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Convicted Because Truth Lacked Credibility

Prominent novelist Michael Peterson was convicted in 2003 of beating his wife to death with a fireplace poker, but he, assisted by a former neighbor, has maintained since then that she was killed by a rogue owl. In 2008, for the first time, North Carolina state investigators acknowledged that a microscopic feather was indeed found in her hair, and in December 2011, Durham County Judge Orlando Hudson granted Peterson a new trial. Although several owl experts have declared that the wife’s head trauma was consistent with an owl attack, the judge’s decision was based instead on a finding last year that the state crime lab had mishandled evidence in 34 cases and specifically that an investigator in the Peterson case had exaggerated his credentials to the jury. (Found in Chuck Shepherd’s excellent website, www.newsoftheweird.com)

Misguided judge harms child

January 20, 2012 – Judge Susan Breall, San Francisco, has ordered that a 2 year old child not see his father until his father’s trial is over. Such “no contact” orders are common and appropriate in some cases, but is this one of them? The defendant here is the sheriff of San Francisco County. He is charged with domestic violence against his wife. It is alleged he was verbally abusive to his wife, and grabbed her arm in a manner that caused a bruise. Although his wife did not call the police and refused to press charges, the husband was criminally charged with a misdemeanor.

Leaving aside the issue between husband and wife…for it is wrong to let such matters be tried in the newspapers…the odd thing is that the judge ordered no contact between father and child until trial is done. This is an extreme measure typically reserved for very egregious offenses. Here the claim is that the two-year old was present while his parents were fighting, thus leading to a charge of child endangerment.

We are not aware of there being any other allegations of harm or potential harm to the child, other than a claimed risk of harm if he is around his mom and dad when they are together. But mom and dad are now prevented from being in contact with one another (over wife’s objection to that as well). So since mom and dad cannot be together in the presence of the child, where is the risk to the child to be alone with daddy? How long will this two year old be separated from daddy? What is the developmental harm to the child in such separation? What is the emotional pain?

It is easy for some to say that his father should have thought of that before he bruised the mother’s arm. But there are a few problems to that logic:

1) The issue is not the father’s rights but the child’s harm. He needs both parents.
2) The father is innocent until proven guilty. That is a foundational promise to all of us.
3) Even if eventually convicted of these specific charges, would that justify the child losing contact with one of his parents?

We do not know if this is how Judge Breall handles all domestic violence cases or if she is making a media example of the sheriff, but either way it seems the court has failed to put the child’s best interests ahead of all other concerns.

Without manners you can’t get far

The Boston Globe reports that bad manners are problems even for crooks.  A man who approached tellers at the Eastern Bank in South Boston on Aug. 25 eventually fled empty-handed, but only after one teller had refused his order for “all your money” (she told him she was “closed”) and another had scolded him for breaking into the front of the adjacent line and for not removing his hoodie.

Dogged Pursuit

Orlando Sentinel reporter Scott Maxwell reported on several dozen people convicted in part by trainer Bill Preston’s dogs, who supposedly tracked crime-scene scents through water and other obstacles, sometimes months later and despite much site contamination, directly to the defendant on trial. Judge after judge permitted Preston’s “expert” testimony until one demanded a live courtroom test, which Preston’s dog utterly failed. In 2009 two convicts were released after DNA tests proved the dog’s sniffs were erroneous, but as many as 60 similar convictions still stand.

How Many Americans Get in Trouble?

The Pew Center reports that 1 in every 31 American adults is presently in jail, on parole, or on probation.

Strangest divorce-related jail time ends

If a judge thinks someone is hiding their assets during a divorce, to keep their spouse from getting a fair share, a judge can throw the person in jail until they come around and admit where they are hiding the stuff.  The problem comes up when the judge guesses wrong.  H. Beatty Chadwick was  released from prison after 14 years because a few judges decided he must have assets somewhere.  Chadwick would not reveal where he hid the goods…perhaps because there were no goods to reveal.  The 1995 divorce has finally ended with Mr. Chadwick ceding his dubious honor of being America’s longest imprisoned citizen who was never charged with a crime.  He was released at age 73.

