📄 Direct examination of Susan Brockbank (afternoon, part 2) — Tuesday, June 27, 1995
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TRIAL
▲ Day 104 of 167

Direct examination of Susan Brockbank (afternoon, part 2)

Witness: Susan Brockbank
Examiner: Marcia Clark
Called by: Prosecution • Date: Tuesday, June 27, 1995 • Utterances: 709
FBI trace evidence analyst Susan Brockbank testified about her detailed collection and examination of hair and fiber evidence from the Bundy and Rockingham gloves (items 37 and 9), the blue knit ski cap, and related items. She described her meticulous chain of custody procedures — changing gloves between items, using clean paper, creating dated bindles — while also acknowledging discrepancies between her initial microscopic observations and those of senior FBI examiner Douglas Deedrick, including a darkly pigmented limb hair she had not reported and a possible difference in hair counts. She also testified that new XL gloves measured up to an inch and a quarter larger than the evidence gloves, which also bore an XL label.
1 MS. BROCKBANK:

It's white and red evidence tape, FBI evidence tape around the edge.

2 MS. CLARK:

Uh-huh. And is there some red tape also on it?

3 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yeah. It does look like it down on the lower half.

4 MS. CLARK:

Uh-huh. Yeah, that.

5 MS. BROCKBANK:

Can't hardly see it, but yeah, I do see that.

6 THE COURT:

Miss Brockbank, there's a monitor here that could be a little clearer.

7 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yeah.

8 THE COURT:

Better angle.

9 MS. BROCKBANK:

I'm sorry.

10 THE COURT:

Thank you, your Honor.

11 MS. BROCKBANK:

I see the red tape better on this monitor.

12 MS. CLARK:

Okay. All right. Let's zoom in on the bindles. Tell us if you recognize any of those bindles, please. First one up on top there?

13 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I recognize it. It's--got notations on it, "Removed from inside bag which contains item no. 37 by S.A.B., 6-23-94."

14 MS. CLARK:

Okay. And so you removed that--the debris from the bag for this item on the 23rd, not on the 21st?

15 MS. BROCKBANK:

That would be correct, according to this.

16 MS. CLARK:

Okay.

17 MS. BROCKBANK:

I thought I did it on the 21st, but according to my bindle, I did it on the 23rd.

KEY QUOTE
18 MS. CLARK:

Okay. We'll get back to that. You revisited this--the gloves again then after the 21st, correct?

19 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

20 MS. CLARK:

All right. And the bindle just below that, do you recognize that?

21 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. That says "Outer surfaces of glove, item no. 37 removed by S.A.B., 6-21-94."

22 MS. CLARK:

So that bindle contains all of the hair and fiber and trace that you recovered from the exterior of the Bundy glove?

23 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

24 MS. CLARK:

And that's your handwriting I take it?

25 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

26 MS. CLARK:

All right. Now, moving over to the coin envelope--well, before we do that, there's a bindle below that, also appears to be your handwriting dated June 23rd, 1994.

27 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. And it says "Removed from inside of glove, item no. 37, by S.A.B., 6-23-94."

28 MS. CLARK:

Okay.

29 MS. BROCKBANK:

And then "Animal hairs. No human hair observed."

30 MS. CLARK:

That was your observation--excuse me?

31 MS. BROCKBANK:

I'm sorry. Yes.

32 MS. CLARK:

Yes. That was the observation you made with your examination of the hair and fiber contained in that bindle, correct?

33 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. That's correct.

34 MS. CLARK:

And that bindle, the contents of it, were later examined by Mr. Deedrick of the FBI?

35 MS. BROCKBANK:

That's correct.

36 MS. CLARK:

And there was some discrepancy in your findings with respect to what was contained in that bindle?

37 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. There might have been.

38 MS. CLARK:

Okay. We'll get back to it.

39 MS. BROCKBANK:

I don't remember specifically.

40 MS. CLARK:

We'll get back to it later.

41 MS. BROCKBANK:

Okay.

42 MS. CLARK:

And so that's the--that's the third bindle of hair, trace or fiber that you collected from the glove?

43 MS. BROCKBANK:

That's correct.

44 MS. CLARK:

Okay. That was from the inside?

45 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

46 MS. CLARK:

Showing you the coin envelope now, do you recognize the writing on it?

47 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I do.

48 MS. CLARK:

Is it yours?

49 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

50 MS. CLARK:

And is that the coin envelope you created on the 21st to contain the bindles of hair and trace recovered from the Bundy glove?

51 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

52 MS. CLARK:

And you see the item number down at the bottom of that coin envelope?

53 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. It's partly covered by the red tape, but it's item no. 112.

54 MS. CLARK:

And the DR number for this case?

55 MS. BROCKBANK:

That's correct.

56 MS. CLARK:

After you put the two bindles you created on the 21st into that coin envelope, you indicate you closed the coin envelope?

57 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

58 MS. CLARK:

Now, again, as you did before, in between the examination of each item, did you look at the butcher paper on which you examined the item for any hair or trace that may have come off?

59 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

60 MS. CLARK:

And did you find any?

61 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

62 MS. CLARK:

Did you examine your gloves for any hair and trace that might have come off during your examination?

63 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

64 MS. CLARK:

And did you find anything?

65 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

66 MS. CLARK:

Other than picking the hair and trace off the exterior of the glove, did you brush it as you did the other items you've described or shake it in any manner?

67 MS. BROCKBANK:

I don't believe I did. No.

68 MS. CLARK:

And after you created the bindles and put them in the coin envelope, did you put the coin envelope into the analyzed evidence envelope?

69 MS. BROCKBANK:

Could you repeat that question? I'm sorry.

70 MS. CLARK:

After you put the bindles, the two bindles you created that day into the coin envelope, did you put the coin envelope into the analyzed evidence envelope?

71 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did.

72 MS. CLARK:

All right. What happened next?

73 MS. BROCKBANK:

Umm, oh, I--I was asked to compare the two gloves themselves, and so I began making some measurements on the gloves.

74 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Did you have them photographed?

75 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did.

76 MS. CLARK:

Before or after the measurements?

77 MS. BROCKBANK:

Before the measurements.

78 MS. CLARK:

Okay. And how did you cause them to be photographed?

79 MS. BROCKBANK:

The gloves were each laid on individual pieces of paper, the examination paper, and I had them photographed actually laying on a floor. So I put down a piece of white paper covering a large area of the floor and then I took the smaller white papers with the glove actually on them, laid those on that white piece of paper that was on the floor. And I had a photographer with me. He inserted a scale I believe between the two items. So they were still on separate pieces of paper. And he photographed them together and then we photographed them up close, a little closer up individually.

80 MS. CLARK:

Did you ever allow the gloves to touch?

81 MS. BROCKBANK:

No, I did not.

82 MS. CLARK:

Did you handle both gloves with the same hand?

83 MS. BROCKBANK:

No, I did not.

84 MS. CLARK:

How did you handle them?

85 MS. BROCKBANK:

While the photographing process was going on, if I needed to turn a glove over, I turned the right glove with my right hand and the left glove with my left hand, so I never touched both gloves with the same hands.

86 MS. CLARK:

Now, were you doing this with clean gloves?

87 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

88 MS. CLARK:

Your Honor, the--we have a photograph of both gloves together. I ask that it be marked People's 444.

89 THE COURT:

People's 444.

90 MS. CLARK:

Thank you, your Honor.

91 (Peo's 444 for id = photograph)
92 MS. CLARK:

You can look at your monitor.

93 THE COURT:

It's a little sharper that way.

94 MS. BROCKBANK:

It is.

95 MS. CLARK:

Do you recognize what's shown in that photograph?

96 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I do.

97 MS. CLARK:

And tell us what it is.

98 MS. BROCKBANK:

Those are the two gloves, side by side, photograph as I described with a scale in between them.

