Ya'll just keep on slaving away and ruining your eyes staring at itty-bitty fingerprints. I'm going to branch out into something easier:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/ ... ks-expert/
How to Become a Court-Certified Dreadlocks Expert
By Michael Brick
Updated, 4:30 p.m. | Criminal trials are full of experts. There are science experts to explain skid marks, ballistics, fingerprint analysis and DNA; there are behavioral experts to opine on false confessions, mental fitness and gangs. Most gain their specialized knowledge from working in law enforcement.
But to become a certified expert, all you need to do is persuade a judge that you have some specialized knowledge relevant to the circumstances of a particular case. And that is how Bruce Gillespie, of the Experience Hair Salon on Franklin Avenue in Brooklyn, came to be certified as a Dreadlocks Expert in Federal District Court in Brooklyn.
Mr. Gillespie testified for the defense this week in the case of United States v. Salvatore LoPresti, a former captain of guards at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Mr. LoPresti was charged with beating an inmate so badly that blood and parts of his hair were left on the floor. (The jury returned a guilty verdict today; see the update below.)
During cross-examination, the prosecutor expressed incredulity. Challenging Mr. Gillespie’s assertion that dry dreadlocks can easily fall from a person’s hair, the prosecutor asked, “Fifteen dreadlocks at once, spontaneously, poof, off your head?”
Update: Later in the day, the jury convicted Captain Lopresti of conspiracy charges. While the jury found that Captain LoPresti had conspired with other officers to plan and carry out the assault, it acquitted him of actually having taken part in the beating itself.