Ralph R. Ristenbatt III

Biography

A criminalist for over 35 years, Mr. Ristenbatt began his formal education in science at Lebanon Valley College in 1983 as a Chemistry major. After a discussion with his advisor, Donald Dahlberg, Ph.D., he changed his major in his junior year to Biochemistry and graduated May 1987. He left his home state of Pennsylvania to pursue graduate education in criminalistics and a career in New York City. A 1990 graduate of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice/CUNY Master of Science in Forensic Science program under the research mentorship of Peter De Forest, D.Crim., he accepted an entry-level position with the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) while completing his master’s thesis. His primary responsibilities at the OCME were forensic serological, and later forensic DNA, analyses (HLA-DQα) in homicide and sexual assault cases in the city’s five boroughs.

Within his first two years at the OCME, he became involved in scientific event reconstruction efforts led by laboratory director, Robert C. Shaler, Ph.D. In the mid-1990s, he was responsible for the validation, implementation, and supervision of FT-IR analysis of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) in sexual assault cases with suspected condom use. Mr. Ristenbatt also led the efforts to validate and implement the detection and analysis of primer-derived gunshot residue using scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray analysis in medical examiner cases. In 1997, Mr. Ristenbatt was removed from routine casework to focus his efforts on the scientific reconstruction of events including homicides, vehicle-vehicle and vehicle-pedestrian events, physical and sexual assaults, suicides, and cases of accidental, undetermined, and suspicious deaths.

In 2000, he became the supervisor of the Medical Examiner Scientific Assessment and Training Team (rebranded in 2003 as the Forensic Analysis and Reconstruction Unit) from January 2000 to July 2006. This team was responsible for the scientific analysis and reconstruction of event scenes in NYC using data derived from blood trace configurations (so-called bloodstain pattern analysis), projectile trajectories and firearm-related evidence, and other types of transfer and impression evidence. This unit, a dedicated team of criminalists, was likely the first of its kind in the nation. Mr. Ristenbatt’s team provided training to law enforcement personnel from the FBI, NYPD, NYSP, NJSP, PA State Police, and others in areas including biological evidence collection and preservation, analysis of blood trace configurations, event (crime scene) reconstruction, and forensic photography.

He is certified by the American Board of Criminalistics (ABC-GKE — General Knowledge Examination) and by the International Association for Identification (Senior Crime Scene Analyst). In 2006, Mr. Ristenbatt resigned from his service to the City of New York at the highest non-managerial level and accepted employment with The Pennsylvania State University’s Forensic Science Program where he has instructed undergraduate and graduate courses in crime scene investigation, traceology and event reconstruction, trace and pattern impression evidence, ethics, and the program’s undergraduate and graduate capstone courses. JMR Forensics Inc., Mr. Ristenbatt’s consulting firm, has been incorporated since 2004. He maintains an active consulting practice and has worked local, state, and federal cases, both criminal and civil, in New York City and its metro area (Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, and Rockland counties in New York), New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. He has also provided consultation in cases in Alaska, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and internationally in Bermuda and India. He has provided testimony in federal court (US District Court, Eastern District of New York), NYS Criminal Court (five boroughs of NYC; Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester counties), NYC Civil Court (New York County), Delaware State Superior Court, and Maryland Circuit Court.

Research Interests

Issues involving event (e.g.., crime scene) scene investigation and reconstruction, traceology (i.e., criminalistics), blood trace configurations (so-called bloodstain pattern analysis), firearm traces (GSR, traces on projectiles, etc.), projectile trajectory reconstruction, polarized light microscopy, chemical microscopy, optical crystallography, and patterned traces (footwear, fingermarks, tool marks, fabric, etc.).