1. Affidavit Instructions
This handout explains how defense counsel can request government-funded forensic expert assistance from a convening authority in a military case. Its sample request and accompanying guidance address the expert’s purpose, case-specific need, proposed work, counsel’s limits, and the legal basis for showing necessity under the Gonzalez test.
Affidavit for Acquiring an Expert on Alcohol Blackout / Amnesia
This sample declaration illustrates how a forensic psychologist might describe alcohol-related memory effects and related psychological concepts in a request for expert assistance. It discusses blackouts, reconstructive recall, source misattribution, suggestibility, and other possible influences, then applies them cautiously to a hypothetical case while noting the need to review case evidence.
Affidavit for Alcohol Relapse
This 2021 affidavit discusses alcohol relapse and treatment in connection with a military peer review hearing. It summarizes research and DSM-5 material describing relapse as part of the variable course of alcohol use disorder and notes the affidavit author’s position that relapse does not by itself mean recovery is impossible.
Affidavit for Borderline Personality and False Accusations
This declaration discusses borderline personality disorder and the evaluation of allegations of sexual assault in a military case. It describes diagnostic characteristics and reviews literature on false reporting motivations and related forensic issues, presenting the author’s proposed areas of expertise for possible case consultation.
Affidavit for Contact Sex Offense
This 2021 sample affidavit explains how a forensic psychologist could assist defense counsel at sentencing after a client pleaded guilty to an adult contact sexual offense. It lists research-based aggravating and protective factors considered in a risk assessment and argues that expert testimony can help the court understand offense-specific risk, possible mitigation, actuarial findings, and treatment options.
Affidavit for Ecstasy Use and Memory
This declaration addresses how MDMA, commonly called ecstasy or Molly, may affect memory in a military court-martial case. The psychologist describes expertise in drug effects on event encoding and retrieval and presents research material concerning intoxication, memory formation, and later recall.
Affidavit for Memory
This declaration describes memory processes that the psychologist says may affect recollection in a sexual-assault case. It discusses reconstructive recall, source misattribution, memory change over time, suggestion, hindsight bias, motivated memory, and imagination inflation, emphasizing that interacting influences may alter a person’s account.
Affidavit for Online Offender-Child Images
This 2022 affidavit discusses research and evaluation issues in a case involving online child-sexual-abuse images, emphasizing distinctions between noncontact online offenses and contact sexual offending. It summarizes recidivism studies and risk-assessment findings, then describes factors and professional tools relevant to evaluating risk and informing sentencing, treatment, and supervision decisions.
Affidavit for Online Offender-Luring
This affidavit outlines forensic psychology topics that its author proposed for consideration in a military case involving alleged online offenses against minors. It discusses distinctions between attraction to pubescent and prepubescent children, adolescent motivations in age-discordant relationships, and evaluation topics including risk, treatment, and sentencing context.
Affidavit for PTSD and Substance Abuse
This affidavit discusses the possible relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder and substance use in a military court-martial matter. It recounts counsel’s reported case background and summarizes research on PTSD and substance use disorders, including studies gathered in an appendix.
Affidavit for Rebutting Testimony Regarding Domestic Violence (Intimate Partner Violence)
This memorandum outlines proposed forensic psychology assistance in a military case involving intimate partner violence allegations. The author describes relevant expertise concerning IPV’s possible cognitive and emotional effects and counterintuitive testimony, while noting that he had not yet been appointed as a case consultant.
Affidavit for Review of Forensic Child Interviews
This declaration concerns potential forensic review of Child Advocacy Center interviews in a military court-martial matter. It sets out the psychologist’s background and experience with child sexual abuse testimony and interview review, and includes supporting materials about training in forensic child interviewing.
Affidavit for Substance Use Relapse
This Air Force affidavit reviews substance use relapse in a case involving a service member and summarizes research concerning cocaine, alcohol, and cannabis use disorders. It discusses persistent cravings, social and occupational effects, and the possibility of remission and relapse as part of these disorders’ courses.