President Phil Siegle called the meeting to order at 12:40.
Pete Wanger led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Mark Johnson delivered the invocation, sharing words of wisdom from various authors, politicians, and others.
“Art does not reproduce the visible; rather it makes visible.”
“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”
“Miracles happen to those who believe in them.”
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn life around.”
“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”
“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years.”
“Joy is the feeling of grinning on the inside.”
Guests of the club and visiting Rotarians:Jennifer Pence introduced our guests, college student Johnny Willey and today’s speaker, Dr. Richard Leo.
Announcements:
Christine Krolik reminded the group that Burlingame Rotary’s 100th Anniversary is coming up. The 100th Anniversary committee meeting will be held 2 weeks from today, after the lunch meeting.
Past President Cary Koh put in a plug for the golf tournament on Monday, September 30, at Green Hills Country Club. We need 80 golfers to participate to make money on the tournament. So far, we have 10 committed foursomes. We are also looking for sponsors. All information is on the Burlingame Rotary website.
Past President Joe LaMariana reported that every fall, the District hosts a Foundation event. This year’s event will be on October 12, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., on the USS Hornet in Alameda.
Past President Marilyn Orr asked for volunteers to serve beer and wine (and rake in the tips for Rotary!) at this weekend’s Burlingame on the Avenue. A couple of the shifts are looking a little sparse!
Scholarship Recipient: Jennifer Pence came back up to introduce one of our Rotary scholarship recipients, Johnny Willey. Johnny is a BHS grad who is a third year student at the University of Virginia (UVA), majoring in economics and on the pre-medicine track. Johnny is quite impressive. He has a 3.88 GPA, serves as a volunteer at a local hospital, and is a research assistant at a lab at UVA. This summer, he was a research assistant at a lab at UCSF. He’s involved in a jazz ensemble and jazz combo at school and is in Phi Society Fraternity. After he graduates, he wants to take a gap year before heading to medical school. He would like to work as a medical assistant or scribe, either in Richmond, Virginia, or San Francisco. He is interested in orthopedic surgery in medical school. I’m sure we’ll be seeing great things from Johnny in the future!
President Phil played a game with the group asking people to guess the real name of famous stars from the past. Let’s just say that it’s a good thing some of them changed their names!
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Program: Charlene Drummer introduced today’s speaker, Richard A. Leo, Ph.D., the Hamill Family Professor of Law and Psychology at the University of San Francisco School of Law. He was previously a tenured professor of psychology and criminology at U.C. Irvine for a decade (1997-2006), and a professor of sociology and adjunct professor of law at the University of Colorado, Boulder (1994-1997).
Dr. Leo is one of the leading experts in the world on police interrogation practices, the impact of Miranda, psychological coercion, false confessions, and the wrongful conviction of the innocent. Dr. Leo has authored more than 100 articles in leading scientific and legal journals as well as several books.
Dr. Leo’s presentation was entitled “Police Interrogation, False Confessions, and the Wrongful Conviction of the Innocent.” According to Dr. Leo, he has been a victim of violent crime more than once. He is not anti-police. He wants people who commit violent crimes to be apprehended, and those who haven’t committed violent crimes to avoid incarceration.
Dr. Leo gave a brief summary of four famous cases of false confessions: the Salem Witch Trials, the Central Park 5 (eventual DNA exoneration), the Beatrice 6 (four people falsely confessed; six were convicted, eventual DNA exoneration), the Norfolk 4 (eventual DNA exoneration).
Most crimes don’t have biological or DNA evidence. Many of the people who have been exonerated post-conviction are lucky that DNA evidence existed so that they could have their convictions overturned.
Dr. Leo explained the police theory behind psychological interrogation: investigators can tell whether suspects are guilty; investigators can learn to overcome denials and elicit confessions through psychological methods; psychological interrogation methods are not coercive; and psychological methods won’t cause false confessions. The Reid Method of Interrogation is an accusatory, confirmatory, confession-drive technique. The main techniques are isolation, rapport-building (friendly talk before Miranda warning), presumption of guilt, accusation/confrontation, false evidence, inducements and minimization, pressure and persuasion.
Unfortunately, police are allowed to lie to suspects about evidence. Police believe that it’s ok to lie to suspects (about fingerprints, surveillance video, eyewitness testimony, DNA), because innocent people won’t falsely confess. We know that this isn’t true. Starting in 1989 as a result of changes in evidence gathering/DNA, it started to become apparent that a lot of innocent people had been wrongly convicted.
Researchers have conducted studies of police interrogations that lead to false confessions. They have looked at real word data (case studies, DNA exonerations, National Registry of Exonerations) and laboratory data (experimental induction of false statements and confessions).
The studies have found three police errors that lead to (persuasive) unreliable confessions and wrongful convictions: misclassification, coercion, contamination (leaking or disclosing of non-public details—a suspect repeats back details that the police have given him or her, and the police use that information to elicit a confession).
Social scientists are advocating for a number of policy reforms to improve the quality of evidence: mandatory electronic recording of interrogations; improved police training of how to get true confessions, not false confessions; evidence-based suspicion requirement; prohibit police deception; pre-trial admissibility hearings regarding evidence; replace the Reid Method with investigative interviewing—not guilt-presumptive or accusatorial.
President Phil closed out the meeting after thanking Dr. Leo and presenting him with a certificate noting that Burlingame Rotary is donating polio doses in his name
The current opioid epidemic is one of the most significant public health crises in our nation’s history. In 2023, more than 107,000 Americans died from a drug overdose with a 109% increase amongst youth aged 10-19 years.
Mary Taylor Fullerton from San Mateo County Health, Behavioral Health and Recovery Services will discuss the origins of the opioid epidemic, the use and misuse of opioids including fentanyl, and evidence-based harm reduction strategies in San Mateo County to prevent overdose deaths.
Mary Taylor Fullerton, LMFT, is Clinical Services Manager with San Mateo County Behavioral Health & Recovery Services, Alcohol & Drug Division. She has been with SMC for over 16 years with a focus on Trauma-Informed care, system integration for co-occurring substance us and mental health treatment and helped create the Integrated Medication Assisted Treatment (IMAT) team embedded in the county emergency department serving those with harmful opioid and alcohol use. Mary has also taught at the College of San Mateo in the Drug & Alcohol Studies department since 2011.
