Open letter to STAT and Christopher Morales

[Archive]

Posted By: <b>shelly jaffe</b><p>An Open Letter To Christopher Morales and STAT Authentic<br /><br />Christopher, I was recently directed to your web site( www.moralesforensics.com) and since you state that you are willing to be involved in a Public Forum to assess your work efforts, I have created a few questions that I would like for you to publicly respond to in Forum form. I have also included a few questions for Ted Taylor and Jeff Stevens and I am hopeful that they can clarify a few things as well. I will also openly admit that I was the shadowed figure in the HBO Special known as “Eddie”.<br /><br />1) Chris, you state on your site: "As to the Marino family skill, one of the lead federal undercover agents has opined that the Marino's were so skilled and even had obtained vintage items so that absent very specialized analysis and other clues, he probably wouldn't have known the items were fake. The HBO analysis appears to be based on an assumption that all confiscated items were fake and that cursory examinations by a convicted felon supplants legitimate testing." <br /><br />First off, a federal undercover agent is NOT an autograph expert. You are the autograph expert. How would they know a good forgery from a bad forgery? Since you are supposedly the autograph expert, your skills were tested and you FAILED!<br /><br />Second, there was no assumption that the items may have been legitimate. ALL of the signatures sent to you were forgeries. The forgeries were plucked from the California FBI warehouse with the assistance of FBI Special Agent Tim Fitzsimmons and all done by Greg Marino. The warehouse was separated into two sections, one for forgeries and one for authentic items. I repeat, the signatures of which you were tested on, were NOT AUTHENTIC!<br /><br />2) You then state on your site: "It has been reported that the "star witness" has approached at least one of the parties who "failed" the HBO test seeking post-incarceration employment."<br /><br />I am not a "star witness" (or a witness for that matter), but simply a consultant or contributor to this HBO piece. I would also like to know who I approached for employment following my incarceration. I NEVER ASKED ANYONE FOR A JOB! Please tell me who I contacted as I would love to know this. <br /><br />3) You also state on your site: "At the same time, the "objective" witness and the HBO program recommended utilizing the services of one of the known felon's prior business associates."<br /><br />First off, HBO DID NOT recommend utilizing my services and if memory fails me, I don't remember them ever recommending any services. Please advice as to whom they recommended/<br /><br />4) You then state the following: "Forensic examiners" are highly skilled and while they cannot be perfect, a consumer's best protection is verification of any COA through such an examiner." <br /><br />WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? Forensics kept us in business! Donald Frangipani passed 100% of the items sent to him. Did you see that part on the HBO Real Sports special where FBI special agent Tim Fitzsimmons plucks from a box a dozen or so identical looking Babe Ruth signed album pages, all with Frangipani Loa’s and all authenticated on the same day? <br /><br />5) According to your site: "I am now and in the past been self employed since leaving the Federal government...I have never formed any partnerships. I have never had a business agreement or financial relationship with any other examiner(s)." <br /><br />According to an interview with "Sports Collectors Digest", Donald Frangipani contradicts (I think) that statement. <br />SCD Interview: <br /><br />SCD: Are you a partner with Christopher Morales?<br />DF: That is correct. Chris Morales worked with the Secret Service for a few years and has taken forensic courses. He has a double Masters degree; he's pretty bright.<br /><br />And then Donald states…<br /><br />SCD: Would you call him your protégé?<br />DF: Yes and no. We're not partners; we consult each other. Chris testifies in regular cases with me; we don't just do autographs. In fact, we just did two trials.<br /><br />And then there is the matter of your own personal web site resume where it states:<br /><br />Partner. Frangipani and Morales Forensic Investigations.<br /><br />Yes, I do have DISDAIN for Forensics. You have at least that correctly. <br /><br />Many of you may not be aware of this, but in 2003, Richard Simon, Steve Koschal and myself began working for Tracercode, an authenticating branch created by Bill Fleming. We were asked by Sports Collector’s Digest to authenticate some of the higher priced items in the monthly Coach’s Corner Sports Auctions. We were sent scans of about 200 autographs, of which, we passed 2-3 per month. We worked with Coach’s Corner Sports Auction for three months and then we were replaced.<br /><br />My questions are now directed to Stat Authentics Ted Taylor and Jeff Stevens, two individuals who appear to have replaced us as the prime authenticating firm for the premium items in all of Coach’s Corner Sports Auctions. <br /><br />1) My first question is for Ted Taylor. Ted, you worked for Scoreboard where you were surrounded by autographs of the three most popular Scoreboard subjects in Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. How could you have gotten those three wrong when you were tested for the HBO Real Sports special? <br /><br />2) Now Jeff Stevens. When Coach's Corner Sports Auction uses STAT to authenticate their Babe Ruth items, often there is a mention on how one of the members of the STAT team authenticates for the Babe Ruth museum. I contacted the Executive Director of the Babe Ruth Museum Michael Gibbins who stated that Jeff Stevens authenticates in person items. How does simply overseeing a signing (which a monkey can do) give you the right to admit openly that you are an expert on that particular celebrity due simply to the fact that you have a small association with the Museum? Don’t you feel this is a misleading statement? <br /><br />In closing, the proof is in the pudding. Just look at the prices your pieces bring versus the known authenticators in hobby.<br /><br />Shelly Jaffe<br /><br />I would appreciate your posting a response . If you absolutely have to respond to me, you can do so at shellyj@cox.net<br /><br /><br />**************<br />