99 MS. CLARK:

And do you see item numbers beneath each glove designating which is which?

100 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

101 MS. CLARK:

And do you see item no. 9 below what would be the right glove?

102 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I do.

103 MS. CLARK:

And item no. 37 below the left glove?

104 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

105 MS. CLARK:

After the photographing was done, what did you do with the gloves?

106 MS. BROCKBANK:

After the photographing was done, I made some measurements of them individually. And those pages of my notes are missing. I left them I think in your office when we had a pretrial meeting.

107 MS. CLARK:

That's why I have them. Okay. Let me show you these. Defense has a copy. I have two pages. Each one of them contains a diagram of a hand.

108 MS. BROCKBANK:

Right. Right. I examined the left glove first. And basically for--for my measurements and for the purpose of just making an illustration of how I made those measurements, I traced around my own hand. This is a tracing of my hand, not a tracing of the gloves.

109 MR. BLASIER:

Your Honor, since we're referring to that document, can we have that marked, please?

110 MS. CLARK:

I am going to mark it. I think it would be easier if I just put it on the elmo.

111 MR. BLASIER:

I thought we had marked these last week with another witness as well; had we not?

112 MS. CLARK:

Did we?

113 THE COURT:

Yes.

114 MS. CLARK:

We did. Okay.

115 MR. BLASIER:

So there may already be a set.

116 THE COURT:

Mrs. Robert--hold on. Mrs. Robertson? Mrs. Robertson has them.

117 MS. CLARK:

I'll give them back to you.

118 MS. BROCKBANK:

Okay.

119 MR. BLASIER:

402?

120 MS. CLARK:

402?

121 MR. BLASIER:

402.

122 MS. CLARK:

Thank you. Why don't I just use these while--so I don't have to bother Mrs. Robertson.

123 THE COURT:

It's her job. It's not a bother.

KEY QUOTE
124 MS. CLARK:

Okay. These have been previously marked as 402-A and 402-B.

125 (Discussion held off the record between Defense counsel.)
126 THE COURT:

And refresh my recollection. Is a right and b left?

127 MS. CLARK:

I'm sorry, your Honor?

128 THE COURT:

Refresh my recollection. Is a right and b left?

129 MS. CLARK:

Yes.

130 THE COURT:

Thank you.

131 MS. CLARK:

All right.

132 MS. CLARK:

Let me show you 402-B. All right. Is that a diagram that you made, a tracing around your hand on June 21st?

133 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, it is.

134 MS. CLARK:

How is it--first of all, let me ask you this. You finished the photography. The--first of all, you had the items on the floor, on paper on the floor?

135 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

136 MS. CLARK:

Weren't you concerned that they were going to get dust or some kind of--get dirty, get stuff on them that didn't belong on them when putting them on the floor?

137 MS. BROCKBANK:

Not really, no. I--as I said, I laid out a large piece of white paper and then, you know, watched--watched as the photographs were being taken. We don't have strong wind currents gusting through our lab as far as kicking dust around and things. So I really wasn't worried about that.

138 MS. CLARK:

Was the lab clean?

139 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

140 MS. CLARK:

Floor clean?

141 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

142 MS. CLARK:

When you picked the gloves up off the floor, did you pick them up individually on their paper?

143 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did.

144 MS. CLARK:

And then when you went about the measurement process, can you tell us how you did that, which glove you started with?

145 MS. BROCKBANK:

Umm, I started with item 37.

146 MS. CLARK:

That would be the left glove then?

147 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

148 MS. CLARK:

Let's go to 402-B. Do I have it?

149 MS. BROCKBANK:

And I measured from the tips of the fingers of the glove to the glove opening just on the backs of the gloves, and I made five measurements, one for the thumb and one for each of the different fingers, and I made notations, basically drew a line from the end of the finger to the opening of the glove and then made a notation as to the length in inches as measured on a ruler. I just had a ruler out on my lab bench. Measured, read the measurement, wrote it down for each of those fingers, and then I went on to the--the other glove, item 9, the right glove, and I made similar measurements on it.

150 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Now, were you touching the gloves with your hands as you were measuring?

151 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

152 MS. CLARK:

Were your hands gloved?

153 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

154 MS. CLARK:

Were they clean gloves?

155 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

156 MS. CLARK:

When you went from--when you finished the measurements on the left glove--why don't we indicate for the record what they are. Can you read them?

157 MS. BROCKBANK:

I can read them off my notes if that's all right. For the--starting on the left-hand side, which would be like the pinky finger, it was eight inches. The next finger in was nine and a quarter inches. The next finger in towards the right is nine and 5/8 inches. The next finger in is nine inches and the thumb measured six and a half inches.

158 MS. CLARK:

Now, were these gloves dry when you saw them on the 21st?

159 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, they were.

160 MS. CLARK:

Were they still cold from the freezer?

161 MS. BROCKBANK:

When I was first examining them, yes, they were. They take a little time to warm up.

162 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Now, you moved on then to the right glove?

163 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. That's correct.

164 MS. CLARK:

And was the right glove on a--where was the right glove while you were doing this?

165 MS. BROCKBANK:

It was on another portion of the lab bench just set aside for the moment.

166 MS. CLARK:

Did you change gloves before you went to measure this right-handed glove?

167 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did.

168 MS. CLARK:

And did you check your gloves for any hair or trace that may have come off during the measurement process of the left glove?

169 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did, but this was all done after I had removed fibers and hairs from the gloves. So there shouldn't have been anyway but I did.

170 MS. CLARK:

So after you changed gloves, you went to measure the right glove?

171 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

172 MS. CLARK:

And did you use the same procedure as before?

173 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

174 MS. CLARK:

You made certain observations of the condition of this glove I notice on this diagram, correct?

175 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did.

176 MS. CLARK:

And what observations were those?

177 MS. BROCKBANK:

On the thumb measurement, I have two measurements that I listed, six inches and six and a half inches. That's the measurement on the far left of the screen. And I made a notation that says "When edge of glove is folded back to where it would be in original condition," and then there's an arrow kind of connecting that to some other notations I made near the base of the glove. Oh, didn't realize what you'd done there. In the--if you could get back a ways a little bit for a minute. In the lower left-hand portion of the screen there, kind of pointing towards that--that area of the glove down--down near the base of the thumb where the opening is, there are--the--I made notations that say "The edge of the glove opening is unfolded here. There's distortion in the shape of the glove." Basically, the leather on the glove comes down from the fingers and then folds over about half--about half of an inch, and then the interior lining is sewn into the inside, but in this particular area, that was unfolded. There was a little distortion. So I made those two measurements, one with the edge folded in and one with the edge folded out, which is how the glove wanted to be basically. It just wanted to lay that way opened up. And so those are your two measurements, six and six and a half.

178 MS. CLARK:

Okay. So then the hem of the wrist area of the right glove was pulled out?

179 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. And then there are some other notations on the right side of the glove, and those kind of help explain this. It say--what I wrote is "Some stitching along this opening is pulled/missing. I took my exemplar of thread," which means I cut a small piece of a thread to look at under the microscope, "From the end of a pulled strand of thread in this previously damaged area." So there was some thread missing in that area, and that I think helped account for the distortion and the overall look of the glove.

180 MS. CLARK:

Okay. And the measurements that you made for this--for the fingers of this glove?

181 MS. BROCKBANK:

Again, starting with the thumb on the--on the far left of the screen, those two measurements, six, six and a half, depending on whether you fold that flap in, then the index finger was eight and a half inches. The next finger over towards the right of the screen, nine and a quarter inches. The next finger is eight and three-quarter inches and the last finger was seven and three-quarter inches.

182 (Brief pause.)
183 MS. CLARK:

Now, on June the 20th, did I ask you to measure a new looking pair of gloves?

184 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, you did.

185 MS. CLARK:

And did they appear similar to the gloves that you've just described, 9--nos. 9 and 37?

