TRACE: inside the world of Lynne Herold, Criminalist April 17, 2011

LAVA invites you to explore Phil Spector murder trial evidence with LA's top forensic scientist

WHAT: Professor Donald Johnson, in association with LAVA and Esotouric, presents LASD Senior Criminalist Lynne Herold in a lecture and crime lab demonstration "TRACE: inside the world of Lynne Herold, Criminalist."
WHEN: Sunday, April 17, 2:00pm-6:00pm
WHERE: The Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center (Cal State L.A.), 1800 Paseo Rancho Castilla, Los Angeles, CA 90032
COST: $36.50 per person, includes refreshments
RESTRICTIONS: Due to the graphic nature of the presentation, children may not attend. No photography or videotaping of any kind will be permitted, and cell phones must be stowed away.
PHOTOS: To see images from a past LAVA crime lab event, visit http://lavatransforms.org/crimelabpics
VIDEO: For a video tour of the teaching crime lab with participating graduate students, see this link:
INFO/RESERVATIONS: http://lavatransforms.org/crimelabapril17

LOS ANGELES- Turn on the TV in 2010 and odds are good you'll see white lab coats, DNA swabs and magnified fingerprints on computer screens. CSI is hot stuff, in fictional series ("NCIS: Los Angeles," "Bones," "Dexter," "CSI") and documentary programming. But it's not often that the general public gets a chance to tour a real crime lab with the forensic investigators and educators who use its tools to solve crimes and develop new research strategies.

Leave it to LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association), the creative consortium launched one year ago by Richard Schave and Kim Cooper, the married couple whose Esotouric bus adventures have transformed the guided tour experience, to make a real-life CSI experience accessible to interested laypersons. Working closely with one of LAVA's most intriguing Visionary members, Professor Donald Johnson, they've developed a special four-hour program highlighting the career and insights of Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Senior Criminalist Lynne Herold, best known for her work on the trace evidence in the first Phil Spector murder trial.

The event, held in Cal State L.A.'s state-of-the-art Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center, also includes short technical presentations from the graduate students who work and study there and a tour of the teaching crime lab and crime scene reconstruction lab.

Just added to the program-- a raffle for an opportunity to suit up in a hazmat suit and create sample blood spatter evidence the way the pros do, by beating a blood-soaked sponge with a baseball bat! There will be other interesting raffle prizes, and a forensic science-themed bake sale.

Space is very limited and pre-reservation recommended for this unprecedented opportunity to spend an afternoon drinking in Lynne Herold's more than twenty years of crime scene analysis and investigation. A portion of the proceeds from this event supports the research of Criminalistics graduate students at Cal State Los Angeles.

ABOUT THE EVENT:
"TRACE: inside the world of Lynne Herold, Criminalist" is an exploration of the scientific investigation of major crimes, revealed through methods of trace evidence analysis and select case histories. Attendees will also have an opportunity to tour Cal State LA’s state-of the-art teaching and research facilities in the Criminalistics Department of the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center.

"TRACE" consists of three lectures by Lynne Herold and three breakout scientific workshops presented by Criminalistics graduate students.

Lecture #1 is Lynne Herold's personal introduction to her life and work, entitled "My World and Welcome To It." Lecture #2 explores the use of blood stain patterns in the analysis of complex crime scenes. Lecture #3 is a case history of the Phil Spector /Lana Clarkson murder investigation, for which Lynne Herold did the trace evidence analyses which resulted in Spector's conviction in his second murder trial.

The scientific workshop topics include blood spatter re-creation and analysis, the magic of Mylar and static electricity, and insights into hair/fiber analysis.

By the program’s conclusion, attendees will have a deeper understanding of the real work that's done by a senior LASD criminalist, and the tools and techniques used to interpret crime scenes for the benefit of investigating officers and juries. Come discover the reality, which is so different from and so much more interesting than what you've seen on TV.

BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Lynne Herold, Ph.D. is a Senior Criminalist in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Scientific Services Bureau. She received her B.S. in Biological Sciences from Kent State University in 1974, and her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from USC in 1984. Over the past two decades, Dr. Herold has been involved in hundreds of "high profile" cases, and has been instrumental in the successful prosecution of scores of murder and serial murder cases. In 2003, Dr. Herold was assigned to the murder of actress Lana Clarkson, whose name has been largely overshadowed by the celebrity status of her accused killer, record producer Phil Spector. Dr. Herold devoted in excess of 1000 hours of work to the case, which went to trial in 2007. Dr. Herold's examination of the physical evidence in this case was technical, detailed, exhaustive and her conclusions compelling. Additionally, she was able to advise prosecutors as to areas in which the testimony of "hired gun" defense experts Dr. Henry Lee and Dr. Michael Baden could be impeached. Dr. Herold's testimony, which lasted for five days before the eyes of the world via live television, was a textbook illustration of effective courtroom preparation and presentation. Although the 2007 trial ended in a mistrial (10 to 2 for guilt), jurors who were interviewed stated that her testimony was so well presented, they completely discounted the testimony of defense experts. In his second trial in 2009, Phil Spector was convicted of the murder of Lana Clarkson and sentenced to 19 years to life. In 2008, Dr. Herold was honored as the California Homicide Investigators' Association Support Person of the Year.