Parental Alienation book co-authored by Warren Law Group staff

“Parental Alienation, DSM-5, and ICD-11″ has been published by Charles C. Thomas Publisher Limited.  The book deals with the issue of parental alienation, and the need for its diagnosis to be included in the upcoming psychology standard “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (“DSM-5″).  Parental alienation occurs when one parent turns the children against the other parent, sometimes to a degree where the children refuse contact with the target parent and emotionally repress/deny all positive memories.  The book was previewed in US News and World Report.  Warren Law Group attorney Randy Warren and researcher Lawrence Hellmann were among the committee of authors for this book, which originated out of Vanderbilt University’s School of Medicine.  Warren and Hellmann wrote the book’s section on parental alienation in the court system, and the need for the DSM-5 to document this malady.  ISBN 978-0-398-07944-4 hardcover and 978-0-398-07945-1 paperback.

Is marijuana more harmful if illegal?

Three random selections in this week’s news:  Eight men shot to death in a Mexican bar near the U.S. border.  Alpine County finds Mexican cartel growing 35,000 marijuana plants in California’s Sierra Nevada.  The San Francisco Chronicle publishes an editorial opposing the legalization of marijuana.

One of the weaknesses in American society is that we pass or maintain laws because we believe they are good, without applying a real world understanding of the cost of those laws.  The anti-marijuana laws come at enormous cost to our country, and the Mexican drug cartels…ever so violent… have crossed our borders to leverage those laws.

Who knows how much money these criminal enterprises are pouring into opposing California’s Proposition 19 which would legalize marijuana?  Think of the billions of dollars these criminals would lose if that should pass.  Think of the hundreds of human beings that would not get killed each year in drug lords’ turf wars.  Thinks of the Californians who will soon be dying as these murderous cartels move into the Golden State.

And there is the SF Chronicle urging people to vote against Prop 19 for its supposed shortcomings, such as allegedly permitting car passengers (not drivers) to smoke.  Why not just modify to Vehicle Code to prohibit that?

The question is not whether marijuana smoking is good or bad.  The question is not whether legalizing will perhaps increase the number of smokers by 20%.  The question is not eliminating marijuana by pretending that after 40 years people cannot get it or do not use it. 

No, the true question is the cost.  How many lives will be lost to criminal enterprise?  How many dollars are lost to the trade deficit?   How many jobs are exported that could still be local?  Should we subject our own people to laws that have little effect but to discourage respect of our law and state?  What about the destruction of our economy? 

Irrespective of how the November 2010 election turns out for Proposition 19, the clear fact is that Californians have decided this issue every day and every year for decades.  There will be marijuana whether it is legal or not.  We can control it, or we can help the Mexican drug cartels enter our lands and contribute to the corruption of our elected officials.

Respect the law.  But make the law respect reality.

Census worker finds new way to count jail inmates

Where does one law end and another one begins?  America has long had tension between state laws and federal laws.  Now the feds are busy trying to spring one of their own from a state jail.  US Census worker Russell Haas was reported by the Huffington Post to have been arrested by Hawaii County police for trying to count someone in the census.  Federal law says everyone gets counted.  State laws say you cannot trespass on another’s property.  When Mr. Hass entered the residential property of a Big Island resident, he let himself in through a closed-but-unlocked gate.  The property owner ordered him to leave.  Mr. Haas apparently said he would leave but by federal law the resident had to first take the census form.  He refused, but instead called the police.  The police arrived, allegedly crumpled the census form on Mr. Haas’ chest, handcuffed him, and took him to jail for trespassing.  The property owner has not been identified other than that he works for the Hawaii County Police Department.

4th of July: It all started with a divorce

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

…when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.