State v. Bradley Cooper 03/16/11

[Albert]

I suspect that Brad came up with a shoe that Nancy hadn't worn for a while. If the dog had anything with Nancy's recent scent, it should have gone to the party house (unless the dog wasn't well trained - but I didn't get that impression). I was about to write that Brad should have pulled something out of Nancy's laundry - but Brad had done all the laundry.

Could the dog pick up the correct scent from the bed sheets?

 

[otto]

True. I actually keep most of my running shoes. They go from running shoes to walk around shoes, to lawn shoes...in that progression. I'm doing another half marathon this weekend and will be needing some new shoes soon.

I know a few runners and yep, 3 months is the limit. As you say, the shoes are used for other reasons and then thrown out. I suspect that Brad gave the dog an old shoe, because even a recently worn shoe would have tracked to the party house. Another point is that this happened in July, a time when Nancy probably wore mostly flip flops rather than not shoes - unless she was running.

 

[otto]

Could the dog pick up the correct scent from the bed sheets?

I don't see why not. If Nancy slept alone, then the bedding should have her scent. If she didn't sleep alone, then the bedding would have mixed scents.

 

[Albert]

I don't see why not. If Nancy slept alone, then the bedding should have her scent. If she didn't sleep alone, then the bedding would have mixed scents.

While BC is getting the shoes that were provided for the scent, he rubs his hands inside the shoes. Will this contaminate the scent enough to disallow the dog to track?

 

[otto]

While BC is getting the shoes that were provided for the scent, he rubs his hands inside the shoes. Will this contaminate the scent enough to disallow the dog to track?

I don't know enough about it, except reading here and there that scent items are usually carefully bagged and then presented to the dog with as little handling as possible. I suspect that the more they are handled by someone else, the more they are contaminated. The best item would have been the dress, but that was in the wash. Second, I would think something recently worn from the laundry, but the laundry was all done early in the morning. After that, bedding, but maybe that too was washed. The shoes that Nancy wore the night before would have been good, but I doubt that Brad gave the officer the flip flops.

Brad's degree was in computer science. He wouldn't know too much about forensics, but he would know better than to give a useless item for scent tracking - common sense, unless that was his intention.

 

[LaLaw2000]

I really do not think that the Prosecution 'blundered' in the questioning of the Dog Handler Officer. What I will not understand is IF they do not now present an expert witness about the dogs and the training of dogs. Let's say Nancy was killed in the home and wrapped in something. The scent is primarily sloughed off skin cells, so if Nancy were wrapped in something fairly tightly, the dog would not have trailed her scent outside. I want to know if the dog was even led into the garage area. If Nancy was wrapped in the garage area and placed in the trunk, I feel the dog would have lingered over her freshest scent there. We know that BC would not carry Nancy outside if she had been killed in the home. He would pull his small vehicle into the garage and place her in the trunk. He would take her out of that wrapping and stage her body at the scene, IMO, then do away with whatever he had wrapped her in.

And yes, her sheets from her bed would have been one of the best scent articles for the dog because there would certainly have been sloughed off skin cells on those. UNLESS, he had taken the sheets from her bed and wrapped her in them. An officer had testified he did not think the bed had been slept in, so it is possible that BC had changed those sheets out.

I really do not think there was any damage done to the Prosecution today because of the dog testimony. The officer was honest, and he said it was not a 'clean' run. He was also honest about the dogs training. I wish there had been better dogs available to choose from, though.

My daughter in Virginia has a tall vase almost like the one in the Cooper foyer. Hers has tall 'twirled spiral' thin branches in it. It is in the corner of her family room. You can buy them up to 5 feet tall, or you can buy them 8 to 10 inches tall for flower arrangements. They do break easily.

I am one that feels very strongly that BC killed Nancy. It is merely my opinion, though. I think that Separation Agreement draft was what started the slow boil to disaster. There is always a motive for murder. There is a reason someone is killed. BC went on and on in his deposition about Nancy's spending, and you could tell by his face when he said it that he was very resentful of it. He was full of anger and it did not take much for him to go ahead and act on that anger, IMO. Who else but BC had all three elements of means, motive, and opportunity?

Okay, I know I went off of the beaten path here, but I really AM one of those awful people who has decided for a number of very real reasons that BC 'did it'.

JMO, & MOO's

 

[borndem]

He got the color wrong on the dress intentionally.
He got the color right on the bra intentionally.

I can see why everyone 'went off'

Agreed, JTF, and I went off a bit, too!!

