Rile & Hicks Forensic Document Examiners

History

Howard C. Rile, Jr. apprenticed in document examination from 1972 to 1974 with John J. Harris, of Harris & Harris, the prestigious Los Angeles firm of forensic document examiners involved with several high profile cases. After completing his training, Howard Rile left to work as a forensic document examiner for the L.A. County Auditor-Controller and then for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, and returned to work with Jack Harris in private practice in 1983. In 1996, Mr. Harris retired, and the practice was moved from Los Angeles to Long Beach. Howard C. Rile, Jr. invited forensic document examiners A. Frank Hicks into the practice in 2002 followed by Linton A. Mohammed in 2011. Linton Mohammed now practices exclusively in the Northern California area with an office in San Bruno, CA.

Specialties

Rile and Hicks specializes in the examination and evaluation of questioned documents, such as: disputed handwriting and signatures, including wills, deeds, checks, agreements; altered records, e.g. medical records, legal records, corporate minutes; disputed typewriting, printing and/or other business machine processes; examination for alterations, indentations and obliterations; nondestructive ink and paper examinations. Fully equipped document laboratory, including VSC-4C for ink examination, ESDA for indented writing, and digital imaging equipment. Curriculum vitaes, references and fee schedule available upon inquiry. Both of our examiners are ABFDE certified, members of the ASQDE, AAFS-Questioned Document Section, SWAFDE, SAFDE, and CSFS.