QUESTIONED DOCUMENTS What are questioned documents Any object

? ? ? ? ? QUESTIONED ? DOCUMENTS ? ? ? ? ?

What are questioned documents? Any object that contains handwritten or typewritten markings whose source or authenticity is in doubt. What Do Document Examiners Do? Recognize & compare the individual characteristics of questioned and known authentic writings. Gathering documents of known origin is critical to an examination.

QUESTIONED DOCUMENTS What is a forgery: Act of preparing or altering a document with the intention to defraud, damage or cheat. What is a questioned document? Any document in which there is some legal dispute regarding its origin, authenticity or authorship. What could be altered? A questioned document Signatures, financial examiner is tasked with certificates, art work. determining if it’s authentic.

What is included in the analysis? *Handwriting analysis *Signature authenticity *Examination of printed material

Handwriting is Unique Handwriting: A person’s individual style of writing with an implement (pen, pencil, etc. ) -Based on the premise that handwriting is unique to an individual -unconscious behavior -As one become more proficient in writing, one will develop their own personal style This will present more distinguishable features & leads experts to believe that handwriting may be as individual as our fingerprint

Common Handwriting Styles (U. S. ) HANDWRITING COMPARISONS General Styles learned as children in the U. S. 1) Palmer method 2)Zaner-Bloser

The Goal of Handwriting Analysis *Discover information about an author *Compare to a known source to determine if written by the same hand DOCUMENT ANALYSIS WHO wrote a document and/or who didn’t write it. Handwriting depends upon training, physiology, personal preferences.

Categories of Individualizing Features Form, Arrangement, Quality, Content 1) Form: Basic style & structure of letters *Block (all uppercase), Script (upper and lower case; not joined), Cursive (rapid writing; most letters joined) *Shape, Slope & slant, Rhythm, Size of writing

2) Arrangement: Closely spaced to more spread out. Tightly spaced/overlapping writing could possibly tell what letters/words were written first 3) Quality: Pressure & thickness -Smoothness (gauge speed) Slow writing may indicate a forgery 4) Content: Spelling, grammar, capitalization, punctuation. -Background and training of the author.

INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS *Angularity *Slope *Fluency *Pressure *Connections *Writing skill *Letter & word spacing *Pen movement *Finger dexterity *Relative dimensions of letters Other factors from personal habits: *Margins *Spacings *Crowding *Insertions *Alignment *Spelling *Grammer *Punctuation *Phraseology

Challenges to Handwriting Comparison Necessary to determine the authorship of a document. Key questions… 1) Were two documents written y the same hand 2) Were 2 documents written by two different people (forgery) *Questioned writing only contains a few words that are disguised. -It is difficult to maintain the disguising of handwriting. *Handwriting altered by drugs/alcohol. -May be impossible to compare

Nine Categories of Conclusion 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Identification Highly probable Probably Indication No Conclusion Indications did not Probably did not Strong probability did not Elimination This gives a confidence level of the examiner in their conclusion of authorship. Individual characteristics are the most important elements to identify

Collection of Handwriting Exemplars Exemplar: A document with known authorship Must have enough samples to show natural variation. Short questioned documents are a problem. Disguised handwriting (simulation) must be considered as well.

Collecting Exemplars Non-Requested: Written under natural conditions. Possibly collected from agencies or from personal possession. Requested: Provided when a suspect is asked *Care is taken to not influence a writer’s handwriting.

Obtaining Writing Samples, cont. Steps to minimize a conscious writing effort: 1)The writer should be sitting comfortably 2)The suspect should not be shown the questioned document or be helped with spelling, punctuation. 3)Use a pen & paper similar to questioned document. 4)Text dictated, should be the same as the questioned document – or have similarities. 5)Dictate sample at least 3 times. 6)Combine other writings with a signature. 7)A document examiner should be consulted & shown questioned specimens BEFORE exemplars are taken from the suspect.

Comparing Handwriting A comparison table will take each letter and show the natural variations. Longer documents provide a more meaningful comparison with more letter examples to show natural variation.

