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Former APD print examiner accused of perjury in Iowa case

by Christine Kim
Tuesday, November 03, 2009

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The Anchorage Police Department says one of its employees in the crime lab was placed on administrative leave and has since resigned.

This comes after the APD was notified that 47-year-old Mark Halterman is accused of lying under oath.

Halterman is being charged with five counts of perjury.

In August, he testified as an expert in a civil court case from Iowa.

In his testimony, he claimed to have had thousands of hours of training with a document examiner and that he had completed his training, when in fact, he was not qualified.

Halterman worked at the Anchorage Police Department in the crime lab as a latent print examiner, examining fingerprints, palm prints and shoe prints, all of which he was qualified to do.

However, when he testified, he testified as an expert in document examination, dealing with handwriting analysis. That is something the APD says he was not qualified for.

Halterman offered these document examining services at his forensic consulting business.

A local defense attorney says this raises questions about numerous cases.

"If a person, an expert witness or a police officer or someone, is charged with perjury, just because it may be in this particular area doesn't mean that you don't look at them period as a whole," said Rex Butler.

"Here at APD he's worked on hundreds if not thousands of cases as a latent print examiner and something we were absolutely certain that he was qualified to do," said APD Lt. Dave Parker.

The Anchorage Police Department says all of the work Halterman has done as a print examiner has been documented either in photos or prints so that the work can be re-checked without a problem. He was hired only as a print examiner at the APD and worked as a document examiner at his own business.

Halterman's pre-trial conference is set for Dec. 15.

Contact Christine Kim at ckim@ktuu.com