COURT TV Dr. Henry Lee portrays reality

His new series offers a look at his investigation process.
SCRIPPS HOWARD
In these days when television has elevated forensic science to high art, it's hard to imagine yet another show on the subject.
But Dr. Henry Lee is the real thing. He never shows up at a crime scene in a halter-top or jeans as tight as drying paint, piercing the air with his laser flashlight and waxing poetic about clues. Unassuming, soft-spoken, his English still imperfect, Lee (who was born in China) has been working for 40 years in criminology.
Now Chief Emeritus of the Connecticut State Police laboratory, he's known for his work in forensic serology -- the identification of blood, hair, semen and tissue types. He's also an expert in fingerprint matching, ballistics, fiber and paint sample investigation and blood splatter reconstructions.
It's in his new series on Court TV, "Trace Evidence: the Case Files of Dr. Henry Lee" (10 p.m.) that you see how the forensic investigator truly works. Slow and meticulous, he reconstructs the crime, pores over the evidence and cautiously ventures hypotheses about how things might have happened. He talks about the show and his career:
UHow forensic science has changed since he began: "When I started almost 45 years ago, at that time when we solved cases, basically [we relied] on interrogation."
UWhat we've learned since the then: "Unfortunately 45 years of history taught us very little. We still mess up at the crime scene. All the recent cases from the Kennedy assassination to the JonBenet Ramsey to O.J. Simpson -- bottom line is the crime scene. If the crime scene is handled correctly, properly, we can recognize, collect those physical evidence. Then [in the] laboratory we can do our job to examine the evidence. Then the case should be resolved."
UThe purpose of the show: "Hopefully society will learn from those cases. Each case we choose has a silent message. How can we learn from this? We try to avoid future tragedy."
U New techniques: "For example, enhanced bloody fingerprinting. Fingerprint, of course, you have a lot of blood. If they touched a surface, we can see it. Many times a suspect washes his hands, then touches the doorknob or the wall. Basically it's not visible. With a chemical which we helped to develop, we can spray on the surface ... the hemoglobin part of the blood will have a color come up. And that becomes very, very visible.
UNotorious cases: "I'm involved in the Kobe Bryant and Laci Peterson cases. Of course, Phil Spector case. But our show is not going to talk about rich, famous cases."
UWhich side is he working?: "Kobe Bryant case is for the prosecution. So if you're asking me for an autographed basketball, I don't have one. I represent the other [side]. Laci Peterson, I'm representing the defense."
UInaccuracies in fictional TV: "For example, the forensic light source, the laser. We use it in our work ... but you can't just shine a laser and [have] everything pop up. As a matter of fact, last year in Detroit a police sergeant came to me and said, 'Dr. Lee, please talk to my chief.' I said, 'Why?' He said he got into big trouble. So I called the chief up. He said he bought a forensic light source like the television shows [and gave] it to this detective sergeant. He took it to the crime scene three times. Did not find any evidence ... He said, 'Why on the television show, every night it finds the evidence?' And so I have to spend about 15 minutes explaining to the chief: 'You need goggles. You need wavelengths. You have to know what to select, what chemical to spray. Light sources will not automatically produce evidence.'"