Collection of Handwriting Exemplars, cont. Gilbert v. California and United States v. Mara are two cases that supported the collection of handwriting samples and did not constitute an unreasonable search and seizure of a person. *Did NOT violate Fourth Amendment rights*

Questioned Signatures The analysis of a questioned signature looks at eh accuracy and fluency of the signature to determine authenticity. Accuracy: formation of letters, embellishments, individual characters Fluency: How smoothly and/or rapidly it’s written

Methods Used to Forger an Unauthentic Signatire Forged: Signs a name with normal handwriting Simulated: Examine (try to copy) & forge freehand Traced: Document placed over a signature to copy over Intentional: Add a forced/unusual feature to OWN handwriting; Disclaim it later. Fictitious: Document & Signer are fictitious; Using an alias or has no exemplars to compare to. Cut-and-paste: Use a photocopy or computer to copy a signature

Why are signatures difficult to analyze? *They are short writing samples *Does not display the range of natural variation What would help? ? ? Multiple signatures to compare

PRINTED DOCUMENTS Typewriters Must ask/answer two questions: 1) What type of typewriter/printer produced the document? 2) Did a specific machine produce the questioned document? Class & Individual characteristics are key… Class: Fonts, sizes, styles, type of ink ribbon, ink color Individual: Wear & tear of the typefaces, dirt and dust from use, miss-alignment, damage

PRINTERS Dot-matrix: Series of very tiny pins that combine to form an image on paper Ink-jet: Forces ink through a nozzle to form letters on paper Laser printer: Laser beam form a positive image on a metal drum and then negatively charged ink sticks to it; The ink is transferred to paper. It’s difficult to determine beyond what class or type of printer is used, as well as software programs employed. Unique imperfections on the laser printer drum are helpful!

PHOTOCOPIERS Photocopies work in a similar way to a laser printer. Documents can be connected to a machine from the wear patterns & damage on the drum or in the machine itself. Trash marks: Small specks on the paper that result from scratches/debris on the glass window. This can group documents produced by the same machine. Printed documents, like currency, use special inks/paper, raised printing, watermarks, micro-printing, holographic images, color/image shifting, serial number to help identify counterfeits.

Alterations, Erasures & Obliterations A Traced Signature Paper shreds show different optical properties under specialized lighting Indented writing

Obliteration: Blotting out or smearing over of writing/printing to make unreadable. *Shine a light through the writing; UV or IR light resolves the different inks. *Added writing: Analyze chemical differences in ink with spectroscopy. This shows what’s original and what’s added.

Erasures & Alterations Removal of writing by chemical or abrasive means. *Microscopy shows change to paper, remnants of ink. May not see words/letters written originally (so much erasing). *An alternate light source can highlight minute traces of ink or pencil marks that remain.

Indented Writings Impressions left of papers positioned under a piece of paper that has been written on. *Incriminating evidence against gambling operations. *Electrostatic charge applied to the questioned document. A charge-sensitive toner adheres to the document to help visualize the indentations.

Ink & Paper Comparison Why analyze the ink or paper? You can determine the type, age, composition and origin of the ink or paper. U. S. International Ink Library – Includes more that 9, 200 inks dating back to 1920 *Historical forgeries Some manufacturers ‘tag’ their inks at the request of the U. S. Treasury Dept.

Comparing Ink Samples By determining the chemical composition of ink, you could prove/disprove the time the ink was produced. This is helpful in forgeries of historical documents. Different types of chromatography methods are usually used to analyze inks.

HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGING Individual pixels of a document are analyzed with smalls spectral bands of light – this results in different amounts of light absorbed or reflected, based on the chemicals present (the inks).

Other spectroscopic methods… Raman Spectroscopy: Low-frequency spectroscopy. IR Spectroscopy: Absorption & transmittance of infrared light. Mass Spectroscopy : Fragmenting with electrons and measuring the fragments

LEGAL CHALLENGES TO HANDWRITING ANALYSIS Many arguments have arose regarding handwriting analysis and comparison… Does it meet the ‘Daubert standard’? US vs. Saelee, 2001 The court ruled that the handwriting analysis was based on a ‘lack of empirical evidence on proficiency of document examiners’. Software has been developed and has identified the writer of a document with 98% accuracy.

Jon Benet Ramsey Ransom Letter