By Theresa Franks, for Fine Art Registry®
The jury verdict was rendered unanimously in our favor and we were also awarded $500,000. It was a crushing defeat for Park West Gallery as they promised publicly, arrogantly, and loudly with all their many lawyers, hired guns, and seemingly endless resources to “crush us like a bug.” In contrast, Fine Art Registry had precious few resources; but what we did possess was the mighty sword of truth. It has been said by many that we were in a David vs. Goliath situation. Indeed! Many expressed concern as to how we could be expected to stand and survive against a $400 million dollar a year company with the cruise lines backing it? But just as the giant, Goliath, was delivered into David’s hand with one smooth stone divinely cast from his unassuming sling, so too was Park West Gallery delivered into our hand on April 21, 2010. It wasn't just a victory for Fine Art Registry, it was a victory for the corporate art industry, as Park West Gallery in its 42-year history has never been so challenged as it relates to the truth of how deceptive their business practices really are. And so, we will give all the glory to Jehovah God for our victory—the creator of heaven and earth, "who works all things together for good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) Our triumphant win was indeed a miracle considering the stacked deck we faced.
At the trial, Fine Art Registry was blessed with many individuals to whom we will be forever grateful, who took leave of their busy lives and boarded airplanes (many at their own expense) from all over the world and the U.S. to attend the trial and testify on our behalf. This was a feat in and of itself as the trial was held in remote Port Huron, Michigan—about 70 miles (more than an hour one way) from the Detroit airport where our witnesses were to fly into. It is a mystery to us as to how the trial ended up in Port Huron and not Detroit which would have been infinitely more convenient, but we believe it was all arranged by the enemy to make it as difficult for Fine Art Registry as possible, and indeed it was extraordinarily difficult, but we happen to believe nothing is impossible--no hill for a climber--and so we persevered and endured for six long weeks. It was worth it all in the end. In fact, this writer can say that it was an experience that is unequaled in one’s life time. No one can fully understand or appreciate what Fine Art Registry had to bear at this trial and what we have had to endure after the trial and to this very day in support of the many, many Park West Gallery victims. No matter what happens from this point forward, no one can take away the fact that we faced a beast at trial and we came away victorious. At some time in the not too distant future, we will write a book about the entire experience as we believe it is instructive for many in an art industry that is rife with fraud and abuse.
We have already published the trial testimony of a few witnesses who testified on our behalf over the last year or so. We have saved some of the best witness testimony for last. The one smooth stone that was the end of Park West Gallery at trial was William Flynn. That is not to say other witnesses were not effective. They were. But Flynn's testimony pushed Park West Gallery over the cliff. The jurors who waited to talk to us in the parking lot outside of the courthouse after the jury verdict on April 21, 2010, communicated to us that we could have rested our case after William Flynn’s trial testimony, it was that impressive. There is no doubt that William Flynn’s testimony was the most compelling of the entire trial. If Park West Gallery were to be honest, they would agree. His testimony was something to behold. The jury was riveted as he took them on a journey through the most interesting power point presentation and revealed the evidence he used to conclude that the Park West Gallery Dali inventory were forgeries. Amazingly, what many of our readers do not know is that Dali reached out from beyond the grave and made a grand appearance at trial to testify by way of a 1960s film provided by Nicolas and Robert Descharnes from their archives in Paris. It shows Salvador Dali signing a set of Divine Comedy prints at the Hotel Meurice in Paris--the very same prints that were at issue in the case. In listening to William Flynn’s testimony, there could be no denying that Park West Gallery had sold Sharon Day and Julian Howard (and other victims) forged Dali prints. No, not just forged Dali prints—but crudely forged Dali prints.
It was soon after Frank Hunter’s deposition was taken by Park West Gallery lawyers in Phoenix in 2009 that we realized where Park West Gallery was heading from a strategic litigation standpoint. When the lawyers for Park West Gallery started to challenge Frank Hunter on the fact that he was not a forensic handwriting expert, we knew that we needed a forensic document expert to testify in order to nail Park West Gallery to the wall on its forged Dali prints, especially as it related to Sharon Day and Julian Howard’s set of Divine Comedy prints—so Fine Art Registry knowing the best of the best of forensic document experts worked and resided in Phoenix, Arizona, where our business is located, we quickly retained William Flynn. It was the best strategic move of the entire case and Park West Gallery never even saw it coming until it was way too late. It caught them completely off guard and crippled them.
