Audio, visual elements aid in court

Ralph Plank has seen 30 years of change in audio technology - and his newest software is the same platform used by some of the big dogs in law enforcement, including the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Plank, who also does traditional audio recording and writes advertising jingles for radio and television through Springfield-based Plank Productions Inc., also provides audio clean-up services, referred to in the legal field as forensic audio enhancement, for members of the legal profession.

Plank recently added a new version of Sound Expert computer software to his arsenal. The technology also is used by the New York Police Department.

"It's different from standard recording software. It has different filters and spectrum analysis tools that a regular recording studio doesn't have," Plank said, adding that the combination of the software, sound-editing equipment and computers costs "well into six figures."

Filtering the noise

The process is simple. Plank receives an audio file - either from a cassette, compact disc or the sound track of a video - and makes a copy.

He then determines what noises are making the conversation difficult to discern and, using his computer software, eliminates the unwanted noises, thereby enhancing the conversations. His clients are then able to transcribe discussions for presentation in court.

"We do not edit the audio in any way - we don't cut into it or rearrange anything," Plank said. "We just enhance the existing recording. That way, the opposition in a courtroom can't challenge the findings."

Plank charges $80 an hour for the process, which usually takes between one and five hours, not including a one-hour consultation.

Springfield attorney Teresa Grantham has used Plank's services many times, including numerous criminal defense cases where she relies on audio recordings taken from police patrol cars during an arrest. She said audio forensics help ensure that judge and jury clearly understand what is happening.

"Someone like Ralph can be so helpful in formatting those recordings so that they can be presented in a way that people can hear them," she said, noting that digital audio technology also makes it easier for her to remove extraneous or irrelevant information. "Often recordings are very long - you may want to show a judge or jury a portion of a recording that is a minute long, but no one has the interest level to listen to 29 minutes of dead space."

A clear picture

The need for technology in the courtroom, however, goes beyond sound.

Michelle Beach of Michelle Beach Consulting LLC has been providing forensic animation for vehicle accident and medical injury cases for nearly 10 years. Beach, who previously did architectural animations for Springfield-based H Design Group LLC, said the information she uses to construct her animations is provided by expert witnesses who enlist her to bring the raw data to life.

"As the animator, it's your job to take that data and apply it to the model you've created," she said. "You're creating one image every 30 seconds and then you stream those images together and get animation."

Beach said her services are more expensive than audio work. A basic animation starts at about $3,500, depending on the amount of data that must be incorporated.

Among her clients is Joplin personal injury attorney Roger Johnson, who said that, in those cases, complex medical concepts are often better explained visually.

"We'll send (Beach) copies of actual films - magnetic resonance images, X-rays - along with copies of the reports from radiology physicians interpreting those injuries, and she translates that into a visual that allows the jury to more vividly see what's going on in the body," Johnson said.

Visual complexity

Beach said visual representations in the courtroom are getting more complex. Computer simulations can recreate entire events at real speed or in slow motion, and interactive models are allowing expert witnesses to add pictures to their words.

"If someone has been in an accident and suffered a complicated fracture to the femur, and the expert wants to explain to a jury what forces were involved, I can build that fracture in 3-D and create an interactive model that the expert can control and manipulate," Beach said.

Johnson noted a December case where a patient had undiagnosed rib fractures that led to fluid buildup in his lungs.

"The man continued to be sent back to work by his workers' compensation doctor over a 10-day time frame, during which his lungs were slowly collapsing because of the fluid buildup," Johnson said. He added that visual depictions that Beach created of the man's injuries led to the jury awarding the patient $550,000.

Having visuals to present to jurors is crucial to making sure everyone is well-educated on the situation, Johnson said.

"When you hear a doctor testify about a subarachnoid hemorrhage, that's a complex term to understand if you're not medically inclined," he said. "But to be able to show them what a subarachnoid hemorrhage is at the same time we're telling them about it, it helps them understand the evidence."