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Frederic Whitehurst
Frederic "Fred" Whitehurst is an American chemist and attorney who served as a supervisory special agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory from 1986 to 1998. Concerned about problems he saw among agents, he went public as a whistleblower to bring attention to procedural errors and misconduct by agents. After the FBI retaliated against his claims, he began to attend law school at night and used his Juris Doctor degree to continue his fight. After ten years of refusal, the FBI investigated his claims and agreed to 40 reforms to improve the forensic reliability of its testing.
Frederic W. Whitehurst was born Nov, 1947 in Newport, Rhode Island. He currently lives in Bethel, North Carolina with his wife Cheryl.
Whitehurst served as an intelligence specialist at the Americal base in Đức Phổ, Vietnam, during the early 1970s. He was tasked with reviewing seized documents and destroying any that had no military value. Working with translator Sergeant Nguyen Trung Hieu and following his advice, he saved two diaries written by Dr. Đặng Thùy Trâm, a civilian woman doctor working for North Vietnam. He kept them for 35 years, with the intention of eventually returning them to Trâm's family, if possible.
Dr. Whitehurst received a Ph.D. in chemistry from Duke University, and a J.D. from Georgetown University. He joined the FBI in 1982 and served as a supervisory special agent in the FBI crime lab from 1986 to 1998.
While he was employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory, the FBI officially rated Dr. Whitehurst as the leading national and international expert in the science of explosives and explosives residue. Concerned about a number of issues that he observed with old equipment, rusty gear, improper protocol, and by the behavior of agents in the laboratory, he began to investigate their procedures. He eventually uncovered and reported what he thought were cases of scientific misconduct, alleging that the agents were biased toward the prosecution.
In 1989, Whitehurst was brought in on an international trial in San Francisco and noticed that one of his colleagues had testified untruthfully. After notifying the court officials, the FBI's response was to reprimand him and give him time off.
After speaking to managers and even going so far as to call FBI director William S. Sessions and spend an hour expressing his concerns, the allegations were ignored and nothing was done.
Whitehurst began to attend law school at Georgetown University by taking his classes at night, earning his J.D. in 1996. During this period, to protect himself in administrative proceedings, Whitehurst hired Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, a Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in defending whistleblowers. The attorney general attempted to stop Whitehurst from talking to counsel and threatened to prosecute him if he revealed anything outside of the FBI or DOJ.
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Frederic Whitehurst
Frederic "Fred" Whitehurst is an American chemist and attorney who served as a supervisory special agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory from 1986 to 1998. Concerned about problems he saw among agents, he went public as a whistleblower to bring attention to procedural errors and misconduct by agents. After the FBI retaliated against his claims, he began to attend law school at night and used his Juris Doctor degree to continue his fight. After ten years of refusal, the FBI investigated his claims and agreed to 40 reforms to improve the forensic reliability of its testing.
Frederic W. Whitehurst was born Nov, 1947 in Newport, Rhode Island. He currently lives in Bethel, North Carolina with his wife Cheryl.
Whitehurst served as an intelligence specialist at the Americal base in Đức Phổ, Vietnam, during the early 1970s. He was tasked with reviewing seized documents and destroying any that had no military value. Working with translator Sergeant Nguyen Trung Hieu and following his advice, he saved two diaries written by Dr. Đặng Thùy Trâm, a civilian woman doctor working for North Vietnam. He kept them for 35 years, with the intention of eventually returning them to Trâm's family, if possible.
Dr. Whitehurst received a Ph.D. in chemistry from Duke University, and a J.D. from Georgetown University. He joined the FBI in 1982 and served as a supervisory special agent in the FBI crime lab from 1986 to 1998.
While he was employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory, the FBI officially rated Dr. Whitehurst as the leading national and international expert in the science of explosives and explosives residue. Concerned about a number of issues that he observed with old equipment, rusty gear, improper protocol, and by the behavior of agents in the laboratory, he began to investigate their procedures. He eventually uncovered and reported what he thought were cases of scientific misconduct, alleging that the agents were biased toward the prosecution.
In 1989, Whitehurst was brought in on an international trial in San Francisco and noticed that one of his colleagues had testified untruthfully. After notifying the court officials, the FBI's response was to reprimand him and give him time off.
After speaking to managers and even going so far as to call FBI director William S. Sessions and spend an hour expressing his concerns, the allegations were ignored and nothing was done.
Whitehurst began to attend law school at Georgetown University by taking his classes at night, earning his J.D. in 1996. During this period, to protect himself in administrative proceedings, Whitehurst hired Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, a Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in defending whistleblowers. The attorney general attempted to stop Whitehurst from talking to counsel and threatened to prosecute him if he revealed anything outside of the FBI or DOJ.