MEET OUR TEAM
Joe Torok
Joe Torok, founder of Forensic Foundations, is a retired Sergeant from the Broward County Sheriff's Office after working for over 35 years. Joe spent 7 years working patrol at which time he was hand selected to work with a DEA Task Force which lasted about a year. This was followed by 3 years as a Street Crimes Detective and then 3 years as a Criminal Investigations Detective. In 2001, Joe was selected to join the Crime Scene Unit of the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
He worked as a detective there for over 15 years. In that time, he became the lead trainer in the unit for new detectives and he re-wrote and updated the training manual. Joe also assisted in multiple agency trainings including the Crime Scene Investigative Aide program where he was lead instructor for 8 academy classes. Joe has also taught classes for the Metropolitan Police Institute, several local colleges and was selected to teach three classes in Jamaica for the United States State Department. After 15 years
as a detective Joe was promoted to Sergeant and oversaw the Crime Scene Unit. He assisted in making it grow to 19 persons and was responsible for preparing and overseeing the annual budget for the Unit, ensuring all the employees were in compliance with agency policy, responded to calls for service, and re-wrote the Crime Scene Unit’s 86-page S. O. P manual from scratch. During his time as Sergeant, The Crime Scene Unit encountered three Mass Casualty Incidents. The Crime Scene Unit assisted the FBI at the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting in 2017 and assisted several agencies in Miami-Dade county at the Surfside Building collapse in 2021. In 2018, Sergeant Joe Torok managed the mass shooting scene at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, leading a team of over 80 persons from local, state and federal agencies. From this experience Joe created the Broward County Crime Scene Coalition which was the first step to providing crime scene specific training for mass casualty incidents. Joe has been involved in over 2500 crime scenes in his career. He was worked on over 500 homicide cases and over 1000 shooting cases.
Joe is a court certified Blood Spatter Pattern Analyst, a court certified expert on blood detection through Phenolphthalein, and a court certified expert in shooting reconstruction. After retirement, Joe went back to work as a contract employee and is working cold case homicide as the forensic expert for the Broward Sheriff’s Office. In his spare time Joe enjoys a day or two fishing on the lake or looking for golf balls that he mishit on the course.
Danny Krystyan
Danny Krystyan has been in Law Enforcement for 28 years. He started his law enforcement career in 1996 when he graduated from the Police Academy at the University of Ohio. He then worked at the Waverly, Ohio Police Department where he became a certified Law Enforcement Instructor. In 2001, he transferred to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. After 10 years of working road patrol Danny was selected to join the Crime Scene Unit as a Crime Scene Detective.
Detective Danny Krystyan has worked and/or participated in many high-profile cases, to include the Fort Lauderdale Airport mass casualty shooting, the Surfside building collapse, and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting where he was the lead forensic detective on the first floor. Danny also took on the role as Training Detective for the Crime Scene Unit where he helped mold new Crime Scene Detectives. Danny also has instructed multiple classes on bloodstain pattern documentation as well as footwear and tire wear collection and photography. Detective Krystyan has been used as well as a trainer for Crime Scene Investigative Aide Academy instructing on crime scene photography, fingerprint and DNA processing and proper evidence collection. Detective Danny Krystyan enjoys time with his family, fishing, and he is an active member a rock’n’roll/country band where he plays the bass guitar.
Sherry Portoro
Sherry Portoro is currently a Traffic Homicide Investigator with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. She started her law enforcement career in 2001, working road patrol for 4 years prior to being assigned to Criminal Investigations in the Tamarac District. In 2006 Sherry was selected to transfer to the Broward Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Unit where she spent the next 11 years. In that time Sherry earned a reputation as a dedicated forensic professional, working on hundreds of homicide cases.
Sherry quickly became a trainer in the Crime Scene Unit and assisted in teaching multiple classes for the agency to include the Crime Scene Investigative Aide Academy. Sherry also taught crime scene related courses at Johnson and Wales University. Sherry was an integral part of a team that taught courses in Jamaica for the State Department. Sherry volunteered to assist with the Explorer program at the Broward Sheriff’s Office and became a mentor and teacher to the Explorer Cadets. In 2017 Sherry transferred to the Traffic Homicide Unit. There she also quickly became a highly competent part of that Unit. She took with her the knowledge from Crime Scene and trained the detectives in Traffic Homicide how to photograph their own scenes and process any cars they were working on. The knowledge she has gained has allowed her to testify as an expert witness in blood spatter pattern analysis and traffic crash investigations.