Kate Butler — Direct/Cross

KATE BUTLER: Yes, sir.

KATE BUTLER: I didn't. I brought my flash drive.

KATE BUTLER: Good afternoon. My name is Kate Butler. K-A-T-E B-U-T-L-E-R.

KATE BUTLER: I'm a senior crime laboratory analyst at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement at the Pensacola Regional Operations Center, in the forensic document examination section.

KATE BUTLER: 16 years.

KATE BUTLER: My duties consist of examining items of evidence, including handwriting, typewriting, inks, papers, and office machines, in order to determine source or authenticity of a question document.

KATE BUTLER: I have a bachelor's of science degree in forensic chemistry from the University of Mississippi.

KATE BUTLER: I completed the two-year, two-phase training program at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in the forensic document examination section.

KATE BUTLER: This training program consisted of two phases. The first phase was mostly reading academic texts, published articles, and research on all aspects of forensic document examination.

KATE BUTLER: Once I successfully completed an all-encompassing oral board and passing all the written and practical examinations, I was then allowed to move to phase two of training, which was supervised casework, in which I worked actual cases under the direct supervision of the certified analysts in the section.

KATE BUTLER: Once I successfully completed the mock trial at the end of that phase, I was then allowed to move to independent casework, which I have been doing ever since.

KATE BUTLER: I have.

KATE BUTLER: Approximately 25 times.

KATE BUTLER: Forensic document examination is a highly specialized forensic discipline in which we examine items of evidence, including handwriting, typewriting, inks, papers, or office machines, in order to determine the source or authenticity of that document. Source meaning, was it written by a particular person, printed by a particular office machine? Authenticity is, is it genuine, is it counterfeit, or has it been altered in some way? When I complete my examinations of the evidence, I then write a report as to my findings, and when necessary testify to this.

KATE BUTLER: The best way to explain how handwriting is identifiable is to ask each of you to remember back to when you first learned to write. You typically learned in the second or third grade using a copybook. You learn to make repeated iterations of each of the letters of the alphabet as well as the numbers, until you have the basic model of each letter and each word, lowercase and uppercase. You learn to put them on a baseline; you learn to make uppercase letters taller than lowercase letters. However, we've all deviated — as adults, we've all deviated from that original copybook style we were taught, and it's those deviations that are the individual handwriting characteristics that I examine in a question handwriting sample, and then compare to a known handwriting sample to see if the same characteristics are in — from the question are present in the known and are similar to one another.

KATE BUTLER: We have several levels of conclusions that we use in the field.

KATE BUTLER: We have, on one side, the identification, and this is the opinion of which the examiner has reviewed all the material and has found that the question writing was in fact written by the known writer. And at the other end of the scale is elimination, and that's after reviewing all the material the examiner has found that there are significant differences and that it is not the writer. Down from each of those we have a "highly probably wrote" and a "highly probably did not write." Then we have a "probable wrote," "probably did not write." "Indications may have written," "indications may not have written." And in the middle is our neutral, "could neither identify nor eliminate" opinion.

KATE BUTLER: I do.

KATE BUTLER: This particular exhibit, I inventoried to describe the contents of it. I then digitally scanned it and then used it as the purported known writing of Donna Adelson in my handwriting comparison.

KATE BUTLER: Some of the pages, yes, ma'am. Yes, we did have one additional page in there. Yes, ma'am.

KATE BUTLER: Yes, these are the images of the question document.

KATE BUTLER: I did.

KATE BUTLER: I will.

KATE BUTLER: Yes, ma'am.

KATE BUTLER: This is also — this is the third page of the three pages of question writing.

KATE BUTLER: I look and examine every handwriting characteristic that is available for me to examine.

KATE BUTLER: I notate as I examine the question and known materials, so whenever I find a particular characteristic I may note where that particular characteristic was found within the known writing. However, I compare all of the question individual characteristics within the handwriting to the known characteristics within the known.

KATE BUTLER: Every single handwritten character, yes. I examine all of it and compare it to the known writing to see if each individual characteristic is present.

KATE BUTLER: That is present in the question. Is present in the known, or not? And if it's a similarity, or if it is different in any way.

KATE BUTLER: That's correct. At the end of the complete side-by-side examination of all of the question handwriting with all of the known handwriting, I then evaluate all of the observed characteristics and then I make a conclusion as to the authorship.

