RSSCasey Anthony Murder Trial: It’s Official, William C. Rodriguez is not the Co-Founder of the Body Farm … Some One is Bolstering on the Witness Stand or Worse
On Saturday, June 18, 2011 during his brief testimony as a defense expert witness in the murder trial of Casey Anthony, William C. Rodriguez III stated in the affirmative that he was the co-founder of The Body Farm. Who knew? The reason why we never knew, maybe is because the comment was false.
Defense Attorney Jose Baez: Are you a Co-Founder of the Anthropological Facility at the Univ of TN – also known as the Body Farm?
William Rodriguez: Yes I am.
The very first thing I thought was, oh really? That is nothing I ever heard of. I had always thought that Dr. William Bass was the founder of the Anthropology Research Facility at UT. So we decided to do some research over the weekend to discover the truth. Then Scared Monkeys decided that we would do what we thought the MSM and defense attorney Jose Baez would and should have done … do their due diligence and fact check Mr Rodriguez by simply asking the Body Farm. Then again, when Baez cannot seem to follow a simple court’s order by Judge Perry for experts to write reports of their opinions and what they plan on testifying to, why would any one think that “due diligence” is in the vocabulary?
We decided to do the obvious, send a simple email to the general email mailbox of Body Farm asking them whether Rodriguez was a co-founder of the Anthropology Research Facility. Their reply was as follows:
William Rodriguez was a student under Dr. Bass and conducted research at the facility in the early and mid 80s. He was a major assistant in the early years, but was by no means a co-founder
There you go … straight from the horse’s mouth, “BY NO MEANS A CO-FOUNDER”.
Is William C. Rodriguez III guilty of “bolstering” or worse? How could Rodriguez stated that he was a co-founder of the famous forensic investigative Body Farm? Better yet, how could anyone with any common sense not questioned such a statement? And better than that, did Jose Baez and his crack staff of researchers only use Wiki’s as their proof? If so, no wonder Baez has an aversion to the Internet and blogs.
Need more proof than that of an email from The Body Farm, why not. Below read the following passages from Dr. William Bass’s book, DEATH’S ACRE: Inside The Legendary Forensic Lab THE BODY FARM, Where the Dead Do Tell Tales by Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson.
On page 102-103 Dr. Bass writes the following regarding William Rodriguez which would lead any one to believe he was an assistant …
” During winter, flies are grounded by the cold; in fact, anytime the temperature drops below 50 degrees, flies stop flying. The Arikara graves that contained no pupal casings held people who died and were buried during cooler seasons of the year. It fascinated me at the time to realize that we could figure out, two hundred years after it happened, what season of the year an Arikara warrior had fallen in battle.By the time I established the Body Farm, I knew that if I could get a graduate student interested in studying insect activity in corpses, we’d probably figure out ways to deduce a lot more than just the particular season in which a person had died.
Bill Rodriguez was the ideal graduate student for the task — partly because he was willing to take it on, and partly because he had a broader background in field research than most graduate students.
Bill had an undergraduate degree in anthropology, with a minor in zoology. He’d entered anthropology intending to study primates, and in fact he actually went to Africa as part of a team working to restore laboratory raised chimpanzees to the wild. But he’d also taken my osteology course and had done quite well in it, so one day,when I needed someone to go with me on a forensic case, I went looking for an assistant, and Bill was the first qualified helper I found. He was washing grimy windows in one of our classrooms; because we were housed beneath the stadium’s concrete stands, a lot of dust and dirt swirled onto and into our quarters. Bill had a teaching assistantship, which sounded pretty highbrow, but the “assistantship” part included some pretty lowbrow chores like washing windows”.
But wait there is more. From page 104 reads as the follows:
” The police never managed to solve that particular murder, but the case did have one happy ending to it: it got Bill Rodriguez hooked on forensics.Primatology lost a promising young scientist that cold, snowy day. Not long after that, Bill helped clear the ground, level the gravel pad,and pour the concrete for the new Anthropological Research Facility. A few months later, he helped me set out our first research subject, corpse 1-81. by then Bill had settled on his thesis topic. H.B. Reed had chronicled insect activity in dog carcasses. Bill would do the same thing with human corpses, beginning with 1-81.”
