YSU Instructor counters lawyers' criticism

An embattled forensics instructor said he's been unfairly attacked.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Youngstown State University forensics instructor whose past work has been challenged as flawed is defending YSU's decision to hire him and insists his performance eventually will be validated.
As YSU administrators wrap up a review of the decision in August to hire Joseph Serowik, he sent a letter Thursday to YSU President Dr. David Sweet. Serowik gave a copy of the letter to The Vindicator.
The communication largely responds to claims made earlier this month by attorneys Barry Scheck of New York City and Alphonse Gerhardstein of Cincinnati.
The two lawyers, who had criticized Serowik and chided YSU for hiring him, represented Michael Green, a Cleveland man wrongfully convicted in 1988 of rape. Green was released after serving 13 years in prison. DNA evidence proved he didn't commit the crime.
Green was convicted based in part on testimony by Serowik, a former scientific examiner in the Cleveland Police Department crime lab. Serowik testified regarding evidence in the case.
Serowik's letter called the Scheck and Gerhardstein criticism of him "an unfair, unfounded and biased attack."
"I did not cause the imprisonment of an innocent man," Serowik wrote.
Lawsuit against city
After being released from prison, Green sued Cleveland. The federal lawsuit alleged that Serowik's testimony regarding the evidence was faulty and that he repeatedly had engaged in "gross professional misconduct."
Cleveland settled the lawsuit for $1.6 million and agreed to audit dozens of other criminal cases that Serowik had been involved in while working in the police department lab.
The city subsequently fired Serowik, who was then hired by YSU to teach forensics, a $48,000-a-year job. The hiring sparked criticism in the press and prompted Sweet to order a review of the move.
Serowik said the experts who testified in the lawsuit were retained by Scheck and Gerhardstein "with a view to discrediting my work. Their criticisms should be taken in light of that fact."
Though Serowik acknowledged the city of Cleveland had suspended him, he said the city's decision to fire him is being arbitrated. "That termination is not official and mention of it is premature," Serowik wrote.
In an interview with The Vindicator, Serowik said he believes the audit of his cases in Cleveland will validate his work there.
He said that throughout the publicity surrounding his being hired at YSU, he has tried to focus on his teaching and "on being a good professor. My students are treating me with respect," he added.
Serowik refused to comment when asked if he's been pressured by anyone at the university to resign in light of the controversy.
leigh@vindy.com