Monthly Attorney Orientation
For Lawyers who are New to Indigent Defense
Beginning August 1, IDS staff will provide orientation for new attorneys on the first Friday of each month from 1-2 p.m.
Topics will include a guided tour of the IDS website, information on training and CLE opportunities, access to wellness resources and more. You will also be able to connect with other defense attorneys for future collaboration!
2026 IDS Forensic Science Education Series
IDS and the Mecklenburg Public Defender’s Office provide regular continuing education to dozens of NC criminal defense and parent attorneys, investigators, and mitigation specialists who attend the IDS Forensic Science Education Series.
In 2026, we will offer monthly 90-minute webinars on various aspects of forensic evidence. These webinars will take place typically at 12:30 pm on the first Thursday of each month. Click here to view the 2026 Schedule.
The first six sessions of 2026 will focus on understanding and advocating for neurodivergent clients.
- This event has passed.
Interpreting Complex DNA Mixtures with STRmix
The Mecklenburg County Public Defender’s Office is offering a free to attend presentation on Probabilistic Genotyping: Interpreting Complex DNA Mixtures with STRmix. Pending Approval by the NC State Bar, this presentation is for 2.5 hours of general CLE credit. As this presentation will not give a refresher course on DNA basics, please click the below links (thank you Sarah Olson) for a refresher on the basics of DNA comparison, so you are prepared for the presentation. Please register below as space is limited:
Click here to Register for March 21st
When: Friday March 21, 2025, from 12:30-3:15 p.m. (There will be a break from 1:45-2 p.m. and the conference room will open by 12:15 p.m. You are welcome to bring your lunch.)
Where: The Mecklenburg County Public Defender’s Office 4th floor conference room (720 E 4th St Charlotte, NC; take the elevator to the 4th floor and the conference room is on the left). Please note there is no online option for this seminar.
What: This presentation will provide an overview of probabilistic genotyping (PG) software, now being used to interpret complex DNA mixtures at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department Lab (as well as the NC State Crime Lab). Attendees will learn more about the functionality of the PG software (STRmix) and become familiar with report structure and conclusions. The objective of the presentation is to gain a better understanding of how the software is implemented and used to interpret complex DNA mixtures. Attendees will become more informed about what to expect from the lab (reports, underlying result, software output files), the limitations of the software, and venues for challenging PG results in defense of their criminal clients.
Who: Dr. Maher “Max” Noureddine, PhD. is a molecular geneticist with extensive background in scientific research in human genetics and expertise in Forensic DNA evidence. He earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Duke University Medical Center (The Center for Human Genetics), where he published many articles on the genetics of Parkinson Disease and other human genetic disorders. His expertise includes specialized training in complex genomics, DNA fingerprinting, mitochondrial genome analysis, Single Nucleotide Polymorphism studies, and state of the art methodologies in gene structure and function studies. Since 2011, Dr. Noureddine has been providing expert witness services in forensic DNA and serology evidence throughout the United States. He has served as an expert in over 1,100 criminal and civil cases and testified in both State and Federal courts. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Criminalistics, and a member of the International Society of Forensic Genetics, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the American Society of Human Genetics, and the International Association for Identification. He is an adjunct teaching faculty in the Department of Forensic Science at Radford University, VA.
DNA Refresher links:
https://www.nist.gov/feature-stories/dna-mixtures-forensic-science-explainer
https://senseaboutscience.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/making-sense-of-forensic-genetics.pdf
https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/dna-defense-bar
Please email [email protected] with any questions.