(Hat Tip NikkiBNurse for transcription of Dr. Bass’s book)
Let’s get the facts straight, Dr. William Bass came to Knoxville TN in 1971 and started the Anthropological Dept there. William Rodriguez was his student and Bass was his mentor and he taught Rodriguez at UT. Rodriguez then helped him with getting the Body Farm started, according to this book and Body number 1-81 was his first project, the first body laid out on Death’s Acre.. BUT, the idea and concept of the Body Farm was solely that of William Bass. Boss formulated it, devised it and founded it. End of story.
Bass was the one who was reviewing bodies years before that concrete was poured. and as he states on page 96, “In the fall of 1980, my STUDENTS and I set to work. We cleared trees and brush from the center of the site;we laid a gravel driveway so trucks could pull in with bodies and equipment;we ran water line and electricity from the hospital.”
So, several students worked on breaking ground here … it does not mean THEY founded it. Nor does the Body Farm say it either. So you make the call, why would Rodriguez need to say he was more than he really was when it came to The Body Farm? Rodriguez is looking to discredit the work of Dr. Arped Vass and call it junk science. However, if one wishes to discredit another, they might want to first start by telling the truth of themselves first.
What is insane is that Rodriguez had impressive credentials, so then why the need to fabricate and imply to the jury that he was a co-founder of The Body Farm?
Posted June 20, 2011 by Scared Monkeys Bizarre, Casey Anthony, Caylee Anthony, Crime, Deceased, Ethics, Facebook, Justice, Law Enforcement, Legal - Court Room - Trial, Murder, The Body Farm | 28 comments |
If you liked this post, you may also like these:
Comments
28 Responses to “Casey Anthony Murder Trial: It’s Official, William C. Rodriguez is not the Co-Founder of the Body Farm … Some One is Bolstering on the Witness Stand or Worse”
Leave a Reply
If this doesn’t impeach Dr. Rodriguez, I don’t know what will.
Here! Here, Mr. Red!!
Rodriguez has perjured himself before he ever got
started. It sucks if you lie for the defense.
William Rodriguez was a student under Dr. Bass and conducted research at the facility in the early and mid 80s. He was a major assistant in the early years, but was by no means a co-founder
Posted June 20, 2011 by Scared Monkeys
+++++++++
Thanks Red
Rodriguez has excellent credentials. Why did he feel the need to embellish them while under oath?
Janet
Thanks for the confirmation Red!
I knew after quite a bit of searching on the subject that something was up with that claim.
WHY did the doctor find it necessary to embellish his association with The Body Farm in that way?
Makes me wonder how much of the rest of his testimony that we’ve heard so far was the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth! And what more is to come when/if he returns to the stand tomorrow?
What’s Jose Baez up to now? Surely with the team he has and the prosecution witnesses associated with The Body Farm, SOMEONE had done the research?
Despicable!
Klaasend,
Absolutely!
If he is willing to exaggerate or lie about this, what else will he exaggerate or lie about? He cannot be believed.
Rodriguez has excellent credentials. Why did he feel the need to embellish those creditials while under oath? Why did he risk his professional reputation on the stand when he attempted to further the defence’s agenda to distract from the truth … when he attempted to further the defences agenda to prevent justice from prevail of Caylee Marie Anthony?
He lied under oath.
Hope impeachment follows.
Great job, Red.
Is there any way to email this to the prosecution?
_____________________
SM: That has been done, they have it (klaasend)
Thanks Red for writing this. I hope the prosecution has this info..:)
Baez also believed a fake Facebook was Vass’s. He sure would not make a good detective like he wanted to be haha.
Wow!! I hope JA is aware of all this! Great job Red!
That’s a GREAT article, Red!! Thanks for really nailing it down! All I can figure is that the defense wanted to “one up” Dr. Vass by bringing on someone who would say they “co-founded” where Vass is employed. I think that exposing him as a liar is not exactly the effect the defense was looking for! LOL!!!
Awesome!
While listening to testimony and reflecting on the lack of evidence, I can’t help but to wonder how different this trial would be if Dominic Casey and Company had of reported their suspicions to LE and there would have been a thorough search of the area in August, 2008; instead of Caylee being left to battle the elements for an additional 4 months.
At any rate, I’m grateful Caylee was recovered and firmly believe justice will prevail…
Again, good job Red!
[...] Not according to THE BODY FARM, or it’s actual founder, Dr. Bill Bass. [...]