186 MS. BROCKBANK:

Similar style of glove, but new.

187 MS. CLARK:

And did you make those measurements?

188 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did.

189 MS. CLARK:

All right. Then if you could tell us, did you measure those new gloves in the same manner you described measuring these other ones?

190 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did.

191 MS. CLARK:

And what was the result of that with respect to the right and the left glove?

192 MS. BROCKBANK:

I'll have to refer to my notes which are a different page here.

193 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Did you turn over copies of those notes to us?

194 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did. Measurements for the right glove, the thumb measurement was seven and one-quarter inches, the index finger, nine and three-quarter inches, middle finger, 10 and 1/8 inches, the ring finger, 10 inches, the pinky finger, eight and three-quarter inches. For the left glove, the thumb measurement was seven inches, index finger was nine and three-quarter inches, middle finger, 10 and one-quarter inches, ring finger was 10 and 1/8 inch and pinky finger was eight and 7/8 inches.

195 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Now, these newer gloves that you measured on June 20th of this year, did they have a size indicated on the label?

196 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, they did.

197 MS. CLARK:

And what was that?

198 MS. BROCKBANK:

It was XL.

199 MS. CLARK:

And the gloves, nos. 9 and 37, did one of those have a tag that indicated what size it was?

200 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

201 MS. CLARK:

And what did it say?

202 MS. BROCKBANK:

XL.

203 MS. CLARK:

So what was the difference in the sizes of the--in the sizes of the new gloves that you measured on June 20th of this year and the size of the glove nos. 9 and 37 that you retrieved from the freezer on June the 21st?

204 MS. BROCKBANK:

Umm, they varied from finger to finger. I believe the greatest difference was about an inch and a quarter.

205 MS. CLARK:

On one finger?

206 MS. BROCKBANK:

On one of the fingers. I can tell you exactly which finger if you want to--

207 MS. CLARK:

Sure.

208 (Brief pause.)
209 MS. BROCKBANK:

Actually, on a couple of the fingers on the right glove, there was an inch and a quarter difference in length.

210 MS. CLARK:

Inch and a quarter difference. Which one was larger? Which one was smaller?

211 MS. BROCKBANK:

The newer gloves were larger all the way across the board.

KEY QUOTE
212 MS. CLARK:

And by as much as an inch and a quarter in one finger?

213 MS. BROCKBANK:

That's correct.

214 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Now, after you got done measuring the Bundy and Rockingham gloves, 9 and 37--37 and 9 respectively, what did you do?

215 MS. BROCKBANK:

I returned them to their respective paper bags, folded them over, taped them closed, returned them to the box that they came from.

216 MS. CLARK:

And was all of this examination done on June the 21st?

217 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

218 MS. CLARK:

And then where did you place box no. 2?

219 MS. BROCKBANK:

Box no. 2 was placed in the freezer in our serology unit of the crime lab.

220 MS. CLARK:

Now, that box, did it contain the hair and fiber bindles that you created?

221 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

222 MS. CLARK:

What did it contain?

223 MS. BROCKBANK:

It contained the original items of evidence that were collected from the crime scene.

224 MS. CLARK:

What was originally in the box when you took it out that day?

225 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

226 MS. CLARK:

And box no. 1, what did you do with it?

227 MS. BROCKBANK:

Box no. 1 was kept in my storage locker in the trace analysis lab.

228 MS. CLARK:

Why didn't you take it back to the evidence control unit?

229 MS. BROCKBANK:

I wasn't quite done examining the evidence in that box yet. So I kept it in my lab.

230 MS. CLARK:

And when you kept it in your lab, was it in some way secured there?

231 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. I have an evidence locker which is under the counter of that large examination table that I described earlier, and it's a locker which has a key to lock it. I placed that box--all of the evidence that I placed in that locker was then locked in with a key, and I retained the key.

232 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Now, at this point, were all of the bindles of hair and trace that you collected from the evidence items on June 21st in coin envelopes that were then placed into analyzed evidence envelopes?

233 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

234 MS. CLARK:

And where did you keep the analyzed--where did you keep all that, all those envelopes?

235 MS. BROCKBANK:

All those envelopes that were in that one analyzed evidence envelope was in my evidence locker.

236 MS. CLARK:

Locked in there?

237 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

238 MS. CLARK:

All right. On June the 22nd, 1994--

239 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

240 MS. CLARK:

--did you again examine item no. 19 that you've identified on the board marked People's 436, the hair and trace recovered from the Rockingham glove by Dennis Fung?

241 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did.

242 MS. CLARK:

And what did you do to prepare for that examination?

243 MS. BROCKBANK:

Umm, I--basically, you know, the same kind of thing I've been doing all around. Laid down clean white paper. I opened the envelope. And I had examined item 9 the previous day, so I knew what I was expecting to find. I opened up the coin envelope, removed the paper bindle, and inside the paper bindle were those hairs and fibers, placed those on a microscope slide and mounted them with water, examined them on the microscope and made some notations as to what I observed.

244 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Now, again, you're wearing clean gloves and white lab coat?

245 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

246 MS. CLARK:

When you put them under the microscope on the slide, how did you mount them?

247 MS. BROCKBANK:

In water.

248 MS. CLARK:

Same as before?

249 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

250 MS. CLARK:

Why were you mounting--you indicated earlier to us the problem with mounting in water. So why did you do it?

251 MS. BROCKBANK:

Umm, I was asked to mount the hairs in water by my supervisor at the time, Greg Matheson, who wanted me basically to look at these hairs to see if they had roots on them or not. The hairs with roots could potentially be tested for DNA and those without roots could not using the PCR method. So they--the serology unit, the DNA unit was not really sure how our mounting media, our other mounting media that's more appropriate for hair would affect that DNA. So they requested that I mount them in water and kind of sacrifice a little bit of my visibility in looking at the hairs in order to preserve that possible DNA evidence.

KEY QUOTE
252 MS. CLARK:

Okay. When you mounted the hairs from no. 19 in water on this particular date, you used the same process you described to us before?

253 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

254 MS. CLARK:

During this process, did anything happen to one of the hairs that you were examining?

255 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

256 MS. CLARK:

What happened?

257 MS. BROCKBANK:

Well, when I was mounting it on the slide, placing the hair actually on the slide, it broke, broke in two. So now instead of having--I believe there were three hairs total. Instead of having three hairs, now I had four hairs or four pieces of hair.

258 MS. CLARK:

Did you make a note of that somewhere?

259 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did.

260 MS. CLARK:

And after you--after you completed your examination of the hairs on the water mount on that slide, what did you do?

261 MS. BROCKBANK:

I unmounted those hairs again, basically the reverse of mounting, removed them from the slide, placed them back into the paper bindle, put that paper bindle back in the coin envelope. This time I sealed the coin envelope with a piece of tape, initialed that and dated it. And then I examined item no. 58 in the same manner.

262 MS. CLARK:

Okay. So you sealed the coin envelope on this date, did you?

263 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

264 MS. CLARK:

And then placed it where?

265 MS. BROCKBANK:

Placed it back in the original box that it came out of.

266 MS. CLARK:

Box no. 1?

267 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

268 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Well, did you put it in an analyzed evidence envelope or just put the sealed coin envelope into the box?

269 MS. BROCKBANK:

Just the sealed coin envelope into the box.

270 MS. CLARK:

Which is how you found it?

271 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

272 MS. CLARK:

Now, item no. 58 was what?

273 MS. BROCKBANK:

Item no. 58 was a coin envelope which contained two plastic bags, and each of those plastic bags had some hairs and/or fibers in them.

274 MS. CLARK:

And where did that come from?

275 MS. BROCKBANK:

That came out of box no. 1.

276 MS. CLARK:

Okay. And was that hair or fiber collected from a bloodstain at Rockingham?

