Criminal law, Justice, Society

Audio Experts: Cries For “Help” On 911 Tapes Not Zimmerman’s

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

The  chair emeritus for the American Board of Recorded Evidence, Tom Owen, and Ed Primeau, a Michigan-based audio engineer and forensics expert, have independently concluded that the furtive pleas for help clearly heard on the 911 tapes are not George Zimmerman’s. Both acknowledged experts used voice enhancing software, but different techniques, to rate the probability of the voice being Zimmerman’s at no more than 48%.  A 90% match is considered scientifically reliable.

In a report published by the Orlando Sentinel, Owen said he derived his conclusions based on biometric analysis. “It basically just means using personal characteristics for identification. A fingerprint scanner is an example of a biometric device. Much as the ridges of a human hand produce a fingerprint, each human voice has unique, distinguishable traits, Owen says. ‘They’re all particular to the individual.'” The expert recently used the technique to identify the accused killer of Sheila Davalloo in a 911 call made almost a decade ago.

 Owen, who also served as the chief engineer for the New York Public Library’s Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, said that, “as a result of [the testing], you can say with reasonable scientific certainty that it’s not Zimmerman.”

Ed Primeau agreed but went further, saying that, under the known circumstances, ” I believe that’s Trayvon Martin in the background, without a doubt. That’s a young man screaming.”  Primeau used the technique of voice enhancement to reach his conclusion. Unlike biometric analysis, his method does require an in-context sample of the voice for testing.

An article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer published in 2010 describes the 66-year-old Owen and his cohort, Stuart Allen, this way:

 [The pair have] more than six decades of experience between them in the forensic audio profession. They’ve worked with the FBI and other federal agencies, police departments, private detectives, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and news organizations. Many courts have designated them as expert witnesses. They’re good friends who sometimes are on opposing sides, but respect each other’s abilities. “Both of us are known as sort of contrarians,” Owen said.

Primeau is a former sound engineer in the movie industry who worked with pop stars Anita Baker, Bob Seger, and Barry Manilow.  Primeau has over thirty years of experience in voice identification and is a registered investigator for the American College of Forensic Examiners. He describes his work in voice identification as:

There can sometimes be differences in speech patterns that can help identify clues in your identification puzzle.  I look for several similarities as well as differences, nasal resonance differences, voice tone with regard to inflection both similarities and differences.

The test results seem to present another blow to Zimmerman’s credibility who claimed that it was his voice on the tape —  and not the African-American teen  — heard crying out for help mere seconds before the fatal gun shot.

It is likely that similar audio testing is being conducted by the FBI’s Digital Evidence Laboratory’s Forensic Audio, Video, and Image Analysis Unit, based in Quantico, Virginia. Should they reach the same conclusions as Owen and Primeau, Zimmerman would almost certainly face charges in the death. An opposite result would go a long way in substantiating his claim of self-defense.

Source; msnbc; Orland Sentinel; Cleveland Plain Dealer

~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

320 thoughts on “Audio Experts: Cries For “Help” On 911 Tapes Not Zimmerman’s”

  1. OS:

    “Alex Karras and Dick Butkus”

    *******************

    I knew Alex Karrass and Dick Butkis (at least their play on Sundays). Zimmerman is no Karras or Butkis who wouldn’t need a gun to subdue a kid they outweighed by 80 pounds. No, Zimmerman’s a busybody with a firearm; a candy ass with a police scanner looking for some Walter Mitty-like adventure. He found it and didn’t like what he saw. And Trayvon Martin is dead.

  2. MES

    CNN Walks It Back: Oops, Zimmerman Didn’t Say ‘Coon,’ He Said It Was ‘Cold’!

    NBC isn’t the only network slinking away from overcooking the case against George Zimmerman’s alleged racism. On the March 21 edition of Anderson Cooper 360, a CNN audio expert enhanced Zimmerman’s 9-1-1 call and suggested he had used a racial slur, “f–ing coon,” as he was following Trayvon Martin. Reporter Gary Tuchman asserted: “It certainly sounds like that word to me.”

    Two weeks later on the same show on April 4, CNN re-assessed the tape with another CNN expert, and now felt it suggests George Zimmerman was just chilly, muttering the words “f–ing cold” under his breath. Tuchman explained: “The reason some say that would be relevant is because it was unseasonably cold in Florida that night and raining.

