tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75226287250805374152024-02-19T14:31:30.463-08:00Lost Sheep: A New Zealand Crime blogSakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-7321793166734024372016-08-08T17:40:00.002-07:002016-08-08T17:42:08.192-07:00Undisciplined: More Shenanigans from the State vs Adnan Syed<b><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adnans-Story-Search-Justice-Serial/dp/1250087104" target="_blank">Adnan's Story</a></i>, Rabia Chaudry's seminal book on the Adnan Syed case, has just been released today. Your bookshelf won't be complete without a copy of this book, which contains contributions from Adnan, in his own words. You can also pick up Asia Chapman's book, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Serial-Alibi-McClain-Chapman/dp/1682611582/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=VVQB8CE4J897R50SZDX6" target="_blank">Confessions of a Serial Alibi</a></i>, both available in all the usual places good books are sold!! </b><br />
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Anyone who has been following the Adnan Syed case, or any wrongful conviction case, knows that the wheels of justice turn very, very slowly. But in recent weeks there has been some movement in the case made famous by the Serial podcast, with the State filing for leave to appeal Judge Welch's decision granting Adnan a new trial. For those of you who missed the most recent developments, back in February, there was a <a href="http://www.marylandpostconviction.com/?p=11" target="_blank">Post Conviction Relief</a> hearing in which Adnan's legal team argued for the ineffective assistance of counsel on a number of points, including failure to call alibi witness Asia McClain Chapman, and failure to properly cross-examine the State's expert witness on cell tower evidence that was critical to the State's theory of the case.<br />
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Judge Martin Welch, the judge who denied Adnan's first PCR petition in 2014, was bought back out of retirement specifically to hear the 2016 petition. Judge Welch ruled against the alibi testimony of Asia, claiming that, although he found her to be a credible witness, her testimony most likely would not have led to a different decision from the jury. However, Welch found that the failure of Adnan's original trial counsel, Christina Gutierrez, to thoroughly cross-examine the State's cell tower expert did meet the standard for a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. As a result, he vacated the murder conviction and granted Adnan Syed a retrial.<br />
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So, that brings us to the most recent motion filed by the State, requesting leave to launch an appeal against Judge Welch's decision. There are several grounds for appeal being cited by the State, all of which are complicated and need to be explained by someone who actually knows what the hell they're talking about, so I'll leave that task to the Evidence Professor a.k.a Colin Miller from the <a href="http://undisclosed-podcast.com/" target="_blank">Undisclosed podcast</a>...<br />
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<a href="http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/evidenceprof/2016/08/yesterday-the-state-of-maryland-filed-its-application-for-leave-to-appealalain-the-adnan-syed-case-i-will-have-limited-tim.html" target="_blank">The Evidence Professor explains - Part 1</a><br />
<a href="http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/evidenceprof/2016/08/according-to-the-states-application-for-leave-to-appeal-ala-in-the-adnan-syed-case-judge-welch-erred-in-three-ways-by-find.html" target="_blank">The Evidence Professor explains - Part 2</a><br />
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So what does all this mean for Adnan? Well, essentially it means that any preparations and processes for a retrial, including any potential bail hearings, are on hold until the State's appeal has been dealt with. So Adnan will not be getting released on bail any time soon, which must be very disappointing, and I'd imagine, distressing for both Adnan and his family. However, this is not an unexpected move from the State, we all knew that they would try and appeal Judge Welch's decision. <br />
What is surprising, and Colin covers this in his blog posts, is that the State are now so desperate that they are attempting to bring in two new witnesses, classmates of Asia and Adnan, who allege that they argued with Asia over her intention to lie on Adnan's behalf by providing him with an alibi for the time of the murder. <br />
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The reason this is so surprising, and has drawn serious criticism from a number of legal experts, is because all the legal avenues for the State to present new evidence have already been closed. Once a person is convicted and have had their initial appeals denied, any further appeals focus solely on whether or not the person recieved a fair trial, not on guilt or innocence. Both of Adnan's post conviction relief claims have centered on points of justice - such as whether Adnan's original trial lawyer did her job properly or whether the State handed over important evidenciary documents to the defense. For the State to suddenly produce these new witnesses 16 years after Adnan's conviction is highly unusual. I feel compelled to point out though, that these sorts of shenanigans are fairly typical of this case and of the Baltimore DA's office. Congratulations Thiru, you're rapidly sinking to the same lows as Kevin Urick, hope you enjoy the view from down there.<br />
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<a href="https://serialpodcast.org/posts/2016/07/judge-orders-new-trial-for-adnan-syed" target="_blank">Sarah Keonig on Judge Welch's Decision</a><br />
<a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-syed-state-appeal-20160725-story.html" target="_blank">State Intends to Fight New Trial - Baltimore Sun</a><br />
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https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-49384306047960706242016-07-11T17:41:00.001-07:002016-07-11T17:47:09.177-07:00Gangs, Drugs & Money: Is New Zealand headed for another meth crisis?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When a life-long members of one of New Zealand's most notorious gangs stands in front of news cameras and says that New Zealand is well on the way for another epidemic of the drug "P" a.k.a methamphetamines, we should pay attention. Gangs have been heavily involved in the manufacture and sale of drugs for as long as there have been gangs and drugs pretty much. The members of Black Power who stood up publically to warn us of this impending crisis are the men on the front lines of the drug war. They know what they are talking about. The Drug Foundation of New Zealand, while still reluctant to call the increase in meth use an "epidemic," agree that use is increasing and are concerned that the problem isn't being reflected in the government statistics. For those who don't know how the slow wheels of bureaucracy work, funding for drug treatment and other anti-drug programs are all based on those statistics, which presents a real possibility that not enough resources are being made available where they're most needed.<br />
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So, why would two life-members of a gang that profits, and profits large, from the sale of this drug come out and make these statements? It's a bold move, and probably a fairly unpopular one with other members of Black Power, so I applaud these guys for their courage in taking a stand. These men have seen the damage that meth use is doing to their communities and they are standing up and speaking out! <br />
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I don't think it's any coincidence that the increase in meth use comes at a time when homelessness is on the increase and poverty is at record levels. For decades now, we have known about the correlation between poverty and increased levels of drug and alcohol use, so it comes as no surprise that meth use is on the up while the quality of life for low-income families is dropping like a lead balloon. All the while, the NZ government sit on their hands and do nothing, dismissing the housing crisis, ignoring the homelessness problem, and pretending there is no meth epidemic. <br />
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Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying a change of government will magically fix these problems, but to do nothing, to refuse to take any action whatsoever is gross negligence in my opinion. Will a different government do any better? I don't know, but I hope so. In the meantime, I urge you, if you, or anyone you know is in the grip of meth addiction, don't be afraid to ask for help. There are a number of organisations which can help and I will list as many of them as I can at the bottom of this post.<br />
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<a href="http://www.addictionshelp.org.nz/Services/Home" target="_blank">Ministry of Health Addiction Services Directory</a><br />
<a href="http://www.salvationarmy.org.nz/need-assistance/addictions-problem-gambling" target="_blank">Salvation Army Addiction Assistance</a><br />
<a href="http://drughelp.org.nz/a-bit-about-drugs/meth" target="_blank">Drughelp.org - Help for Meth Addiction</a><br />
<a href="http://www.carenz.co.nz/" target="_blank">Care NZ Drug and Alcohol Services</a><br />
<a href="http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.nz/" target="_blank">Alcoholics Anonymous</a><br />
<a href="http://alcoholdrughelp.org.nz/" target="_blank">Alcohol & Drug Helpline</a>: 0800 787 797<br />
<a href="https://www.youthline.co.nz/" target="_blank">Youthline</a>: 0800 376 633 or txt 234<div class="blogger-post-footer">Join Lost Sheep NZ on Facebook!!
https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-55433705772319614012016-07-06T21:32:00.000-07:002016-07-06T21:32:22.297-07:00Two Weeks Too Long: Why NZ Needs a Child Abduction Alert System<div style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">In the 1960s and 70s, a succession of missing and murdered child cases impacted American society forever, and changed the way that law enforcement agencies in particular respond to missing child reports. It was a lesson that the US had to learn the hard way, at the hands of serial murderers like Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer. One of the parents at the forefront of those societal and procedural shifts was John Walsh, the man who most of you will remember as the host of America's Most Wanted. But before he became a well-known TV personality, he was a father. The father of a little boy who went missing one day at the mall, after his mother left him for only a few moments, watching some older boys play a video game while she went to the checkout. When she returned only minutes later Adam Walsh, just 6-years-old, was gone. The shy, bright eyed little boy was never seen alive again, and his murder went unsolved for many years until a drifter was arrested in Texas on a firearms charge. That drifter was Henry Lee Lucas, and when he, and his sometime partner Ottis Toole started confessing to literally hundreds of murders across the US, law enforcement agencies from around the country began dusting off their cold case files and hot-footing it to Texas to speak to the talkative pair of serial killers. It was Ottis Toole who eventually confessed to the murder of Adam Walsh, and described kidnapping the boy from just outside a Sears department store in Hollywood, Florida. I won't go into the disgusting details of the crime, because this isn't a post about Ottis Toole, or Henry Lee Lucas, or even Adam Walsh. This is a post about how New Zealand should be learning from other countries mistakes, and how not doing so could be putting lives at risk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Adam Walsh was just 6-years-old when he went missing, so the police response to his disappearance was immediate and heavy, but that wasn't the experience for many parents of missing children in the US. For years parents were told that their children had just run away, they'd come home eventually, that it wasn't a priority for police who had "real" crimes to solve. Police departments made parents of even very young missing children wait the requisite 48 hours before they would lodge a missing persons report, and even when a report was lodged, no action would be taken. Parents had to mount their own searches, post their own missing posters and flyers canvassing the public's help in finding their children. When the bodies were found, if they were found, police would make excuses for their inaction with the old saw that they were "only following procedure." Clearly, it was those procedures that needed to change, and change they did. In 1984 The National Centre For Missing and Exploited Children was established to act <span style="color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;"> </span><span style="color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">as a</span><span style="color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;"> resource for parents, children, law enforcement agencies, schools, and communities to assist in locating missing children and to raise public awareness about ways to prevent </span>child abduction and exploitation. In 1996 the AMBER alert system was implemented to broadcast information about missing children across emergency channels, radio stations, TV channels, electronic billboards and online. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Earlier this year the AMBER alert system played a crucial role in distributing information about an abducted girl taken by her uncle, who was later found and rescued by members of the public. Which brings us back to the boy who's picture is at the top of this post. Chicaine Erihe has been missing since June 24th, but police are only today releasing that information and beginning to canvas for the public's assistance in finding him. Chicaine has been a runaway in the past, but that doesn't change the fact that he's been missing for two weeks now. I hope he is found safe and sound, but what if it's already too late? What if he's already come to harm or being targeted by the kind of predatory scumbags who prey on at-risk youth? What is alerting the public two weeks ago could have made a difference?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">New Zealand's population is growing at a faster rate than ever, and we are fools to think that this country is a safe-haven where "that sort of thing" can't happen. We NEED a child abduction alert system before it's too late.</span></div>
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https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-51335438187124948112016-06-30T13:59:00.003-07:002016-06-30T13:59:43.347-07:00ADNAN SYED TO RECEIVE NEW TRIAL!!!<br />
After four months of waiting, Serial fans around the world are celebrating the news that Judge Welch has ruled that Adnan Syed will recieve a new trial. Welch vacated Syed's conviction for the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee on the grounds that Syed's lawyer, Christina Gutierrez rendered ineffective assistance of counsel in not cross-examining the State's cell tower expert on the unreliability of the cell tower location evidence. This cell evidence was the linchpin of the State's case in proving that Syed was in Linkin Park at the time they allege he buried Hae Min Lee's body, which was found a month later by a local maintenance man.<br />
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Judge Welch denied the other two ineffective assistance claims, the testimony of alibi witness Asia McClain-Chapman, an the allegation of prosecutorial misconduct against the Baltimore DA's office for witholding crucial discovery evidence. But one win is all Adnan and his legal team needed to free him, they have that win and this is a momentous day for wrongful conviction activists around the world!<br />
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<a href="http://goo.gl/O7p5nF">Judge Welch's PCR decision</a><br />
<a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-adnan-syed-new-trial-20160630-story.html">Baltimore Sun article on Judge Welch's ruling</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Join Lost Sheep NZ on Facebook!!
