Joan Mellen Speech at AARC Conference

[Drew Phipps]

According to my fingerprint guy, there is a difference between the type of membership you get from the IAI when you are employed full time as an examiner ("active membership") and then after (I forget what it is called). Retiring (which Darby did) may change your type of membership, but doesn't remove your certification. Certification is a separate process from membership. Being delinquent in your dues (for instance) can revoke your membership (although Darby was probably a "lifetime member", based on his length of service) The certifications do expire after 5 years (now, don't know previous rules).

I would like to see her documents. I submitted a written request for Darby's certification records to the IAI and was refused. I hope she hasn't misinterpreted Darby's retirement as "evidence" of aggravated perjury.

We need to see Darby's attachment (DAN-1) to the affidavit because that is supposedly a copy of his current certification #78-468. Wonder if someone can come up with that.

Edit: DAN-1 was published as a page in Barr McClellan's "Blood Money" (I cannot copy it) but it is the original certification from 1978 (which is apparently the first year that certifications were done). McClellan also mentions that another expert "Ed German" (some sort of agent in the Army) threatened to have Darby's certification revoked because of this Wallace identification - which implies that he did have a certification at that time, and which also may be the source of Mellen's information.

Edit: Edward German is still an IAI certified latent print examiner from Virginia.