A forensic expert who testified in numerous high-profile American murder trials spent decades training China’s police alongside U.S. law enforcement officials at his federally-funded institutions in Connecticut, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.
Dr. Henry C. Lee, who was born in China and became famous testifying as an expert defense witness in O.J. Simpson’s 1995 murder trial, served as Connecticut State Police commissioner and investigated dozens of notorious cases including the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart and the murders of JonBenét Ramsey, Chandra Levy and Laci Peterson.
At least a decade before joining O.J.’s “dream team,” Lee also began sharing his expertise with “China’s FBI,” the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), and its local subordinate, the Public Security Bureau (PSB), with which he held numerous positions until his death at the age of 87 in March 2026, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and state media reports.
Lee likewise held multiple positions in arms of a Chinese influence and intelligence agency called the United Front Work Department (UFWD), which arranged for Lee to be interviewed in 2019 about his work training Chinese state security personnel in both China and the U.S. at the University of New Haven (UNH), where he had served as a professor for over 50 years, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and state media reports.
“Over the past 50 years, at least 1,000 teams and more than 10,000 [Chinese police] have received specialized professional training here in Connecticut at UNH,” Lee said, according to a DCNF translation of that 2019 interview. “I feel their academic drive, spirit of tireless research, and love for the cause, party and nation.”
“The allegations of UNH training students from the MPS must be thoroughly investigated and all American universities must do more to protect taxpayer-funded research from our adversaries,” Republican Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, told the DCNF.
[Image created by DCNF w/ photos from Henry Lee’s Cracking Cases, Forensic Files + Canva]
A UNH spokesperson told the DCNF they were unaware of the forensic expert’s Chinese government affiliations, but confirmed he had trained Chinese government personnel on campus at The Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science At The University of New Haven, which “operates separately from the main university.”
“Between 2010 and 2020, 34 agencies from China sent a total of 439 employees to take part in trainings offered by the Lee Institute,” UNH’s spokesperson said. “In addition, 27 agencies from China sent 40 visiting scholars to training opportunities offered by the Lee Institute.” Lee also trained “Chinese police” at UNH’s Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences, according to UNH’s website and DCNF translations of state media.
Lee’s UNH institute did not respond to requests for comment.
U.S. government agencies have awarded UNH $135.8 million since 2008, according to UNH and federal reports, including a $2.5 million National Security Agency (NSA) grant for UNH to lead a five-university cybersecurity coalition as well as millions earmarked for Lee’s college and institute to train law enforcement.
“No American university — and certainly not the five in this NSA program — should be admitting individuals with ties to China’s MPS, which has been involved in the authoritarian oppression of the Chinese people for decades,” Moolenaar said.
[Image created by DCNF w/ state media + Silicon Valley Times photos]
‘Akin To National Suicide’
Lee held over a dozen positions with Chinese state security agencies, through which he established law enforcement training facilities in China and trained Chinese police at his UNH entities.
While serving as Connecticut’s chief criminalist in 1985, Lee returned to China for the first time since 1945 to train MPS officers in Beijing, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements.
“Since then, I have returned annually to deliver keynote lectures and teach,” Lee said, according to a DCNF translation of the 2019 UFWD-organized interview. “I also travel to various provinces and cities nationwide, from central to local levels, to conduct specialized training programs for public security and police.”
Lee accepted at least 15 appointments from MPS and PSB branches, Chinese police academies and China’s highest prosecutorial entity, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP), between 2000 and 2024, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and state media reports.
Known in China as the “Chinese Sherlock Holmes,” Lee also established two forensic science museums and five police training centers across the communist nation from 2000 to 2017 in collaboration with CCP agencies, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and state media reports.
Lee launched one police training center in Wuhan at the Hubei University of Police in September 2006, which had hired him as a professor earlier that year, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and Chinese media reports. Lee agreed to train personnel, analyze cases and share forensic technology in that role.
