EXHIBIT P 

Cited portions of Deposition of Charles Lambdin dated 

08/10/2011, taken in Lana R. Canen v. State of Indiana, 

Elkhart Circuit Court, Cause No. 20C01-0908-PC-00018 

USDC IN/ND case 3:14-cv-00315-RL document 42-16 filed 09/10/15 page 1 of 13
STÀTE OF INDIANA

IN THE ELKHART CIRCUIT COURT

LA}IÀ R CANEN.

PetíÈioner,

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-vs' - Cause No.

20c01-0908-Pc-1-8

STATE OF INDIAI{A, 20c0L- 0409 -MR- 118

Respondent.

The Deposition of CHÀRLES LAMBDIN

Date:

Time:

Place:

Wednesday, Àugust 10, 2OLL

2zL3 orclock p.m.

Elkhart County ProsecuÈor's Office

301 South Maín Street

El-khart, Indiana

CaIled as

aecordance

Procedure,

a witness by the Petitíoner in

with the Indíana Rul-es of Ciwil

pursuant to Notice.

Before

Notary

CoIIeen

Public, R. Fínctrum, Court Reporter St,. ,-Toseph CounÈy, Indiana

MIDWEST REPORTING. INC.

L44A Lincolnway East

South Bend, Indiana 466L3 (s74) 288-4242

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APPEARÀNCES:

MS CARJA SCHAEFER WIENEKE

lllieneke Law Office, LLC PosÈ Offíse Box 188

Pl-ainfield, Indiana 46L68

On behalf of the Petitíoneri

MR. DAVID t. FRIIIVCISCO

Elkhart County Prosecutorrs Office

Deputy Prosecutíng AttorneY

301 SouÈh Main Street

Elkhart, Indiana 465L6

On behal-f of the Respondent.

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Forensíc science.

NoÈ to daÈe you, buÈ is that a long time â9o, like

in ttre

ftrd be L969, t97O, .7L.

All right. And then af t,er college where did you

work?

f was working at t,he police deparÈment at the time

I went to college.

Which police department?

Elktrart City.

Okay. So you took that job right afÈer colJ-ege, so

probably in '70, t7L?

No. No. I came Èo Elkhart in L969. f had retired

from the military and I came to ElkharÈ in | 69 and

joined Èhe police department and they senL me to

college for a year.

To the forensic studies program?

Yeah.

So you started workíng for Èhe police department.

And how long did you work there?

20 years and three montfrs.

So from 1969r 1rorr said, on for 20 years?

Yes, to 1-990 .

What, were your duties t,here?

I started off I had been arr electronic

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a Now, when you say you filed them, you mean fiLed

them away?

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Uh- huh.

And then l-ater you would wit,hdraw them íf Èhere was

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a crtme or

found?

something that there was a latent print

Yeal¡.

Okay.

Yeah.

The FBI fingerprínting c1ass, díd it deal wíth

justr 1rou know, general classífyÍng or did it al-so

deal wit,h how Èo do l-atent print examinationg and

comparísons, if you reme¡nber?

I remember aII of it, yeat¡. Yeah.

Now, when you worked for EJ.khart were you

considered a fuII tíme latent prínt examiner or did

you hawe otl¡er duties, ês weII?

Other dutíes. Yeat¡, I was a crime scene

investígator that cowered rape¡, robberies,

homícídes, and suicides.

So that was your officíal t,ítle when you last, were

there, críme scene investígator?

Right. Before iÈ was poplar.

It, is popJ-ar.

And how long were you a CSI?

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a Okay. Hawe you heard of something cal-led

ridgeol-ogy?

Nope.

All right. Now, I want to ask you a IíUÈle bit

about Lanars case in specific. How did you fÍrst

become inwolwed in her, case?

oh.

Our case today, yeah.

Oh, yes. Okay.

Sorry about that.

Yes. I was called by Bí11 Clark, an investígator

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for what was hís

MR.

Yeaïr,

name that passed away?

FRANCISCO: BrCNT ZOOK?

