Separating Fact From Fiction

A technical consultant talks about the reality of CSI.

Rhonda Roby is one of the top forensic scientists in the country. She spoke to students at the Marshall University Forensic Science Center on August 24, 2007. During the seminar, Roby discussed some of the differences between television and reality when it comes to the CSI shows.

Roby pointed out the wardrobe of CSI: Miami's lead character, Horatio Cane (David Caruso). "I'd never wear a nice suit like that to a crime scene," she said, gesturing to her own outfit. "This is as nice as I get, and this probably cost as much as his underwear." She also commented on Horatio's signature shades. "And those sunglasses? Those are probably $500 sunglasses," she explained. These superficial inaccuracies are in addition to those that often cause trouble for real-life law enforcement, such as the unrealistically-speedy results from a DNA test or the perfect fingerprints that cannot always be found in real cases.

As a former consultant for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Roby said that not everything about the show is unrealistic. In one episode, a character claimed that the DNA results narrowed down the suspect pool to one in 814 quadrillion. According to Roby, DNA can be that specific. Roby's own DNA even made it's way into an episode of CSI via test results that the characters showed on screen. "That's me," she said, taking a bow after the clip was shown. "I'm proud of that one."

Roby is a specialist in identifying human remains, and her technical skills have been used for many projects other than television shows. She has headed up the forensic work on several mass disasters. These include the 1996 TWA crash that claimed 230 lives and the terrorist attacks on September 11, which took nearly 3,000 victims. "It's not that what we see is fun. We see a lot of grotesque, sad things," Roby said. "But we help a lot of people by giving them answers. ... And that makes it such a wonderful career."

The original article is from the Herald Dispatch.

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