That Wuhan center trained hundreds of police in 2018 and 2019, the university’s photos show.
Lee also frequently agreed to promote “exchanges” between his UNH entities and the Chinese agencies that hired him. When Hangzhou PSB hired Lee as a consultant in October 2011, they also signed an agreement with his UNH institute to send two batches of approximately 25 officers each to the U.S. for training, according to DCNF translations of state media.
Hundreds of PSB officers from over a dozen Chinese provinces, municipalities and cities as well as SPP prosecutors trained at Lee’s UNH institute or college between 2000 and 2018, according to social media posts, the New Haven Register and DCNF translations of Chinese government and media reports.
Hubei PSB had already sent 120 officers to train at Lee’s UNH college by 2012, according to DCNF translations of state media.
Chinese state security officials often toured local police departments during their studies at Lee’s UNH entities in Connecticut, including two Hubei officers who visited the Easton Police Department while training at Lee’s UNH college in 2009 and 2010, according to a DCNF translation of state media. An Easton Police Department spokesperson told the DCNF that they “did not document the visit.”
Several Chinese state security personnel also obtained U.S. police department internships while studying with Lee. One Shanghai PSB officer training as a research associate at Lee’s UNH institute landed a summer internship with Madison Police Department detectives in 2012, the New Haven Register reported. The Madison Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Another PSB officer studying at Lee’s UNH institute in 2013 also apparently received FBI training and interned with the Honolulu Police Department, according to a DCNF translation of a 2020 Beijing Haidian District Lawyers Association article. An FBI spokesperson declined to comment, and a Honolulu Police Department spokesperson told the DCNF they had no record of that internship.
Lee even provided funding and scholarships for Chinese police to train at his UNH entities. After Sichuan PSB hired Lee as an honorary director in September 2000, Lee offered their officers scholarships to study in the U.S. and later raised approximately $150,000 to fund training for 20 of their officers each year in the U.S., according to DCNF translations of state media.
Lee said “more than half” of his UNH institute’s scholarships “go to China” each year, China Daily reported in 2016.
“This is another illustration of the ineptness of certain grant-making federal agencies,” an individual who declined to be named that served in President Donald Trump’s first administration and is familiar with China’s operations targeting U.S. universities told the DCNF. “They presume the best intentions of foreign-based actors when they should be far more diligent. These failures enable very real threat actors to influence and exploit our open society.”
[Image created by DCNF w/ Chinese government, state media, Beijing Haidian District Lawyers Association, UNH, Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science, Li Jingwen, Patch + zip06 photos]
The Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted one Hubei PSB officer and former student of Lee’s UNH institute named Hu Ji in October 2020 for allegedly stalking a Wuhan official living in the U.S.
The stalking plot was part of Operation Fox Hunt, which is a purported MPS initiative that uses “coercion, extortion and intimidation” to “forcibly repatriate” alleged Chinese criminals living overseas, according to federal documents.
Hu, who is a fugitive, studied with Lee at UNH in 2015 after first attending a UNH forensic science and police administration course in December 2012, according to ProPublica reporting and Martha Byrne’s 2025 book “In The Interest Of Justice.” Byrne’s husband, private investigator Michael McMahon, was convicted of acting as an illegal foreign agent in the aforementioned stalking scheme in June 2023, but was pardoned by Trump in November 2025 and had his conviction vacated in March 2026.
Lee “used his influence and the institution as a mechanism to conduct operations to undermine our national security,” Byrne told the DCNF.
The CCP “weaponizes” foreign engagement and “all individuals of Chinese ethnicity,” Gordon Chang, author and China expert, told the DCNF.
“We must defend our country from a clear and present danger,” Chang warned. “The CCP uses every point of contact to destroy our country, and we are now being overwhelmed. Until we can get control of the situation, we must cut all points of contact with the regime. It is insane for us to train the agents of an enemy state. This is akin to national suicide.”
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
