 1992 and is credited with pioneering the field of forensic computational linguistics. She has developed methods and software for authorship identification and classification of specific discourse types, such as threat letters, suicide notes, child sex-abuse allegations, predatory chats, and deceptive witness statements.

For the full story on Carol, please see the Safe website:  http://www.safeforensics.org/2016-safe-annual-conference/

Register Now! 

August 26, 2016  1:20 PM PDT

Jim Sevel - Computer Forensics applied to Forensic Document Examination

    Jim Sevel is a retired Department of Homeland Security/US Customs Supervisor with thirty-two (32) years of federal law enforcement experience.  He was one of the founding members of the San Diego Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory and retired in 2006 as the Supervisor of the DHS Computer Forensics and Cyber Investigations Group.  He was rehired by DHS in 2008 to work computer forensic cases and retired again in 2013.

Jim started San Diego Computer Forensics in 2007 to service the civil litigation community.  In April of 2014, Jim merged with Sargent Digital Forensics to form their new company San Diego Digital Forensic.  Jim has over eighteen years of experience conducting computer forensic examinations and has testified in military, federal, and state courts on digital forensic issues.

August 26, 2016

1:00 Erik Laykin – e-discovery

Erik Laykin, CHFI, CEDS, JMG, CFLC is a Managing Director and Founder of the Global Electronic Discovery and Cyber Investigations Practice at Duff & Phelps LLC.

As a cyber-forensic expert, author, futurist, and Sinophile, Erik comments on emerging technology and business risks at conferences and for the media. He is Chair of the American Bar Association’s Computer Forensic Expert Witness, and IoT Digital Evidence subcommittees, President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Forensic Expert Witness Association and is past President and Pacific-Rim Director of the FBI’s Infragard Program.

Erik newest book “Investigative Computer Forensics” was recently published by John Wiley & Sons

  August 26, 2016 at 3:20 PM PDT

Dr. Tahnee Dewhurst - Validating Elements of FDE Methodology

The opinions of FDEs, regarding the authenticity of these types of questioned signatures have been accepted in the judicial environment for well over a century, however, aspects of the skills claimed by FDEs and components of signature forgery theory remain untested, and have received both academic and judicial criticism. The body of work described here focused on: validating elements of forensic handwriting examination methodology; assessing motivational aspects of expertise testing regimes; and characterising signature dynamics associated with forgery behaviour. The results provided further empirical evidence that FDEs have a greater skill for signature examination tasks than lay individuals. The results also provided evidence regarding the types of signature formations that examiners should feel confident expressing authorship opinions on. However, it was also shown that there may be skilled forgeries that are not detected by some qualified forensic handwriting examiners and that examiners should exercise caution when viewing historically typical forgery indicators such as pen lifts in isolation. Furthermore, through the application of technology to assess above page writing instrument movements, it was shown how the implementation of advanced methodologies to detect and characterise covert features of forgery behaviour could be useful. It is concluded that the addition of objective methods of signature examination in support of FDEs’ current subjective approach, would provide a more scientifically robust platform for their investigations and subsequent forming of opinion as to the authenticity of signature formations.

Dr. Dewhurst is a Senior Scientist within the Digital and Documents Evidence Branch of the Victoria Police Forensic Services Centre in Melbourne, Australia.  Tahnee is a member of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, the Australian and New Zealand Forensic Science Society, the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences and the Australian and New Zealand Society of Evidence Based Policing.

Register Now!