WHO WE ARE

Martinelli & Associates, Justice & Forensic Consultants, Inc., is a nationally recognized and highly successful forensic investigations, experting and law enforcement practices training and consulting firm specializing in:

• Forensic investigations, analysis and expert witnessing in civil litigation within the law enforcement, premises liability and security communities.
• Independent Review of high-profile law enforcement incidents resulting in serious uses of police force/deadly force and in-custody deaths.
• Criminal defense and prosecution cases involving laws of arrest, search and seizure, criminal and forensic investigation practices and civilian uses of force/deadly force where self-defense is asserted.
• Law enforcement agency assessments and consulting and training in professional police and corrections practices.

Our Forensic Expert Division

Our Forensic Experts Division is staffed by nationally renowned law enforcement and forensic subject matter experts and investigators qualified in Federal and State Courts, who stand ready to assist you at all stages of discovery and civil or criminal trial.

Independent Review Multi-disciplinary Forensic Death Investigations Team (FDIT)

Martinelli & Associates, Inc. has the nation's only civilian multidisciplinary Forensic Death Investigations Team (FDIT) deployed as either an Independent Review Team, or for investigation, analysis and experting of serious police/corrections uses of force to include officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths.

Our Forensic Death Investigations Team is comprised of highly experienced, nationally prominent homicide investigators, a forensic criminologist/police practices expert, a ballistic scientist, forensic pathologist, toxicologist, forensic video-audiologists, forensic and operational psychologists, a human factors expert and certified crime scene specialists and a crime scene reconstructionist.

Our team uses a multidisciplinary forensic approach using a variety of applied sciences to investigate, analyze and opine of complex, nationally prominent high-profile cases involving serious injuries or death that are law enforcement involved. The team provides consistent, in-depth, non-biased investigative analysis, reporting and testimony that is vastly superior to those provided by federal, state and municipal agencies and privately retained experts.

State of the Art Forensic Laboratories

Martinelli & Associates, Inc. has our own state of the art ballistics, pathology, toxicology, forensic audio-visual, and human factors labs to process and review forensic evidence and to recreate event circumstances in order to render findings and opinions as to what more likely than not occurred during an event.

Independent Review Team - Analysis of Controversial, High-Profile Force-Related Cases

"A Search for the Truth" - Any time a citizen dies during a police encounter, the potential for controversy and political posturing is apparent. The police, survivors of the decedent, the community and the media want and deserve answers as to why the death occurred. However, the most important priority is getting to the most accurate and true fact pattern regarding the circumstances of the encounter; rather than an unfair and biased "political" interpretation of what might have taken place. Enter Martinelli & Associates, Inc.'s Independent Review Team.

Our Independent Review Team (IRT), is comprised of many of the same law enforcement, forensics, scientific, medical and legal experts who are already involved on our multidisciplinary Forensic Death Investigations Team.

The IRT is retained by municipalities and/or by legal bodies desirous of having a truly independent body of law enforcement, scientific, medical and legal professionals assume a case for analysis and opinions to as to proximate and contributing causes of law enforcement involved serious injury or death. The IRT utilizes the same comprehensive, multidisciplinary investigative model to investigate, analyze and opine upon any legal and civil culpability; as well as issues regarding an agency's policies, procedures, training and supervision.

Once retained, the IRT can either take over an investigation, or conducts a parallel investigation using the power of subpoenas.* The Independent Review Team is not pressured, or time compressed to render premature findings and opinions by federal/state/municipal authorities, the media, or hostile citizen groups. The IRT conducts a comprehensive, thorough investigation and analysis and reaches timely findings and opinions that are based upon objective evidence, legal and forensic standards, and reasonable, professional police practices that are recognized by state and national courts of law, professional law enforcement monitoring and training organizations and bodies.

*Subpoena power is pre-agreed upon by the jurisdiction's legal authority.

Benefits of Using our Independent Review Team (IRT)

• Significantly enhances municipal credibility in not being directly involved in the investigation and analysis of the incident.


• Relieves the municipality of political pressures most often caused by biased political interest groups and an uninformed media bent upon forwarding a false narrative.


• Allows professional, no-nonsense IRT media consultants to respond to media questions and concerns in a timely and professional manner, without compromising case evidence or status. Prevents inexperienced municipal government and/or police authorities from making often embarrassing and/or compromising statements; and/or releasing critical evidence that might compromise the investigation.


• A more timely and accurate investigation is conducted by IRT members than by federal, state, or municipal investigative bodies. This is because these agencies generally have a number of other active competing investigations which tend more often than not to diminish investigative resources and create time issues which lengthen investigative time. Conversely, when governmental bodies are time compressed as a result of intense political pressures, they tend to take shortcuts which rarely enhance the accuracy of the fact pattern obtained.
  
  Further, government investigations tend to be far more compartmentalized, using several separate investigative agencies: police, sheriffs, District Attorney investigators, city/county medical examiners, toxicology labs, etc. All of these outside agencies also have their own caseloads that would additionally compete for time, resources and case completion deadlines.


• Far more cost-effective - The Independent Review Team works solely on retainer. Team members are independent, privately retained professionals who are not "benefitted" government employees. Complex, high-profile cases investigated by federal, state, or municipal departments are usually quite expensive, using many investigators and support staff and easily generating hundreds, if not thousands of hours of overtime. Compare these excessive costs, to the more reasonable cost of a single retainer fee absent of overtime, paid benefits, and associated investigative resources.


• Enhanced education, training and experience - It is far more beneficial to retain a group of highly educated, trained and experienced police, scientific, forensic, medical and legal professionals - all qualified in federal and state courts as skilled subject matter experts in the investigation and analysis of complex serious injury and death cases - to hit the ground running; rather than relying on relatively inexperienced detectives, District Attorney investigators and CSI technicians to investigate, analyze and opine on your nationally prominent, controversial high-profile case.

Our police practices experts, homicide investigators, ballistic scientist, operational psychologists, forensic pathologist and general legal counsel are cross-trained and uniquely skilled in the use of force, firearms and force weaponry, mechanisms of injury, officer-involved shootings and in-custody death. All of our experts are multi-certified experts and/or instructors in their specific areas of emphasis. Our Independent Review Team legal counsel is a former U.S. Attorney and civil trial lawyer with 30+ years of experience in the federal/state courts environment, who is specifically experienced in law enforcement practices, laws of arrest, search and seizure, use of force, officer-involved shootings and in-custody death.
• Legal and forensic findings that can be defended - When a credible, timely investigation with findings and opinions that can be forensically and legally defended is needed to explain exactly what happened and to and assuage survivors, the community and the media, the retention of our Independent Review Team is your best choice to move forward with an honest and straight forward resolution of your law enforcement involved incident.