Ordinarily, we do not comment about individuals or expert witnesses that we face during the course of litigation.This time, we will make an exception.
Alex Deas, Ph.D. is the man behind Deep Life, Ltd., the designer of the Apocalypse rebreather.The Apocalypse is marketed by Open Safety Equipment, Ltd. as having been “Developed out of the 200 man-year Open Revolution ™ rebreather safety initiative led by Deep Life Ltd,” whatever that is.Among other things, the Apocalypse is supposed to be the safest rebreather design in the world, or so says Alex Deas.
Frankly, we have a hard time believing anything Alex Deas says.
Alex Deas conducting an equipment inspection in November 2007 - AFTER learning the diver's death was possibly caused by the rebreather not being turned on
Dr. Deas first came to our attention when we received notice that he would be acting as an expert witness for the plaintiff in the case of Stephanie Barrett v. Ambient Pressure Diving, Ltd.Mrs. Barrett alleged that her husband, Robert Barrett, died because of a defect in his Inspiration rebreather, which was manufactured by the firm’s client, Ambient Pressure Diving, Ltd.Mrs. Barrett had scant evidence to prove her claims, until she found Alex Deas. Between November 2007 and November 2008, Dr. Deas provided more than 300 pages of expert reports and a full day of trial testimony to support his opinion that Robert Barrett’s Inspiration rebreather was defective because a pair of electrical faults allegedly caused the rebreather to malfunction.The problem was, in October 2007, Dr. Deas received information directly from an eye-witness that the rebreather was never turned on (see here).If the rebreather was not turned on, it could not have malfunctioned.Dr. Deas never tried to explain this inconsistency; in fact, he ignored it altogether.He never mentioned the eye-witness or the information he had learned.He simply acted as if the information never existed because it contradicted his opinions.
Although Dr. Deas was not known to the firm, he was well known to Ambient.Within months of obtaining his Inspiration rebreather certification, Dr. Deas was corresponding with the company, commenting on the design of the Inspiration rebreather, and offering to design components he felt were necessary or needed reworking.Ambient had a hard time taking his suggestions seriously because his comments showed an alarming disregard for safe diving practices and equipment usage.Among other things, Dr. Deas managed to flood his Inspiration rebreather while using an incorrect carbon dioxide scrubber material, and then he placed his rebreather electronics in the dishwasher to clean them (see here and here).Dr. Deas also prefaced his comments with remarks like “I would never act as an expert witness for any legal actions” against Ambient (see here and here), but the implication was clear – adopt my designs, or else. By 2007, Dr. Deas was acting as an expert witness against Ambient in two separate cases, opining in each that the Inspiration rebreather was defective because Ambient failed to heed his advice.Dr. Deas failed in both cases.In the first case, he was labeled a “crusader” by the Coroner (see here).In the second case, the Judge characterized his opinions as “doubtful” (see here), especially when "more persuasive expert opinion" (see here and here) and factual evidence was offered to contradict Dr. Deas' opinions. We do not believe that Dr. Deas conducts his affairs in the "open" manner which he professes. In February 2002, Dr. Deas' wife Christine reportedly sued him seeking a £7 million divorce settlement.Mrs. Deas was reportedly living in public housing after their separation, getting by on less than £65 per week, while Dr. Deas had moved in to substantially larger accommodations and was supposedly one of Scotland’s richest men (see here). We do not know how this case was resolved.We do know, however, that by the time of the trial in the Barrett case, Deep Life was owned entirely by Dr. Deas' teenage daughter, who is not a diver, and company records listed Dr. Deas as nothing more than the corporate Secretary (see here). Dr. Deas now says that he is not involved in "litigation of any sort." This assertion is interesting, given that Dr. Deas was quoted in the February 2009 issue of Undercurrent as saying that he may get involved in a Los Angeles case as an expert against Ambient, and he has already changed his published opinion about the cause of this diver's death from diver error to a design fault with the diver's rebreather. The crusade continues.
Finally, Dr. Deas recently stated that "the fullness of time will expose everything." This statement is true. In fact, we plan to do our part to "expose everything." We figured this was a good place to start.
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