But I'd bet $$ that he wishes he'd gotten the sports bra color WRONG!!!!

 

[LaLaw2000]

Just one more thing. Does anyone think that at the point NC and BC had gotten to be at in their marriage, that NC would have placed her cell phone in a drawer in the foyer and gone upstairs to sleep? I don't, and I do not believe she placed her cell phone in the drawer. They were angry with each other even at the party because he had not given her the allowance that night. I feel very strongly that NC would have had her cell phone by her bed if she had even made it upstairs. I think BC put that cell phone in the drawer and he sure did know exactly where it was, didn't he?

MOO

 

[carolinalady]

Thanks for all of the insight. I guess at least part of today will be just as frustrating b/c I'm assuming Dismukes will still be on the stand. I want to be able to HEAR the testimoy!!!

Also, regarding the K-9, I, too, thought the dog would've been able to pick up trail to the previous night's party. Especially after reading more information about k-9 search dogs posting above stating 24 hrs (IIRC).

As for the shoe given to the dog, I guess the scent was at least enough to match it with her scent inside the house, so the dog did get something off the shoe.

 

[CyberPro]

I don't see why not. If Nancy slept alone, then the bedding should have her scent. If she didn't sleep alone, then the bedding would have mixed scents.

Again, I cannot say for this specific dog and how it has been trained, but search dogs have different modes of operation. Their are Tracking, Trailing and Air Scent dogs. The Tracking and Trailing dogs especially can discriminate between a specific human scent, even when there are multiple scents. They usually have two different commands, one command tells them to find ANY human, and the other to find a specific human based on a scent item.

The command to find any human is used in Search and Rescue when there are likely to be multiple unknown victims, like building collapses, storms and so on.

 

[CyberPro]

While BC is getting the shoes that were provided for the scent, he rubs his hands inside the shoes. Will this contaminate the scent enough to disallow the dog to track?

No, but again, it depends on how the dog was trained. The type dog it is are often used as search dogs in addition to police dogs, partly based on strength and endurance. The ability to cover rough terrain and so forth. When thinking of tracking dogs you normally think of a bloodhound, and they are excellent trackers, but very short lived due to in-breed health problems they are prone to get. The average life is only 5-6 years. Believe it or not, a Basset Hound is also pretty good, but limited due to their short stature.

Golden Retrievers, German Shepherds, Belgain Malinois are good as well.

 

[CyberPro]

Started New Thread

State v Bradly Cooper 3-17-2011 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

 

[less0305]

In direct, many points were "scored". It looked good for the prosecution. They went through the lengthy training of the dog, how it was trained, how it learned to detect specific odors, that it can distinguish human odors, etc etc. The dog had extensive initial training. Then they talk that the dog has 2 training sessions per month to keep his skills and training up.

The testimony then goes, despite the dog trying and trying, it could only get Nancy's scent inside the house, but not outside the doors. While not said directly, the implication, and what I took this to mean, is that Nancy must not have left the house from either the front or back door that morning.

This seems like another "small piece" of the puzzle until the cross.

In direct the officer said he showed up at the scene 12-14 hours after she was reported to have gone running. In cross, he admits his notes said 14 hours after. This seems like a small score, but then....

Defense asks, out of all those training sessions, what's the longest time delay from a track being made to the dog being tasked to follow it.

The answer? 7 hours.

Boom. No more questions.

I still think he did it, but the direct exam was misleading and the prosection really dropped the ball here. Their job is to seek the truth, and they put misleading evidence forward knowing full well there was more to the story.

This is also the highlight for the defense so far. Lots of other points for the prosecution scored today but a stunt like this makes me more critical of the evidence.

See, I just came away with a completely different view of this. In the direct exam at the outset the officer stated that he knew that it would be VERY difficult for the dog to get a track BECAUSE it was at least a 12 hour time frame before he and the dog being called to the scene. He also said he knew it would be VERY difficult because of the number of people who were in and out of the house and in the yard area. He said he'd estimate something like 40 to 50 people had been all around the area. So I took that almost immediately to mean that if they had got a track on Nancy's scent outside it would have been a really lucky break. So when the defense asked their two questions, it didn't seem like a big score to me. The officer had already stated they weren't in the right conditions to get a good track. I think the prosecution put him on and let him tell it like it was because if they hadn't, the defense would have to make it look like "ohhhhh, seeeeee, you've never had a track OVER 7 hours!!" That was just my take on that testimony.

 

[less0305]

And wow, you all talk a lot late at night!!! Takes me a while to read up in the mornings. LOL!!! Carry on!