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Face to face, Robert Descharnes and Salvador Dali holding respectively a sea urchin and an Asian rhinoceros horn, two (emblèmes) of the film "The Prodigious Adventure of the Lacemaker and the Rhinoceros", Paris, Hotel Meurice 1957. Courtesy © 2009 Descharnes & Descharnes sarl / daliphoto.com |
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| Park West Gallery's "Dali Detective", Ewell |
It is also important to note that Park West Gallery has done much over the last five years to defame and disparage the opinions of world Dali experts, Nicolas Descharnes and Frank Hunter as to the Park West Gallery forged Dali inventory—but isn’t it interesting that Park West Gallery has had absolutely nothing to say about William Flynn or his testimony? They have avoided Flynn's testimony like the plague. Yes, William Flynn was the smooth stone cast right between the eyes of the giant called Park West Gallery!
So, let’s get started on rolling out the fascinating trial testimony of one of the most well respected forensic document experts in the country, if not the world. Part 1 of this article begins with Mr. Flynn’s qualifications. Not a single witness (nor all of them combined) called by Park West Gallery to prove its case against Fine Art Registry came close to equaling the prestigious qualifications and expertise of William Flynn.
Note: The sworn trial testimony of William Flynn is copied as it was taken down by the court reporter. There is no attempt to correct spelling, grammar, or sentence structure. Comments by this writer (who was present for the entire trial) are noted in brackets [ ] and are her opinion(s) based on documentary evidence and interviews with hundreds of victims and professionals in the industry. Emphasis (if any) is added by this writer.
THE SWORN TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM FLYNN
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY FAR® LAWYER DON PAYTON:
Q. Good morning, Mr. Flynn.
A. Good morning, sir.
Q. Would you state your full name for the record, sir?
A. My name is William J. Flynn, F-l-y-n-n..
Q. And what is your current occupation, Mr. Flynn?
A. I am forensic document examiner.
Q. Okay. Where do you reside, sir?
A. Phoenix. Actually, my home is in Mesa, Arizona. My business is in Phoenix, Arizona.
Q. All right. You said you were a forensic document examiner. Can you tell the jury what that means?
A. Certainly. I have been a forensic document examiner for 42 years. Most of my work on a day-to-day basis involves examination and comparison of questioned handwritings, hand printings and signatures. Probably 65 percent of my work on a day-to-day basis as it has been over the past 42 years has been the determination of whether writings, signatures or hand printings are genuine or not. Another significant portion of my work especially since about 1983, '84 has been the examination of computer generated documents. These would be documents that are used primarily in litigation. For instance, contracts, which is, probate matters, that sort of thing, to determine whether or not the printing process, for instance, was available at a given time. I am often asked to tell whether or not a will that was allegedly generated in 1983 is -- really comports with technology that was available back in 1983 rather than more modern technology. I perform paper examinations. I perform ink comparisons, which is very common in the medical malpractice side of my business also where determinations are made whether or not the medical records have been tampered with, have additions been made to the record after the lawsuit began, have alterations been made within the laboratory analyses and the charting notes, that sort thing. In general, whenever there is a question that involves a forensic question involving a document, a forensic document examiner like myself is utilized.
Q. Okay. Do you do any examination of lottery tickets?
A. I do.
Q. What does that involve?
A. I have actually testified in a criminal case involving lottery tickets in Detroit. Most of the work that I do involving lottery tickets is -- we get the tickets before they go on sale. These are the scratcher tickets. And our laboratory tries to determine whether or not you can read the information underneath the latex before they go on sale. In other words, would someone like the seller of the lottery ticket, the Seven Eleven owner, be able to go through his supply of lottery tickets and determine where the winners are before they went on sale. So I have been doing that work for 22 years actually, ever since Arizona got into the lottery business, and I now do it privately for many states around the country including Minnesota. We have tested all Minnesota's lottery tickets for the past 20 years.