https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-89490272142751101092016-06-21T23:53:00.002-07:002016-06-22T00:20:58.455-07:00Phone Scams: It CAN happen to you!!I was lying in bed reading the other night when my Facebook messenger app dinged at me. It turned out to be a message from a friend, who had a story to tell me, a story of how a perfectly normal, intelligent person can be taken in by a sophisticated phone scam.<br />
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My friend's partner had received a phone call from someone claiming to be from the Inland Revenue Department (for you non-Kiwis, that's New Zealand's tax department). This person used a combination of pop-psychology and an escalating series of threats to scam three thousand dollars in gifted iTune vouchers.<br />
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As my friend put it "It sounds like a silly thing to do," but <span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">if you think you couldn't be fooled by these people, think again. My friend's partner is intelligent, educated, not gullible or a "sucker." The tactics these scammers use are clever and sophisticated, they break people down and manipulate their responses. You <u><b>CAN</b></u> be fooled, you <u><b>CAN</b></u> be sucked in by these scams! The best way to avoid this happening to you is to be fully informed about the way these scams are run, and the ways in which you can protect yourself and identify possible scammers before they put you out of pocket.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Phone scammers will often have a number of personal details, which makes their calls seem more legitimate. <b>Don't be fooled!</b> This is the internet age and sadly, personal details aren't that difficult to come by if you know how to find that kind of information.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">You may be given a phone number to call with either a Wellington prefix (04) or an Auckland prefix (09). <b>Don't be fooled!</b> If the caller is claiming to be from a government department, remember that most government departments have free 0800 numbers which you can call. Hang up the phone, look up the correct number for the department the caller is claiming to represent and call it to verify what they are telling you.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="62ts9-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">These scammers are very aggressive, and may make threats in an attempt to keep you on the line, or call back with various threats if you hang up on them. DON'T fall for these tactics!! The kinds of threats these scammers commonly use include threats of deportation for foreign nationals, and threats of police involvement and possible prison time. While they have you on the phone, feeling stressed and anxious about your situation, it's easy to force you to take the next step and pay out in an effort to avoid further legal action. But if you remain calm and think logically, the threats really don't hold up to close scrutiny.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="62ts9-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Lets look at two of the most common threats being used in this latest phone scam; deportation and tax evasion charges. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="62ts9-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Deportation is a threat that's used by scammers against foreign nationals living and working here in New Zealand, and this latest scam has targeted a number of Indian nationals. But deportation isn't something that just happens out of the blue for people who are here on legitimate visas and are not overstayers. NZ Immigration assess each individual situation, which takes time, and potential deportees have rights, including the right to appeal any decision made by NZ Immigration.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="62ts9-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">If someone calls you claiming to be from NZ Immigration and threatening you with deportation unless you pay a sum of money immediately, <b>THIS IS A SCAM! </b>Hang up immediately and call the police.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">What about the threat of criminal charges for unpaid tax? I copied this directly from Inland Revenue's website...
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<b><u>"We will only take legal action when all other efforts to secure payment of the overdue tax have failed."</u></b></div>
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There are three stages which Inland Revenue goes through to collect overdue taxes. The first is to contact you by letter, notifying you that you have unpaid taxes, and giving details of the amount, any penalties and interest that has accrued, and with a payment slip included. This letter will also give you the phone number to call to discuss your debts and explore payment options.</div>
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Stage two is making repayment applications to your employer, bank or a third party debt collection agency, such as Baycorp. These applications may result in payments being deducted directly from your wages, and again, you will be notified of any deductions by your bank or your employer as well as by IRD. If the debt is sent to a third party, such as a collection agency, they will contact you to discuss payment options and will be able to provide you with proper paperwork from Inland Revenue, proving that they are an authorised collection agency, acting on IRD's behalf. </div>
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If you are contacted by a debt collector who cannot or will not provide this proof, <u>DO NOT</u> pay them any money! Contact IRD immediately and verify that the debt collector is a legitimate debt recovery agent acting on IRD's behalf. </div>
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Only after both of these stages have fully being utilised will IRD engage in legal action, and even then, this is extremely unlikely to result in any kind of prison sentence. The most common outcome of legal action from Inland Revenue is bankruptcy and liquidation of any assets to recover debt, not a criminal conviction or sentence. Unless you're engaging in thousands, or even millions, of dollars worth of white collar fraud, then you're screwed and phone scams are probably the least of your problems. LOL.</div>
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<span data-offset-key="81nle-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As I've mentioned previously, this particular scam is just the latest incarnation of something that's been happening since not long after Alexander Graham Bell first invented the phone. I don't have the time or bandwidth to go through every single scam you may be targeted by, but you can continue to educate yourself by using the <a href="http://goo.gl/lrfYub" target="_blank">Scamwatch</a> website to learn about the latest scams and how you may be targeted. And follow this simple rule...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><u>DO NOT make any kind of payment based on threatening or coercive phonecalls, texts or emails, and DO NOT give out your passwords or banking details! </u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span data-offset-key="4n4dk-0-0"><span data-text="true">If y</span></span></span><span data-offset-key="4n4dk-0-0" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span data-text="true">ou have been victimised by a phone scam (or any other kind of scam), call the police immediately and report it. Call your bank as well and see what they can do to reverse any payments. Finally, report the scam to </span></span><span data-offset-key="4n4dk-2-0" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span data-text="true"><a href="http://www.consumerprotection.govt.nz/scams" target="_blank">Scamwatch</a> and use the "Been Scammed" section to explore your options..</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.consumerprotection.govt.nz/scams" target="_blank"><b>Scamwatch</b></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><b><a href="https://www.dia.govt.nz/Services-Anti-Spam-Reported-Scams" target="_blank">Reported Scam Alerts - Department of Internal Affairs</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><a href="http://www.police.govt.nz/advice/email-and-internet-safety/internet-scams-spam-and-fraud?nondesktop" target="_blank">NZ Police Scam and Fraud advice</a><u><br /></u></b></span></div>
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https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-89940025536540998702016-06-03T22:43:00.001-07:002016-06-03T22:50:51.922-07:00The Lone Juror: How Awareness of Wrongful Convictions is (finally) Making a Difference<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizMpiyEDOMnW_lCTmI5FfWJi5FLbO00Gi4F1IgS_QuldFo13qtjla33ebg_dSKzKqu3DRMJQRBrHsdI9m9Es3Xth2pQfbe4quyt3fEQHW_nebrlrKMjNA8EmkfzkiBgXnRd2nHE5VHIHE/s1600/2016-03-23-1458698604-536777-etanpatz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizMpiyEDOMnW_lCTmI5FfWJi5FLbO00Gi4F1IgS_QuldFo13qtjla33ebg_dSKzKqu3DRMJQRBrHsdI9m9Es3Xth2pQfbe4quyt3fEQHW_nebrlrKMjNA8EmkfzkiBgXnRd2nHE5VHIHE/s200/2016-03-23-1458698604-536777-etanpatz.jpg" width="146" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Etan Patz 1979 Missing Poster</td></tr>
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In 1979, bus stops, telephone poles and shop windows of Soho, New York were plastered with posters about a blond, blue-eyed little boy with a cheeky grin and a love of matchbox cars. Etan Patz, was the first missing child to be featured on milk cartons. His parents helped to spearhead a movement that changed the way that law enforcement and the public approached missing child cases. <span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">The day of Etan's disappearance, May 25, 1979, was designated </span>National Missing Children's Day<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;"> in the United States in 1983, and in</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;"> 2001, that tribute spread worldwide.</span> </span>Sadly, despite all the monumental changes that came about because of him, 6-year-old Etan was never found. </span><br />
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But in 2012, NYPD announced an arrest in the cold case, a 51 year old resident of New Jersey named Pedro Hernandez, who was picked up after his estranged brother called in a tip, saying that Hernandez had "done something bad." </div>
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Pedro Hernandez had been just 18-years-old in 1979. He was working at a bodega in the neighbourhood where Etan and his parents lived (for the Kiwi readers, a bodega is basically a corner dairy). May 25th was a Friday, and a very special day for Etan because, for the very first time, he was going to walk to the bus stop to catch the school bus all by himself. Etan's parents had given him a dollar note and he'd told his mother that he planned to stop and buy a soda to have with his school lunch at the bodega, which was on the way to the bus stop.</div>
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Pedro Hernandez told detectives that Etan had entered the bodega that morning and that he, Hernandez, had strangled Etan and dumped his body in the garbage at the back of the store.</div>
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For the NYPD it was case closed, they had a confession and they were headed for trial. But for one of the jurors, what came out during the course of that trial made him very alarmed about the strength of the State's case.</div>
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There was no physical evidence tying Hernandez to the case, which is not surprising since Etan's remains have never been found, and no crime scene has ever been identified. That bodega where Hernandez worked in 1979 is long gone, bulldozed to make way for upmarket Soho apartments. But a lack of physical evidence doesn't necessarily mean that a case can't be made. Circumstantial cases are common, we've just seen a perfect example of this in the New Zealand courts, in the case of Ashburton WINZ shooter, Russell John Tully. The Crown's case against him was solid, but also largely comprised of circumstantial evidence.</div>
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But in the case against Hernandez, the circumstantial evidence was very problematic, and seemed to consist largely of rumour and hearsay. There were claims that Hernandez had confessed to his church congregation in the 1980s, yet not one member of that congregation ever came forward until after Hernandez was arrested in 2012. His siblings claimed that it was an "open secret" in the family, that Hernandez had murdered someone, yet they never came forward with this information until 33 years after Etan's disappearance. </div>
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As for that confession....Hernandez confessed after seven hours of interrogation, most of which was not video taped despite the fact that it is mandatory practice for NYPD to tape all interviews. Oh, and one more thing, Pedro Hernandez has a long history of mental illness, has been diagnosed with Schizotypal Personality Disorder, and has an I.Q of 70, which is borderline intellectually disabled.</div>
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Sound familiar? *cough*BrendanDassey*cough*</div>
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But, thankfully, there is a hero in this version of the #MakingAMurderer story, and that hero is Adam C. Sirois, the lone juror who refused to find Hernandez guilty, despite the fact that 11 fellow jurors all voted to convict, forcing a mistrial . In subsequent interviews, Sirois has stated that he could not, in good consistence, find Hernandez guilty based on the State's evidence, and that the confession, to him, had all the earmarks of a false confession similar to that of Brendan Dassey. Sirois make's no secret of the fact that watching Making a Murderer influenced his decision to deadlock the jury and I believe he did the right thing.</div>
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I don't know if Pedro Hernandez killed Etan Patz, I'm inclined to think he probably didn't but I don't know that for certain. What I do know is interrogating a severely mentally challenged, mentally ill man for seven hours is unethical and reprehensible on the part of the officers involved!</div>
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After Making a Murderer, Serial, Undisclosed and the Adnan Syed case, and the flood of wrongful conviction horror stories, especially those based on false confessions, there is NO excuse for any law enforcement officer to engage in this kind of conduct. This isn't just about a fair trial for defendants either, this is about the victims and their families, who are owed a thorough, above-board investigation and prosecution of the person or persons who victimised them. </div>
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If Pedro Hernandez really did kill Etan Patz, NYPD owed it to Etan and to his parents to do the right thing, instead of engaging in blatant misconduct, the result of which was a mistrial. If Pedro Hernandez really did kill Etan Patz and he gets away with it, that's on you NYPD, that is on you.</div>
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I called hold-out Juror, Adam Sirois, a hero. The reason I call him that isn't because he freed Pedro Hernandez, a possible child murderer, because as I said, I don't know if Hernandez is guilty or innocent. I called him a hero because he saw flaws in the State's case, and questionable conduct from police and he stood his ground, after enduring four months of trial testimony and 18 days of intense pressure from 11 people who all wanted to vote guilty and get the hell out of there. Pressure from fellow jurors has led to convictions before, and to aquittals - including in the high-profile and highly controversial aquittal of four LAPD officers in the Rodney King beating. </div>
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This man stood his ground, and in doing so, gave the State a do-over. The mistrial means that they can re-investigate, find more evidence and retry the case, if they choose to. The mistrial means that if Hernandez really is guilty, justice can still be done for Etan Patz. </div>
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/09/nyregion/etan-patz-jury-murder-trial.html" target="_blank">Judge Declares Mistrial in Etan Patz case - NYTimes</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/11/nyregion/jurors-rancorous-split-over-etan-patz-mistrial-remains-on-display-outside-hearing.html" target="_blank">Juror Split Continues Outside Court - NYTimes</a></div>
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<a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/08/us/etan-patz-jury-mistrial/" target="_blank">Lone Juror Speaks Out - CNN</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/17/news/california-case-puts-spotlight-on-jury-coercion-and-peer-pressure.html" target="_blank">Jury Coercion and Peer Pressure - NYTimes</a><br />
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When I'm not spending my time researching, posting and blogging about crimes from New zealand and around the world, I'm busy with my studies. I am currently completely a Diploma in Mental Health Support Work. Because of this, I haven't seen my daughter, who lives with her grandparents in another city, in months. She'd really like for me to come and stay for a bit, and I would love that too. But it's not easy to make ends meet on a student allowance, and I have two cats as well, and nobody to look after them while I'm gone. As a result, I'm crowdfunding to try and raise the money and I would really appreciate everyone's kindess and generosity so I can go and spend some quality time with my girl!!<div class="blogger-post-footer">Join Lost Sheep NZ on Facebook!!
