Attorneys from Maryland?s Innocence Project finished five days of testimony Wednesday in the first legal challenge to the work of a state police forensics expert who took his own life amid allegations he lied in court testimony.
The project?s lawyers say lies that former state police forensics expert Joseph Kopera told a Baltimore County Circuit jury caused the jury, in part, to wrongfully convict James Kulbicki, 50, of Baltimore, of murdering his lover, Gina Neuslein, in 1993.
Baltimore Circuit Judge Kathleen Cox declined to rule on the case immediately, giving the Innocence Project – which attempts to exonerate wrongfully convicted people – until June 1 to submit written arguments. She gave Baltimore County prosecutors until July 1 to provide their written arguments, and Kulbicki?s attorneys until Aug. 1 to respond.
Kopera claimed to have degrees from the Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Maryland when he did not. He was under investigation at the time of his death.
Given that he lied about his credentials and education, his testimony as a supposed expert is obviously suspect, the project?s lawyers say.
But Baltimore County Assistant State?s Attorney Ann Brobst said solid evidence proves Kulbicki killed Neuslein.
“He had the motive,” she said. “He had the opportunity. Her blood is on his jacket. There are pieces of bone from a human skull in his truck.”
Kopera worked for state police since 1991 as a firearms and toolmarks examiner; he was previously employed for 21 years in the Baltimore Police Department?s forensics lab. He testified about crime-scene evidence in state courts in all 24 Maryland jurisdictions.
Kopera died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home March 1. He was 61.
State police have requested reviews of all the violent crime cases Kopera examined.