Q. Can you tell me a little bit about your educational background, sir?
A. I have a bachelor of science degree. My education and background training in the field of forensic document examination actually began back in 1968. I was brought into the Philadelphia Police Crime Laboratory at that time and was initially trained at the Pennsylvania State Police Crime Laboratory in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Following that training I was sent to the United States Secret Service school in Washington, D.C. Later was trained also at the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Quantico, Virginia. I completed my two year training in the Philadelphia Police Crime Lab and remained there as a document examiner until about 1971, thereabouts, I guess. I was then offered a position with the Arizona State Crime Laboratory and I took that job. I left Philadelphia and became an examiner for the Arizona State Crime Laboratory until I retired 20 years later. Since that point in time until the present, I have been in full-time private practice with my own laboratory.
Q. What is the name of that?
A. Affiliated Forensic Laboratory, Incorporated.
Q. Okay. Now while you were with either the Philadelphia Crime Laboratory or the Arizona Department Of Public Safety, what did you do for them? Maybe they are different, but if they are, please tell me.
A. Well, all the work that I did, virtually all the work I did for the Philadelphia Crime Lab and the Arizona State Crime Laboratory was in the criminal arena. Our laboratory was retained in a sense by the prosecutors throughout the state of Arizona. We did the work for the county attorneys in the various counties of Arizona, the Federal U.S. Attorneys. We did the work at that time because the proximity of our lab, we did the work for the FBI, the Secret Service, the United States Postal Laboratory, all the military investigative bodies, Army CID, Air Force Criminal Investigation Division. So essentially my clients during that 20 years that I was with the Arizona State Crime Laboratory was literally every police agency in the state of Arizona at the local, municipal, county or state and federal level.
Q. Now, when I ask you about your educational background, I wonder, sir, is there any specialized training you have to receive to become a document examiner?
A. Oh, yes, there is.
Q. Can you tell me about what that is, sir?
A. Sure, there is a well-defined two year training program that's been in affect in this country in the U.S. for the better part of 40 years, the training that we receive. That's the training program that I went through when I began with Philadelphia Police Department. But in addition to that, the certification that I maintain, the diplomacy in the ABFDE, it's an acronym for the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners.
THE COURT: Speak a little slower.
THE WITNESS: Yes, your Honor.
A. It requires, even as the local profession does, that we maintain ongoing currency training so that in order to maintain our status at a diplomate we must attend so many forensic conferences, attend so many symposia, generate research papers and so forth. So just as in almost any other profession we have ongoing training that we are required to maintain.
Q. All right. What is ASQDE?
A. The American Society of Questioned Document Examiners. That's the oldest forensic document organization in North America.
Q. Are you a member of that, sir?
A. I am.
Q. Have you ever worked for the United States Secret Service?
A. I have done cases for -- I was trained by the Secret Service at one time and during my tenure with the Arizona State Crime Lab we worked many cases for the Secret Service, yes.
Q. Now, other than what you told us about two acronyms that you described, as part of your job, do you engage in any continuing education or continuing training?
A. I do. As I mentioned, I'm required, in order to remain -- to maintain my diplomat status, to attend on a yearly basis I have to provide what are called reeducation or education points. So that when I turn in my application every year I have to prove that I attended so many seminars, workshops, symposia, generated research papers, that sort of thing. It is an ongoing, continuously ongoing process.
Q. Okay. Are you a member of any professional organizations dealing with forensic document examination?
A. We mentioned ASQDE, the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners. I'm a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. I am a member of the Southwestern Association of Forensic Document Examiners. And my board certification is through the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners which board certifies all the forensic document examiners in North America. I say that because the Canadian Forensic Document Examiners like the RCMP examiners are also board certified through the ABFD.
Q. Were you ever an officer in any of those organizations.
A. Yes.
Q. Which ones and what office?
A. I was past President of the ABFDE, the American board. My job at one point in time was to determine whether or not the applicants would or would not be board certified. I also been past President of the Southwestern Association of Forensic Document Examiners. I am co-founder of that organization.
Q. Now, sir, how long have you practiced as a forensic document examiner?
A. I began in February of 1968. So this past February was 42 years.
Q. Forty-two years. And during that time period, sir, can you tell the jury approximately how many forensic examinations you have undertaken?
A. Well, I've either directly examined or as the senior or chief of the section, reviewed something in excess of 22,000 reports. Many of those were in the 25 years that I was in the criminal side of the slate, but certainly since I retired in 1991 the balance is starting to swing more toward the civil practice.