ABOUT LAVA: Through participation in LAVA, a select group of creative professionals come together to promote cultural programming that speaks to the urban experience while promoting positive public space. LAVA's creative partners share a love for L.A. and unique ideas for exploring it in their work. Formed by social historians RICHARD SCHAVE and KIM COOPER -- proprietors of Esotouric bus adventures and the 1947project time travel blog series (including On Bunker Hill and In SRO Land) -- LAVA brings together L.A.'s most visionary promoters, artists, writers and thinkers. The first crop of Visionaries in the growing curated community includes cultural chronicler ADRIENNE CREW, artist and Eastside historian AL GUERRERO, Cacophony Society co-founder AL RIDENOUR, avant garde fashion maven A. LAURA BRODY, poet and publisher ALEIDA RODRIGUEZ, back-to-nature pioneer ALICIA BAY LAUREL, filmmaker and festival promoter ALLISON ANDERS, former Metropolitan Museum curator ALLON SCHOENER, designer/mom of Chicken Boy AMY INOUYE, custom tours maven ANNE BLOCK, documentarian and radio producer ANTHEA RAYMOND, pop culture historian BECKY EBENKAMP, ethnomusicologist BETO GONZALEZ, master puppeteer BOB BAKER, producer and promoter CHRISTIAN VOLTAIRE MEOLI, 826LA events manager CHRISTINA GALANTE, performance artist CRIMEBO THE CLOWN, the NEA's outgoing Director of Literature DAVID KIPEN, green sculptor DONALD GIALANELLA, forensic scientist and educator DONALD JOHNSON, author and educator DOROTHY RANDALL GRAY, visual artist ELENA MARY SIFF, documentarian and exploitation film historian ELIJAH DRENNER, conversation curator ERIC VOLLMER, social connector EVONNE HEYNING, musician and performance artist FEATHERBEARD, photographer GARY LEONARD, pop critic and outsider artist GENE SCULATTI, musician and artist GEORGE EARTH, songsmith HARVEY SID FISHER, theater director HOLLY WITHAM, no-longer-Teenage Glutster food blogger JAVIER CABRAL, urban explorer (Ranger) Jenny Price, horror film director JEREMY KASTEN, musician and composer of silent film scores JIMI CABEZA DE VACA, social historian JOAN RENNER, writer and artist JOE OESTERLE, journalist and author JOHN BUNTIN,Musso & Frank co-owner JORDAN JONES, performance artist JULES ROCHIELLE, curator and activist JULIE RICO, "Kristin's List" cultural chronicler KRISTIN BEDFORD, songstress and prognosticator MADAME PAMITA, esoteric scholar and lecturer MAJA D'AOUST, author and broadcaster MANNY PACHECO, performer McCRISTOL HARRIS, journalist and internet radio pioneer MICHAEL LINDER, photographic archivist MICHAEL RISNER, President of the new LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes MIGUEL ANGEL CORZO, poet and dancer MONA JEAN CEDAR, , theater director NICHOLAS HOSKING, L.A. Historic Theater Foundation rep NICK MATONAK, music producer and impresario NO'A WINTER LAZERUS, musician OCTAVIUS, peace activist PAUL NUGENT of the Aetherius Society, 3-D photography expert RAY 3D ZONE, historic ghost seeker RICHARD CARRADINE, filmmaker and preservationist ROSS LIPMAN, Boyle Heights ghost hunter SARAH TROOP, social networking mistress SHAWNA DAWSON, painter/gallerist SUSAN DOBAY, Warhol star and writer TERE TEREBA, metal artist TOM WALKER, musical entertainer THE UKULADY, and hat designer and multi-media artist YASMIN DIXON.

Applications from prospective LAVA members are being taken at http://lavatransforms.org/apply

To learn more about LAVA, please visit http://www.lavatransforms.org

Official Website: http://lavatransforms.org/crimelabapril17