Forensic Toxicology Blog
Evidence-based articles about toxicology, expert testimony, legal developments, alcohol, drugs, and forensic testing.
Kitagawa Balloon Test: History, Validation and Limitations
The Kitagawa balloon test, more precisely the Kitagawa-Wright detector-tube method, is sometimes treated in courtrooms and older case files as if it were a scientifically grounded measurement of blood-alcohol concentration . It is not. The most striking feature of the historical record is that the…
Why Doesn’t Blood Ferment in Living People?
Short answer: Blood in a healthy living person does not behave like a fermentation vessel because it normally contains no stable, growing microbial community. Microbes that enter briefly are usually removed by immune defenses, the liver, and the spleen before they can establish an infection. Oxygen, blood flow, and glucose…
Eleven Scientists, Two Years, and Unanswered Questions
A string of deaths and disappearances among America’s most sensitive aerospace and nuclear researchers has triggered a federal investigation — and raised questions that demand more than silence.
Stop-and-Identify Laws: When Must You Identify Yourself?
Your obligation — or lack thereof — to identify yourself to law enforcement depends heavily on where you are and why you were stopped.
Unusual Sex Laws: What the Statutes Actually Say
Unusual Statutes Governing Intimate Conduct and Personal Freedoms
BAC and Impaired-Driving Laws: A State-by-State Overview
BAC presumption statutes that codify evidentiary presumptions tied to the 0.05% BAC threshold
Why Urine and Blood Drug Levels Do Not Prove Impairment
Lack of Correlation Between Urine Drug Levels, Blood Drug Levels, and Impairment
Commission on Judicial Performance Excerpts Concerning Judge Draper
This article reviews cited records, source materials and commentary concerning Commission on Judicial Performance Excerpts Concerning Judge Draper. It distinguishes allegations and opinions from procedural history or adjudicated findings where the available sources permit.
Judge Robert S. Draper Misconduct Allegations: Part Two
This article reviews cited records, source materials and commentary concerning Judge Robert S. Draper Misconduct Allegations: Part Two. It distinguishes allegations and opinions from procedural history or adjudicated findings where the available sources permit.
Judge Robert S. Draper: CJP Charges and 2026 Case Status
This article reviews cited records, source materials and commentary concerning Judge Robert S. Draper: CJP Charges and 2026 Case Status. It distinguishes allegations and opinions from procedural history or adjudicated findings where the available sources permit.
Counsel’s Effective Answer to a Trial Challenge
[When] asked whether the FBI’s decision to test hair for cocaine demonstrates such tests are generally accepted as being reliable in the scientific community, Okorocha disagreed, stating the FBI uses other procedures, such as polygraph, which are not generally accepted as reliable. Imperial Cty.…
When Courts Quote Expert-Witness Analysis
Plaintiffs called Okorie Okorocha, a forensic toxicologist and lawyer, to testify to the testing performed on the fluid samples taken from Andrade’s body. He rendered opinions on both the methamphetamine and alcohol testing and what he viewed as flaws in the resulting evidence.