https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-30760794450718531442016-05-26T00:48:00.000-07:002016-05-26T00:53:48.644-07:00The History of Crime: Animal Trials<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="4u1s6" data-offset-key="9licm-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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In the modern age, most judicial systems recognise that animals cannot be held responsible for "crimes" because they lack the cognitive ability, and the moral agency, to tell right from wrong. But this wasn't always the case.</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the Middle Ages, animals were routinely subjected to the same criminal charges, and proceedings, as humans. In fact, criminal trials against animals were considered perfectly normal, and were conducted right up into the 18th century. The podcast </span><a href="http://thisiscriminal.com/" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Criminal</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> covered one such case from the 1400s, in their very first episode. This rather famous animal trial featured a pig, who was tried for the murder and mutilation of an infant. The pig was found guilty, and sentenced to death by hanging. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pigs were common defendants in medieval animal trials, mainly due to different way in which livestock were kept at the time. When we think of farm animals, we think of large herds contained by acres of a fencing, but in the Middle Ages, the number of animals being farmed were much smaller. Most peasant families owned one or two animals - a pig, a couple of chickens and maybe a goat or a cow for milking - and these animals were largely free roaming. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">More often than not, the victims of animal "homicide" were children, because the living conditions of the time bought them into close, regular contact with livestock. Medieval children, unless they were members of the aristocracy, were not educated, so they were not in school during the day. They were put to work from the moment they were of an age and size to do so, usually in the same fields as their parents. When not working, they were playing in the muddy streets, right alongside all the roaming farm animals. Deaths due to frightened or enraged animals encountering small children were fairly common, especially as what would be considered a minor injury today, would be life-threatening in medieval times. In a society where hygiene is non-existant and antibiotics haven't been discovered yet, an open wound, however small, can be a death sentence. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But trying animals for the death or injury of humans wasn't the only type of animal trial, there were also the religious trials. The Middle Ages were an era of Biblical literalism, and of witch trials, where the Roman Catholic Church was systematically stamping out "the competition" - paganism, midwifery, herbalists and other traditional forms of folk medicine. Part of that campaign included demonising certain animals, as the demonic familiars of witches. Black cats are the most obvious candidate, but they were by no means the only targets of the astute witch hunter. Cats of any colour were fair game, as were dogs, certain types of birds, rats, and insects. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">One particular case, recorded by the infamous Witch-finder General, Matthew Hopkins, is that of Jane Wallis of Huntingdonshire, East Anglia. According to Hopkins, Jane Wallis had two familiars who went by the names Grizzel and Greediguts. In her confession (obtained by torture, of course), Wallis claimed that the familiars could take almost any form, but appeared most often as greyhounds with a bristle of hog hair running down their backs. She also confessed to suckling these creatures from her "Witch's marks." These marks, also called Witch's teats, were believed to be a permanent mark that the Devil placed upon the body of an initiate witch, as a visible sign of her compact with the malignant forces. These marks were most often described as being wart-like in appearance, the origin of the modern caricature of the witch with the wart on her nose that we see in popular culture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In reality, these witch's teats were actually real warts, scars or birthmarks, marks that the person who possessed them had no control over, but were enough to condemn them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Another common type of animal trial, while less likely to end in the cruel and unnecessary death of an innocent creature, is every bit as disturbing as the other examples I've discussed in this post. In fact, it's a little bit more disturbing on some levels. These are trials for beastiality, which was apparently a lot more common than I am remotely comfortable even thinking about. The reason I say that these trials where less likely to end with the execution of the animal is because, in many of these cases, the animals were recognised as the "victims" of men with unnatural urges.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In case you weren't disturbed enough already, I'd just like to point out that it appears that animals had more rights over their bodies than most women at this stage in history. God, that's depressing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But, back to the unnatural urges. Defendants in these trials usually tried to claim that the animal had "seduced them" in some way, but, according to historical records, it seems judges generally rejected these claims on the basis that animals weren't capable of consent, nor of seducing anybody. The accused beast-lovers were usually put to death, and the animals given a reprieve, probably on the grounds that killing them was a waste, because nobody wanted to eat sausages made from the pig that Billy Bob had his dick in last week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">By the 1800s, animal trials were nowhere near as common as they had been in the Middle Ages, but they still occurred from time to time, and there are even a few well-known examples of animal trials from the early 20th century. The most notable being a circus elephant which was put on trial, and hanged, for killing it's trainer. In fact, while researching this subject, I even found a case from 2008. That's right, a 21st Century animal trial...sort of. The trial occurred in Macedonia, where a wild bear was accused of stealing honey from a local beekeeper's hives. The bear was found guilty, but since no-one wanted to even attempt to extract damages from a wild bear, the park's service was given a hefty fine instead.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I think this is where I'm supposed to make some kind of bad joke about pic-a-nic baskets or something.</span></div>
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Wellington Police are appealing for help to find 20-year-old Caitlyn Bird, who has been reported missing by her family.</div>
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She was last seen in Glover Park, Wellington, on Monday 9 May, 2016. She has not been missing before and her family have concerns for her safety.</div>
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Caitlyn is 178cm tall, with mid-length brown hair, hazel eyes, and a distinctive American accent. When she was last seen, she was wearing dark jeans, a black raincoat and a heavy, men’s brown and white checked outdoor shirt. </div>
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Anyone who may have seen Caitlyn or have information on her whereabouts is asked to contact Wellington Police on (04) 381 2000 or, after hours, Emergency 111 and ask for Police.</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Join Lost Sheep NZ on Facebook!!
https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-73047680521311459812016-05-19T23:55:00.001-07:002016-05-19T23:55:33.588-07:00<div id="article_start" style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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The following is an open letter to all New Zealanders, from Antonio Gotingco, husband of murdered Auckland woman, Blessie Gotingco. For those not already familiar with the story, Blessie's death was horrific; she was run down with a car, brutally raped, murdered, and her body dumped in a South Auckland cemetary. Her murderer, Tony Robertson, was a convicted child molester, who had only recently been paroled. The Corrections Department were so concerned about Robertson's risk of reoffending, that prior to his release, they had applied to the High Court, and been granted, extended supervision orders, including electronic monitoring. Robertson was to wear a GPS ankle bracelet, had a 8pm - 6am curfew, and only live at an approved address. He was also to stay away from any parks or other areas children are likely to frequent. In the months leading up to Blessie's murder, Robertson was arrested and appeared in court three times for breaching his release conditions. Despite these breaches, he was not sent back to prison. Robertson also attended two more court hearings, brought by the Corrections Department, asking for further extensions of the supervision orders. These further extensions were granted, so the question is, why did none of these provisions save the life of Blessie Gotingco? Just this week, a governmental inquiry found that neither NZ Corrections, nor the NZ Police was responsible in any way, for Blessie's death. Her husband disagrees, and would like to see these authorities be held to account for a crime that should not have happened, and could have been prevented. </div>
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<b><i>"To My Fellow New Zealanders: We stand for Blessie -- a beloved wife, mother and grandmother to us her family. She is also a daughter, sister, aunt, friend, co-worker, colleague and a fellow New Zealander to the rest of us.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>Blessie and I and our three children left our family home in the Philippines and moved to New Zealand in 2004, confident that our adopted country was a safe and beautiful place to live in. We settled on the North Shore of Auckland, believing it was an ideal place to raise a family and lead a happy comfortable life. We were so wrong.</i></b></div>
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<b><i> We lost our beautiful Blessie at the hands of an evil person who was supposed to be under strict monitoring in the community by authorities to whom we have entrusted our lives for protection. The Government, particularly the Department of Corrections has given a new meaning to ineptitude and stupidity. The Government sounded the death knell for Blessie by failing miserably to deliver the primary role of governance which is to ensure its citizens are safe and secure from the scum of society. Its decision to put a sadistic, unreformed criminal in our neighbourhood sealed the fate of our much-loved Blessie. It was like putting a snake in a hen house.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>The Corrections Department knew all along based on their records that this monster would reoffend and yet it did not lift a finger even when public safety was sure to be compromised. Highlighting their ineptness, this pure and unadulterated evil was never properly monitored to stop him from committing this very heinous crime. The department knew all along that it would just be a matter of time before he committed another crime. And yet they continue to add insult to our injury by claiming that they have exceeded standards in their management of this hardened criminal. For us, hearing these pronouncements is like rubbing salt to our raw wounds. What has happened is very unchristian. How can this dastardly act happen in a country supposedly founded and built on Christian values?</i></b></div>
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<b><i>It is of public record how our beloved Blessie was brutally taken from us. What has happened to us is the worst that can happen to any family. While it is our fervent hope that no other family will experience the horror and tragedy that we have gone through, there is no guarantee unless we get our acts together and push for relevant changes in the Corrections Department and the so called justice system as a whole.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>We are now facing the biggest challenge of our life by considering filing a civil case against the Department of Corrections for the wrongful death of my wife, our beloved Blessie. It's tough enough, and the Government is not providing us with legal assistance -- a sad irony considering that they are all too happy paying for the legal expenses of Blessie's murderer. In fact, the Government has been overly generous in accommodating this criminal, with sky’s the limit to all his extravagant legal spending.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>We are hoping that the good people of New Zealand will once again stand with us by donating towards our costs. We are going to undertake our own review of the mismanagement/non-monitoring of "evil" which enabled him to take our Blessie. We our counting on your help, even if it is only $1, it will help us expose the sham that is the management of sex offenders in New Zealand. We need to put a stop to this vicious cycle of ineptness and stupidity in the justice system. We firmly believe that a civil case against the Department of Corrections is our only option and a worthy course of action. Together let us show them the power to the people. Never again! We all deserve better.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>Respectfully yours,</i></b></div>
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<b><i>Antonio Gotingco"</i></b></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />Mr Gotingco has started a <a href="https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/justiceforblessie" target="_blank">Givealittle page</a> to raise funds for private litigation against NZ Corrections, please consider donating to his cause, because the system failed Blessie, and they need to recognise it and learn from it instead of denying all responsibility with a whitewash inquiry.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11642087" target="_blank">Blessie Gotingco's Family Consider Civil Suit - NZ Herald</a><br />
<span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><a href="https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/news-and-communications/latest-news/news/tony-robertson-management-inquiry-report-released"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Results of Tony Robertson Management Inquiry</span></a></span><br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Join Lost Sheep NZ on Facebook!!