277 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

278 MS. CLARK:

You examined it under the microscope?

279 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did.

280 MS. CLARK:

Did you do that with a water mount on a slide or did you just look at it inside the paper bindle?

281 MS. BROCKBANK:

I used the water mount on a slide.

282 MS. CLARK:

Now, this item--I forgot to ask you about this item--was it packaged in some kind of paper bindle?

283 MS. BROCKBANK:

No. They were in--

284 MS. CLARK:

Plastic bags?

285 MS. BROCKBANK:

--plastic bags.

286 MS. CLARK:

All right. What did you see when you looked at item no. 58 on the slide?

287 MS. BROCKBANK:

Animal hairs.

288 MS. CLARK:

Just animal hairs?

289 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. No human hairs.

290 MS. CLARK:

And after you noted that, what did you do?

291 MS. BROCKBANK:

I again unmounted the slide, placed those hairs back into their respective plastic bags and then replaced those bags into the coin envelope that they came from and then sealed the coin envelope with a taped seal, initialed it and dated it, placed that back into the box that it had originally come from--

292 MS. CLARK:

Box 1?

293 MS. BROCKBANK:

--box 1.

294 MS. CLARK:

All right. June 23rd, was box 1 still in your locker then?

295 MS. BROCKBANK:

Actually on the 22nd, I also sealed that box, box 1.

296 MS. CLARK:

How did you seal it?

297 MS. BROCKBANK:

Taped around--like I had described earlier, taped around with the black tape around the circumference of the box in two directions, then placed an evidence seal across that closure.

298 MS. CLARK:

Was that black or brown tape?

299 MS. BROCKBANK:

Brown tape.

300 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Moving towards June 23rd, can you tell us what, if anything, you did with box no. 1?

301 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. I returned box no. 1 to our evidence control unit because I was done analyzing what I was requested to do from that box.

302 MS. CLARK:

Then what did you do?

303 MS. BROCKBANK:

Umm, let me see. Then I went to the serology unit--after returning box 1 to the evidence control unit, I went to serology and removed the gloves and the two hats from box no. 2, which were in the freezer, and took just those items in the bags to the trace analysis unit to examine them further.

304 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Which item did you examine first?

305 MS. BROCKBANK:

I examined the knit hat and then the brown hat.

306 MS. CLARK:

The knit hat, meaning no. 38, the ski cap?

307 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

308 MS. CLARK:

What did you do with it?

309 MS. BROCKBANK:

I ran a test which tests for blood.

310 MS. CLARK:

Okay. And did you use clean paper to do that?

311 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. I--I--same process as before. I removed the hat from the paper bag onto a clean piece of paper wearing clean gloves, ran my tests and then I replaced the cap back into the bag, folded the bag over, sealed it with a piece of tape.

312 MS. CLARK:

And then what did you do?

313 MS. BROCKBANK:

Then I examined the second hat and did the same tests on it.

314 MS. CLARK:

Okay. The second hat, meaning the cap you identified earlier in the Bronco?

315 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. Item 27.

316 MS. CLARK:

And before you did that, did you change gloves?

317 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. Before I examined the second hat, I changed paper, changed gloves. Same routine.

318 MS. CLARK:

Do you--is that something you invariably do in every--with every item?

319 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, it is.

320 MS. CLARK:

Second nature?

321 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yeah. It is to me.

322 MS. CLARK:

And after you completed the--some kind of blood testing on the cap from the Bronco, what did you do with the cap?

323 MS. BROCKBANK:

Replaced it into the bag, folded the bag over, sealed it with tape and then I returned both of those hats to the serology freezer into box no. 2 where I had taken them from.

324 MS. CLARK:

And what did you do next?

325 MS. BROCKBANK:

Next, I examined the gloves again, items 9 and 37.

326 MS. CLARK:

Which one first?

327 MS. BROCKBANK:

Umm, I--I don't really recall. I listed them as 9 and 37. So it might have been 9. I like to go numerically a lot of times, so it was probably 9.

328 MS. CLARK:

And where did you perform the examination of those gloves?

329 MS. BROCKBANK:

In the trace unit.

330 MS. CLARK:

All right. And did you change gloves before examining item no. 9?

331 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

332 MS. CLARK:

And clean paper?

333 MS. BROCKBANK:

Same procedure, right.

334 MS. CLARK:

What did you do with item no. 9 on that clean paper?

335 MS. BROCKBANK:

I--I turned the gloves--well, item 9, you know, individually. I was working on item 9, turned it inside out, and this time I removed any hairs and fibers from the interior surface of that glove, placed those into a paper bindle and marked it accordingly.

336 MS. CLARK:

And what procedure did you use to remove hair and fiber from the interior of the glove?

337 MS. BROCKBANK:

The same procedure that I used before. You know, basically picking, rolling the fabric of the glove between my fingers, picking off those stray hairs or fibers that basically protruded and placed those in a paper bindle.

338 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Did you scrape the interior of the glove with your gloved hand?

339 MS. BROCKBANK:

I believe I did, yes, just very gently scraped over the paper.

340 MS. CLARK:

And then what did you do with the trace and the hair that came off as a result of the picking and the scraping?

341 MS. BROCKBANK:

Umm, all of that was placed into a paper bindle and marked--marked the bindle, "Removed from interior surface of glove, item no. 9," and then that was placed into coin envelope.

342 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Before you did that, before you folded up and closed the bindle, did you examine the paper, the bindle--the item the glove was lying on and you were working over for any stray pieces of trace or fiber that may have come off?

343 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

344 MS. CLARK:

You indicated earlier that you always crease the paper to create a funnel and gather it?

345 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

346 MS. CLARK:

Did you do that in this case?

347 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

348 MS. CLARK:

And anything that was in that crease, you put into the bindle?

349 MS. BROCKBANK:

That's correct.

350 MS. CLARK:

After you did that, did you close the bindle?

351 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

352 MS. CLARK:

Did you examine the paper again to make sure all the hair and trace was taken into the bindle?

353 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

354 MS. CLARK:

And did you examine your gloves?

355 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

356 MS. CLARK:

And was there any remaining hair or trace that you could see?

357 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

358 MS. CLARK:

When you closed up the bindle, I think you indicated you put it into a coin envelope?

359 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

360 MS. CLARK:

And that's after you made notations on the bindle?

361 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

362 MS. CLARK:

Did you make notations on the coin envelope?

363 MS. BROCKBANK:

I did as far as the date goes. This is a--I used the same coin envelope that I had started for that glove the day before. And you'll notice on the coin envelope that there are two dates. Says "Hairs and fibers removed from glove no. 9 by S.A.B. on" and then there's two dates, 6-21 and 6-23.

364 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Let's see.

365 MS. CLARK:

I have on the monitor, your Honor, the photograph from the board marked People's 436 for item no. 110.

366 THE COURT:

Yes.

367 MS. CLARK:

If we could zoom in on the bindle on the right-hand side. Thank you. I think we need the back of it where it's--all the writing is.

368 (Discussion held off the record between the Deputy District Attorneys.)
369 MS. CLARK:

That's a photograph that--I'm sorry, your Honor--photograph we've marked previously as People's 44O? 443. 442, your Honor. Sorry about that.

370 THE COURT:

All right.

371 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Can you tell us which bindle that is?

372 MS. BROCKBANK:

The bindle on the lower right which says "Removed from surfaces"--oh, I'm sorry--"Removed from inside surfaces of glove, item no. 9, by S.A.B., 6-23-94."

373 MS. CLARK:

Right. We are zooming in on that now. That's the--that's the bottom bindle?

374 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. That's correct.

375 MS. CLARK:

And after you--and after you made the notations, you put it into that coin envelope shown in this photograph as well?

376 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, that's correct.

377 MS. CLARK:

And again, this photograph that's been marked as 442, that's the back side of the photograph that's shown on the chain board for item no. 110?