A Brent Zook. Brent Zook. A public defender,

I beliewe.

BY MS. V{IIENEKE:

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Has BiIt always been a PD ínvestigator or was Ïre a

police officer before?

He was a políce offieer. We worked together on the

potíce departmenÈ, yeah. Not as a deÈectíwe, but

he as a patrolman, Ítê aa a deÈective.

Okay. What do you know what hie before he

went Èo Èhe public defender's office, do you know

did he eventuaJ.J.y become a detecÈiwe or did he just

al.ways sÈay a patroLman?

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I beliewe he was always a patrolman.

And then iÈ looks like okay, so Bi].l C1ark, díd

he contact you specifically?

Yes. Called me at home.

Okay. Gotcha. And you said, aLso, that you knew

Clyde Brown and he worked with you for some time?

He was my assistant for many years, yeah.

Do you know this thís offense Trappened back in

2OO2. Do you know if Mr. Brown, was tre stÍt1

working for the police deparÈment at t,hat time?

2002?

2OO2 to 2005 is sort of when the ínvestigation was

going on.

I retired in L990 and he was still on the

department. IIe may hawe been off the department

and retíred and was working for the publíc

defender, also.

Okay. Because I t,hink he did start workíng with

the pubJ.ic defender at some point, ríght,? I donrt

know if hers stiIl there. Is he still t,here?

I thínk so.

Okay. AtJ. right. So you get Èhís phone call from

Mr. Cl-ark. $fÏ¡at does tre tel-l you?

He want,ed to know if I would come in and compare a

latenÈ prínt wit,h a known print.

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Díd he teII you who the known prinÈ was of?

Hutr-uh.

And I assume you said yes?

Uh- huh .

And then what did you

No, I saíd no, I did not know who it was.

Oh, Irm sorry. I meant I assume you said Yêei,

you would come in and compare, do Èhe comparison?

Yes, I did. I meant comíng ín.

And then what happened? Do you remember

approximately wtren you came in and did Èhat?

No, I donrt. I donrt right offhand.

IfI

Becar¡se I have no paperwork on that,. This was

real-l-y pretty casual and informal-.

Do you remember where you went to do the

comparison?

EIkharL County Sheriff 's Department.

I think on Èhe phone you told me that it was aÈ Èhe

jail. Was t,hat at the t,ime the s€¡me pJ-ace

Yes.

and the s€rrne building?

Gotcha. Ànd r guesrs it stíll is, right, íE I

remember.

So you go down to the sheriff's department.

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And did you meeÈ wiÈh anybody there?

A Yes. I met, with a uníform officer who, I guess,

was also a crime scene ínvestigator. I donrt

recall his name.

A Vifould ít have been Detective Borden

A Yes.

A does that, sound famíIiar?

A Yes, t,hat sounds familíar.

A Okay. Or could it have been DetecÈive Chapman? Or

do you know Mr. Chapman?

A I don I t know eÍÈher one of ttrem.

a So you meet with the uniformed officer. And did he

sit, you somewhere or

A Yeah, we went ínto a privaÈe office and sat down as

we are now, and he brought me tt¡e fingerprínt card

and the laÈent print.

A And what exaetly díd he bring you? He brought you

one latent print and Èhen how many fingerprínt

cards, just, one?

A (Wi tness nodding head . )

A Díd he bríng you a t,en print

Sorry, is thaÈ a yes, are you sayíng yes when

you nodr is that

À Yes.

a Okay. And was iÈ a ten print card or wac¡ it just

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one one known fíngerprínt, one known rolled

print?

The latent print?

The Latent prínt was on a l-ifter

On a ]-ifter.

Tt¡e other one, Ïrow wae it

Was on a standard fingerprint card like we used

down at our sLat,ion, I gruess a statewíde print

probably.

So there I d be some ten prints and Èhen probabLy

some palms?

Right,.

Gotcha. Okay. And then and there was onJ.y one

ten print card or were Èhere more?

One.

One. Díd it, Ïrawe a name on íts?

rrm pretty Eure it did. I didn¡t recall it unti]. I

seen Èhe name, but I t,hink it said Lana Canen.

