EXHIBIT C 

Cited portions of Deposition of Dennis Chapman 

dated 09/07/2011 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 42-3 filed 09/10/15 page 1 of 12
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STATE OF INDTA}IÀ

IN THE ELKHART CIRCUIT COURT

LANA R. CANEN.

PetiÈiorler,

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STATE OF INDIAI{A.

Respondent.

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Cause No.

20c01-0908-Pc-18

20c01-0409-MR-118

The Deposítíon of DETECTI DENNIS CIIAPITIAN

Date:

Time:

P1ace:

Wednesday, September 7, 2OLL

1: 04 o I clock p.m.

Elkhart County Prosecutorrg Office

301 South Main Street

E1khart, Indíana

Cal-l-ed as a witness by the PeÈitioner Ín

accordance wit,tr the Indiana Trial- Rules,

pursuant Èo Notice.

Before Coll-een R.

Notary Public, St

Fínchrrm, Court Reporter

iloseph County, Indiana

MIDWEST REPORTING, TNC.

L448 Lincolnway East,

SouÈtr Bend, Indiana 466L3

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(s74) 288-4242

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APPEARJA.NCES:

MS. CARJA SCHAEFER WIENEKE

SpeciaJ- Assistant to the

State PublÍc Defender

Wieneke Law Offíce, LLC

Post Office Box 188

Plainfield, Indiana 46L68

On bet¡a1f of the Petitioneri

MR. DÀVID L. FRAI$CISCO E1kharÈ County Progecutor's Offíce DepuÈy Prosecutíng Attorney

301 South Main Street

Elkhart,, Indiana 465L6

On betral.f of the Respondent.

USDC IN/ND case 3:14-cv-00315-RL document 42-3 filed 09/10/15 page 3 of 12
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t,hey did, we aÈÈached the eard to them.

So it, was sort of Iíke an antiquated way to ct¡eck

criminaL history?

Ríghu.

AII right. And how would you how were the cards

indexed? Obviously, noÈ on a computer.

No, noÈ we had big files we Lrad to go through.

Okay. Ànd then af ter the FBI, wt¡at did you do?

After the FBI? Letrs stee. I worked at tl¡e Cook

Nucl-ear Plant in Bridgman, Michígan.

Ànd whaL did you do there for t,hem?

Security.

Al-L right. How abouÈ af Ler thaÈ?

After that I ]-eft Èhere for a short time and went

to ttre border paÈrol, U.S. Border Patrol, went

t,hrougrh there for training.

What did you do with Èhem?

I was in training. I dídnrÈ pass the Spanísh part

of Èhe test or the class, so I left.

AlJ. right. And then after Èhat wtrere did you go,

if you can remember?

L,etrs aee. I went to work at Èhe juvenil-e

detention center in Berrien County.

Ànd what did you do t,here, were you l-ike a CO' a

correctional- offícer, or

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a CSI? What do you do differently?

.fust a name.

Okay. So you're basícaIIy a CSI?

RÍght.

Okay.

we just didnrt want Èo be cal1.ed CSI comparing to

the TV people.

So you know how Èo do tifUing prints

Ríght.

t,oo1 mark, aII that sort of Èhing?

Yeah. Yeah, ily t,rainingf was through Èhe staÈe

police.

GoÈctra. And ís t,hat an academy, ís that where

Oh, they at that tíme when I went through it, it

was a four and-a-half week course Èhey puÈ on.

They had grants, we got equipmenÈ, free equipment

from tt¡em. The class was free. So they put that

on. r thínk Èhere was three or four cl-asses

before.

Okay. And wtrere díd you Learn f¡ow to where did

you first get traíning for fingerprint

It was the FBI.

ewídence?

Okay. What type of training did that, ínvolve?

That was L2 weeks learning trow to classify and

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ident,ify prints, compare prints.

Okay. When you say cJ-assify, whaÈ does that mean?

We].l-, now they donrt do that an)ãtore, so

W?rat would that ínvolwe?

They would classification prints are at that

time the files would Èhere was L2 rro, 26

different units and they were male to male of

course, broke up male and femaJ.e. And your

fingerprint classificatíon was based on it¡s

part of the Henry System, it, was also partJ-y

modified by the FBI, so you can break the fíIe

tt¡e files up in sort of smaller so you donrt

Ïrawe looking alJ. over for prints.

Gotcl¡a.

That makes it easier to locate them, because back

tt¡en there was no AFA system so we dÍd ewerything

by hand.

Vilhen we see on crimínaL history reports we I 11

see sorÈ of fingerprint cl-assification, they'11

hawe

NCIC I e.

Yeah, NCIC.

Is that, sort of is that the Henry System or

is that, some

The NCIC is the classification.

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A Okay.

À And from thaÈ you can tell what a prÍnt is. Itrs

noÈ because you t re going to have several

different types of prints because ít a l-ot of

print,s can Ïrave the s€tme ctassif icaÈion, but ít I s

the indiwídualization that makes them different,

so

A GoÈcha. So if you starÈ off with like cl-aesífyíng

as a loop, whorl

A Ríght. There ! s a bef ore we get them tttere I s a

pre-cl-assÍfication made so Èheyrd come uo the unit

we were assÍgned to. My first unit I was in tfre

f emaLe unít. So then when the prínts wor¡l-d come

ttrere, they'd be partial-J-y classífied and tl¡en werd

f inísh classifyíng t,hesr and search the f iJ.es.

A Gotcha. I see. AII right'. Now, are you

consídered a fuL1 time lat,ent print examíner, are

you a fuIl Èime CSI? Irlhat you I re a forensic

specialiet?

