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BACKGROUND AND QUALIFICATIONS
OF
WILLIAM L. BOWMAN
QUESTIONED DOCUMENT EXAMINER
("Handwriting Expert")
14412 San Jose Street
Mission Hills, California 91345
(213) 897 - 1116
BACKGROUND
He and his family live in Mission Hills, California, in the
San Fernando Valley.
From December 1954 to July 1957, he served as a patrolman on
the Beverly Hills Police Department.
In July 1957, he became a member of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department.
In 1962,
he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant.
He received an Associate Arts Degree in Police Science from Valley Junior
College,
Van
Nuys, California, in 1959.
He was selected to be trained as a Questioned Document Examiner in December
1959. This
full time study and work was supervised by Mr. John L. Harris, who has been a
Questioned
Document Examiner for more than 30 years.
He has read and studied the major books on questioned documents, e.g., "
Questioned
Docu-
ments" by Albert Osborn, "Problems of Proof" by Albert Osborn,
"Suspect Documents" by
Wilson Harrison, "Scientific Examination of Documents" by Ordway
Hilton,
"Evidential
Documents" by James Conway, and other books, articles and papers from
professional
sources.
As a part of his continuing training, he has discussed questioned document
problems with
other examiners, both in law enforcement and civil practice. He is a member of
the
California Check Investigators Association.
He trained Sgt. Herbert L. Campbell, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department,
to
be a Questioned Document Examiner.
EXPERIENCE
He has examined documents not only for the Sheriff's Department, but also for
58 police
departments and sheriff's offices, 21 state agencies, 15 federal agencies
(including
the
Attorney General, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Army and the Federal Bureau of
Investi-
gation), and many other agencies. In addition, numerous federal, superior and
municipal
court judges have called upon him to be the court's witness.
In March 1961, he began to testify as a Questioned Document Examiner. Since
then he has
testified on over 500 occassions in California and several other states. These
courts
include Federal, Superior, Municipal, Juvenile Court, Grand Jury and some State
Boards.
In January 1968, he resigned his position as Senior Questioned Document
Examiner
for the
Sheriff's Department, to enter private practice as a Questioned Document
Examiner.
He
now examines documents and testifies in both criminal and civil cases. Banks,
airlines,
oil companies, retail store chains, savings and loan associations, private
investigation
firms, public defenders offices and many attorneys now use his services. |