[Deertick]

Yep, regardless of when this crap is stopped, it's effects will be felt for YEARS!

http://www.auctionzip.com/cgi-bin/ph...zip=33545&kwd=

[Wymers Auction]

Originally Posted by Deertick

Yep, regardless of when this crap is stopped, it's effects will be felt for YEARS!

http://www.auctionzip.com/cgi-bin/ph...zip=33545&kwd=

Another Florida auction surprising!!!!

[Bob Lemke]

Michael, that wasn't a silly question. I have no access to SCD "archives" and couldn't possibly discuss the subject without some timeline reference.

Many of you (Shelley, etc.) are under the mistaken impression that I was at the helm of SCD from the time we bought it in 1981. The fact is, I left as publisher of the sports division to take on a corporate role in acquisition and development sometime in the early- to mid-1990s. At that point my involvement with SCD was strictly as an occasional column contributor.

I believe I spelled all that out when this thread was "live" the first time. Feel free to look it up; I'm not so inclined.

I can say unequivocally that when I WAS publisher of SCD, Coaches Corner (if indeed they were advertising then) was in compliance with our customer service requirements, which at that time were much stricter than those that came into effect after Krause Publications was sold to a private equity investment firm. Under KP, an advertiser could be banned (and I banned dozens of them) if they failed to satisfy even a single reader complaint based on the "rules" that were published every issue.

[shelly]

Bob, if not you then who was in charge at the time cc was big in your magazine?

[RichardSimon]

Bob - so the private equity firm (Bain Capital perhaps?) (sorry I could not resist) was responsible for the quality of advertisers in the magazine?
So Bob, are you telling us though you were not personally not involved with SCD at the time of CC advertising, you had zero knowledge of what they were doing. No office grumblings going on? No staffers complaining to you at anytime about CC? No office gossip floating around, that derided the offerings of CC, that you were privy to? You were in corporate and never heard one word about the crimes being committed on the pages of SCD? Is that what you are telling us?

[shelly]

Bob, I am really not trying to insult you but if you can please reply to question below I would greatly appreciate it.

Do you remember Ted Taylor of Stat Authentic's? Now better known as "TTA" one of CC's best known experts. Could you or all the other people that you blame not see the conflict of interest between SCD and CC then? At some time in your comments it would be nice if you just admit somewhere along the line you let a lot of this happen.
It also would be nice if you could stop what is happening now. I would think that you still have some say with the people at SCD