Forensic Video Analysis Report August 24, 2016

Transcription

1 Forensic Video Analysis Report August 24, 2016 McCourt Video Analysis and Investigation Inc McCourtVideo.com 1 1 of 11

2 Report and Findings Background: My name is Conor McCourt. I am a professionally trained, court certified and experienced Forensic Video Analyst and New York State licensed Private Investigator. I am a retired sergeant from the New York City Police Department s Counterterrorism Division, Lower Manhattan Security Initiative (LMSI). I was a daytime supervisor of NYPD s City wide data analysis LMSI command center, centering on video. I have supervised and conducted forensic video analysis, video recovery and forensic comparisons on thousands of video cases. I am the Owner of McCourt Video Analysis and Investigations Inc. I was contacted by Attorney Erin O Leary to examine and review a digital video submitted to them by opposing counsel in the matter of Juan Ajpop v. SCI, SCI Funeral Services et al. File CWC. I have prepared the following forensic video report with images in a word format. Images contained in the report are for reference only. This report will be saved as a PDF for review. Additionally, I am providing my report in a digital PDF format on DVD, for viewing on a computer screen, so the small detail contained in the images can be seen. The printed version, while acceptable for quick review, loses critical detail and is not best evidence. Evidence provide for examination: Below, a screen capture of the video/digital folders/files contained on a disc provided to me: I duplicated exact copies of the two question AVI files, without changing the contents of the submitted evidence in any way, on to my computer. I preserved the submitted evidence disc for future examination. The AVI, Audio Video Interleaved (also Audio Video Interleave), known by its initials AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows software. The avi video files play properly for simple review in VLC digital video software player. VLC media player is a portable, free and open-source, crossplatform media player and streaming media server written by the VideoLAN project. The first video file, named 30 Nelson Avenue cam 4.avi, is 11 minutes 14 seconds in length consisting of images. The frame rate per second is unknown. The dimensions of the video image sequence are 464x320. The image sequence does not contain audio. This file will be identified as C4 in this report. 2 2 of 11

3 The second file, 30 Nelson Avenue cam 5.avi is 9 minutes and 25 seconds in length, consisting of images. The frame rate is unknown. The dimensions of the image are 464x320. The image sequence does not contain audio. This video file will be identified as C5 in this report. I have been asked by counsel to examine video sequences, focusing on C5. I have been asked to make observations regarding the circumstances a fall by a person (hereto known as Person A ), identified to me as Mr. Juan Ajpop. Review and Process: Upon simple visual review, playing the sequence from beginning to end, the video shows in the upper right part of the image, a daylight sequence beginning with a ladder leaning against a building, no people visible. A person (Person A) appears in the image, then falls to the ground, taking the ladder to the ground during that fall. People subsequently come to person A s aid and re-erect the ladder. Two apparent coworkers (Person B and Person C) then descend the re-erected ladder. The video contains no visual time and date reference. The fall and subsequent two ladder descents all occur in the upper right area of the video image. The video runs at a reduced frame rate, which could be a variable 1-4 images per second but is difficult to determine. This difficulty in time determination is due to the lack of a visual time reference. This simple review was conducted using VLC media player. VLC media player is a portable, free and open-source, crossplatform media player and streaming media server written by the VideoLAN project. Daylight scene C5 pre-accident I then imported C5 into input Ace forensic video analysis software. input Ace is primarily used as an investigative Dynamic Video Workflow Engine for forensic video analysis for Law Enforcement. I captured the video as a full frame uncompressed MOV. MOV is an MPEG-4 video container and also a common multimedia format which often uses a proprietary compression algorithm developed by Apple Computer. In this case, no additional compression was used, to preserve the integrity of the detail in the image. It is mainly used in Apple's Quicktime for saving movies and other video files, compatible with both Macintosh and Windows platforms. Quicktime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Quicktime was developed in This Full frame uncompressed MOV file allows for proper video forensic examination without changing the original AVI file. Utilizing input 3 3 of 11

4 Ace and Quicktime pro software I was able to control the sequence image by image, stepping through the sequence using the left and right arrow keys. Using the newly created uncompressed MOV file I was able to step through the sequence of two people, apparent coworkers (hereto known as Persons B and Person C ), descending the ladder subsequent to Person A s fall. These two recorded ladder descents by Person B and Person C visually demonstrate what a ladder descent looks like minutes after Person A falls. The men descending the ladder are using the same ladder, in the similar daylight conditions in the same area. The digital recording system is the same. The two known actions (the descents of the ladder) are preserved visually on the same video sequence as the Person A s fall. It is an apples to apples comparison. This creates an excellent and reliable scenario for forensic video comparison and analysis. Known Sequences: The known sequences are the sequences showing the descent of the ladder, post-accident, by two men, Person B and Person C, in succession. This action occurs at the top right area of the image: the people, Person B and Person C climb off the roof onto the ladder and descend. It shows their respective legs appearing on the ladder from the roof area followed by more of their body until each person is fully visible on the ladder. Using the export function of QuickTime Pro, I exported still or sequential uncompressed TIF picture images from the sequences. TIF file, stands for Tagged Image File Format. TIF files are a common file format for images. I was able to locate the moment in the sequence where their legs first appear on the ladder and the image(s) before. Above: Image before descent of ladder with close up (no person on ladder). 4 4 of 11

5 Person B beginning descent of the ladder Above: Close up, same image, Person B beginning descent of the ladder. 5 5 of 11

6 Above: Person C beginning descent at the top of the ladder Above: Person C beginning descent on the top of ladder, same image close up. 6 6 of 11

7 No person. Person B beginning descent of ladder Person C beginning descent of ladder. The above two images depicting Person B and C demonstrates what it looks like on the recorded video when people are descending the ladder. 7 7 of 11

8 The above shows the first (above) of two images of the accident pre-fall, the first showing no person. and the second image (above) showing a part of the Person A s body at the ladder. 8 8 of 11

9 Image of a Person A at the ladder: close up of accident sequence pre-fall. 9 9 of 11

10 Compare: Above: Beginning of accident sequence: no person.then Person A Above: Beginning of exemplar descent, no person.then Person B descending ladder. Above: Beginning of exemplar descent two, no person.person C descending ladder of 11

11 Conclusions: There is a direct visual correlation between the known images of the two people, Person B and Person C descending the ladder just minutes after the fall and the first images of Person A before the fall. The visual video comparisons indicate that Person A, who fell in the video, fell while descending/standing on the ladder not from the roof. The above opinions are to a based upon a reasonable degree of professional certanty. Submitted Respectfully, Conor McCourt McCourt Video Analysis and Investigations, Inc of 11