https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-30676748320066921482016-05-07T02:06:00.002-07:002016-05-07T02:16:29.452-07:00A family affair: One family, two murders that shocked the nation. Moko Sayviah Rangitoheriri will forever be three years old, his cheeky grin in photographs a remnant of happier days, the days before he went to stay with his mother's friend Tania Shailer, and her boyfriend David Haewera. Moko's mother had no idea, could never have imagined, the brutality
that her "friend" Tania, and her partner, would inflict on the
defenseless three-year-old boy with the cheeky grin.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moko Rangitoheriri </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
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Moko and his 8-year-old sister had been entrusted to Tania Shailer, a
former early childhood teacher, by their mother, so she could remain
with their older brother, who was in Starship hospital. The family
live in Taupo, and Starship is in Auckland, a 5-hour drive away, so
it made sense to leave the other two children in good
hands and stay in Auckland. Shailer and the mother were friends, and
Shailer's experience with young children made her the natural choice of
caregiver for a worried mother who wanted to stay at the bedside of her
sick child.<br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Warning: The following contains graphic descriptions of acts of violence perpetrated against an innocent child. Please use discretion in choosing whether to read this segment of the post, as some readers may find it very upsetting.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Over the course of the two months which Moko and his sister, Aroha* spent with Shailer and Haewera, Moko was kicked, punched, thrown into walls, dropped on the floor face first, slapped with a sandal, bitten and stomped on by two full-grown adults. He had feces rubbed in his face, was denied food and water, and was not given any medical treatment, even though if likely would have saved his life, severe as his injuries were, if he'd been taken to hospital just a few days earlier.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">When Moko was finally taken to Taupo Hospital and admitted to the intensive care unit, he was suffering from internal hemorrhaging, swelling of the brain and septic shock from a ruptured bowel. His face was badly swollen, and every inch of his tiny body was covered in bruises, abrasions and human bite marks. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">As if that wasn't heartbreaking enough, Moko had been in that condition for four days before the people responsible bothered to take him to hospital. </span><span style="font-size: small;">When Moko died, his tiny body was so damaged by the
vicious attacks he'd endured, that he was barely recognisable to his own
mother and aunt, when they went to identify him in the morgue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">At this point, you might be thinking that this awful tragedy couldn't get any worse, but you'd be wrong about that. It can, and it did. Because Moko's sister, only 7-years-old at the time, was forced to witness the malicious acts of violence that Shailer and Haewera perpetrated on her little brother. Aroha tried to protect him as much as she was able to, but what hope does a 7-year-old have of defending against two adults? </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Moko's brave sister hid him in a closet so he wouldn't be beaten, she tried to sneak food and water to him, and was punished herself for doing so. Aroha wanted desperately to tell someone what was happening, but Shailer and Haewera told her that they would kill her mother if she said anything. She was afraid to go to school each day because she was worried about what the couple might do to Moko while she wasn't there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">And the final, most aggregious act perpetrated by this pair of oxygen bandits...during Moko's last beating, before he died, Shailer and Haewera forced Aroha to join in. They made her kick her terribly injured little brother, and after he died, told her that it was her actions that had killed him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">There are no words that can express the horror and anger that I feel just writing about this, as well as the incredible sympathy and heartbreak for Aroha and what she must be going through. I'm an atheist, so I don't believe in the devil or anything like that, but I do believe that what these two people did to Moko and his sister was pure, unadulterated evil. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Moko died a slow, agonising death, murdered in cold blood over an eight week period at the hands of Tania Shailer and David Haewera. But if you're reading Moko's story for the first time, and hoping that Shailer and Haewera were punished with the full force of the law, I'm sorry to have to disappoint you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Last week, these baby-killers were given a downgraded charge of manslaughter in exchange for a guilty plea. They will reappear for sentencing in the Rotorua High Court on June 27th, and we can only hope, will be given the harshest possible sentence by the judge. If I am able to arrange it, I fully intend to be there outside that court for the sentencing, sign in hand, to highlight the grave injustice of letting these vicious scumbags away with manslaughter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Tania Shailer and David Haewera systematically tortured and beat that little boy over the course of 60 days, until his body was so damaged that it could no longer sustain life. That's not manslaughter, that's murder! These people are murderers. They are vicious killers and they should never be allowed to walk the streets again or come within 5 feet of a child for the rest of their lives!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Now we come to the latest tragic twist in this case. Since the court case has finished, the media have been allowed to reveal that David Haewera is a close relative of Ben Haewera, another convicted child killer. Ben Haewera was sentenced to 12 years in prison for beating his 5-year-old stepson, James Whakaruru, to death in 1999, and there are a number of frightening similarities in how James and Moko died. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James Whakaruru</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Ben Haewera had been abusing little James for years, yet nothing had been done, despite the fact that Ben had already served nine months in prison for abusing James when he was just 2-years-old. After James died and Ben Haewera was convicted, the country was shocked and outraged to learn the full extent of the abuse James suffered, and just how badly authorities had dropped the ball and failed to save his life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">James' mother and step-father, as well as relatives on both sides of his family had come to the attention of child welfare and youth justice organisations on numerous occasions. James had been admitted to Accident & Emergency many times, with serious injuries, but doctors who treated him failed to recognise the ongoing abuse. Neighbours and friends of the family knew what was going on but all assumed that "somebody else" would do something about it. Everyone in James' life failed him on some level, right up to his death.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Like Moko, James endured sustained, regular physical abuse over a long period of time, until his ravaged body could not take any more abuse. The details of what James suffered at the hands of his step-father are just as sickening as the abuse suffered by Moko </span>Rangitoheriri, so I will not go over those details. I will include links to some of the many news articles covering the case, so that those who wish to can learn more about James' life and tragic death.<br />
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James Whakaruru could have been saved, had people paid attention and stepped up and done something instead of turning a blind eye, or assuming that someone else would take care of it. Moko's death can't be blamed on the system failing him, because the system had no involvement, and no one knew or even suspected what was happening to Moko until it was too late. However, both Tania Shailer and David Haewera have attempted to mitigate their guilt by claiming that they weren't coping with having Moko and Aroha to care for, as well as their own four children. I don't know if that's true, but if there's any grain of truth in that claim, all they needed to do was speak up and ask for help.<br />
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New Zealand's death toll of abused children just keeps on rising, and we, as a country, are not doing nearly enough to stem that tide. By allowing Moko's murderers to plead to manslaughter, we send a message to every child abuser that they won't be punished to the full extent of the law, that we don't care enough about this nation's children to put their abusers away for a long, long time.<br />
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But this isn't about punitive sentencing, because sentencing only comes after a child has died. We have to do more to stop violence in the home before it's too late. We have to do more to combat the things that fuel family violence, like poverty and addictions. Only when we work to mitigate all of the contributing factors in family violence will we start saving more children from a violent death.<br />
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There is a forum on Facebook for people who want to express their anger and frustration over Moko's tragic death and the heinous plea deal given to his killers. There is a rally planned for the 27th of June, outside the Rotorua High Court, to coincide with the sentencing of Tania Shailer and David Haewera, please consider coming along and showing your support. You can find all the relevant information at <a href="https://www.maoritelevision.com/news/national/public-outcry-over-death-moko-rangitoheriri-prompts-establishment-facebook-forum" target="_blank">Justice For Moko</a>. <br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>LINKS</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11632262" target="_blank">Killed by his carers: Moko's last days - NZ Herald</a></span><br />
<a href="http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11634166" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">Inquest to be held in toddler's death - NZ Herald</span></a><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/79646276/duncan-garner-a-little-boy-is-dead--now-who-will-march-for-moko" target="_blank">Now who will march for Moko? - Stuff.co.nz</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/faces-of-innocents/79694305/carer-forced-sister-to-deliver-final-blow-to-moko" target="_blank">Carer forced sister to deliver final blow to Moko - Stuff.co.nz</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=141578" target="_blank">Child's road to a lonely, brutal death - NZ Herald</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/james-whakaruru-killer-in-trouble-again-2011012707#axzz47xK7lrzf" target="_blank">James Whakaruru killer in trouble again - Newshub</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.forourchildren.org.nz/site/forchildren/files/research/OCC_James_Whakaruru_Report_Executive_Summary.pdf" target="_blank">James Whakaruru Report - For Our Children</a></span><br />
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https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-66964226937214456422016-04-21T01:02:00.000-07:002016-04-21T01:09:42.129-07:00Daryl Kirk: Victim or Villian?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnDhNr6cGXUZpOP5lOJ9Xyh-m5hhzLkdNbnBdh-POchX6TENBlTEv_Nxq9-ca1gIoo50n-cno0J8uGNcOSQFk4mKvgqfx101FBQ762u2ig8a3MViERz_Bp1KRMkqOPMeU0g9NYiiZl-x0/s1600/1461052325441.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnDhNr6cGXUZpOP5lOJ9Xyh-m5hhzLkdNbnBdh-POchX6TENBlTEv_Nxq9-ca1gIoo50n-cno0J8uGNcOSQFk4mKvgqfx101FBQ762u2ig8a3MViERz_Bp1KRMkqOPMeU0g9NYiiZl-x0/s400/1461052325441.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">At 19, Daryl Kirk didn't look like a killer, and a year later, she still doesn't, not really. But when you look closely, you notice the hard lines of her mouth, the somewhat staunch looking posture as she stands in the defense box and the challenging gaze as she faces the court. Daryl Kirk has seen pain and violence, she's seen drug use and abuse, she's seen more than anyone should have seen at the age of 20. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">In 2015, when</span></span><span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">
Daryl's mother Kelly's violent and drug-addled boyfriend, Adam Watkins, chased Daryl with a meat cleaver, threatening to kill her and her mother with it, she picked up a .22
semi-automatic rifle and shot Watkins. Ironically, the rifle was Watkins gun, which he kept to protect himself from some local gang-members who had been causing him trouble.</span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span>
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">Daryl has just been convicted of the manslaughter of Adam Watkins, who she claims she shot in self defense. But the Crown had pushed for a murder conviction, and pushed hard, alleging that Daryl was not acting in defense of herself or her family at all, but had snapped and killed Watkins out of rage. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">The jury agreed with the defense, that Daryl had some justification for her actions that day, and was a scared teen who shot the violent thug who was terrorising her and her family. Much of the evidence presented in the case backed up that version of events. Daryl has no prior history of violence, and is apparently a quiet, rather shy young woman who has experienced years of domestic abuse from her mother's violent partners. She's also witnessed her mother's ongoing struggle with drug addiction, and yet seems to have stayed out of trouble for the most part, herself. To me, she comes across as very sympathetic. </span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true"></span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">So why did the Crown push so hard for a conviction that, in U.S jurisprudence, would be called Malice Murder, a murder committed with malicious intent? The Crown seems to believe that Daryl Kirk had plenty of malice towards Adam Watkins. But why would the Crown think this about a 19-year-old girl who has been subjected to a life surrounded by domestic violence, and drug abuse?</span></span><br />
<br />
I'll come back to that, but first lets look at what happened in the lead up to Watkins murder....<br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span>
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">On
the day he died, Watkins was high on a cocktail of illegal drugs,
including methamphetamine. Witnesses backed up Daryl's testimony that
Watkins had picked up a meat cleaver and chased and threatened a number
of people with it. There were at least seven people in the home at the
time, Watkins, Kelly Kirk, Daryl Kirk and Daryl's boyfriend, Kyle
Barndon, as well as some friends who were visiting. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">According to witness testimony, Watkins began verbally abusing Kelly Kirk, and when one of the visiting friends intervened on Kelly's behalf, Watkins "lost it." He picked up the meat cleaver and waved it around violently, chasing the others in the house while screaming threats at them. Neighbours who lived across the road heard the shouting, and saw Watkins and a number of other people running around the property. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">These witnesses said that they saw Watkins and others run out of and back into the house a number of times, and that it definitely looked as if Watkins was chasing them. They also confirmed that Watkins was holding some kind of weapon, though they weren't able to conclusively identify it, and thought it looked like some kind of axe, or possibly a machete.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">Daryl Kirk's version of events states that Watkins chased her back inside the house from the driveway, where she'd fled to escape him. Once back in the house, Daryl ran her bedroom, and Watkins followed her, trapping her in the bedroom, still swinging the cleaver and making threats. Daryl grabbed the .22 rifle and, in fear for her life and the lives of her mother and the others on the property, shot Watkins three times. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">Later testimony, from the same neighbours who saw and heard the initial conflicts on the property, stated that they saw a distraught teen girl with barefeet leave the residence and run away down the street. Daryl, scared and in shock after the shooting, ran to a relatives home not knowing that Watkins was already dead. She thought she'd only wounded him, and in court told the jury that she hadn't wanted to kill him, just stop him from terrorising her and her family.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">When Daryl finally learned that Watkins was dead, the Aunt, who's house Daryl had run to, testified that Daryl began sobbing hysterically and saying that she never meant to kill Watkins. This is not the behaviour of a person who has snapped and killed someone in a fit of rage. There are discrepancies in parts of Daryl's account of the shooting, but those discrepancies, according to the defense, can be attributed to the chaotic scene, the fear that Daryl was in, and to shock due to the fact that she'd never shot a person before.</span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span>
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">For me, the witness testimony of Daryl's behaviour both before and after shooting, fits much better with the defense's version of events than with the Crowns. Daryl fled the scene crying and afraid, and she was a shy, quiet girl who had no history of violence or of angry outbursts. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">Victims of domestic violence can snap and kill, but in a number of those cases, the fact that these killers are also victims, many of them suffering years of abuse, is recognized and acknowledged by the Crown when charging these women. They are often charged with the lesser crime of manslaughter, and may also agree to plead guilty in exchange for greatly reduced sentences. Why not this time?</span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">The concern for me is that the Crown chose to go after Daryl Kirk because of her mother, and her run-ins with the law over the years. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">Kelly Kirk has a long history of violent relationships and drug use. In 1992, Kelly, who was 15 at the time, was dating now-convicted double murderer, Graeme Burton, when he stabbed a nightclub lighting technician in revenge, after bouncers at the same club had thrown him out. Burton was jailed for that murder, but was released on parole in 2006, where he went on a six month, meth-fueled crime spree which culminated in a shooting rampage in the hills of Wainuiomata, outside of Wellington. Burton shot at a number of mountain bikers, killing Karl Kuchenbecker. He then aimed his shotgun at police, who shot first, hitting him in the leg. Burton survived the injury and was given a life-sentence with a minimum 26-year non-parole period.</span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span>
