Affidavit: LAPD analyst's error delayed Robert Durst link

HOUSTON (AP) - A Los Angeles Police Department document examiner's erroneous handwriting analysis in 2001 delayed authorities linking millionaire Robert Durst to a friend's killing by as much as 16 months, a search warrant released Wednesday reveals.

Durst, a member of a wealthy New York real estate family, was arrested in New Orleans over the weekend and charged with murder in California for the December 2000 shooting death of Susan Berman. Durst's arrest came shortly before the finale of an HBO series about his links to three killings, including Berman's.

Authorities searched his Houston home Tuesday, and the warrant released Wednesday details the timeline of the Berman case.

It shows that police focused in on Durst's handwriting early on after a note received by police tipped them to Berman's death. The envelope and note, written in block letters, misspelled "Beverley Hills Police" and included the word "cadaver" along with Berman's Beverly Hills address.

In 2001, LAPD document examiner William Leaver concluded it was "highly probable" that the envelope and note were written by Nyle Brenner, Berman's manager and friend. The erroneous assessment was "rubber stamped" by Leaver's supervisor, who told detectives this past September that she had not performed her own technical review of his report.

At the time, investigators had not analyzed examples of Durst's handwriting, and it wasn't until eight months later that a comparison was made to Durst's limited sample writings. Leaver said "similarities" were enough to request more exemplar writings, and in April those were sought in a meeting with Durst and his attorneys.

In June 2003, the samples were compared and Leaver concluded the handwriting on the note and envelope was likely Durst's. By then, Durst had been charged in Texas with murder for the death and dismemberment of a 71-year-old neighbor, Morris Black.

The conflicting assessments meant valuable time lost.

Eventually, the envelope, letter and writing samples were sent to the California Department of Justice for analysis and an investigator determined Durst as "probably the author of the cadaver letter and note."

Weeks later, Durst was acquitted of murder in Texas, but sentenced to five years for evidence tampering and bond jumping.

The Los Angeles case went dormant and wasn't revived until 2012, when law enforcement learned of the work of HBO filmmakers. The filmmakers say they shared tape with police months ago of interviews with Durst, including his reactions to handwriting analysis and what appears to be a confession to Berman's killing.

In October and November, the LAPD had the documents analyzed again, this time by two independent document examiners who both concluded Durst was the author.

Durst is now in custody in Louisiana on gun charges while awaiting a transfer to Los Angeles. The LAPD has declined to comment until Durst is in their custody. Durst was moved from a New Orleans jail to a state prison with a mental health unit after he was determined a suicide risk by officials Wednesday.

Police officers who searched three condo units Durst owns in a Houston high-rise building on Tuesday carried away boxes and a trash bag, filled with CDs, credit cards, a cellphone, handwriting samples, court documents and photographs.

Also seized were copies of two books, "Without a Trace," which is about Durst's acquittal of murder in Texas, and "A Deadly Secret," about the unsolved disappearance of Durst's first wife.

Durst's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said the conflicting determinations on the handwriting "shows you what junk science really is."

DeGuerin also questioned what evidence police expected to find in Durst's home in Houston - 15 years after Berman's death.

Durst himself may have pointed to his condo, in a recording made while talking to himself in a bathroom immediately after a tense interview with the documentary makers.

Just before saying he "killed them all," he says, "I don't know what's in the house!"

That bathroom tape forms the conclusion of the six-part HBO documentary "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst," which wrapped up Sunday.

A law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press Wednesday it would be roughly a month before independent experts analyzed raw footage of Durst's interviews to determine whether they were tampered with.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation.

The search warrant affidavit showed authorities were concerned Durst, who has an estimated net worth of $100 million, might be preparing to flee the country. He had withdrawn large sums of money from multiple bank accounts, including daily amounts of $9,000 for 35 days starting in October.

Durst was under FBI surveillance and agents arrested him in a New Orleans hotel under the name "Everette Ward," finding nearly $43,000 in cash, a gun and a rubber mask that could cover his head and neck in his room.

The official said it was a kind of "old man mask" and investigators were looking at whether he'd been using it to travel around.

Durst could face the death penalty if convicted of killing Berman, the daughter of a prominent Las Vegas mobster.

___

Abdollah reported from Los Angeles. She can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/latams .