American Board of Forensic Examiners
It has taken me a long time to come to grips with how this once prestigious organization fell from grace. Let me start with Robert O'Block. I never liked him, I never trusted him. O'Block and I had many disagreements over the years. In the early years it was called the American Board of Forensic Handwriting Analysts Inc. My membership number was 107. I started my early years in forensics with forensic greats such as Ron Rice, Vincent Scalice, Jane Jeremy, Wayne Hill, just to name a few. I handled all of this new organization's graphic art and design work in the early years. I was promoted to assistant training director in Behavioral Profiling nation wide a few years later.
This was a great forensic organization with over thirty five thousand members world wide. Robert O'Block became greedy, he started to certify just about anyone with a dollar in hand. This drove Vince Scalice insane. I was with Vince in his office when he was yelling and screaming at O'Block over this. Vince and I were getting ready to do a TV show on O.J. Simpson on Geraldo Rivera's TV show.
If it was not for Vince Scalice and Ron Rice this organization would have never gotten off the ground. Vince Scalice gave O'Block the name, the logo, and his reputation as an internationally known forensic expert. Vince gave this new organization the credibility it needed. Ron Rice wrote the courses that we taught to many members. Ron went insane when O'Block started to certify people with no forensic background. Ron, Vince and I started our own organization called the International Academy Of Forensic Examiners & Investigators (IAFEI) back in 1996.
For many of you who were certified in behavioral profiling, document examination in the early years be proud of your accomplishment, you earned it. Ron Rice made you work for it. Ron Rice is a good teacher. Vincent Scalice was a good teacher. They put their heart and soul into their courses. I know, I was there. Ron Rice made me bleed. I watched Ron work day and night to get his courses right. Vince taught me much about forensics in his laboratory in Staten Island and up here in Boston when I founded the Forensic Service Division of Chin, wright and Branson, P.C. O’Block ended his life a few months ago after killing his girlfriend who was forty years younger than he was and than taking his own life. I know Vincent Scalice is turning over in his grave. My heart is broken not for Robert O'Block. I never liked him, I never trusted him. It is broken for Vincent Scalice, Ron Rice and a few of the other great forensic experts who put their heart and soul into this organization and made it the great forensic organization it was.
www.iafei.com www.aiantoscaforensics.com
According to the Greene County Sheriff's Office, O'Block, 66, shot and killed Fleming on July 30, 2017, before turning the gun on himself at his home on Kingswood Drive in the Highland Springs subdivision.