378 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

379 MS. CLARK:

And what did you do with the coin envelope when you were done packaging the bindle into it?

380 MS. BROCKBANK:

I folded over the top of the coin envelope and placed it back into that analyzed evidence envelope.

381 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Now, you described this--the hairs and fibers in this bindle from the interior of the glove as containing seven hairs total?

382 MS. BROCKBANK:

I believe--did I write that on the bindle I think?

383 MS. CLARK:

I don't know. In your notes?

384 MS. BROCKBANK:

Do you have the other photograph with the back of the bindles? No. It may be in my notes.

385 MS. CLARK:

Do you want to refresh your memory?

386 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

387 MS. CLARK:

Okay.

388 (Brief pause.)
389 MS. BROCKBANK:

Umm, I have seven hairs total for all of those hairs removed from the glove. That would be inside the glove.

390 MS. CLARK:

And outside?

391 MS. BROCKBANK:

And outside.

392 MS. CLARK:

Okay.

393 MS. BROCKBANK:

And the bag that the glove was packaged in.

394 MS. CLARK:

Uh-huh. Okay. All right. And you also indicated--let me ask you this. In August, you wound up transporting all of these items to the FBI; is that correct?

395 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

396 MS. CLARK:

And you assisted Mr. Deedrick in the examination of these items?

397 MS. BROCKBANK:

Umm, I helped prepare some of the items for examination. He performed all the examinations.

398 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Did he point out some discrepancy between your observations of the hairs collected from the glove at Rockingham and his?

399 MR. BLASIER:

Objection. Calls for hearsay.

400 THE COURT:

Sustained.

401 MS. CLARK:

Did your observations--did he point out something to you with respect to what he observed in the hairs collected from that glove?

402 MR. BLASIER:

Same objection.

403 THE COURT:

Overruled. Yes or no; did he point something out to you?

404 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

405 THE COURT:

All right.

406 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Did you notice on this second observation in the company of Mr. Deedrick that there were actually eight hairs and not seven in this package?

407 MR. BLASIER:

Objection. Leading.

408 THE COURT:

Sustained.

409 MS. CLARK:

Did you notice a difference in the number of hairs from what you had earlier noted when you examined the contents of the bindles at the FBI in August?

410 MS. BROCKBANK:

At that time, no, I didn't know there was a difference in count of hairs.

411 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Did that come to your attention at some point?

412 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

413 MS. CLARK:

And when was that?

414 MR. BLASIER:

Objection. No foundation. Based on hearsay.

415 THE COURT:

Overruled.

416 MS. BROCKBANK:

In a pretrial meeting with you.

417 MS. CLARK:

Okay. And when you--did you make any effort to verify or to determine who was right; you or Mr. Deedrick?

418 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

419 MR. BLASIER:

Objection. Assumes facts not in evidence.

420 THE COURT:

Sustained.

421 MS. CLARK:

Let me ask you this, Miss Brockbank. Did you add any hairs to the bindle--to the bindles after you finished collecting on the 23rd?

422 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

423 MS. CLARK:

Did you add any fibers to the bindles after you finished collecting on June the 23rd?

424 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

425 MS. CLARK:

Again, when you made your examination and you noted seven hairs, how did you make that observation?

426 MS. BROCKBANK:

Based on my water mounts of those hairs.

427 MS. CLARK:

Okay. And you indicated earlier to us the problem with the water mount. Could that also have any impact on your ability to discern how many hairs or fibers are present?

428 MS. BROCKBANK:

It could.

429 MS. CLARK:

And you also indicated earlier--

430 MR. BLASIER:

Objection. Nonresponsive.

431 THE COURT:

Overruled.

432 MS. CLARK:

You also indicated earlier that it could have an impact on your ability to accurately determine the color of items that you're looking at?

433 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

434 MS. CLARK:

Did you discover any discrepancy in your description as to the color of the hairs that you were looking at contained in these bindles?

435 MS. BROCKBANK:

I don't believe so.

436 MS. CLARK:

Well, did you--did you detect any black limb hair in the debris and hair that you recovered from the Rockingham glove?

437 MS. BROCKBANK:

No. I did not describe anything like that.

438 MS. CLARK:

And when I say "Limb hair," tell us what that means.

439 MS. BROCKBANK:

It means a hair from a limb like an arm or a leg as opposed to a head hair or a pubic hair or other body hair.

440 MS. CLARK:

Okay. When you examined the hairs recovered from the interior of the Rockingham glove in the company of Mr. Deedrick, did he point out anything with respect to the--did he point out any limb hair to you recovered from the interior of the Rockingham glove?

441 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, he did.

442 MS. CLARK:

And what did you see?

443 MR. BLASIER:

Objection. Calling for hearsay.

444 THE COURT:

"What did you see?" Overruled.

445 MS. BROCKBANK:

I saw a limb hair.

446 MS. CLARK:

What kind of limb hair did you see?

447 MS. BROCKBANK:

A darkly pigmented limb hair.

KEY QUOTE
448 MS. CLARK:

And had you noticed that before when you examined the item?

449 MS. BROCKBANK:

Umm, I had not reported it. So I would have to say no, I didn't notice it before.

450 MS. CLARK:

Okay. When you looked at it in the company of Mr. Deedrick, were you looking at it in water mount?

451 MS. BROCKBANK:

No, I wasn't.

452 MS. CLARK:

How were you looking at it?

453 MS. BROCKBANK:

I was looking at it properly mounted in a medium called permount, which is what we typically use to perform hair examinations. We mount it in this media, and you don't have the problem with the refractive index and the glare and those thick black lines surrounding your hairs. You can see the internal features much easier and clearly.

454 MS. CLARK:

After you completed your packaging of the hair and fiber and trace from the interior of the Rockingham glove, what did you do next?

455 MS. BROCKBANK:

Could you repeat that? I'm sorry.

456 MS. CLARK:

Sure. After you completed the packaging of the hair and fiber and trace from the interior of the Rockingham glove, item no. 9, what did you do next?

457 MS. BROCKBANK:

Then I began examining the other glove.

458 MS. CLARK:

All right. And before you began to examine the other glove, did you prepare in some manner?

459 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. I again laid down a new clean piece of white paper, I had new gloves on, and then I removed the glove from the packaging.

460 MS. CLARK:

Before doing that, had you repackaged glove no. 9 in its original bag?

461 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

462 MS. CLARK:

And did you tape it shut again?

463 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

464 MS. CLARK:

When you recovered the Bundy glove from the bag, what procedure did you follow for the examination of--for hair and trace and fiber?

465 MS. BROCKBANK:

The same procedure.

466 MS. CLARK:

Did you turn it inside out?

467 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

468 MS. CLARK:

And did you follow the same picking and scraping procedures you described earlier?

469 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did.

470 MS. CLARK:

And how did you package the hair and fiber that was recovered by that method?

471 MS. BROCKBANK:

In a paper bindle.

472 MS. CLARK:

And did you make some notations on the bindle?

473 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did.

474 MS. CLARK:

And what was that?

475 MS. BROCKBANK:

"Removed from interior surface of glove, item no. 37."

476 MS. CLARK:

Okay. And did you assign an item number--again, an item number was assigned to the hair and trace recovered from the Bundy glove?

477 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

478 MS. CLARK:

And that was item number?

479 MS. BROCKBANK:

112.

480 MS. CLARK:

I'm going to show you a photograph that is from the board 436 from item no. 112, and we showed that to you already I guess.

481 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

482 MS. CLARK:

Can you see--

483 MS. CLARK:

Can we zoom in on the bindle, please, Jonathan?

484 MS. CLARK:

This is not the side that has the writing on it, is it?

485 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

486 MS. CLARK:

All right.