Did Baez just decide last week that he was going to be putting on a defense case in this trial? He seemed totally unprepared when cross examining the prosecution witnesses during the State’s case and now he doesn’t seem to know anything about his own witnesses. What has he been doing for the last three years?
Did Judge Belvin Perry or the prosecution know William Rodriguez is not Co-Founder?
YOU ROCK! FAR OUT. Just another something to dig Baez’s grave.
[...] at Blink on Crime … note Blink is reporting that defense expert witness William Rodriguez, the NOT co-founder of the Body Farm is out. Share [...]
Yeah. Don’t we all remember how Al Gore invented the Internet? Maybe we just have all our facts wrong, or then again maybe not!
Between the ficticious nanny, the supposed pool drowning, the sexual abuse from dad and brother, Casey’s month long investigation of her missing daughter (that one is the worst lie), what are we supposed be believe out of Casey and company besides nothing whatsoever?
I got spammed
I’m curious as to what Judge Perry said about this witness who started testifying and then, poof he was gone? Don’t you think the jurors would wonder why this witness never came back? Or is it too prejudicial to have the jury know that Dr. Rodriguez lied about his credentials?
[...] … an amazing thing occurs … Scared Monkeys.com has the top two posts/articles HERE and HERE. They are actually the only one’s that are questioning the testimony, providing data material [...]
Due diligence required that I look at the transcript of what Dr. Rodgriguez stated, and I believe he has cause t pursue claims for defamation. He was careful and precise in his statements. When asked about his employment, he listed the Department of Defense and other positions, but not UT. It was when he was asked about his education that he mentioned UT. He stated: Dr. Bass was his “professor and mentor.” When asked about the Body Farm, he stated: “It was Dr. Wiliam Bass who had the idea.” He stated that he was in Dr. Bass’s office when Dr. Bass spoke about the need for a research facility regarding the study of time of death. He said that Dr. Bass “recruited me to help build” the facility.” He said he “helped lay the concrete and bring in the first bodies.” His testimony squares exactly with Dr. Bass’s writings by the journalist Jon Jefferson. Dr. Rodriguez also stated that he was senior author on early papers regarding facility research. In fact, on Dr. Bass’s own curriculum vitae, Dr. Bass wrote an introductory article in 1982 and between 1983 and 1985 Dr. Rodriguez and Dr. Bass collaborated on three articles, on two of which Dr. Rodriguez’s name holds the prestigious first, or senior, spot. Dr. Bass, a distinguished expert, has always been honest about crediting his younger colleagues and has been in the forefront of seeding his profession with talented specialists for the future. When Jose Baez brought up the co-foundership words, and Dr. Rodriguez answered “yes,” he was at once acknowledging Dr. Bass’s honesty in not taking credit all for himself, and also doing so with pride at the privilege of having been associated with Dr. Bass. To answer “no” would have been perjury. I believe Casey Anthony caused the death of her child, but I am appalled at the circus in the public and in the court who are not interested in hearing all the testimony but rather in smearing and humiliating specialists who have done work the entire world respects.
________________
SM: I would suggest you read what we have written. he said specifically that he was a co-founder of the BODY FARM. Now we learn today that the good doctor did not have the good sense to even ask the Dept of Defense, his employer, to testify in case. They threatened to fire him.
The DoD did Dr. R a favor. He would have been destroyed and impeached by the State.
R
My experiences tell me the Profs. usually share credit with their leading students, and I would think If I were asked to help get a project off the ground, I too would assume credit as a founding member. Henceforth, I do not find calling himself a co-founder so unusual or a lie. He certainly did not claim to be THE LEAD proponent of creating the “Body Farm”. On the other hand Bass has declared as true some thing that have not been proven as true and accurate by the scientific community peer groups and as such really should not really be considered as true. I am sure the man believes what he says but that does not make it true. Once upon a time the world was flat and all of the experts believed it was true, but as we all know they were wrong and Bass may be too. His work has not been validated, I really don’t know how his unvalidated science was ever allowed to enter into the record.
______________
SM: good grief, pouring concrete and putting up fences does not a founder make. I guess you think the people that built my home own my house?
R
Ironic, Arpad Vass has been helping at the body farm for years.
Dr. Vass works at Oak Ridge National Lab in Oak Ridge, TN. The “body farm” is at University of Knoxville, in Knoxville, TN. It is 2 separate places.
I thought his name is Dr Vass