In Session The witness, using a model or diagram now points out the locations of some more of the injuries present on Kathleen Savio’s body. “When you analyze injuries from a fall, are circumstances, the autopsy, and the scene things you consider?” “Yes.” “Can you discuss how the circumstances come into play?” “The circumstances that I took into account . . .” Objection/Sustained. “In accessing whether injuries are consistent on a body from a fall, what are the things you look at?” “There are three lines of evidence that lead me to my conclusions: the circumstances, the injuries on the body, and the scene. Those are three standards ones that I use, that forensic pathologists in general use.” “Did you take into account the injuries we saw, and analyze those?” “Yes, I did . . . first of all, I noted their location, size, shape, color, age, pattern, lack of a pattern, and number. Then I looked at the constellation of injuries. I saw that all the bruises on that body were in front. Her scalp laceration and her abrasions were all in the back, with the one exception of the one on the side of the arm.” “Do you take into account alcohol, drugs, and diseases?” “Yes . . . in assessing the overall mechanism of injury, one looks for risk factors. In this situation . . . one looks for risk factors. And the three risk factors that are published in the literature, I found alcohol, the presence of drugs within the system, and diseases . . . all these risk factors can lead to accidental drownings in healthy females . . . the autopsy showed the distribution of injuries; in my own autopsy, I looked for deep bruises on the back that might go along with a fall, particularly in the buttocks. And I found none there. And the patterned abrasion on the buttocks would not be consistent with someone’s slip and fall . . . so based on the injuries and the circumstances . . .” The judge interrupts, calls the parties to a sidebar.
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