Original article posted here.
By STEPHANIE SMITH, Special to Tri-Valley Dispatch November 11, 2008
Forensic scientist turned professor Larry Turner has brought 25 years of experience to Scottsdale Community College’s Forensic Science program.
Turner’s years in the field have been his key tool in running and developing the popular program at SCC since 2005.
Turner, like many of his students, changed his major. “I originally wanted to be a pharmacist,” he said.
It all began when Turner went to a seminar about a new program at his college in Mississippi in 1976. He recalls the speaker saying “the science that will solve all cases.”
Turner said, “I thought it was the coolest thing, the best.”
He then switched his major and began a long career covering all aspects of the forensic science lab. He received a bachelor’s degree in forensic science in 1980.
He began his career at the Mississippi crime lab, where he worked for eight years, leaving with the title of supervisor for murder and rape cases. He then lent his expertise to the San Diego city crime lab for another eight years. He then returned to his hometown in Mississippi, where he was the director of the city crime lab for four years. He then came back west to the San Jose County crime lab for five years, where he served as the deputy director.
Turner said, “Over 25 years I have gained experience in five different areas in the crime lab as well as courtroom testimony.”
Due to his success and expertise in the crime lab and court testimony, colleagues, lawyers, nurses and other working professionals began asking him for professional advice, which led him to develop a workshop. “I set up seminars for working professionals,” said Turner.
His success from the seminars led him to want to teach more. Turner said, “I wanted to branch out, so I began looking on the Internet and saw that Scottsdale Community College was looking for someone to head up their forensic science program.”
He came down to interview for the position and received the job. He has developed and run the program solely since 2005.
During Turner’s 25-year span in the field, he helped develop areas of expertise in crime science, including a booklet he wrote with others as a resource. “It is a United States Department of Justice manual that they sent out to all law personnel all over the U.S. on how to work a successful crime scene.”
“My cases have been profiled on ‘America’s Most Wanted’, ‘The New Detectives’ and ‘The FBI Files’,” Turner said.
Popular shows such as “CSI” have brought forensic science into people’s homes and have influenced people’s interest in the field.
Turner said, “Here’s the thing about programs like that, they do a good job bringing forensic science to the forefront. I would rate it at about 50 percent accurate based on the terms they use, the other 50 percent gives the public a false sense of what forensic science can do. It leads the general public down the wrong road of how forensic science is actually done.”
Turner developed his college program based on his 25 years of experience and his influence in the field.
“After two years, you take another two years in natural science to get a degree to work in the crime lab,” he said.
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