Q. Okay. Have you, in going through your background, have you told us all the places that you recall that you worked as a document examiner?
A. Yes. There only has been three in the 42 years I work the for the Philadelphia Police, the Arizona State Crime Lab and since retirement with my own company, Affiliated Forensic Laboratories. That's the only three entities I worked for over these 42 years.
Q. I may have asked you this and if I did I apologize. Is your profession, does it have any certifying board?
A. Yes.
Q. Which one -- more than one?
A. There is only one -- the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners which is, it falls under the aegis of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences our board falls under the same sponsorship of the boards that board certify forensic doctors, forensic psychiatrists, forensic odontologists. These are forensic dentists and so forth. So the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners is part of the American Academy of Forensic Science's sponsorship.
Q. Do have you to be certified yearly or is it just a one time deal?
A. You have to prove that you remained current on a year to year basis but after -- I was one of the first 10 people to be board certified in North America. After 25 years I had to retake, I actually had to go through the whole process again, retake the same test that all of the newbies coming in the field had to take. It was a recertification for me after a very lengthy certification.
Q. Sir, now you told us that you are -- you now own, is that correct, your own company?
A. I do.
Q. And the name of that is what, sir?
A. Affiliated Forensic Laboratory, Incorporated.
Q. And what is the business of Affiliated Forensic Laboratory, Incorporated.
A. It's virtually identical to what I did over the 25 years that I was in law enforcement. We still do on a regular basis work in the criminal side of the slate. However, most of the work that we do in Affiliated Forensic Laboratories is for attorneys who are involved in civil litigation. I mentioned we have a fairly large medical malpractice side of our services we provide. But probate cases where signatures on wills, determining whether wills have been tampered with, contracts that are in dispute. So, most of the civil litigation cases that we get involved with these days are things of that nature, business records of one type or another.
Q. What percentage would you say, sir, is civil as opposed to criminal in your current business?
A. I would say that probably only about five, maybe 8 percent of our work is criminal. The rest is probably 92 percent or so is civil.
Q. Okay. Is that for both side of the fence? Plaintiff and defendant?
A. Yes. We testify about equally for the plaintiffs and the defendant. That is true even in the medical malpractice arena. We testify sometimes for the hospitals and sometimes for the plaintiff.
Q. Have you testified in court in any of these cases?
A. Oh, yes.
Q. And how many cases in your practice do you believe you've reviewed?
A. Well, at least 22,000 is the figure that I mentioned. But that would involve, the 22,000 cases would involve well in excess of a million and a half, perhaps as many as two million documents over that period of time.
Q. Okay. So you have testified in court. What type of courts have you testified in the past, sir?
A. Pretty much courts at every level. Everything from what we call justice courts or municipal courts, county courts. I testified in Federal Courts, many Federal Courts throughout country and I have testified internationally as well in the Middle East and in Europe.
Q. Okay. And have you been certified as an expert in court?
A. I've always been permitted throughout my entire 42 years career, I have been permitted by the court to testify as an expert, yes.
Q. Have you ever testified or ever reviewed a case involving art?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you tell us about that?
A. Well, probably the biggest art case that I was involved in prior to getting involved in the Dali case involved Pablo Picasso forgeries. This is a case that took me all over the world essentially. These were six Pablo Picasso prints that contained six signatures in pencil at the bottom that were alleged to be genuine signatures of Pablo Picasso. They were sold, the prints were actually sold from anywhere between one point two and one point four million dollars based not on the value of the print per se but based on the fact that these were signed copies of the prints. That was a case that probably took up a year of my life or so examining.
Q. Okay. And what was your role in that case?
A. I was asked to examine the Pablo Picasso signatures on the prints and compare them to other Pablo Picasso signatures that were provided to me. I had both published signatures of Pablo Picasso in various works and I also was able to, fortunately enough, to go to some museums and take a look back in the scholars area of some of the signatures of Pablo Picasso that were on file. I was also given an opportunity to go to Paris, France and examine some signatures of Pablo Picasso at Musee Picasso in Paris and also the Bibliotech Nationale in Parish as well.
Q. And what year was that as well?
A. It would have been around, it would have been in the late 80's to early 90s, somewhere in there.
Q. Do you know what the result was?
A. The result was a settlement. The gentleman who retained me suspected that the signature on his print was a forgery and that was my determination as well and the case settled in New York. It was a New York trial. If fact, the day it was supposed to start it did start and settled before any testimony was heard.