And were you asked to eompare alL ten prínts Èo tt¡e

latent or were you asked to compare a part,icular

one to the lat,ent?

No, looked at al-l of them.

Okay. Were you told that somebody had Èhat one

of the fingerprint examíners had al-ready made an

identification or díd you eomehow know that?

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A I t,hínk s¡omeone el-se had l-ooked at ít and narrowed

it down, yes.

Okay. Ànd when you looked at the prints

side-by-síde, what was your concLusion, what did

you decíde?

WeLl-, Èhere wag one one print, and I donrt

remember at, Èhis time whích prinÈ it was, but I

bel-íewe it was eít,her the litt1e finger or Èt¡e one

next, the ring fínger, that was very símilar in

nature Èo the latent print,.

Okay. Díd you take any notes or anything wtriJ-e you

were doing ít or were you just looking?

,Just l-ooking.

okay. Do you know, did you fínd any particul-ar

points of comparison or were you just doing sort of

a just a quíck

!rlel-L, I was doing ít sorÈ of quick to narrow ít

down to tt¡e to the one finger and then I started

tryíng to get points off of ít. And iÈ ít was a

very small print, it was a very partial print, ít

wasnrÈ a fuIl prínt and

And you I re ref erring to tt¡e lat,ent when you

The lat,ent, the l-at,enÈ was a very small, partíal

prinÈ, and there appeared to ¡ne to be seweral of

them that I woul-d say were the stame.

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a Okay. Díd you

the first time,

wag a match?

íf you were gettíng thís case for

is your conclusíon then that Lhat

MR. FR.jANCISCO: ObjeeÈ'íon.

Itrs calling for speculatíon. Itrs

a].so I donrt beliewe therers

adequate foundat,ion for this

particular question.

BY MS. WIENEKE:

A Maybe I should reptrrase a líÈtl-e bít.

After doing your examination did you conclude

that t,his was a match, that the two prints maÈched?

A The prínts were cl-ose enough ín nature t'hat I

couLdn I t say no and I couldn | È say yes.

A So tl¡ere were some símil-aríties but you would not

hawe but you werenrt comfortable saying Yês'

this is a matchr ís that

A No. No. BuÈ I would not have had it ttrrown âlrlâ1rr

either. My suggestion shoul-d've been I didnrL

do this, but I should'we Èold Èhem to refer it to

the state police or the FBI for beÈÈer anal-ysis due

to Èhe ímprowement of the equipment Èo check

f ingerprints today whích I didn' t Ìrave when I was

in that.

A Let me ask you thís. If I undersÈand rigtrt, there

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USDC IN/ND case 3:14-cv-00315-RL document 42-16 filed 09/10/15 page 12 of 13
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CERTIFICJI'TE

I, Colleen R. Finchum, a Notary Pub].íc, in

and for the County of SÈ. iloseptr and State of Indiana, do hereby certify:

That, CIIARITES LAI4BDIN appeared before me on

Tuesday, August 10, 20LL, and was duly sworn to testífy the Èruth, the whol-e truth, and nothing buÈ Èhe truth Èo quesÈions propounded at the

taking of the foregoing deposition in a cause

xrow pending and undeÈermined ín saíd courti

That I further cerÈífy I then and there

report,ed stenographical-J-y the proceedings at the said time and place; that the proceedings were then transcribed from my original shorthand noÈes; and Èhat t,he foregoing typewritten transcrípt is a true and correct record thereof.

That I am not a relative or empl-oyee of

aLtor¡rey or counsel, nor a relaÈive or employee of such attorney or counsel for any of Èhe partíes hereto, rlor am I inÈeresÈed directly or indirectly in the outcome of this action.

IN WITNESS VIIHEREOF, f hawe hereunto

seÈ my Notarial seal thís

or *l-# o^-!,¿l

qtL day

2OLL, A.D

I

Fínch

Notary Pub1ic, State of Indiana

Residence: St,. iloseptr County

My Commission Expires: 11-08-16

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