KATE BUTLER: This is a demonstrative court chart. It has some of the words and letters from the question documents. Thank you so much. So I have looked through the question documents, of which there were three pages. I found certain words and cropped those words digitally and placed them on this chart. I did the same thing with some of the words and letters from the known writing, and I put similar words and letters so that I can better explain how it is that I am able to, first of all, choose an individual handwriting characteristic, and then how I'm able to show that it is found within the known writing and that it is similar.

KATE BUTLER: Yes, the next slide has some arrows and other markings which are pointing out some of the individual characteristics that I found in my examination and showing how they are similar between the question writings and the known writings. Oh, I apparently clicked it. I clicked it. Oh, I'm sorry.

KATE BUTLER: So would you like me to describe each of the characteristics?

KATE BUTLER: So beginning with the first word, in the uppercase W of the word "why," we see the overall structure of the uppercase W has a very small tick at the bottom near the baseline, where it appears that there's a little bit of an upstroke and then a very small tick and then a downstroke that kind of makes the bottom of the W. And that particular shape of it being sort of flat on one side but pointed or angled on the other side of the W — on the side that's next to the H, the right side of the W — has a bit of a curve, whereas the left side does not have that curve. So I observed that similar structure in the word "wall" within the known writing. You can see on the left side very flat, but on the right side a very sharp angle up to the top, and then the top ends with a bit of a tick to the right. And that's pointed out in both the red arrow — the first red arrow in the uppercase W of the word "why" in the question column, as well as in the uppercase W of the word "wall" on the known column.

KATE BUTLER: In the question column, in the word "why," I have also pointed out the lowercase Y. The structure of it creates almost a loop — it's not entirely connected, the U of the Y and the staff of the Y, but it almost is, but there can be a lift where the stroke stops, lifts, and then comes back down onto the piece of paper — that whole structure and then the two separate strokes. That particular lowercase Y was found in the word "they," and you can see that in the known column, the second row, where you see the lowercase Y, the two strokes, with a bit of a pen drag as it lifts and then forms the staff of the Y. Looking again to the question column, the word "they" — you can see the crossbar of the T moving up towards the lowercase H's staff and then almost forms a loop. Again, there's a bit of a pen lift there between the connecting strokes of that crossbar of the T and the lowercase H's staff.

KATE BUTLER: You can see that same characteristic with the crossbar moving into the lowercase H and almost connecting to the staff but leaving a pen drag or a pen lift in that area. You can see that in the word "there," in the lowercase T and H combination, in the known column. I have also pointed out, in the question column, in the word "they," the lowercase E. The lowercase E was formed by starting in the middle of the letter and, instead of making a loop or an eyelet formation, which is typically how our lowercase E is made, it remains open as if just a tick mark before it begins its overarching structure back to the baseline.

KATE BUTLER: So that sort of open-loop E was also found in the word "ache," which you can see in the known column, where you can see the eyelet of the E is open and not rounded at all — it's sort of a sharp retrace of the E before it forms the circular part.

KATE BUTLER: Like I pointed out in the word "why" in the question column, I've also pointed out the lowercase Y in "they" in the question column. So this is a second variation of the lowercase Y. So one variation of the lowercase Y has a straight staff — the bottom of it goes straight. Another variation that this writer had was the lowercase Y in which those strokes — the bowl of the Y and the staff — are actually connected here in a loop formation, and the bottom of the staff creates a curve at the bottom, whereas the lowercase Y in the word "why" remains straight. So this particular natural variation, the lowercase Y with a loop and a curve, this was found in the word "why" in the known column on the first line. Natural variations are found throughout people's writing because of our lack of machine-like precision to be able to produce writing exactly the same way every time. Natural variations occur throughout our writing. So seeing different variations of a lowercase Y, or any letter, and seeing those same variations present in the known is additional information for me to use in my conclusion.

KATE BUTLER: So going to the next word in the question column, it is the word "Miami." The uppercase M in "Miami" has an interesting structure. The staff of it has an open loop formation, so it looks like a little bit of a bubble in that staff on the left side of the M. This same formation of that uppercase M was found within the known writing, and I have it pointed out in the word "me" in the known column.

KATE BUTLER: One of the other things that I wanted to point out in the word "Miami" is the height difference between the lowercase I and the lowercase A.

KATE BUTLER: This particular writer, when writing the I-A together, tended to make the lowercase I lower than the lowercase A, whereas you can see it's sort of floating above the baseline.

