Legal Research

Homicide Expert Says New York Police Commissioner Kelley Cancelled His Classes Over Criticism

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source:Crime and Justice News, June 10, 2008.

"Homicide expert Vernon Geberth says he has been removed from a 28-year gig teaching in the New York Police Department because he criticized police handling of a widely-publicized case, reports Leonard Levitt in NYPD Confidential. Geberth, a retired Bronx homicide commander, had lectured at the Chief of Detective's homicide seminar. His book 'Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures and Forensic Techniques' is considered the homicide bible."

"Geberth says Kelly told the commanding officer of the homicide training unit to banish him because of critical remarks he made to the media about the investigation into the death of Heath Ledger in his apartment, apparently from a drug overdose. Detectives apparently failed to question actress Mary Kate Olsen after the masseuse who discovered Ledger's body called her in California and she directed private security guards to the apartment before the police were notified. The masseuse, Diana Wolozin, found Ledger unconscious in his apartment, where he had spent the past five months."

NYPD Confidential

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on June 10, 2008 (boomark / email).