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">It took Kelly a year to find the courage to use the opportunity presented by Burton's inprisonment, and break up with him from the safety of a prison visiting booth. Despite the protection offered by the safety glass, Burton still launched himself at it in a futile effort to physically attack Kelly. </span></span><span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">Prison staff
would not allow Burton to write to Kelly, so he got friends and family
who visited him in prison to drop his threatening notes directly into
her letterbox. </span></span>When he briefly escaped from prison in 1998, the police whisked Kelly and her children (not Burton's) into protective custody because, despite being in prison for six years at that point, his anger at Kelly for breaking up with him, and his desire for revenge against her, had not diminished. </span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span>
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">Kelly Kirk spent years living in fear of Burton, but many of her other boyfriends could be just as dangerous. Thanks to the damaging influence of Burton and subsequant boyfriends, Kelly was introduced to hard drugs and became addicted to morphine. Something that has played a role in the kind of men she let into her, and her kids, lives. Many of those men were not just violent, they too were drug addicts, a dangerous and volatile combination.</span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span>
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">Kelly has become well known to police over the years, she's been jailed a few times, and her previous partners have all had long rap-sheets. So did that history cause the police, and the prosecutors to stop seeing her daughter, Daryl, as a victim, and instead see her as a member of a "bad" family? Did they assume like mother, like daughter? Did they believe perhaps that Daryl was the product of a violent upbringing and, therefore, must be a violent person?</span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span>
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">I will conclude by saying that I think the jury got it right in this case. I believe that Daryl Kirk was terrified, in fear of her life, her mother's life, her boyfriend's life, and the lives of the other people in that house. She shot a man who had brutalised her and her family, just like all the other men her mother bought into their lives. Daryl Kirk was trying, in the only way she could, to stop that vicious cycle of violence. It wasn't the right response, we know that from the safety of our non-violent homes, but Daryl had known nothing but violence for her entire life. What possible chance did she have to realise that violence can be stopped in other ways, that there are people and organisations out there that can help? </span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span>
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true">I believe the jury got it right, and the Crown and the police got it wrong. They allowed themselves to see this family as a stereotype, instead of seeing them as real people, as victims of a violent, drug-fueled thug who was one more in a long line of violent, drug-fueled thugs who had victimised this family. I just hope the judge also sees Daryl Kirk as a real person, and a victim, and imposes a sentence that will take that into account, and hopefully, give her a chance to rebuild her life instead of becoming just one more prison statistic.</span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true"></span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true"><a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/78765482/daryl-kirks-trial-on-charge-of-murdering-adam-watkins-starts-in-wellington" target="_blank">Accused Claims Self-Defense in Shooting Death</a> </span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true"><a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/78814726/shooting-victim-adam-watkins-was-swinging-weapon-like-a-lunatic-court-hears" target="_blank">Accused Still Has Nightmares About Murder</a></span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true"><a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/79047481/daryl-kirk-was-a-terrified-teenager--or-an-angry-person-who-snapped-jury-told.html" target="_blank">Defense says Scared Teen, Crown says Rage-filled Murderer</a> </span></span>
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true"><a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/79083717/Teen-killers-mum-tells-of-her-dark-past-with-murderer-Graeme-Burton" target="_blank">Daryl Kirk's Mother on Past with Graeme Burton</a></span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="eeknp-0-0"><span data-text="true"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graeme_Burton#Murder_of_Karl_Kuchenbecker" target="_blank">Wikipedia entry on Graeme Burton</a></span></span>
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https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-5634076713768130722016-04-04T01:32:00.002-07:002016-04-04T01:32:43.421-07:00Victim or Predator: The Gay Panic DefenseOn the evening of December 27th, 2014, staff at the Ascot-Epsom Motel in South Auckland discovered one of their guests, bleeding and disoriented, staggering across the courtyard. The man's name is Ihaia Gillman-Harris. <br />
His assailants, two teenage boys he'd offered a lift and a room for the night.<br />
But within minutes of checking in to the Ascot, Gillman-Harris was viciously assaulted with a baseball bat. He died in surgery later the same night from multiple head injuries.<br />
<br />
The trial for those teenage boys began today and their defense is a familiar one for members of the LGBT community, and it's a defense that makes my blood boil every time it's trotted out. <br />
<br />
It even has it's own name, the "gay panic defense".<br />
<br />
I'm a straight woman, I'll put that out there right now, because it's going to help me make an important point about this case. Lets imagine that I've murdered someone, another woman, and that woman happens to be lesbian. The police come and I tell them that I was only acting in self-defense because she was a lesbian, she tried to rape me, and I panicked and killed her.<br />
<br />
Ridiculous right?<br />
<br />
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that women can't be perpetrators of sexual violence, because they absolutely can. I'm also not saying that women can't rape other women, because they absolutely can. What I am saying is that if I, as a straight woman, used that defense in a criminal court on a murder charge, I would have to show pretty overwhelming evidence for my claim to slide that defense past a jury. <br />
<br />
But when a man claims that another man tried to rape him, and that's why he resorted to murder, that's somehow a legitimate defense, and one that often needs very little evidence to be upheld. Here are some examples....<br />
<br />
In 2011, South Australian man, Michael John Lindsey, bashed and stabbed an aquaintance, Andrew Negre, to death. At trial, he claimed he was provoked by Negre's unwanted sexual advances but was found guilty of murder, and sentenced to 23 years in prison. But in 2015, Lindsey successfully appealed his conviction to the High Court, where he was granted a new trial based on his claim that "gay panic" is a legitimate defense, and that the judge didn't make it clear to the jury just how much provocation could be used as a mitigating factor to murder charges.<br />
<br />
Hold on to your koalas, it gets worse. In the wake of Lindsey's appeal, there were renewed calls to ban the gay panic defense as some other Australian states have done. Sounds like a good idea right? Not according to the South Australian Law Society, who had this to say in a letter to Legaslative Review Committee...<br />
<br />
<i><b><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">“It is surprising...that the occasion of the delivery of Lindsey v R has been met
with renewed calls for reform concerning the regrettably coined ‘gay
panic defence'. The common law partial defence
has a rationale which, when properly explained to the community, would
be seen to be acceptable and consistent with social norms. Importantly,
the partial-defence works to avoid an inappropriate murder conviction.” - </span></b></i><b><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Rocco Perotta, President of the Law Society (and probably a giant, homophobic douche-canoe)</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Australian bigotry at it's finest folks.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">In Cook County, Illinois in 2009, 30-year-old Joseph Biedermann stabbed his neighbour Terence Hauser 61 times. Biedermann claimed self-defense, telling the jury at his murder trial that Hauser had threatened to rape and murder him just hours after the pair had first met in a local bar. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Biedermann's claims of a violent struggle with Hauser, who he alleged attacked him with a sword, were not backed up by the evidence. Hauser's apartment, where the murder occurred, showed no signs of such an epic struggle, and many of Hauser's 61 stab wounds were to the back. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Police said Hauser's death looked more like an unprovoked and brutal slaughter than an attempt to fend off an attack. Despite this, a jury found Biedermann not guilty, accepting his "gay panic defense" as legitimate, and the vicious murderer who stabbed a single father 61 times walked free. </span><br />
<span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">This defense has been extended to excuse the murder of transgendered victims too.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">In 2015, US Marine, </span>Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton, was arrested for the murder of 26-year-old Filipino woman, Jennifer Laude. Laude, who was transgendered, was discovered strangled and drowned in a toilet bowl at a hotel in Olongapo City. Pemberton had met Laude in a nightclub the night before she was found dead, and admitted accompanying her to the hotel for sex. Pemberton testified that he was not aware Laude was trans, and had "panicked" after discovering she had a penis. He then claimed that he strangled her, but left her unconscious but alive. I presume we're expected to believe she drowned herself in the toilet, because that makes soooo much sense.<br />
<br />
That last sentence was all sarcasm, in case anyone couldn't tell.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ-T_SVVqdKrMKHusIi0lYTPfMHVHTFsl0LjYhpisGk3Ya5gokHZXKwrtbkwe9RvhQogzHh0FEMGSRPV5zlaEO4xwJubieU1HXGex6vC5cgyY4AD9KY-9AwmpIXzBI397WLzuPvCXxKic/s1600/Jennifer_Laude.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ-T_SVVqdKrMKHusIi0lYTPfMHVHTFsl0LjYhpisGk3Ya5gokHZXKwrtbkwe9RvhQogzHh0FEMGSRPV5zlaEO4xwJubieU1HXGex6vC5cgyY4AD9KY-9AwmpIXzBI397WLzuPvCXxKic/s320/Jennifer_Laude.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jennifer Laude</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Why is this ridiculous defense still being allowed in our courts? or in ANY court anywhere in the world?<br />
<br />
It's 2016, and it's well past time to put the "gay panic defense" in the trashbag of history once and for all.<span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"> </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"> <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/78519100/motel-murder-possibly-planned-ahead-of-time--crown" target="_blank">Day One of Gillman-Harris Murder Trial</a></span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.australasianlawyer.com.au/news/law-society-supports-gay-panic-defence-201606.aspx" target="_blank"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"> Law Society Supports "Gay Panic Defense."</span></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-08/gay-panic-murder-defence-should-be-abolished-greens/6455442" target="_blank"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"> Green MP Calls for "Gay Panic Defense" to be Abolished</span></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-rowe/man-acquitted-of-murder-a_b_231748.html" target="_blank"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">"Gay Panic Defense" Used to Aquit Illinois Man </span></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/world/asia/us-marine-joseph-scott-pemberton-testifies-in-transgender-killing-in-philippines.html?smid=pl-share&_r=0" target="_blank"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"> Marine Claims "Gay Panic Defense" In Murder of Trans Filipino Woman</span></a><br />
<span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"> </span><i><b><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"> </span></b></i><br />
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https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-64517473074933410382016-03-11T20:47:00.002-08:002016-03-12T17:30:11.554-08:00Annie McCann: Baltimore's Not-So-Secret ShameBaltimore, October 31st, 2008<br />
<br />
16-year-old Annie McCann disappears from her home in Northern Virginia and is found dead and stuffed in a dumpster in the notorious Perkins Homes public housing complex in Baltimore. When her parents, Maryjane and Daniel McCann received the tragic news two days later, they were devastated, but little did they know that seven years later, they would still be waiting for answers, waiting for justice. Seven years of bungling Baltimore detectives, an incompetent coroner, Judicial misconduct and empty promises from city officials, and Annie's death remains unsolved.<br />
<br />
You can trace the downward spiral of the shoddy police investigation, and the events that followed, in
the lines of the Baltimore Sun articles covering the case. From the discovery of Annie's body in 2008, through to 2012
when Annie's parents came forward with the shocking allegation that the State
Medical Examiner had, against the family's wishes, thrown Annie's organs away after the autopsy. <br />
<br />
When Annie first disappeared, in October of 2008, she left a note saying that she'd thought about suicide but decided against it, and that she just wanted her parents to "let me be free" and to "live, love, learn and grow." Annie's parents did all the right things, they immediately contacted police and asked that they issue an Amber Alert.<br />
<br />
Here in New Zealand, we don't have an equivalent to the Amber Alert, so for those who don't know, an Amber Alert is issued when someone under the age of 18 disappears, and the disappearance meets certain criteria - If a minor has been abducted, and/or a minor is at serious risk of injury or death. The alert goes out to all law enforcement agencies, all media outlets and is broadcast on all emergency channels.<br />
<br />
But the Fairfax County police, the local law enforcement agency in the area of Virginia where the McCann's live, refused to issue an alert in Annie's case because they believed she was not in serious risk of death or injury, and she hadn't been abducted, she ran away. They also determined her note to be what's called a non-suicide note, which doesn't mean that the person won't take their own life, but that officials consider it unlikely. <br />
<br />
Less than 42 hours later, Annie's body was found in a dumpster in one of Baltimore's most notorious housing projects, a complex well-known for gang activity, drug use, crime and all the other societal problems we'd expect to find in a high poverty area. Her grieving parents were bewildered, as far as they were aware, Annie didn't know anybody in Baltimore. What had possessed her to make the one and half hour drive from Alexandria, Virginia, to Baltimore? Especially as she had only gotten her license very recently, wasn't overly confident behind the wheel, and was a terrible navigator.<br />
<br />
Not long after Annie's body was discovered, two teens were found in possession of her car, which they'd apparently appropriated after finding Annie dead, or dying, inside and dumping her body. To this day, Annie's parents believe that if the teens had just called 911, their daughter might still be alive. Which brings us to Annie's cause of death.<br />
<br />
The State Medical Examiner who handled the autopsy (and illegally disposed of Annie's organs) found that Annie had died from lidocaine poisoning, lidocaine being an anaesthetic used to numb specific areas, either by injection into specific tissue or joints, or by absorbtion through the skin. It's the main ingredient in numbing creams like Bactine, which is a localised pain reliever, often used in piercing. That's what Annie had been using it for, and a container of Bactine was found near the dumpster where Annie's body was left.<br />
<br />
The police immediately concluded that Annie had taken her own life, and stopped bothering to put any work into the case. But, they neglected to tell Annie's parents of their conclusions until many months later, a week after giving a press conference, with the parents in attendance, saying they were giving the investigation into Annie's death "everything we've got."<br />
<br />
The Baltimore PD never gave it everything, they never gave it much of anything. The teens found in possession of Annie's car were sentenced to counselling and mandatory school attendance. A third teen, legally an adult at the time, who was also involved in dumping Annie's body and taking her car, went on to murder another girl and steal her car. He was convicted for that crime, but Baltimore PD refused to question him about Annie's death in case it jeapordised their murder case.<br />
<br />
The McCann's, who quickly gave up on any hope of justice from the Baltimore justice system, hired their own investigators and launched their own independent investigation into Annie's death. They talked to witnesses, followed up leads and provided police with numerous persons of interest, including a sketch of a woman seen with Annie just hours before her death. The police ignored those leads and have consistently refused to put any effort whatsoever into re-examining Annie's death.<br />
<br />
Annie's parents have detailed their story in an extensive blog, which you can read for yourselves, but be warned. By the time you've finished reading, you may want to punch the next cop you see. Please don't do that, by the way, punching cops is not the way to send a message about corruption in law enforcement. That's what we have governments and independent inquiries for. Lets keep it legal folks.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://medium.com/@maryjaneanddanmccann/the-color-of-puke-4284f44330d5#.a2wcsjjs3">Maryjane and Daniel McCann's Blog</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bal-annie-mccann-gallery-storygallery.html">Archive of Baltimore Sun Articles on Annie's Death</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Join Lost Sheep NZ on Facebook!!