    TUCHMAN: It sounds like — and we wanted to leave it up to the viewer — but it sounds like we’re hearing the swear word at first and then the word cold. And the reason some say that would be relevant is because it was unseasonably cold in Florida that night and raining. So that is what some supporters of Zimmerman are saying, that that would make sense if he was saying the word cold.

    Once again, Cooper turned to Toobin, who said he, too, had changed his mind: “This is also a good example of why it’s important to take your time. I remember when Gary Tuchman did his first report on it and I sat here with Anderson and I thought I heard C-O-O-N. But this certainly sounds like cold. The FBI has the best enhancement facilities in the world. Again, everybody wants this case to be wrapped up tomorrow. This just shows why it’s important to say, let’s get all the best evidence we can.”

    http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2012/04/06/cnn-walks-it-back-oops-zimmerman-didnt-say-coon-he-said-it-was-cold

    YOU HAVE BEEN DUPED

  3. OS Thanks but Zimmerman didn’t weigh 250.

    NBC Fires Producer of Misleading Zimmerman Tape
    By BRIAN STELTER

    NBC News has fired a producer who was involved in the production of a misleading segment about the Trayvon Martin case in Florida.

    The person was fired on Thursday, according to two people with direct knowledge of the disciplinary action who declined to be identified discussing internal company matters. They also declined to name the fired producer. A spokeswoman for NBC News declined to comment.

    http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/nbc-fires-producer-of-misleading-zimmerman-tape/

  4. Hey OS,

    Do they allow anyone that has taken a course in how to fly a plane, fly a plane?

    Or anyone that says they have good eyesight drive a car?

    It should be pretty easy to devise a double-blinded test that can easily determine if a voice identification expert witness has any real ability to identify voices. Same thing with Tom Owen’s machine.

    Not sure how many people are in the voice identification industry, but I bet you could charge a bundle for their taking the test and being certified by your organization.

    Screw Frye and Daubert, if you can show that Tom Owens can correctly identify 93 out of 100 voice samples in a double blind study devised by you and some PhD experts, what court wouldn’t allow that in?

    And, if you come up with such a test, what court would allow anyone in that wouldn’t take it?

  6. Always a master of the ultimate comeback quip Gene, you must be hell on cross-examination.

  7. You’re a lot of things, anon, but a lawyer isn’t one of them. The rest of it does fit you pretty well though. Congratulations! Recognizing you have a problem is the first step in getting treatment.

  8. “What do you call a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image and emotions combined with impulsive behavior, intense and often irrational anger, a significant and persistent unstable self-image or sense of self and transient paranoid thoughts or severe dissociative symptoms?”

    A member of the bar.

  9. Mespo, do you realize that 250 pounds is exactly the same as the playing weight of both Alex Karras and Dick Butkus?

  10. Damn. You guys scared him off. I’ll have a dickens of a time finding another one as crazy as that one..

    Gotta go catch some Masters highlights. My money is on Boom Boom.

  12. That new lawyer must really want to emasculate his client in front of the public. Oh, my! The 140 pound unarmed kid got the best of my 250 pound self and shook me. Candy ass.

    Shaken Baby? Baby Huey, maybe.

  13. Gene, I think you already know what I call people like that. I have interviewed enough death row inmates to recognize that pattern.

  14. The floor is yours, my esteemed friend Mr Horsha . . . er . . . Esposito.

  15. Gene H:

    “What do you call a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image and emotions combined with impulsive behavior, intense and often irrational anger, a significant and persistent unstable self-image or sense of self and transient paranoid thoughts or severe dissociative symptoms?”

    *********************

    Oooo…Oooo… Mr. Gene let me answer! I was just in the field with one.

  16. OS:

    I suspect we’ll see a claim reasonable fear for his safety caused by an avalanche of Skittles and iced tea. I understand that, even now, Zimmerman, anon, and the new lawyer are trying to find an expert in confectionery inertia.

  18. OS,

    What do you call a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image and emotions combined with impulsive behavior, intense and often irrational anger, a significant and persistent unstable self-image or sense of self and transient paranoid thoughts or severe dissociative symptoms?

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