A Wel-I, again, iÈrs a sma].]. town. We do a ].ot of

dif ferent things because we I re also in ctrarge of

the evidence, too.

a How many latent. print,s do you think you I we compared

Èo known prínts?

A Oh, man. Quit,e a few.

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Have you ever written any articles?

No.

Do you ever read any of ttre journals that what

is it, the .fournal of Forensic Identification is

maybe the big one? Ilave you ever read any of

those?

No, I usua1J-y - - we get a lot of The Forensic

magazíne, I ttrink, and therers a coupl-e oÈher ones

we get.

What about SWGFAST, have you ever t¡eard of that?

Do you know can you explain what that ís?

Itrs Scientific I canrt rememl¡er what all the

the ínítials are offhand

Okay.

but, yeah, I can remember

Okay.

because thaÈ was a complex latenÈ print', that

wagn I t

Yeah. AII right.

(Díscussion held off the record.)

Before we go into the specifics of this case Ird

l-ike to know what what gieneral methodology do

you use when you sit, down and youtre given a latent

print and a known, what how do you undertake

your exaninatíon, what do you do?

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.â, WeIl, the first Lhíng I would look for is see if

ttreytre the same patt,ern. And íf theyrre noÈ' tlren

I know theyrre noÈ from the same person right away.

If they are, tl.en I|l1 examine them closer with a

magnifying glass.

What are you looking for whenever you are looking

cl-oser? Let I s say they are the s€rme patÈern; then

what?

Areas of similarity to your areas that arenrt

símiIar.

Is that eimilar and do you mean like points, is

that what you I re referring to?

WelI, È,hey ca]-]. them points, buÈ we donr L really

look for points when we I re looking at a

fingerprint. That's more or less for J.íke a jury

would so they can point, out here I s a point here and

ttrey can Éiâ1rr oh, yeah, I see ít. We donrt

necessarily counÈ points

Okay. And you É¡ay yor¡ use a magnifying glass?

Right.

Can you describe whaÈ that looks like?

IÈrs a it's not a magnífying glass itself. ILrs

a littl-e instrr-Lutent. It l-ooks l-ike a I donrt

know trow to describe ít.

Sort like a shot glass flipped upside down or

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USDC IN/ND case 3:14-cv-00315-RL document 42-3 filed 09/10/15 page 9 of 12
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two loops lrm comparing, if one Loop has like 15

rídges and the other one has three, yoü know, ttren

I can geÈ a

Wtren you say a nr¡mber of ridges, where are you

wl¡ere do you starÈ to

You start at t,he deLta, Èhe second start at the

del-ta and you woul-d count to the core

Gotcha. What happens if you hawe a partial print

thats doesnrt, have a del-ta or a core?

That makes ít a littl-e more difficul-t. Then you

woul-d hawe Èo try to fínd other areas that are

if you can. If not, you just canrt make a

identifÍcatíon with ít or a compariron.

Now, I want Èo ask you about Lana Canen I g case.

How did you firet become involwed ín this, if you

remember?

I was contacted by iloel- Borden, Elkhart City.

Do you remember when he contacÈed you?

It wae probably 2OO2 or 2003.

Now, why woul-d they contacÈ you? Do they not

did ttrey noÈ hawe a fingerprint examíner?

No, Èhey didnrt.

Okay. Ànd who is iloe1 Borden?

At that time he was one of their ewidence personr¡.

For ELkhart City?

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Christ,opher Kinsey? Does that sound familíar?

No.

Okay. How do you know Charles Lambdin or do you

know him?

I just met him the time tre came to the sherif f I s

department.

Can you tell- me about whaÈ trappened during that

meet,ing?

WeII, he came there and asked to examine the he

was working for the or for the defense team. He

asked Èo examine the print and so f made the print

awailabl-e for him.

Did. he know wt¡at yor¡r conclusion trad been aU that

poínt, Lf you know?

I donrÈ know if he did or not.

Had you ever worked wit,h him before on any oÈher

case?

No, I he was g:one before I started with the

sheriffrs department.

Did you hawe any ínteract,ion with him, did you talk

to trím at al-I during that meetíng?

Not unt,iL af terwards.

Okay. Do you recall what, the conversaÈion was

afterwards?

He just, told me we did a good job, so

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CERTIFICATE

T, Colleen R. Fínchum, a Notary Publíc, in

and f or the CounÈy of St. iloseph and State of

Indíana, do hereby certify:

That DETECTM DENNIS CHAPITÍAIV appeared

before me on Wednesday, September 7, 2OLL, and

was duly sworn to testífy t,he Èruth, ttre whole

Lruth, and nothing but Èhe truth to quesÈions

propounded at the takíng of the foregoíng

deposition in a cause now pending and

undetermined in saíd courti

That I further certify I then and tt¡ere

reported stenographical-ly the proceedings at the

said time and pJ.ace; that ttre proceedings were

then transcribed from my original shorthand noÈes; and tt¡at, the foregoing typewritten transcrípÈ ís a trr¡e and correct record tt¡ereof .

That I am not a relatiwe or employee of aÈtorney or counsel, nor a relatiwe or employee

of such attorney or counsel for any of t,he

part,ies hereÈo, nor am I interested directly or

indirectly in the or¡tcome of thís acÈion.

IN WITNESS T'THEREOF,

seÈ my Notaríal sealor =Strtl-r-r0F?^

I trave hereunto

thís ârunl day

2otg A. D. r

CoI1 een R Ìrrrm

Notary Public, St,ate Of Indiana

Resídence: St. iloseptr County

My Commissíon Expires: 11-08-16

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