https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-43229317776264467222016-03-10T01:41:00.001-08:002016-03-10T01:41:11.604-08:00Lost in the Night: The Disappearance of Iraena Asher
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
On the 10<sup>th</sup> of October,
2004, a beautiful young model and trainee teacher disappeared into
the night in Piha, West Auckland. She was never seen again. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggf3qYXffuehIu7XoaqsiryQZ39lAse6YGYw-_oOns3JT-n5KUnbknU84jc2pSqWKawnyITPantXVi94C7dVBLLfC0bBAvwC-45-DuZ8qVYZtuQ4ZRZo8v52ipCqgfU-Nfyn7cDkdWF8c/s1600/7303433.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggf3qYXffuehIu7XoaqsiryQZ39lAse6YGYw-_oOns3JT-n5KUnbknU84jc2pSqWKawnyITPantXVi94C7dVBLLfC0bBAvwC-45-DuZ8qVYZtuQ4ZRZo8v52ipCqgfU-Nfyn7cDkdWF8c/s320/7303433.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iraena Asher in 2004, age 25</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
It's 2004, and for almost a year, the
New Zealand media has been focusing a harsh spotlight on the
Government over the crisis situation at emergency services. People
calling the emergency 111 number are unable to get through, are cut
off, or have their calls mishandled by overworked dispatchers, who
send personnel to the wrong location or just don't send them at all.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
On a balmy night in October, a young
woman by the name of Iraena Asher calls 111 from a prepaid cellphone,
just outside a residence in the coastel community of Piha, 40kms from
Auckland's metropolis with it's well-lit streets. She tells the
dispatcher that she needs a police car sent, that she's afraid of
someone at the address she is outside of. She tells him that she is
being pressured for sex, that she's been drinking and doesn't feel
safe. Here's the transcript for that call, Iraena's responses are in
italics, the dispatchers in bold.</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>Could you please umm come and
get me from [number] Piha Road?”</b></i>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>what’s happening there Ma’m?</b>”
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>Yes please”</b></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>what’s happening?” </b>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>umm I just need to be taken
away from here”.</b></i>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>What's your name?”</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>Iraena … please can you
get here as soon as possible”. </b></i>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>yeah can you tell us what’s
going on Iraena - - Iraena?”. </b>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>I don’t feel safe in this
house because - - there’s a guy here who I’m </b></i>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><b>very afraid of”. </b></i>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>Is he your partner?”</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>No”</b></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>Who is the male that you are
scared of there - - Iraena?”</b>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>yes” </b></i>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">At
this point the call taker repeats the question and Iraena names a man
who was not actually at the address at the time</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<span style="font-style: normal;"><b>Is
it just you two there Iraena?” </b></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>no there’s, there’s a girl
here as well who I’m concerned about too”. </b></i>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The transcript
doesn't include all of the conversation between the dispatcher and
Iraena after this point. Instead, it's condensed to the most
important exchanges, and I believe this is because there was a lot
of the same questions being asked, and some questions being repeated
multiple times because Iraena doesn't always respond or seem to
understand the dispatcher</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>The dispatcher asks Iraena several
questions about why she is afraid of the man and the situation she's
in...</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>well I feel, well I feel
scared of him”</b></i> <i><b>... “because he’s, basically he’s
got me here and I just, I don’t feel safe here”.</b></i>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Ms Asher told the
dispatcher that she did not live at the Piha Road address, provided
her <span style="font-weight: normal;">address
in Ponsonby, and said she did not have her</span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></i><b><i>“wallet or anything with me”</i>, </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
then said</span><i><b>
“ … I need help immediately”</b></i><b>.</b>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>I can’t hear anything going on
… you still haven’t told me why you </b>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>are afraid of this guy. Is that his
address?”</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>yes”.</b></i>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“ … <b>what’s he done to scare
you?” </b>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>well, he’s just been
pressuring me for sex and I really don’t want to”. </b></i>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In response to a
question as to her age, Ms Asher correctly told the Call Taker that
she was 25. She told the
Call Taker that she had been drinking and that she had come in a
person’s car.</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>He’s actually quite scary
too”. </b></i>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>where is he now?” </b>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>in the bedroom”.</b></i>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“ … <b>what’s he doing?”</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>I don’t know. I just need to
be taken away from here ’cause I don’t know these people very
well and I don’t feel safe here”. </b></i>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>Okay. We’ll try and get there
as soon as we can, Iraena. That’s your mobile you’re calling
on?”</b>.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>I just picked it up off the
table, I just thought I want to get out of the situation ’cause </b></i>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><b>it’s not healthy for me”</b></i>.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Iraena tells the
dispatcher that she's known her boyfriend for about a week and that
they've been drinking for most of the day.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“ … <i><b>we kept drinking, and now
I need your help now please, [number] Piha Road”...“I don’t
feel safe right now and I thought the best thing to do would be to
ring the Police and that’s what I’ve done ’cause I want to do
the right thing. I’m just fucken really scared, okay?”</b></i>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“ … <b>you still want a lift
though, don’t you?” </b>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>Yeah I do” ...“I didn’t
know it was going to be so hard to get some help”.</b></i>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>Well I need all the circumstances
don’t I, Iraena?”</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>Yeah you do”.</b></i>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<span style="font-style: normal;"><b>no
worries, we’ll be there as soon as we can”.</b></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>Yeah I hope so”</b></i>.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This call lasted five and a half
minutes.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
At the conclusion of the call, the
dispatcher recorded the basic details of the call and passed that on
to another dispatcher at North Comms, who referred it to the
Waitakere police, along with the original dispatcher's comment that
the call was <b>“Just a bit rubbish.” </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">A
shift Sergeant at Waitakere read the details of the call, and
suggested to the dispatcher that Iraena Asher call a taxi. The
Sergeant than went to take care of a high priority call involving a
possible firearms incident. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">The
dispatcher at North Comms calls Iraena on the cellphone she used to
place the original call and here is the transcript of that call.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>Can you call a taxi?”</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>No, 'cause this phone won't
let me call out.”</b></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>I'll phone
one, which company would you prefer?”</b></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>The most expensive.”</b></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>Sorry?”</b></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>Umm...Discount Taxis.”</b></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>Discount
Taxis? Okay, I will give them a ring and I will ring you back with
how long they're going to be.”</b></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>I will really need them to
come here soon because it's just really weird here 'cause they've
given me drugs and stuff as well.”....”I'm scared”...”and
it's probably the drugs as well, making me more paranoid or
something, I'm quite scared.”</b></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b><span style="font-style: normal;">Okay,
no worries, I'll sort it out.”</span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>I think it's [the address],
can you just check the driveways between [number] and [number] 'cause
I've been on drugs so I don't know what it is. It's between [number]
and [number], can you check all those please?”</b></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>Okay, yeah,
no worries”</b></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>Cheers.”</b></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
At this point, the North Comms dispatcher calls Discount Taxis LTD,
identifies himself as a police dispatcher and asks if he can organise
a taxi ride for somebody else. The Taxi dispatcher tells the officer
that's fine and asks for the address, at which point the North Comms
dispatcher tells them that Iraena wasn't sure of the exact address
and gives them the street name and the numbers Iraena relayed to him.
The taxi company tells him they will be there in around 20 minutes
and North Comms calls Iraena back to tell her this.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>Why aren’t Police coming –
you know they fucking gave me so many drugs and shit, I </b></i>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><b>was totally confused. I didn’t
know what I was doing, they actually made me - - oh fuck, I </b></i>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><b>can’t do this by myself”. </b></i>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>I’ll, I’ll get the Sergeant to give you a ring”</b>.
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>No wait, can you just wait, can you just talk to me”.</b></i>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>Yeah. I’ll
get the, I’m at the Communications Centre so I can’t help you
directly from here, and I am doing - - ”. </b></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b> </b>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>No, no, can you just talk to
me”. </b></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><b> </b></i>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>I’ll - - ”</b>. </div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>Cause I’m quite scared at the moment”. </b></i></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><b> </b></i>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>Yeah and I understand that but - - ”.</b>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>No you don’t understand”</b></i>.
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>Yes I’m
dealing with units as well at the same time, I’m not a call taker
- I’m not someone that you
phone up and speak, you know, where you speak when you phone 111”.</b></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b> </b>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<i><b>But you don’t understand”</b></i>. </div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<b>I honestly
don’t have time to talk to you, I’ll get the Sergeant to give you
a phone call, okay?” </b>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Iraena hangs up on the dispatcher, her final call to police lasted 1
minute and 18 seconds. Three attempts were made by North Comms to
contact Iraena between 9.49pm and 11pm, but each time the phone
appeared to be switched off and went straight to voicemail.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
At 1.19am the residents of a house on Beach Valley Road call 111 and
report that four hours earlier, they had picked up a young woman who
was wandering aimlessly, dressed only in ugg boots and a sweatshirt
and seemingly under the influence of drugs. They took her home with
them, put her to bed and promised to drive her home in the morning,
but she had suddenly left the house at around 1am, running naked into
the night. This time police dispatchers give the call a high
priority status and a squad car is dispatched immediately to the
residence.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Iraena was last seen at 1.30am by a couple walking their dog.
According to them, she was naked, crouched by a streetlight and
appeared to be talking it. She then kissed the ground and walked off
towards the beach and disappeared. The couple did make some attempt
to follow and find Iraena, but with no luck, so they went home and
went to bed without calling police.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf0kVvgEPw4aFHupP2ii2hIf1g5sbomA_1xcfjSaCImvT7eW3EkU__y2tGkIzSJYszQThO3olOgpnRXqzTTAqCrhyphenhyphenkTBO9plgW1evu1LxCiXpD51VVwIh8pnMhPEAhSR-wW4rnX84mcO4/s1600/auckland-piha-beach-lion-rock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf0kVvgEPw4aFHupP2ii2hIf1g5sbomA_1xcfjSaCImvT7eW3EkU__y2tGkIzSJYszQThO3olOgpnRXqzTTAqCrhyphenhyphenkTBO9plgW1evu1LxCiXpD51VVwIh8pnMhPEAhSR-wW4rnX84mcO4/s320/auckland-piha-beach-lion-rock.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Piha beach - "We're not in Kansas anymore Toto"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
There are a number of theories about what happened to Iraena after
she was last seen. She may have simply walked out into the ocean and
drowned, though her family say she was a strong swimmer and feel that
this is unlikely. However, since Iraena was clearly under the
influence of something, possibly against her will, it remains a
viable possibility for investigators.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
A second, similar theory, is that Iraena attempted to climb around
the rocks on Piha beach and was swept out to sea and drowned. For
those of you who don't know Piha, it's a very popular surf beach, and
in the summer months it's all too common for swimmers and surfers
alike to get into trouble in the heavy surf, leading to a number of
tragic drownings. So this too, is a very viable theory, especially
if Iraena was comprimised by drugs at the time.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
A third theory is foul play. Sometime after been seen by the couple
walking their dog, Iraena came into contact with a person or persons
who caused her harm and hid the crime, either by dumping her body in
to the ocean, or concealing her remains somewhere in the heavy bush
around the Waitakere ranges, which is why she's never been found.
Iraena had told police that she was afraid of the man she was with,
and even though she named the wrong man, someone who wasn't there at
the time, that doesnt' mean her fears for her safety were unfounded.
Ireana was clearly on something, her behaviour corresponds to that,
so while she may have been confused about who she was with, she may
still have been rightfully in fear of him...whoever “he” is.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
We may never know what really happened to Iraena Asher on that night
in 2004, but what we can do is hold our emergency services to the
highest standards and ensure that their performances are scrutinised,
not just by rubber stamping officials, but by the public who depend
on these people for their lives. </div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
It's not acceptable for a police
dispatcher to take a call from a scared girl, regardless of whether
she's on drugs or has been drinking, and to then write that call off
as “a bit rubbish.” And, while our emergency services were
overhauled and greatly improved after this incident, it should not
have taken a girl's disappearance to make that happen. The public
and the media had been highlighting problems with the 111 emergency
line for NINE MONTHS prior to Iraena's disappearance, and still
nothing was done until it was too late.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Iraena deserved better than that, her family deserved better.
They're still living with the bad choices that the police made that
night, and will do so for all their lives.