KATE BUTLER: That particular characteristic was also found within the words "Miami" within the known writing, which I have one pointed out on the right side of the column in the second "Miami," but it is also seen in the first version of "Miami" as well, just not pointed out with an arrow. The lowercase A in "Miami" — I'm pointing out two different characteristics with that lowercase A. I'm pointing out the structure of the lowercase A, kind of having a bit of an open top — there's a space between the top of it and the staff of it, kind of leaving a little bit of an open circle, and the structure of it being kind of having a bit of a hat to it. That particular characteristic was found in the lowercase A of the word "tenants," which is about eight lines down on the known column. One of the other characteristics I'm pointing out with the lowercase A in "Miami" is how the ending stroke of the A sweeps under the lowercase M in "Miami" next to it. And that particular characteristic, which was found in the word "Miami" in the question, was also found within the word "Miami" within the known writing, and you can see it in the first version of "Miami" on the fourth line in the known column. Moving on to the word "and" in the question column — the uppercase — the overall uppercase structure of the letter is formed with only one stroke. So beginning on the left side and going, moving up from the baseline, creating sort of a triangle, but whenever that stroke comes down to the baseline, the right side of the A, it causes a retrace that forms the crossbar of the A. So it is actually one stroke, almost like a triangle, except the bottom, instead of meeting the left staff, comes up and forms a curved crossbar of the A. And that particular letter formation was found within the known writing also, in the uppercase A. You can see in the known column on the sixth row.

KATE BUTLER: The spacing relationship between the lowercase N and the lowercase D is the next characteristic that I have pointed out within my demonstrative aid. So the fact that the N is sort of diving into that lowercase D is found within the word "dividend." You can see at the end how, at the end of the word "dividend," the lowercase N is sort of piercing through the loop of the D, the bottom of the D. And that particular spacing characteristic was found within the question as well as the known. And I also wanted to point out the open loop of the D — so the bottom of the D, the bowl of the D, is open. Whenever that character was created, it started at the top, went towards the baseline, then created a counterclockwise curve. But instead of coming and meeting the staff, it stayed open and just stayed at the baseline. So pointing out that particular characteristic of that open-bowl lowercase D, can be found in the word "card" in the known column.

KATE BUTLER: The next word in the question column is the word "once" — the lowercase N-T-S, where I'm going to focus on, although there are more characteristics that I have not pointed out. The lowercase N and S are nearly touching, which is odd, because whenever you're taught to learn the copybook style, you're taught to leave an even amount of spacing between each letter in a word. So the S touching the N, which is two letters outside of the word, was an interesting characteristic that I found in the word "tenants" on the eighth row on the known column. You can also see it in the word "comments," though I don't have it pointed out with a red arrow, but the N and the S look like as if they are touching.

KATE BUTLER: The combination of the crossbar T to the lowercase S, to the formation of the lowercase S, in the word "once" in the question column — that particular characteristic was found within the word "comments," where you can see the lowercase T's crossbar continues out to the right and then forms a loop as it makes a counterclockwise loop around and then comes closer to the baseline and then kind of goes underneath the lowercase T to touch the lowercase S. That particular combination was found within the known writing in "tenants" as well as "comments."

KATE BUTLER: The next word in the question column is the word "whatever."

KATE BUTLER: The lowercase "w" in the word "whatever" — there's a line underneath it. What that is indicating is that the left side of the "w" is actually lower on the baseline than the right side of the "w." And that particular characteristic was also found within the known writing in the known column 8, within the word "once." I didn't use this laser the whole time.

KATE BUTLER: The lowercase "w" in the word "once" on the known column — the left side of it is much closer to the baseline than the right side.

KATE BUTLER: Moving on to the next characteristic, it is the spacing between the lowercase "t" and the lowercase "e" in the word "whatever." The "t" crossbar is touching the lowercase "e." That particular characteristic was found within the word "after." And the formation of the "v" is a very blocky shape, with the left side being lower than the right side. The bottom kind of creates more of a square rather than a curve or a v-shaped retrace. That particular characteristic was also found within the known writing in the word "deliver." Another characteristic within the word "whatever" in the question column is the combination of the "e-r."

KATE BUTLER: The lowercase "e" as it ends creates the beginning stroke of the lowercase "r," connecting the "e" and the "r" at the bottom. And that particular characteristic was also found within the word "deliver" and the word "after" in the known writing.

KATE BUTLER: These are just a few examples of some of the question characteristics that I examined and found to be similar within the known writing.

KATE BUTLER: I identified the known writing purportedly written by Donna Adelson as to be the writer of the question handwriting.

KATE BUTLER: Identification is the highest level, yes, ma'am.