Level 26ers,
 
If any of you are CSI: NY fans, you might already be familiar with Bill Haynes' work—he’s been a technical advisor on the show since its first season, and has penned numerous episodes for it. But what you probably don’t know is that Bill worked for several years as a criminalist in the LA County Sheriff’s department, processing evidence and going to crime scenes like the CSIs we see on television. In an exclusive five-part interview with Level26.com, Bill discusses his career, the details of crime scene investigating you might not know about and some truly memorable cases he’s worked on. In part one, Bill tells us how he got his start as a criminalist:
 
Level 26: What did you do for LA County, and how did you get into the field of forensics?
 
Bill Haynes: Back in my undergrad days, I was pre-med. I kind of had a reality check with myself, realizing that I'm not really the hospital type. And while I have a lot of respect for doctors and people who work in that industry, I realized it wasn't for me. I was already several years into pre-med, and I recalled reading about forensic DNA analysis, which was pretty much still in its infancy at that time (in the early 90s). I had read about that in one of my bio classes and thought that sounded fascinating. I pretty much just glommed on to that and ran with that. I still ended up getting that pre-med degree--I got a bachelors in Biology with a minor in Chemistry and then from there I went to Cal State Los Angeles and got a masters degree in forensic science. This was all pre-CSI days--CSI hadn't even launched yet. It was right around the time of the O.J. trial--it was just starting to get on people's radars. While I was getting my masters in forensics, I was also applying for forensic scientist positions and got hired on by the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. That was in 1998.
 
The first two years I was there, I was in the narcotics division of the lab. Basically, doing the standard drug testing. I was also assigned to the clandestine laboratory unit. It was primarily meth labs. Occasionally it was a PCP lab, every once in a while an ecstasy lab. That was really where I got my first introduction into crime scene investigation because you were actually going out in the field and collecting samples from these meth labs, and then taking the samples back to the laboratory and analyzing them.
 
So I did two years of that, and then I was transferred into the forensic biology section, which encompasses all your standard testing of physiological fluids. You start off by screening for physiological fluids--is the red stain you found in the suspect's car blood or ketchup? After you do that presumptive testing to determine that it is in fact blood, the question becomes, is it human? And if it's human, does it match the DNA profile of the victim? So that obviously encompasses DNA analysis, which I was doing [as well]. I was doing the serology testing, the DNA testing and also crime scene investigation, which is obviously going out into the field, mostly to homicide scenes. Occasionally, you go out on a sexual assault case--a lot of rapes happen in people's cars or in their home. Also assault cases--but for the most part, it was murders. You're collecting shoe prints. We had special photographers who handled all of the fingerprint work, so we really didn't do any of the fingerprint work. As far as any trace evidence, or serology evidence--blood, semen, saliva, anything like that--we would collect that. Murder weapons obviously. And then there's blood splatter interpretation.
 
Coming up tomorrow: What you might not know about crime scene investigating!