487 (Discussion held off the record between the Deputy District Attorneys.)
488 MS. CLARK:

The photograph that's now on the elmo, your Honor, has not yet been marked, and that depicts the back of the coin--this photograph now up here depicts the back of the coin envelope and the back of the bindles. We should mark it as People's 445?

489 THE COURT:

All right. 445 as to item 112.

490 MS. CLARK:

Thank you, your Honor.

491 (Peo's 445 for id = photograph)
492 MS. CLARK:

Showing you now the photograph that really is from the chain board for item no. 112. If we could zoom in on the bindles. Okay. Do you see the bindle that you created on June the 23rd for the removal of the interior trace and hair from glove no. 37?

493 MS. BROCKBANK:

From the interior of the glove is the bottom right--the bottom bindle.

494 MS. CLARK:

There we go.

495 MS. BROCKBANK:

And it says "Removed from inside of glove, item no. 37 from S.A.B., 6-23-94" and then a note, "Animal hairs, no human hair observed 6-30-94."

496 MS. CLARK:

Could we move up to the top bindle? Let me see. With respect to the hair and trace recovered from this Bundy glove, I'm going to show you again photograph no. 445, the bindle at the top.

497 MS. BROCKBANK:

Right.

498 MS. CLARK:

Okay. And that is the bindle that came from--that--that contained hair or fiber coming from where?

499 MS. BROCKBANK:

From the bag which contained the glove.

500 MS. CLARK:

Okay.

501 MS. BROCKBANK:

And my notation on this side of the bindle says "Mostly animal hairs, the animals covered up by some seals at the top/fibers and debris, one questionable human hair."

502 MS. CLARK:

Now, with respect to that, did you examine the contents of this bindle again in the company of Mr. Deedrick at the FBI in August?

503 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did.

504 MS. CLARK:

All right. Between the time that you did the packaging and collecting of hair and fiber from this glove and sealed up the bindle and going to the FBI, did you add any hair or fiber to the bindle?

505 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

506 MS. CLARK:

Or change any of the hair and fiber inside the bindle?

507 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

508 MS. CLARK:

And did you--did you see that there were any more or fewer hairs on the slide when you examined it in permount, as it should be mounted, with Mr. Deedrick at the FBI in August?

509 MS. BROCKBANK:

I don't recall specifically what our findings were when I examined it with him.

510 MS. CLARK:

All right. You indicate on the bindle that there was one questionable head hair in the debris?

511 MS. BROCKBANK:

One questionable human hair.

512 MS. CLARK:

Okay. And do you recall seeing with Mr. Deedrick two white hair fragments and a short human hair?

513 MR. BLASIER:

Objection. Leading.

514 THE COURT:

Sustained.

515 MS. CLARK:

Do you recall looking again at the contents of this bindle with Mr. Deedrick?

516 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

517 MS. CLARK:

And do you recall seeing more hairs when you looked at it in permount than you had originally looking at it in water mount?

518 MS. BROCKBANK:

Vaguely. I don't really recall.

519 MS. CLARK:

Okay. Is there--are there any notes that would refresh your recollection?

520 MS. BROCKBANK:

Umm, I didn't take any notes when I was at the FBI lab. I'm not sure if there are any notes here. If I can take a minute.

521 MS. CLARK:

Sure.

522 (Brief pause.)
523 MR. BLASIER:

May I approach, your Honor?

524 MS. CLARK:

Let me ask you one question, Miss Brockbank. When Mr. Deedrick did his examination, did he allow you to examine what he had mounted in permount as well?

525 MS. BROCKBANK:

He called my attention to certain items. I didn't examine every item that he examined.

526 MS. CLARK:

Okay.

527 MS. BROCKBANK:

And, you know, pointed certain things out to me, and I observed them and I just don't recall exactly which items I was looking at at any specific time.

528 MS. CLARK:

Okay. When he pointed things out to you, did you disagree with any of his observations?

529 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

530 MS. CLARK:

And he's been doing it for how many years?

531 MS. BROCKBANK:

I'm not even sure. 17, 18, 20, somewhere in that neighborhood.

532 MS. CLARK:

And as of August of `94, how long have you been doing hair and trace examinations?

533 MS. BROCKBANK:

Probably about three years.

534 MS. CLARK:

Okay. All right. Now, when you get done collecting--handle it that way, yeah. When you get done collecting hair and fiber into a bindle, do you close it immediately?

535 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I do.

536 MS. CLARK:

When you were finished collecting the hair and trace from the interior of the Bundy glove, you created the bindle that you've already identified for us, where did you put that bindle?

537 MS. BROCKBANK:

I placed it into the coin envelope which I had already created for that glove.

538 MS. CLARK:

The same one you previously identified?

539 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

540 MS. CLARK:

And then what?

541 MS. BROCKBANK:

And then I folded over the top flap of that coin envelope, replaced it into the analyzed evidence envelope.

542 MS. CLARK:

Now, was this the last contact you had with those gloves before you took them to the FBI?

543 MS. BROCKBANK:

On the 23rd?

544 MS. CLARK:

Right.

545 MS. BROCKBANK:

No. Well, yes. With the gloves, yes.

546 MS. CLARK:

Because after you get done--after you get done collecting hair and trace from items, you make the bindles, the coin envelopes, do you ever put the coin envelopes and bindles back in contact with the item you've removed them from?

547 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

548 MS. CLARK:

During all of these procedures, did you ever touch the piece of carpet marked as item no. 33 that was wrapped up in paper and taped in the box?

549 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

550 MS. CLARK:

It remained in the box?

551 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, it did.

552 MS. CLARK:

After you repackaged the Bundy glove, did you seal it up again?

553 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did.

554 MS. CLARK:

Okay. And where did you put it?

555 MS. BROCKBANK:

I took both of the gloves back to the serology lab and placed them into box no. 2, which was in the serology freezer.

556 MS. CLARK:

So they went back in the freezer again?

557 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

558 MS. CLARK:

Then what did you do?

559 MS. BROCKBANK:

Well--just a second. Umm, I began examining evidence I had removed from item no. 38 previously, evidence that was now given--you know, going to be booked as item no. 113 eventually.

560 MS. CLARK:

Now, this was--this was the hair and trace recovered from the blue knit ski cap?

561 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

562 MS. CLARK:

And you examined it under the microscope?

563 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. I examined it again using the water mount under the microscope.

564 MS. CLARK:

Now, before you began this examination, did you again put down clean paper and change into clean gloves?

565 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

566 MS. CLARK:

The item--the coin envelopes that contained the--coin envelopes that contained the bindles for the blue knit ski cap, were those in your locker still?

567 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

568 MS. CLARK:

All right. What did you do with the--at this point, you still had the two bindles; is that correct?

569 MS. BROCKBANK:

The one from the outside of the hat, one from the inside of the hat, yes.

570 MS. CLARK:

Okay. What, if anything, did you do with the contents of those two separate bindles on June 23rd?

571 MS. BROCKBANK:

Again, I began examining the evidence, the hairs and fibers that had been removed from the outside surface of the hat, and I was asked on that day by my supervisor, Greg Matheson or Michelle Kestler, one of those two, to separate those darker colored hairs from the lighter colored hairs from the animal hairs. So that's the day I created more bindles and separated those hairs into three different categories.

572 MS. CLARK:

Now, how did you do that to avoid everything getting mixed up and flying around? What precautions did you take?

573 MS. BROCKBANK:

The hairs themselves were, you know, placed on a microscope slide, mounted in water, and I would move the slide and, you know, put like a little dot with black ink on the cover slip, kind of marking the hairs I wanted to remove and, you know, this is a hair versus a fiber or an animal hair, and--

574 MS. CLARK:

Wait. Did you mark on the hairs or fibers themselves?

575 MS. BROCKBANK:

No. On the cover slip that covers the slide.

576 MS. CLARK:

The glass--that thin piece of glass on top?