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Join Lost Sheep NZ on Facebook!!
https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-61532141945194377592016-03-08T17:41:00.000-08:002016-03-08T17:49:45.719-08:00ASHBURTION WINZ SHOOTING: Closing ArgumentsIt has been 10 days of painful, and often emotional testimony from witnesses, as they relived the most terrifying moments of their lives, when a masked gunman stormed through the Ashburton Work and Income offices, leaving two women dead and two more seriously injured.<br />
<br />
The accused, Russell John Tully, has been absent from the courtroom for much of his trial, despite the fact that he is defending himself. Judge Mander, who is presiding over the proceedings, ordered Tully removed after two outbursts in which he claimed he was unfit to stand trial, and demanded to know why he was in court.<br />
<br />
Although Tully is defending himself, he has had the assistance of two Friends of the Court, experienced criminal lawyers, James Rapley and Phil Shamy, who have remained in court throughout Tully's absences. Tully elected not to speak in his own defense, which
is a little bit disappointing since I'm sure I'm not the only media
commentator who wanted to see how he'd react to being on the stand. <br />
<br />
Tully did make it to court for closing arguments today, and although he didn't appear in a wheelchair as he has on past days, he was heavily shackled to prevent him lashing out. <br />
<br />
The Crown's case has been predominantly a circumstantial case, but it's a strong one. Lets review the evidence presented...<br />
<br />
CCTV footage in the Ashburton CBD shows a man wearing a distinctive jacket and cycle helmet later identified as belonging to Tully. A man wearing the same clothing is seen entering the WINZ office, and opening fire on staff. Tully was found in possession of the same jacket when apprehended by police later that day.<br />
<br />
Stickers matching those that Tully used to label his possessions were found on the shell casings at the scene.<br />
<br />
DNA taken from a black bike helmet and a balaclava left at the scene were matched to Tully, with 5 million percent probability that the DNA was his.<br />
<br />
Tully was known to have a grudge against staff at the Ashburton WINZ office and had been trespassed from the office due to his manipulative and intimidating behaviour. In the weeks leading up to the shooting, he had camped out in the WINZ office for six hours, refusing to leave, and had made numerous threats towards staff over his percieved ill-treatment.<br />
<br />
<br />
There was a great deal of witness testimony in this trial, as to the events during and just after the shooting, but I have not included a complete overview of those testimonials simply because none of the witnesses gave evidence that the gunman was definitely Russell John Tully. Most of the witnesses were there to testify to the events inside the WINZ office, and to the behavior of the gunman as he left the office, allowing the Crown to connect that gunman to pieces of physical evidence left behind, which were later linked to Tully. <br />
<br />
The Crown rested by saying that they believed they had proved, beyond reasonable doubt, that Tully was the man who entered the Ashburton WINZ office, armed with a sawn-off shotgun, and brutally murdered two innocent women and attempted to murder two others. After following the case these last two weeks, I agree. If I was a juror, I think I'd be pretty convinced by the Crown's case.<br />
<br />
There wasn't much Tully's assisting counsel could say in closing, what do you say about a man who's defense strategy seems to be act crazy until you get kicked out of the courtroom? The jury are now into their second day of deliberations, their first full day since both sides rested yesterday morning.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Join Lost Sheep NZ on Facebook!!
https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-30953527970778893672016-03-05T10:08:00.001-08:002016-03-05T10:25:26.978-08:00A plea from Bob Ruff from the Truth & Justice PodcastA student and aspiring firefighter may potentially have his life ruined by a
Michigan State Trooper with a massive chip on his shoulder, and all over
a traffic stop because of a "dim" tail light. That's right folks, not a
broken tail light, not a tail light that wasn't working properly, a dim
tail light...Oh and I should mention that the Trooper noticed this dim
light in snowy conditions with poor visibility.<br />
<br />
This case was given to Bob Ruff from the Truth & Justice podcast, so I'll let him tell you about it...<br />
<br />
<i>"Please share this video with any and all media outlets. This case was
brought to me last night. Abi is a student of mine. Young, sweet,
Christian boy. Michigan State Trooper Cameron Sweet pulled him over last
week. He said he was stopped because one of his license plate lights
was "dim". Both of his lights were on and working. Trooper Sweet
approached on the passenger side. Abi is a "poor college kid" as he puts
it. The passenger window in his car doesn't open. He cracked the<span class="text_exposed_show">
door open, explained to the trooper that that window doesn't work, and
asked him to come around to drivers side. At that point, Sweet opened
his door and started searching his car. Abi says that he told him to
stop, and Sweet started cussing at him. That's when Abi started the
video from his phone. You'll see the trooper threaten to rip him out of
the car by his face. Abi is trying to find his drivers license. You can
actually see in the video that it fell out of his bag of documents. Abi
is scared and nervous, and can't find it while Sweet is yelling at him.
Sweet then yanked Abi out of the car. He pulled his hands behind his
back. Abi pulled one hand forward to lock his phone, in fear that the
trooper would delete his video. Then he put his hands back behind his
back and submitted to being cuffed. Abi says the trooper then put him in
the squad car, and slammed the door on his head as he was getting in.
Sweet then told him he was going to search his car. He said he had
probable cause because he thought he smelled marijuana. He searched
Abi's car, where he found his drivers license and nothing illegal. He
then returned to the car, and told Abi that he's under arrest for
resisting arrest. Abi spent two days in jail before bonding out. He
missed work and after paying the bond, he can't afford to make his rent
now. I would like to know if this is the kind of behavior that the
Michigan State Police expect from their troopers."</span></i><br />
<br />
<b><i><span class="text_exposed_show"><a href="http://bit.ly/1TbySLR" target="_blank">Video of Abi's wrongful arrest</a> </span></i></b><br />
<br />
<b><i><span class="text_exposed_show"> </span></i></b><span class="text_exposed_show">We're very lucky here in New Zealand, because it's very rare to see the kind of aggression and unprofessional behaviour from our police, that we see in this video, and in a number of other cases out of the US. That's not to say that our police are perfect, they're certainly not and there have been some shocking incidents of police misconduct over the years. Mark Blower for instance, who was in charge of Northland's organised crime unit, and was stealing drugs from evidence to sell back to the same criminal organisations he was meant to be prosecuting. </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show">My point is that we're very sheltered here at the bottom of the world, our cops are taught to de-escalate situations like this, our cops also don't carry sidearms so the number of police shootings is very low here. However, that doesn't mean that we should turn our backs on what's going on in countries like the US. We can lend our voices to the voices of those calling for change, and let them know that the whole world is watching. This isn't just a few agitators like Bob and Rabia Chaudry and others who are making noise for personal reasons, this is a movement demanding systemic change on a global scale.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show">Abi is facing some potentially very serious legal costs to defend himself in this incident, so please, if you can help, consider donating to the GoFundMe. Even a few dollars makes a difference!</span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2msdk5jn" target="_blank"><b><i><span class="text_exposed_show">Please help Abi cover his legal expenses!!</span></i></b></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Join Lost Sheep NZ on Facebook!!
https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-14846263199828236382016-03-01T15:30:00.000-08:002016-03-01T15:40:38.542-08:00Adnan Syed's PCR: The Dummies Guide to the New Motion Filed Today<br />
<br />
There's been a new development in the post conviction relief hearing for Adnan Syed, and it's very "legalish" so I decided I'd write this little "Dummies Guide" for anyone who's a bit confused.<br />
<br />
Earlier today, Adnan's lawyer, C. Justin Brown filed a motion asking the judge to include supplemental materials to the documents already filed as part of the five day PCR hearing that he sat through back in February. This supplemental material consists of two letters, one from the State's prosecutor, Thiru Vignarajah (a.k.a Thorazine Vegetable), and one from Professor Michael Millerman from the Maryland School of Law. So, what are these letters all about and why is it so important to include them in the record?<br />
<br />
To parse that out, we'll need to go back to 1999 for a bit.....<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRyiQKvuGcugzylDqWmiKelFdUYzxz5C702V6WZmgA8Jeo0NL-JLJkFyo-CPXKzJijkpokL63dnJ-UFpmHop0hxnx8NkRXlzUV9BgNGo5Xss9UThqtKXPgDAAz88aXGEmv-nsuBcW8QVc/s1600/DeLorean_DMC-12_with_doors_open.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRyiQKvuGcugzylDqWmiKelFdUYzxz5C702V6WZmgA8Jeo0NL-JLJkFyo-CPXKzJijkpokL63dnJ-UFpmHop0hxnx8NkRXlzUV9BgNGo5Xss9UThqtKXPgDAAz88aXGEmv-nsuBcW8QVc/s320/DeLorean_DMC-12_with_doors_open.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Quick! Into the Time Machine!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
In May of 1999 the State filed a motion to disqualify Christina Guitierezz as Adnan's attorney, for reasons that are unclear. I haven't been able to find any documentation on why the State did this, so hopefully the Undisclosed team will cover this in one of their upcoming episodes covering the PCR hearing.<br />
<br />
So, the State filed a motion to disqualify in May, it was argued before the judge in July and the judge dismissed the motion, allowing Guitierezz to go on to represent Adnan at his trial. One has to stop for a moment and wonder how differently things would have gone if the judge had upheld the State's motion?<br />
<br />
For the purposes of arguing the motion to disqualify, Adnan's family retained the services of Professor Michael Millerman, who successfully argued against the State's motion. <br />
<br />
So, now we get back in our DeLorean and head back to 2016....<br />
<br />
It's February 2016, and Thiru Vignarajah has made a number of references to Professor Millerman throughout the 5 day PCR hearing, claiming that he was a member of Adnan's defense team back in 1999, and that this defense team made a number of decisions with regards to Adnan's defense, prior to the family retaining Christina Guitierezz. Thiru asserted that this so-called defense team, through the offices of a private investigator, examined various potential alibi witnesses. He notes that the P.I spoke to Asia, to a security guard at the Woodlawn Public Library (#UselessSteve?) and to Adnan's track coach. He concludes by claiming that the defense team must have eliminated Asia as a reliable alibi witness based on the information supplied to them by the P.I.<br />
<br />
Sounds reasonable right? Well, it would be, if it wasn't for the fact that it's complete and utter bullshit.<br />
<br />
Yes, a private investigator spoke to possible alibi witnesses, as well as other witnesses in the case. He compiled his findings and these were later submitted to Guitierezz once she became Adnan's defense attorney. Prior to Christina being retained, there were two lawyers involved in the case, and they are both mentioned in Professor Millerman's letter, and in the State's arguements during the PCR hearing. Those lawyers are Mr Colbert and Mr Flore, and those of you who listen to the Undisclosed podcast will remember Chris Flore from the Undisclosed podcast episode <a href="http://undisclosed-podcast.com/episodes/addendum-7.html" target="_blank"><b>Addendum 7: Making Bail in Baltimore.</b></a><br />
<br />
Flore and Colbert represented Adnan during his bail hearings in 1999, as part of the Lawyers at Bail Project running in the Baltimore courts at that time. Chris Flore was also the lawyer who attempted a number of times to gain access to Adnan after his arrest and during his interrogation by Detectives Ritz and McGillavery, only to be told that unless Adnan specifically requested a lawyer, by name, they were under no obligation to allow access (*spoiler alert* that's bullshit too, you don't have to ask for a lawyer by name).<br />
<br />
This was Thiru's so-called 'Defense team,' the two lawyers who represented Adnan at his bail hearings, and the guy who's total involvement in the case boiled down to one afternoon in court to argue against a motion to dismiss. Thiru seems to have a very "broad" idea of what constitutes a defense team. But from the guy who thinks it's fine to not investigate or contact alibi witnesses, are we really that surprised? All I can say is thank god this dude's not a defense attorney, because the prisons are overcrowded enough as it is.<br />
<br />
<br />
So, back to today's filing. The documents submitted by Adnan's lawyer today amount to a correction of the record, clarifying Professor Millerman's involvement in Adnan's case. This includes a letter from Millerman himself which illustrates how the State misrepresented his role in Adnan's defense, and which clearly details his actual role in the case. There is also included a letter from the State, admitting to the misrepresentation, and backing up Millerman's clarification of his role in the case.<br />
<br />
So, why is it important to have these letters included? Well, because Thiru's claims during the PCR hearing could reasonably lead the judge to conclude that there was a team of defense lawyers back in 1999 who were investigating and putting together a defense strategy, which Christian Guitierezz later adopted for the trial. This simple isn't true, and while Mr Colbert and Mr Flore did their best to start some preliminary work on Adnan's defense, they did so in expectation that when the family retained a full-time defense attorney for Adnan, that person would take over, review their findings, and follow up as part of a robust defense investigation.<br />
<br />
Christina Guitierezz never followed up on these initial alibi interviews, and that's the basis of Adnan's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Including these supplemental letters further backs up Adnan's claims because they make clear Professor Millerman's very limited role in the case, that he in no way participated in Adnan's defense, or was involved in investigating potential alibi witnesses.<br />
<br />
That's my Dummies Guide to the latest motion filed in the Adnan Syed case, if you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://cjbrownlaw.com/syed-files-post-hearing-motion-to-supplement-record/" target="_blank">C. Justin Brown's page with PDFs of the letters submitted</a><br />
<b><i></i></b><br />
<b><i></i></b><br />
<b><i></i></b><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Join Lost Sheep NZ on Facebook!!
