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Mar 9, 2007 11:11 pm US/Eastern
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Cases In Question After State Employee's Suicide
by Mike Hellgren
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
A well-known expert with nearly 40 years' experience ended his own life after he was accused of lying about his education.
Joe Kopera was the top gun expert for the Maryland State Police. He testified in thousands of cases before committing suicide following allegations he'd lied about his college degrees.
The scandal means some of those cases could be reopened.
"We're just going to have to find out the cases he testified on, the extent of his testimony and where we can, I guess, ask for new trials," said Maryland public defender Nancy Forster.
Kopera's credentials came into question after an attorney with the Maryland Innocence Project began looking into the case of James Kulbicki, a former Baltimore City Police sergeant convicted of murder. She found irregularities in Kopera's degrees and confronted him about it.
"Mr. Kopera, while under oath, and with people's lives on the line, decided to take some rather great liberties with the truth," said Suzanne Drouet.
But longtime defense attorney Warren Brown says, even though he and Kopera were adversaries in court, he still respects Kopera's work.
"I doubt seriously that a review of his work is going to reveal any errors," he said. "I think he was shamed, that he felt a shame, of having indicated something he may not have been."
Brown says that does not mean Kopera lied.
"You just got a sense that he was a person of some integrity."
Mike Hellgren spoke to former Sergeant Kulbicki's mother Friday night. She said she did not want to comment on the record before consulting with her attorney.
Before working with State Police, Kopera spent decades with the Baltimore City Police Department.
When Kopera was hired, the State Police did not require a college degree for his position.
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