Q. Okay. Have you testified in any other art cases? Or been involved in any other art case?
A. I have been involved in art cases, most of which have settled. I have testified in other historical signature case, however. One was a murder case actually involving historical signatures where --
THE COURT: Just a moment. Are we talking about art cases?
MR. PAYTON: Yes. That was my question.
THE COURT: Why don't you ask the question again.
MR. PAYTON: Sure.
BY MR. PAYTON:
Q. For purposes of this question, Mr. Flynn, I can go on to the other, but do you recall any other art cases you were involved in?
A. Yes.
Q. About how many?
A. Just where -- Renoir, signatures of artists were involved, probably three or four cases I would say.
Q. Any of the cases, any of the cases you have been involved in, have any of them received any notoriety to your knowledge?
A. Well, the Picasso case certainly got a lot of notoriety in New York because of the figures. Picasso's heirs did, in fact, come to New York to testify in the case. There were other cases that I have been in that involved historical figures but not art figures that have received fair amount of notoriety.
Q. Anything anybody might have heard of?
A. On the art side or the historical figures?
Q. Either.
A. Yes. Potentially a case up in Utah was a bombing, a bombing case about 21 years ago where collectors of historical documents wound up in a dispute and one of the dealers resolved it by bombing three people. So that obviously received a lot of notoriety up in Salt Lake city but maybe not outside those confines.
Q. What was your role in that case?
A. My role along with the FBI's role was to examine the documents to determine whether or not the writings and signatures of these historical figures -- most of them were historical figures in the Mormon church, the founder, Joseph Smith and others -- to determine whether or not the signatures were authentic or the documents themselves, the paper, the inks and so forth were authentic.
Q. Have you published any papers, sir, in the area of forensic document examination?
A. I have.
Q. Approximately how many?
A. Probably over the years about maybe 20 papers, something like that.
Q. Have you ever received any awards for your work in forensic document examination?
A. I have.
Q. Just give us a brief summary, if you may.
A. Well, I received numerous awards over the years from most of the police agencies that we did work for that resulted in the resolution of difficult cases. I had over 214 awards presented to me in that light while I was working in the criminal arena. Just last year I received an award called the Ordway Hilton Award, which is the top award that's given by the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners for outstanding work in the field.
Q. Mr. Flynn, do you do any teaching?
A. I do.
Q. And where and what do you teach?
A. Well, I taught for 14 years at the college level, a course in forensic document examination for the ABA, the American Bankers Association. Most of the teaching that I do these days is done on a workshop or symposia basis. In fact, this month we will be doing training for the Maricopa (ph) County Recorders Office for people that check the signatures on petition ballots, petitions and signature ballots that go out for the upcoming election in November. It's a short course to familiarize them with what to look for to determine whether or not the signatures may or may not be forged on these petitions.
Q. Okay.
MR. PAYTON: Your Honor, at this time, I would like to submit Mr. Flynn as qualified as an expert in the field of questioned document examination, forensic document examination.
THE COURT: Any objection?
MR. YOUNG: Your Honor, I would like an opportunity voir dire the witness.
THE COURT: You may.
In the next article, we will pick up with Park West Gallery lawyer, Rodger Young, challenging Mr. Flynn on his qualifications. Voir dire is a legal term, pronounced (vwahr [with a near-silent "r"] deer) n. from French "to see to speak." A lawyer will usually concede the opposing proffered expert’s credentials and does not contest the opponent’s motion to have the court recognize the witness as an expert in a particular field as Don Payton motioned the court to do. But this was not the case with Park West Gallery even though it was obvious that William Flynn was abundantly qualified. Voir dire, is a self-contained evidentiary exercise in which (in this case Rodger Young) the opposing lawyer is permitted to question the proffered expert in the jury’s presence concerning his credentials before the court accepts him as an expert and permits him to testify as one. This was Park West Gallery's desperate attempt to disqualify William Flynn as they tried to do with all of our expert witnesses, including Frank Hunter and Nicolas Descharnes.
The best is yet to come. Stay tuned for Part 2 of William Flynn's sworn testimony, coming soon!
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