Michael A. Knox, BSME, ACTAR
President & Chief Forensic Consultant
Traffic Accident Reconstruction
Bloodstain Pattern Analysis
Shooting Incident Reconstruction
Crime Scene Reconstruction
Death Investigations
Mr. Knox testifies at the trial of Rasheem Dubose who was ultimately convicted of the murder of eight-year-old Dreshawna Davis, who was struck by a bullet when Dubose and his two brothers fired 29 shots into the house where Davis was watching television.
B.S., Mechanical Engineering (University of North Florida)
Mr. Knox brings with him over fifteen years of experience in law enforcement as a police officer/detective with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office in Florida. Mr. Knox retired from the agency in 2010 to focus his attention on running the firm. Prior to his retirement, Mr. Knox served in the investigations division for ten years working in both the Crime Scene Unit and the Traffic Homicide Unit. Mr. Knox also served for two years as a DUI enforcement officer, and he has dedicated much of his career to traffic investigation and enforcement. Mr. Knox has investigated over 5,000 crime scenes, over 350 death cases, over 350 impaired driving cases and over 500 traffic accidents including over 100 fatal and life-threatening traffic crashes. Mr. Knox has performed detailed traffic crash reconstructions in numerous accident cases, including performing analysis to establish both cause and contribution to the crash. He has performed analysis to deal with such issues as who had the red light, speed contribution, and lane position at time of impact. Mr. Knox has also dealt with extensive crime scene reconstruction cases including police shootings, multiple shooters, and beating deaths. Mr. Knox was selected as police officer of the month for his efforts in reconstructing a severe beating death case and was nominated for the award on two other occasions for his performance as a crime scene investigator.
Mr. Knox received full accreditation as a traffic accident reconstructionist from the Accreditation Commission for Traffic Accident Reconstruction in April 2001. He is a member of the National Association of Traffic Accident Reconstructionists and Investigators, the Society of Automotive Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the International Association of Crime Scene Investigators, and the International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts.
With a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of North Florida, Mr. Knox brings with him a strong combination of technical education and practical experience. During his undergraduate coursework at UNF, Mr. Knox took courses in statics, dynamics, mechanics of materials, thermodynamics, heat transfer, engineering statistics, engineering economics, robotics, finite element modeling, system dynamics, controls, computer-aided drawing, solid modeling, machine design, and computational methods. Mr. Knox also participated in a senior design project dealing with the implementation of a "green" shuttle bus system for the university's campus. Mr. Knox's focus on that project was in the area of data acquisition and analysis from the current shuttle bus system. Mr. Knox implemented a data acquisition system using a laptop computer and an off-the-shelf OBDII interface called Digimoto. Mr. Knox also developed a MATLAB algorithm to parse the logged data and conduct extensive analysis. Mr. Knox has experience using MathCAD, MATLAB, AutoCAD, AutoSketch, CrashZone/CrimeZone, Google SketchUp, Pro-E, NX6 IDEA-S, and LabView. Michael also has computer programming experience in BASIC, C, and MATLAB. He also develops websites using HTML, PHP, and JavaScript. Mr. Knox is also an accomplished woodworker with the skills to build all types of scale models and full-size scene mockups.
Mr. Knox also has an Associate of Science degree in Criminal Justice Technology from Florida Community College at Jacksonville. He has completed over 2,000 hours of specialized law enforcement training at the Institute of Police Technology and Management, the Northeast Florida Criminal Justice Training Center, and the St. Augustine Criminal Justice Academy. Mr. Knox served for four years as the training coordinator for his agency's Crime Scene Unit and taught classes in crime scene procedures, shooting incident reconstruction, death investigations, bloodstain pattern analysis, and crime scene reconstruction. Michael is an adjunct instructor with the Institue of Police Technology and Management in the fields of shooting incident reconstruction, bloodstain pattern analysis, and traffic crash reconstruction. Mr. Knox also teaches crime scene courses internationally for Sirchie Fingerprint Laboratories, Inc., and has traveled to Dubai and Peru to provide training to officials in those countries.
Mr. Knox has spent hundreds of hours testifying at trial, in motion hearings, in deposition, and in driver improvement hearings and has provided detailed testimony in homicide, robbery, impaired driving, traffic accident, and other felony cases in both the criminal and civil arenas. Mr. Knox has provided expert deposition and trial testimony in the areas of traffic accident reconstruction, crime scene reconstruction, shooting incidents, bloodstain pattern analysis, and photogrammetry in state and federal courts in Florida, Texas, and Alabama.
Mr. Knox has published several impaired driving-related articles in such periodicals as the Calibre Press Street Survival Newsline, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Patrol News, and Southern Lawman Magazine. He is coauthor of an electronic crime scene training book entitled Crime Scene Processing.
Mr. Knox is an experienced crime scene photographer with hundreds of hours behind a camera. He is fully capable of photographing even the most challenging forensic evidence. He has extensive experience with laser mapping using both Sokkia Total Station and LTI laser equipment. He has drawn hundreds of diagrams for both crime scene and traffic homicide investigations using CrashZone/CrimeZone software.
Mr. Knox regularly presents crime scene investigation lectures to community and school groups. He has appeared before such groups as the Sheriff's Advisory Committee (SHADCO), Sisters in Crime, the Citizen's Police Academy, and Mandarin High School forensic science students. Mr. Knox has appeared on several local news broadcasts dealing with impaired driving. He has also presented impaired driving education for the United States Navy.
Michael F. LaForte
Senior Forensic Consultant
Crime Scene Processing & Procedures
Crime Scene Reconstruction
Bloodstain Pattern Analysis
Shooting Incident Reconstruction
Death Scene Analysis
Michael F. LaForte retired from the Jacksonville (FL) Sheriff's Office in August 2003 after more than 29 years of service.
From 1975 to 1988, Mr. LaForte worked in patrol riding beats in downtown Jacksonville and on the city's Eastside. He was Police Officer of the Month in November 1982. In November 1983, Mr. LaForte was awarded the Medal of Valor for his actions in a bank robbery and shootout while off duty.
In July 1988, Mr. LaForte transferred to the Crime Scene Unit. He has investigated over 9500 crime scenes and has taken more than 150,000 crime scene photographs. Since that time, he has processed more than 800 death scenes which include more than 500 homicide scenes. In November 1993, Mr. LaForte recovered bloody fingerprints from a deceased human body using only an alternate light source and photography. The fingerprints were identified through AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System), and the suspect was in custody within 24 hours. The suspect confessed to the murder, as well as two others, making him a serial killer.
From March 2001 until his retirement, Mr. LaForte was assigned as the instructor and training coordinator for the JSO Crime Scene Unit. He oversaw all training for the unit's 27 crime scene detectives, as well as training detective personnel from other units, patrol officers and police recruit classes on crime scene procedures. In October 2000, Mr. LaForte was again awarded Police Officer of the Month for his work at numerous homicide scenes.
During his fifteen years as a crime scene investigator, Mr. LaForte attended numerous schools for crime scene processing, photography, entomology, buried bodies, traffic homicide investigations and death scene investigations.
Mr. LaForte is a certified instructor through Florida's Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission. He is an adjunct instructor for crime scene programs with the Institute of Police Technology and Management and an adjunct instructor at Florida Community College at Jacksonville teaching law enforcement and crime scene procedures to recruits at the Northeast Florida Criminal Justice Training Center. He is a member of the International Association for Identification and the Florida Division of the International Association for Identification.
Mr. LaForte has trained law enforcement personnel from around the United States and in Peru.