Let’s just say it out loud: how the hell does a digital forensics company like Aperture LLC put someone on the stand in a murder trial without verifying if they actually graduated college?
Yesterday’s cross-examination of Shanon Burgess — the prosecution’s “expert” in the Karen Read trial — wasn’t just embarrassing. It was an absolute disaster.
This is a man who, according to his résumé and LinkedIn, claimed to have earned degrees in mathematics and business administration. Under oath? He admitted he hasn’t finished either. He’s allegedly been “pursuing” a degree since 2008. That’s not education. That’s procrastination on steroids.
Oh, But It Gets Worse…
Defense attorney Alan Jackson (who deserves a round of applause for this cross) revealed that Burgess isn’t just testifying in this case. He regularly testifies in civil injury cases too — and he’s usually hired by the insurance companies. MANY civil injury cases.
Let that sink in:
This guy — with fake degrees and questionable ethics — has likely been used as a “credible” expert to dispute injury claims and devalue the suffering of regular people for years.
So if you’ve ever wondered how insurance companies manage to deny legitimate injury claims, lowball damages, and gaslight injured victims into giving up — now you’ve seen one of their tactics in action. They call in “experts” like Burgess, who show up in courtrooms across the country, wrap themselves in a lab coat of credibility, and parrot whatever narrative the insurance company paid them to deliver.
And now, in one of the most high-profile criminal trials in the country, his credibility just imploded on the stand. We don’t know how you recover from this.
This Isn’t a Technical Error. It’s a System Failure.
A company trusted with forensic evidence in both criminal and civil litigation — who couldn’t be bothered to verify whether one of its “experts” actually had the degrees he claimed.
How does that happen?
Who else have they put on the stand like this?
How many verdicts were influenced by testimony from someone who built his reputation on fiction?
We would like to think this is a one time whoopsie but unfortunately- it’s not.
Credibility Is the Whole Game
When someone is called an expert, that word carries weight. Jurors trust it. Judges allow leeway because of it. And yet here we have a man who’s played a part in potentially hundreds of civil and criminal cases — without the basic academic foundation he claimed to have.
This isn’t just a blip. It’s a reminder that when systems prioritize profits and wins over truth and transparency, innocent people get steamrolled. Injured victims get shortchanged. Defendants face jail time on shaky ground.
Bottom line? If Burgess has been testifying in civil cases for years, how many Americans did he help screw over for a paycheck?
We’ll keep watching the Karen Read trial as the prosecution’s case continues to fall apart, but one thing’s clear: this exposure wasn’t just about one man. It was about an entire system built on unchecked power, lazy vetting, and expert witnesses who aren’t experts in anything but getting paid. The prosecutions lazy tactis as well have been an issue from the start. People always wonder how in the world OJ Simpson was found not guilty of an obvious murder he committed? Well- this is how. Over reaching and failing to do a good job in the investigation of a case.
Check out the cross examination testimony here. We are baffled. Also, we can’t wait to see how this plays into the testimony of the Prosecutions Biomechanics engineer who we believe is also from Aperture…