Forensic scientist Henry Lee: No false testimony in murder case

WEST HAVEN — Henry C. Lee, the criminologist who formerly led the State Police Forensic Science Laboratory, said Monday that the suggestion that he provided false testimony in a murder case that saw two convictions overturned by the state Supreme Court is totally untrue.

Lee said that in a career that has spanned a halfcentury, “Never, ever was I accused of intentionally ... trying to cover up” or provide false testimony in a case.

He also took issue with the suggestion that he failed to perform forensic tests on a key piece of evidence, saying he did perform tests, but the results of those presumptive, or field, tests were preliminary.

Lee’s comments followed the state Supreme Court’s decision that ordered a new trial for two men who have served more than 30 years in prison for a New Milford murder they claim they didn’t commit.

In the decision released Friday afternoon, the court ordered new trials for Sean Henning and Ralph Birch. In 1989, the two men were convicted separately in trials related to the murder of Everett Carr, 65.

In both cases, the convictions were based in part on Lee’s testimony that a towel found in a bathroom in Carr’s home had a spot on it that tests indicated was “consistent with blood.”

Subsequent DNA testing found that there was no blood on the towel.

A key part of the Supreme Court decision is what the court determined to be Lee’s “false testimony” in the case.

Carr was murdered in 1985 in what appeared to be a home burglary.

At the time, Henning and Birch, 17 and 18 years old, respectively, were troubled youths living in a stolen car and burglarizing homes in the New Milford area.

The two teens were taken in as suspects. While they confessed to stealing the car and to committing four other area burglaries, they steadfastly insisted they were not involved with the Carr murder.

The victim, clad only in an undershirt and underwear, was lying in a pool of blood. Blood spatter and smears covered the walls around him.

While none of the victim’s blood was found on either Birch or Henning, or in the car they drove, the prosecutor argued the men cleaned up after the murder based on Lee’s testimony.