Monday, April 05, 2004
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NEWSMAKERS: Document examiner keeps a sharp eye focused to fight crime

Las Vegan Jan Seaman Kelly wins Ordway Hilton Award for her forensics work

Jan Seaman Kelly is a questioned documents examiner for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Jan Seaman Kelly's job is the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack.

Kelly, 50, works as a questioned documents examiner for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. She was awarded the Ordway Hilton Award from the American Academy of Forensic Sciences Questioned Documents' section during a ceremony in Dallas earlier this year.

Kelly, who has lived in Las Vegas since 1997, received the award because of her contributions to the field of forensics, specifically, the field of questioned documents.

"Questioned documents is the actual physical handwriting," Kelly said. "It's not the content ... that's linguistics."

Her job consists of examining checks and other materials to determine their authenticity and to see if they have been manipulated.

What Kelly examines is not apparent to the naked eye. She uses a microscope to see characteristics of handwriting. She looks at a check to see if it's a machine-generated document -- such as a photocopy -- and examines the style of the signer's handwriting.

"(Questioned document examination) is based on the fact that everyone has their own style of writing. It involves shapes and strokes, the size of letters, speed of the writing," Kelly said. "They tend to be more minute characteristics.

"Sometimes I'll ask someone to provide me with a writing sample to compare. They may try to change capital letters or change the slant of the handwriting. That doesn't work."

She has been in the field since 1984, when she worked in the white collar fraud division of the Oklahoma County, Okla., district attorney's office.

She became interested in questioned documents when she met an examiner that year who recommended a book by Ordway Hilton.

"I found (the field) to be fascinating," Kelly said.

To become a certified questioned document examiner, a person is required to have a bachelor's degree followed by an apprenticeship. Then practical field experience is needed before an application can be made for certification. Certification is given by the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners.

Kelly did her apprenticeship at the U.S. Postal Crime Lab in San Bruno, Calif., for two years after receiving her bachelor's degree in criminal justice. She continued to work in Oklahoma County until her move to Las Vegas.

"(In Oklahoma County) I had an interesting case. A fellow was in business with his father-in-law and decided it was time for him to go," Kelly said.

The man went into his father-in-law's house at 4 a.m. and shot him in the head, Kelly continued. But the father-in-law survived. In addition, a woman in the neighborhood noticed the son-in-law's car, which police traced back to the culprit.

"He tried to say that it was (a crime of) passion," Kelly said. "But we found a note in his pants that said `buy new tennis shoes, bullets, check where the dog will be' ... and he had written the note two months before.

"When the detectives brought the note to me, I examined it for indented writing and the date appeared."

The district attorney's office in turn had a strong enough case to get the suspect to plead guilty.

Kelly has since excelled in the profession. She has published numerous articles and also a book, "Forensic Examination of Rubber Stamps: A Practical Guide" (Charles C. Thomas, 2002). She also served on the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners. First she was a director from 1995-1999, then a secretary from 1999-2001 and then served as president from 2001-2003 until stepping down last year.

"I was very shocked and honored to get this award," Kelly said. "I love my job and it is so great to be recognized by your colleagues. ... It can't get better than that."

If you know of a worthy candidate for the Newsmakers column, mail information to: Monique Frigard, Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125-0070. Send faxes to 383-4676 or send e-mail to mfrigard@reviewjournal.com.