Man Who Testified As DNA Expert Defends His Reputation
DENVER (CBS4) - A man who has testified in several high-profile criminal trials around the country as a DNA expert has been discredited in a Denver trial.
Richard Eikelenboom says it's almost expected that his qualifications would be called into question by attorneys, but he calls what happened on the stand in Denver ludicrous.
"What happens here is not truth finding. They just want to find something to throw mud at you," Eikelenboom told CBS4.
Eikelenboom and his wife Selma are defending their reputation after questions from a lawyer from the Denver District Attorney's Office during a trial led to his being discredited by the judge.
"He was offered as a DNA expert and admitted in the first round of questioning from my prosecutors that he hadn't done this work," Denver DA Mitch Morrissey said.
Morrissey said Eikelenboom exaggerated his qualification in the Netherlands -- where he's from -- and that when he opened a lab in Colorado he trained himself.
"He's just about willing to say anything for a dollar and that's what I find offensive about him," Morrissey said.
But Eikelenboom says it's quite the opposite and that he meets all of the requirements. That includes a certificate of accreditation from the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors and the equivalent board in Holland.
Eikelenboom says the DA's office isn't telling the whole story and he believes it's about more than just one single case where he was discredited.
"(This is happening) because we can expose them in miscarriages of justice," Eikelenboom told CBS4's Karen Morfitt.
"What do you mean expose them?" Morfitt asked.
"Well if they made a mistake in the case and we redo the DNA like with Timothy Masters and these other cases, then it could happen that we find a mistake."
RELATED: Eikelenboom Testified In Timothy Masters, Casey Anthony Trials
The Eikelenboom say they have worked on the JonBenet Ramsey case and are still involved in it. According to them, their findings helped eliminate the Ramsey parents as suspects in the case.