"This would appear to be the original note; the only thing that I have seen is a copy of this note. I don't believe until now I had actually seen an original."
Good Lord, thought Jane. Surely someone should question this. The document examiner testified that ALL the 'suspect' documents were originals and now Mark, the guy that sent them to the examiners, is saying he has only seen a copy.
He's vague and unsure of most everything he claims he was involved in and most of his evidence is what someone else told him or that he 'had assumed'. This was the kind of testimony that Henry had been so critical of when the defense witnesses were examined, calling it second hand information. Apparently, coming from the university attorney, it is considered to be all right, Jane commented to herself. At one point, with help from Henry, Mark brought forth information that Jane thought might be triple hearsay.
He said, "I remember now that Jimbo told me that Lyle told him that Lyle's friend had found the note."
Not a voice was raised in complaint from the panel. And not from me either, thought Jane. I'm not sticking my neck out when a lawyer is testifying.
Henry appeared to be pleased. Mark had done well enough even though he had been a bit shaky on dates. Anyway, the panel didn't seem to notice. He had established handwriting analysis as nearly infallible—not by evidence, not by proof, but solely because he said so.
He was pleased when cross examination by Diana was continually broken into by the panel. As a result of this, the question of the dates when these things happened was never really established. As things stood, Lyle, Randy and now Mark had all given conflicting dates concerning when these documents were sent out for analysis, when each received them and what each received.
However, under tenacious questioning by Diana, Mark divulged that the 'strange' note, apparently sent as an afterthought, had only been looked at by the examiners the day before coming to testify. That was why he had only seen a copy of it since the original was given to them on their arrival by Henry. Their opinion was not conclusive, but they thought it probable that Diana had printed it. They were wise to vacillate on this, Mark observed, since their supply of printing standards was very limited.
Because of the way Mark presented this, the panel was left with the impression that had there been enough standards, the document examiner would certainly have found that Diana had printed it.
An angry exchange occurred when Diana protested strongly that here was another piece of evidence that she was surprised with after being told that she had received all of it.