Kal Korff and Glass Houses

Kal Korff has made a career out of exposing the allegedly false, or exaggerated claims, of others.

But what about Korff himself?

On his website, Korff claims, among many, many other things, to have been "a key, expert witness in the O.J. Simpson murder trial CIVIL lawsuit".

So I did a bit of looking, just for chuckles. Turns out he was no such thing.

Here is the list of witnesses, from Court TV's website.

Nowhere on it will you find Kal Korff's name.

So, because Korff was on the X-Zone with Rob McConnell last night, I thought I would write in and ask Korff about this.

Here is that e-mail in part, which Rob read on the air:

"Take my word for it as a lawyer - you're not a witness, and certainly not an expert one, unless you take the stand in the trial!"

Rob asked Korff about his claim to have been an expert witness - you can go to the X-Zone archives to listen to Korff's answer. What is clear is that by no definition that a lawyer would accept was Korff a witness, expert or otherwise, because he never took the stand, which is the essence of what a witness is.

Doubt me?

Here's the definition from Black's Law Dictionary, 6th edition:

"One who is called to testify before a court. One who testifies to what he has seen, heard, or otherwise observed. A person whose declaration under oath (or affirmation) is received as evidence for any purpose, whether such declaration be made on oral examination or by deposition or affidavit."

Listen to Korff's answer closely, and draw your own conclusion. To me, it's clear that the charitable interpretation is that he embellished his role (if he actually had one) in the Simpson case.

If an employer found out that you had done that on a resume, you could easily wind up on the unemployment line.

It's particularly egregious because Korff makes the claim in the context of burnishing his credentials to go after the likes of Michael Horn and Ray Santilli for consumer fraud. In short, his misleading claim to have been an "expert witness" in the Simpson trial is supposed to make him sound more credible as a person to go after people in a legal context.

And that's wrong.

Of course, Korff also claims to be a Captain in the Special Secret Services, but if you listed to a question asked to him about that on the same X-Zone show as the witness question, you'll hear him hem and haw about what that means (I was the person who e-mailed that question in as well). Apparently, despite the alleged fact that the organization has a name, implying it is in fact an organization, and despite the alleged fact that Korff has a commission from said organization, apparently there is no such organization, at least not in the "linear sense" (Korff's term, not mine) - whatever the heck that means.

After listening to the show, I can only say one thing about Kal Korff: people who challenge the credibility of other people, particularly when they are threatening them with lawsuits for consumer fraud, as Korff has done with Horn and Santilli, should make sure their own credibility is pretty much spotless.

In other words, people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Paul Kimball