Report backs police officer

BOISE (AP) - The Idaho State Police has determined that its top accident reconstruction expert did not lie on the witness stand in a 2006 second-degree murder trial.

The agency on Friday released the results of its internal investigation into testimony provided by Cpl. Fred Rice, a 25-year agency veteran.

Rice was put on paid administrative leave in June after the Idaho Supreme Court suggested he perjured himself in a fatal road rage case. In making that finding, the high court ordered a new trial for Jonathan Ellington, of Hayden, who was convicted for running over a woman during a New Year's Day encounter on a Kootenai County highway.

ISP Director Col. Jerry Russell said he has determined that Rice did not lie during any portion of the testimony called into question by the high court.

At issue was Rice's testimony about debris fields and something called perception-reaction time, the time it takes a driver to perceive a threat and react to it. Ellington's attorneys contended his testimony conflicted with testimony he'd given in other cases, as well as with training materials prepared by Rice and used to teach courses on the subject.

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Rice told The Associated Press that he didn't fault the Idaho Supreme Court for its ruling, since, he said, the justices must decide cases based only on the record presented to them. Rice wasn't even told about the appeal until after the high court hearing, he said.

The problem, Rice said, is that the Kootenai County prosecutor's office didn't contact him a few years ago, when the appeal was first filed. He didn't know anyone was even questioning the accuracy of his testimony until after the Idaho Supreme Court hearing.

"We could have put an end to this back at the beginning with an affidavit," Rice said.

Rice contends that Erik Lehtinen, the appellate public defender who represented Ellington on the appeal, used just one PowerPoint slide out of roughly 700 Rice uses in his classes to try to show his testimony was wrong. Rice says Lehtinen also characterized the slide as teaching the average reaction time - when in fact, the word "average" isn't found on the slide at all.

He said Ellington's appeal also confused the crash investigation techniques with crash reconstruction standards. Those are two totally separate things, Rice said.

Expert witnesses are generally only allowed to give direct answers to the questions they're asked in court, Rice said. In the Ellington case, he was a rebuttal witness - only asked a few questions to counter the testimony of another expert, and not allowed to expand on his responses. That makes it easy for opposing attorneys to try to take things out of context, he said.

Lehtinen said since he hasn't heard Rice's side of the story, he doesn't know how the Idaho State Police reached the conclusion it did.

"I'd certainly be interested to hear how he justified his testimony in the Ellington case," Lehtinen said. "That's something the state could have presented. They had every opportunity to present an affidavit or bring trooper Rice in to present his side of the story, and they didn't do that."

Kootenai County Prosecutor Barry McHugh wasn't the prosecutor who handled Ellington's case back in 2006, though that prosecutor, Art Verharen, still works for the office.

McHugh said that because Ellington's retrial on the same charges is still pending, he couldn't comment on why Rice wasn't contacted or asked for an explanation at the start of the appeal process.

Rice said the five months since the ruling have been tough. In addition to working for ISP, he has a business working as a crash reconstruction consultant and expert witness. His clientele has virtually dried up, he said, but he's been encouraged by the support of colleagues.

"I do this because I love doing service for people, and it hurts when it gets so personal," he said. "My job is to make sure the facts get to the court. I like to think I've helped a lot of families understand how they've lost their loved ones, and I'm proud to be an Idaho State Police officer."