577 MS. BROCKBANK:

Right. Just kind of a little dot so I knew which hairs it was that I wanted to remove. And then over at the work station, I removed the hairs that were by those dots, put them in the separate coin or the separate paper bindles and then the remaining animal hairs and fibers were left in the original bindle.

578 MS. CLARK:

Okay. And you did that for each of the bindles, each--the exterior bindle and the interior bindle?

579 MS. BROCKBANK:

I did it for the exterior bindle. I don't believe I did it for the interior bindle. I believe those all stayed in one--let me just check. Yeah, I believe they all stayed in one bindle. They were all darker hairs. There were no lighter ones there.

580 MS. CLARK:

There were no lighter ones on the interior of the cap?

581 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

582 MS. CLARK:

So did you even open it up to examine it on the scope--I mean, under the microscope that day or did you just leave that bindle intact?

583 MS. BROCKBANK:

Actually on the 20--which day are we on? On the 23rd, no, I didn't look at the--at those hairs at all. Didn't open the bindle at all.

584 MS. CLARK:

So the only bindle that was open for the cap on that day was the exterior?

585 MS. BROCKBANK:

That's correct.

586 (Discussion held off the record between the Deputy District Attorneys.)
587 MS. CLARK:

Have you identified all the bindles you created for item no. 38 so far?

588 MS. BROCKBANK:

I believe I have, yeah.

589 MS. CLARK:

Okay. All right. Now, again, with respect to this particular item, do you recall counting up the number of hairs that you found for--that you recovered from item no. 38, the cap?

590 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

591 MS. CLARK:

And how many were there?

592 MS. BROCKBANK:

I believe I counted 34 hairs.

593 MS. CLARK:

And when you got to the FBI, did Mr. Deedrick again examine the contents of the bindles you created removing hair and trace from the blue knit ski cap?

594 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, he did.

595 MS. CLARK:

And did you observe more hairs during that process when he examined them under permount instead of water mount?

596 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

597 MS. CLARK:

How many more were there?

598 MS. BROCKBANK:

I believe there were four additional hairs.

599 MS. CLARK:

Four more? So what can account for that discrepancy?

600 MR. BLASIER:

Objection. Calls for speculation.

601 THE COURT:

Sustained.

602 MS. CLARK:

You examined the hairs and counted them when you examined them under--with water mount?

603 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

604 MS. CLARK:

And when you examined them in the company of Mr. Deedrick at the FBI, how were they mounted on the slide?

605 MS. BROCKBANK:

In permount.

606 MS. CLARK:

And did you observe there were four more hairs when they were mounted in permount?

607 MR. BLASIER:

Objection. Leading.

608 THE COURT:

Sustained.

609 MS. CLARK:

Did you make any observation concerning the number of hairs removed from item no. 38, the ski cap, when you examined them mounted in permount at the FBI?

610 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

611 MS. CLARK:

At some point, you discovered that there were more hairs, four more?

612 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

613 MS. CLARK:

I'm sorry. Did Mr. Deedrick point out--direct your attention to the hairs that were mounted from the ski cap when you were at the FBI?

614 MR. BLASIER:

Objection. Calls for hearsay.

615 THE COURT:

Overruled.

616 MS. CLARK:

You can answer.

617 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

618 MS. CLARK:

Did you disagree with any of his findings?

619 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

620 MS. CLARK:

Did you add anything to the bindles created for the items--the hair and trace items from the ski cap after you finished collecting them from the ski cap?

621 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

622 MS. CLARK:

And were the bindles always kept closed?

623 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, they were.

624 MS. CLARK:

And were they closed immediately after putting hair and trace into them that was collected directly from the ski cap?

625 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, they were.

626 MS. CLARK:

They weren't left open lying around anywhere?

627 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

628 MS. CLARK:

All right. After you completed your examination of the bindles of hair and fiber from the ski cap, what did you do with those bindles?

629 MS. BROCKBANK:

I replaced them back into the coin envelope marked "From the exterior of the ski cap" and returned that coin envelope into the analyzed evidence envelope, placed that into my locker. It remain in my locked evidence locker whenever I was not performing some sort of examination on those items.

630 MS. CLARK:

And as of this point--now, you were the one who collected the exemplar from the Defendant, is that correct, you took his hair samples?

631 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

632 MS. CLARK:

Had that been done as of this date, June 23rd?

633 MS. BROCKBANK:

No, it had not.

634 MS. CLARK:

Now, on June 24th, as of that date, you had removed hair and trace from what items?

635 MS. BROCKBANK:

Umm, as of that date, I had removed hair and trace from the two gloves, items 9 and 37, and the two hats, items 37 and--I mean 27 and 38.

636 MS. CLARK:

And did you release the bindles of hair and fiber that you recovered from those items contained in their coin envelopes and in the analyzed evidence envelopes to someone?

637 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did.

638 MS. CLARK:

And who was that?

639 MS. BROCKBANK:

Umm, I released all of that to Michelle Kestler who is--

640 MS. CLARK:

I'm sorry. Go ahead.

641 MS. BROCKBANK:

I was going to say who is our lab director currently.

642 MS. CLARK:

And was that for the purpose of allowing the Defense to view the evidence?

643 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, it was.

644 MS. CLARK:

And when was it returned to you?

645 MS. BROCKBANK:

I released the evidence to her at around 10:30 in the morning, and she returned them to me at about 1:15.

646 MS. CLARK:

Were you present for that viewing by the Defense?

647 MS. BROCKBANK:

No, I was not.

648 MS. CLARK:

All right. On June 27th, did you do some further examination of the hair and trace removed from the blue knit ski cap, item no. 38?

649 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did.

650 MS. CLARK:

And what procedure did you follow to prepare for that examination?

651 MS. BROCKBANK:

The same procedure all along. You know, I cover my bench with white paper, put on clean gloves, and then I mounted some of these hairs in permount. And--actually, the hairs I mounted were the hairs that did not have roots on them. I mounted those in permount and I did not mount any hairs that had roots. They were left in the bindles.

652 MS. CLARK:

Okay. And again, that was for the purpose of any possible DNA testing that might be conducted?

653 MS. BROCKBANK:

That's correct. And additionally, I made notations on the bindles themselves as to how many hairs I mounted or removed from that bindle, and those notations are--were made directly on the bindles.

654 MS. CLARK:

All right. Can you explain the mounting process that you followed with respect to the use of permount instead of water? What is permount anyway?

655 MS. BROCKBANK:

Umm, it's a mounting media. I don't know the exact chemical composition of it.

656 MS. CLARK:

Does it--does it hurt the hair, damage it or alter it in any way?

657 MS. BROCKBANK:

No. It enables someone to look at a hair under the microscope and actually view the internal structures and characteristics of that hair. It's a semi-permanent mounting media unlike water. Water will eventually evaporate and, you know, all you're left with is a cover slip and your hairs. Permount will dry and harden and basically fix those hairs between the cover slip and the slide. If you touch the cover slip, it's not going to go sliding off as if you had it in water. You know, you can just slide the cover slip right off.

658 MS. CLARK:

Okay. And so when you mount a hair in permount on a slide, you cover it with the cover slip. Can the hair get out from under by itself?

659 MS. BROCKBANK:

No.

660 MS. CLARK:

And can any other hairs get stuck up under the cover slip?

661 MS. BROCKBANK:

Umm, during the mounting process, you know, you--the media is wet. So you're dealing with a wet media, and you place the hair on the slide, cover it with a cover slip. From that point on, nothing else is going to crawl underneath it that I am aware of.

662 MS. CLARK:

And so you mounted the hairs--the hairs that you've earlier recovered--well, I shouldn't just say hairs--maybe hairs and fibers that you earlier discovered from the ski cap on the date of June 27th?

663 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. I mounted--and I think it was just hairs on that day.

664 MS. CLARK:

How many?

665 MS. BROCKBANK:

I believe I mounted 31, and one of those hairs, as it turns out, was an animal hair, not a human hair. So 30 human hairs.

666 (Discussion held off the record between the Deputy District Attorneys.)
667 MS. CLARK:

How many actual slides did you create?

668 MS. BROCKBANK:

Slides. I created 11 slides for all of the hairs I mounted from the exterior and interior surfaces of item 38, and there were obviously more than one hair on each slide to account for those 31 hairs.

669 MS. CLARK:

I was just going to ask you. Is that okay, to mount more than one hair on a slide?

670 MS. BROCKBANK:

Oh, yeah. That's fine.

671 MS. CLARK:

Oh, I see. Okay.

672 (Discussion held off the record between the Deputy District Attorneys.)
673 (Discussion held off the record between the Deputy District Attorney and Defense counsel.)
674 MS. CLARK:

May I approach, your Honor?

675 MS. CLARK:

I'd like to show you these photographs and have you tell me if these are photographs of the slide mailers and slides that you created from the hair and fiber taken from the blue knit ski cap.

676 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, they are.

677 MS. CLARK:

Okay. I'm going to ask--are there more there than actually just from the blue knit ski cap?

678 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, there are.

679 MS. CLARK:

So you made slides from hair and debris recovered from other items as well?

680 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes, I did. The other hat specifically.

681 MS. CLARK:

The plaid cap from the Bronco?

682 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

683 MS. CLARK:

Okay.

684 MS. CLARK:

Your Honor, I have here a photograph of six slide mailers, ask that it be marked People's--

685 THE COURT:

446.

686 MS. CLARK:

446. Thank you.

687 (Peo's 446 for id = photograph)
688 MS. CLARK:

All right. Showing you 446, what are those?

689 MS. BROCKBANK:

Those are the cardboard slide mailers. I think I briefly described earlier that we place those glass slides with hairs mounted on them into to protect the slides.

690 MS. CLARK:

And 446-A, your Honor, will be the back of those.

691 THE COURT:

All right. 446-A.

692 MS. CLARK:

Thank you.

693 (Peo's 446-A for id = photograph)
694 MS. CLARK:

And is that the--are those the backs of those slide mailers in 446?

695 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

696 MS. CLARK:

And now if I may, 446-B.

697 THE COURT:

446-B.

698 MS. CLARK:

Slides themselves.

699 (Peo's 446-B for id = photograph)
700 MS. CLARK:

All right. Are those the slides that you created for the hair and fiber that you recovered that you've just described from the blue knit cap?

701 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes.

702 MS. CLARK:

And also, do we see something, another slide in there that was created for hair and fiber recovered from the cap found in the Bronco?

703 MS. BROCKBANK:

Yes. The monitor is a little blurry or I could point out which slide exactly. They're all marked with item numbers on them, which would identify which item they came from.

704 MS. CLARK:

Okay. We're going to zoom in for you.

705 MS. BROCKBANK:

And it would be on the white part, not the black. There you go.

706 MS. CLARK:

Is that as good as we can do? That's it.

707 MS. CLARK:

Okay. I'm going to give it to you--

708 MS. CLARK:

Do you want to take a break, your Honor? Okay. I'm going to let you look at it at the break, and tell us when you come back.

709 THE COURT:

All right. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to take our first afternoon recess. Please remember all my admonitions to you. And we'll be in recess for 15 minutes. Let me see counsel at the sidebar with the court reporter, please.

Temperature

procedural

Key Quotes (5)

Susan Brockbank
I thought I did it on the 21st, but according to my bindle, I did it on the 23rd.
Brockbank acknowledges her memory of her own examination dates was incorrect, undermining confidence in her recollections generally.
Susan Brockbank
I saw a limb hair... A darkly pigmented limb hair.
A limb hair she had not previously reported was pointed out to her by Deedrick during the FBI examination; this is potentially significant as it may be consistent with OJ Simpson's hair.
Susan Brockbank
The newer gloves were larger all the way across the board... Actually, on a couple of the fingers on the right glove, there was an inch and a quarter difference in length.
Direct measurement evidence supporting the defense's 'gloves don't fit' argument — both labeled XL, but the crime scene gloves were substantially smaller than a new pair.
Susan Brockbank
I was asked to mount the hairs in water by my supervisor at the time, Greg Matheson, who wanted me basically to look at these hairs to see if they had roots on them or not... So they requested that I mount them in water and kind of sacrifice a little bit of my visibility in looking at the hairs.
Explains why Brockbank's observations were limited — her methodology was compromised by a competing priority (DNA preservation), accounting for discrepancies with Deedrick's findings.
Lance A. Ito
It's her job. It's not a bother.
Minor but humanizing courtroom moment; judge gently corrects Clark's attempt to spare the court clerk effort.

Evidence (12)

People's 444
Photograph of both gloves (items 9 and 37) side by side with scale
introduced
People's 402-A and 402-B
Hand-tracing diagrams used by Brockbank to record glove measurements on June 21, 1994
discussed, previously marked
People's 436
Chain of custody board for multiple items
referenced throughout
People's 442
Photograph of bindles for item no. 110 (Rockingham glove hair/fiber coin envelope)
discussed
People's 445
Photograph of back of coin envelope and bindles for item no. 112 (Bundy glove hair/fiber)
introduced
Informal
Item 9 — Rockingham glove
discussed, measurements and hair/fiber collection described
+ 6 more

Notable Exchanges (3)

Marcia ClarkSusan Brockbank
Clark elicited the glove size comparison: new XL gloves were up to 1.25 inches longer finger-to-wrist than the evidence gloves, which also bore an XL tag.
strategic
Marcia ClarkSusan BrockbankRobert Blasier
Clark attempted multiple times to introduce Deedrick's observations through Brockbank (hearsay); Blasier objected repeatedly. Clark navigated by asking only what Brockbank personally saw, eventually eliciting the darkly pigmented limb hair she had not previously reported.
contested
Susan BrockbankMarcia Clark
Brockbank explained that mounting hairs in water (at supervisor Matheson's direction, to preserve DNA) degraded her ability to observe hair color, count, and morphology — directly accounting for the discrepancies with Deedrick's later permount examination.
revealing

Light Moments (2)

Lance A. Ito
When Clark said she didn't want to bother the court clerk to retrieve previously marked exhibits, Judge Ito replied: 'It's her job. It's not a bother.'
Susan Brockbank
Clark asked 'Second nature?' about Brockbank's habit of always changing gloves between items. Brockbank replied: 'Yeah. It is to me.'

Credibility Attacks (3)

⚔ Susan Brockbank
prior inconsistent observation / methodological limitation
Brockbank had not reported a darkly pigmented limb hair in the Rockingham glove interior that Deedrick later identified; she acknowledged she 'didn't notice it before.' Her water-mount methodology, directed by a supervisor, reduced her observational accuracy.
⚔ Susan Brockbank
faulty recollection of dates
Brockbank believed she had removed debris from item 37's bag on June 21 but her own bindle notation showed June 23, which she had to concede: 'according to my bindle, I did it on the 23rd.'
⚔ Susan Brockbank
discrepancy in hair count
Brockbank counted seven total hairs from glove no. 9; Deedrick's examination found a different count. Clark raised this but could not directly establish the discrepancy through Brockbank, who said she was unaware of the difference until a pretrial meeting.

Witness Demeanor

(Brief pause.) — multiple times during testimony while witness checked notes
(Discussion held off the record between the Deputy District Attorneys.) — recurring
Witness repeatedly apologized for not remembering dates or details: 'I'm sorry. I don't remember specifically.'

Objections

6 objections (3 sustained, 3 overruled)
Proceeding 7928 • 709 utterances • Prosecution witness
Criminal Trial
Department 103
⚖️ Start
📂 JUN 27, 1995 📄 Direct examination of Susan Br
JUN 27, 1995 KRT DvH TD