https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-70483536523518872352016-02-25T01:31:00.003-08:002016-02-25T01:31:56.355-08:0027 Years of Fear: New Zealand's Most Dangerous StalkerAfter just six days of freedom, the man known as New Zealand's most prolific, and dangerous, stalker is back behind bars. For 27 years Glenn Green has harassed and intimidated dozens of women by photographing them, lurking outside their homes or workplaces, sending them letters and, as technology progressed, emails and messages on social media; turning their lives into a "living nightmare" as one victim so eloquently put it.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRpBxJpALqmuCT6ktohque6yf-AUm_6NLsXbBWAESldwl-XOgSso2KmVTsNf2CK1rCrjVLnfL_TdVtPdX8Q3Gk9PY-aqngtKZj10pG6AEfAqiOjjFR7eTCJROXKy_tcQrpfzrQmRBqvdM/s1600/7109788.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRpBxJpALqmuCT6ktohque6yf-AUm_6NLsXbBWAESldwl-XOgSso2KmVTsNf2CK1rCrjVLnfL_TdVtPdX8Q3Gk9PY-aqngtKZj10pG6AEfAqiOjjFR7eTCJROXKy_tcQrpfzrQmRBqvdM/s400/7109788.jpg" width="332" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glenn Green in 2012</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Green started his 'career' as a stalker in the 1980s, after making brief contact with a 16-year-old girl on a bus. He learned the girl's name from her bus pass and used that to track down her address and phone number. Green began sending her letters, and calling her house, believing that she wanted and welcomed his attentions. He started following her, lurking outside her school and the places she liked to hang out, camera in hand, taking photographs of her. Green made the girl's life a misery, and even after he was arrested, refused to believe that she didn't want him. He told his probation officer that he might believe it if she said it to his face, but anyone familiar with stalking behaviour will recognise this tactic for what it is, just another attempt to manipulate the victim into having contact with their stalker.<br />
<br />
Green's modus operandi is frighteningly simple; he targets attractive women in their late teens or 20s, seeks out their contact details and uses some kind of ruse, and an alias if necessary, to initiate contact. He told one victim that he was a mutual friend of a friend who'd recently passed away, using her grief to connect with her and get her mobile number. When she rejected his attempts to pursue a relationship, he became abusive, threatened her and claimed to have connections to a violent gang to frighten her. <br />
<br />
Another victim suffered months of harassment after Green got hold of her mobile number and began texting her, pretending to be an old school friend. The victim recieved more than 200 text messages from Green in less than a week. He once again resorted to threats, telling the victim that he was the NZ president of the Aryan Brotherhood, a violent white supremacist group. He threatened to have her assaulted by members of the gang, and told her that she should commit suicide by hanging herself.<br />
<br />
One of Glenn Green's victims has been living with his stalking since 1994. That's the year I finished high school, I'm 39 now, and I have a 15-year-old daughter. Green has been stalking this woman for longer than my daughter has been alive. That's terrifying.<br />
<br />
Green has chalked up a long list of criminal charges in 27 years, more than 200 in total, including at least five convictions for criminal harassment, threatening to kill, impersonating police, intimidation, theft, burglary, and over 35 charges of breaching a protection order, all related to his stalking. He also has a long list of aliases - Glenn Corleone, Gino Versace, Glenn Holden, Glenn Colcord - all of which he uses to try and circumvent the restrictions placed on him by the courts. Police and probation officers are well aware of his tricks, but nothing seems to deter Green once he has a victim in his sights.<br />
<br />
When I first read that Glenn Green had been sent back to
prison, I was relieved, for the women he's victimised, and for any future
victims he might have targeted. Then, after researching and reading
articles about him for this post, I realised that prison hasn't stopped Glenn Green at all. He continues to stalk women
from behind bars and has even bragged to prison staff that being in
prison makes it easier for him to 'meet' women, and form relationships
without interference from the authorities.<br />
<br />
Those of you who have listened to season one of the phenomenally popular podcast, Serial, will remember the robot sounding recorded message that plays when someone receives a phone call from a prisoner. But for those of you who have never heard it...<br />
<br />
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/sakura-shinra-ceo/serialprisonmsg" target="_blank">Prison phone message</a><br /><br />
...The recording used in New Zealand prisons is somewhat different of course, the robot voice has a kiwi accent for one, but still, you get the general idea. Now imagine hearing that when you pick up the phone, and knowing that the person calling is the same person who's made you live in fear for months or even years. Imagine hearing that and knowing that not even a prison sentence is going to stop that person from harassing you. Imagine how terrifying it must be to live like that.<br />
<br />
In 2015, Green's last court appearance prior to today, his lawyer argued that Green shouldn't be found guilty on two charges of breaching parole conditions because the women he'd been texting and sending letters to hadn't responded, therefore no relationship existed. And if twisted legal arguments don't work, Green will try to use the justice system to facilitate meetings with his victims, by claiming he wants "restorative justice." Fortunately, the judges who have dealt with Green thus far have figured out that he's trying to manipulate them, and his requests for restorative justice and mediation have been denied.<br />
<br />
So, if protective orders, and prison time haven't worked, what can we do about Glenn Green? When every possible deterrent the justice system has to offer has been ineffective, what's left? How can we protect current, and future victims from offenders like Glenn Green? Do we take away all of his internet, phone and mail privileges? Would the Corrections department even be able to do that, or would that be a breach of his human rights? Green must have family or friends that he is well within his rights to communicate with. Wouldn't taking away all forms of communication would be unfair to them? What do we do with somebody like Glenn Green?<br />
<br />
I wish I had an answer to that question, but the fact is, I don't, and I'm not sure anyone else does either.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/7109426/New-Zealands-worst-stalker-jailed">NZ's Worst Stalker - June 2012</a><br />
<a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11268971" target="_blank">Women At Risk From Stalker - June 2014</a><br />
<a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11415516" target="_blank">Court Orders Stalker's Phone, Address Book Destroyed - Mar 2015</a><br />
<a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/crime/news/article.cfm?c_id=30&objectid=11595535" target="_blank">NZ's Most Prolific Stalker Back Behind Bars - Feb 2016</a><br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Join Lost Sheep NZ on Facebook!!
https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-44768878575415516182016-02-23T02:39:00.004-08:002016-02-23T02:39:40.215-08:00Disappeared: Leo Lipp-Neighbours<br />
Family and friends of Leo Lipp-Neighbours came together on the 20th of February 2016, to unveil a completed off-road buggy that Leo started working on back in 2010, but never had a chance to finish. The reason he never finished it, is because shortly after he began the project back in 2010, Leo disappeared. Six years on, he's still missing.<br />
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYBa1lucDFHjX-7r6wiAaxB86DOYg0XS5tCLSRvx3lnp1dGdtcSiu_R4ky_3Zo2S2pIO4jLHRbIp-kEEuyXUoJYkBHMICyNSXs2EytNfJ1fI8fQecGGBRBilTjrmby1SPU8QnoUpbVX9M/s1600/lipp_nieghbours_cropped_for_pm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYBa1lucDFHjX-7r6wiAaxB86DOYg0XS5tCLSRvx3lnp1dGdtcSiu_R4ky_3Zo2S2pIO4jLHRbIp-kEEuyXUoJYkBHMICyNSXs2EytNfJ1fI8fQecGGBRBilTjrmby1SPU8QnoUpbVX9M/s320/lipp_nieghbours_cropped_for_pm.jpg" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leo Lipp-Neighbours</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<b>January 24th 2010</b><br />
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Leo Lipp-Neighbours, a 19-year-old engineering student, has spent the night drinking with friends at the Phat Club in Nelson's CBD. After leaving the Phat club, Leo accompanies two of his mates, Ben Clark and Lewis Christie, back to their flat in Watson Street, Washington Valley. Leo suddenly announces that he is going off to be "one with nature," which his friends take to mean that he is going out to pee in a bush or something. But Leo doesn't head for any bushes, he gets into his car instead, and is last seen driving his distinctive orange 1987 Toyota Corolla station wagon away from the Watson Street address at around 4am.<br />
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The flatmates find no sign of Leo the next morning, calls to his phone go straight to voicemail and he doesn't return to either of his parent's homes. On January 26th, police launch a missing persons investigation and photos of Leo and his car are distributed to the media. By the 28th, leads are starting to come in and a possible sighting in Christchurch is investigated. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBszPOb_VTnZUgN-IRPKGOM5v_P2R0eYtx5LfZpKwgcd0OjfpzHEi6QEG3GUADDBd055aOEANjrQtBIjWsKlWfG4xC1rEbwHUfiSJLCnkERqgID9dLPboML6L3GlmqsC930gJPhnNGmD8/s1600/Reward-Poster-2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBszPOb_VTnZUgN-IRPKGOM5v_P2R0eYtx5LfZpKwgcd0OjfpzHEi6QEG3GUADDBd055aOEANjrQtBIjWsKlWfG4xC1rEbwHUfiSJLCnkERqgID9dLPboML6L3GlmqsC930gJPhnNGmD8/s640/Reward-Poster-2013.jpg" width="441" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crimestoppers poster</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
Those of you who are old enough to remember the disappearance of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope, will probably remember the difficult task that police and searchers are faced with in conducting a missing persons search in the Marlborough Sounds region. But for those of you who aren't familiar with that case, or the area I'm talking about, lets turn to Google Earth for some assistance...<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdKQiv3inMC4yzrqvZdq2MslbHzigHS21Lr-0BQBgTFzciHjI4rftA9uxGSyaOy0C4TgALPHaavaFbTO4rHDDgXRSMp6GTQyXyUbMJp2kQOG1K363mkYb2lQ3ju1_vyArdVkP-dA5ZHJs/s1600/MarlboroughSounds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdKQiv3inMC4yzrqvZdq2MslbHzigHS21Lr-0BQBgTFzciHjI4rftA9uxGSyaOy0C4TgALPHaavaFbTO4rHDDgXRSMp6GTQyXyUbMJp2kQOG1K363mkYb2lQ3ju1_vyArdVkP-dA5ZHJs/s640/MarlboroughSounds.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.virtualoceania.net/newzealand/regions/marlborough.shtml" target="_blank">You can see more maps and images of Marlborough here.</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
Viewed from above, it looks deceptively flat, but those darker green areas are all hilly, rough terrain with narrow, winding roads, many of them unsealed once you get off the main highway system. Some of these roads have steep slopes on one side and nothing but air on the other, with switch-back turns and sharp corners where the speed limit drops to 30kms. If you drive off the road...well, lets just say it's a bit like the ending of Thelma and Louise. The few people who live among all those inlets and isolated beaches mostly get around by boat, not by car.<br />
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The other thing that isn't visible in this image is just how heavily forested the region is. Those hills are covered in vegetation; rainforest as you get closer to the west coast, pine plantations for logging on the eastern side, and vast tracts of thick native bush across the Abel Tasman and Nelson Lakes National parks. Not the easiest place in the world to search for somebody.<br />
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By the end of January, Leo's family have hired a helicopter to conduct an aerial search of some of the more inaccessible areas of the region. They also scour the more remote roads of the area from the ground, looking for a possible crash site. Police and volunteer searchers are now spread out across the wider Marlborough area, searching Queen Charlotte Sounds, Golden Bay, Murchison and the Lewis Pass, but to no avail. There is no sign of Leo, or his orange car, amidst all the greenery.<br />
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At this early stage of the missing persons investigation, police don't believe there is anything suspicious about Leo's disappearance. The general consensus is that he has probably had some kind of accident and ended up off-road somewhere, or that he's deliberately taken off. Interviews with Leo's friends and family lead to a third, more tragic possibility, that he may have gone to take his own life. Ben Clark and Lewis Christie, the friends Leo had been drinking with that night, tell police that he'd been in a very dark mood that evening, saying things like "what's the point?" and that life was "shit."<br />
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Family and friends spoke to journalists about this possibility, telling them that alcohol made Leo impulsive, and that he didn't always handle his drinking well. He'd been picked up driving dangerously while drunk almost a year to the day before he disappeared, and had taken off suddenly on a few occasions while drinking at the same flat. <br />
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But, as more time went by with no sign of Leo, the slow and steady trickle of tips from the public lead police to conclude that darker forces may have been at work. In 2013, three years after Leo's disappearance, Detective Sergeant Mark Kaveney made a statement to the media that, as a result of leads from the public, they were now treating the disappearance as suspicious.<br />
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<b><i>"I believe that we are now looking for someone who has committed a
serious crime against this young man. That person must be held to
account."</i></b><br />
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Detective Kavaney is right, the person or persons responsible for Leo Lipp-Neighbours disappearance does need to be held to account. Leo's parents, the rest of his family and his friends have waited
six years with no answers, no closure of any kind and we cannot even
begin to imagine how difficult and how painful that must be. They will never get those answers or that closure unless people come forward with more information.<br />
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<div class="count_el">
Leo Lipp-Neighbours was 19-years-old at the time of his disappearance. He is 185cm tall with slim build and light brown hair. <span>He was last seen wearing
a yellow t-shirt with black and red writing on the front, blue jeans,
and black leather shoes. His car is an orange 1987 Toyota Corolla station wagon, registration number NQ7258.</span></div>
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If you have any information about Leo Lipp-Neighbours' disappearance, however small or unimportant you might think it is, please do the right thing and come forward. If you don't want to go to the police for whatever reason than call Crimestoppers and leave an anonymous tip.<br />
<br />
Nelson police - (03) 546 3840.<br />
Crimestoppers - 0800 555 111 <br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_1300481143">Crimestoppers: Leo Lipp-Neighbours</a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><br /></a><br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Join Lost Sheep NZ on Facebook!!
https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-54503730219850426472016-02-19T14:22:00.003-08:002016-02-19T14:23:11.543-08:00INCESTUOUS JUSTICE: Why New Zealand's court system doesn't always serve the interests of justice<br />
If you've watched <i><b>Making a Murderer</b></i>, you probably already know that when police, prosecutors and judges are all in each others pockets, that's not good for justice. I'm not talking about some vast conspiracy where all of those people knowingly banded together to frame Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey, because I don't know if that's what happened. I'm talking about a system where the knee-jerk reaction is to protect their own, and cover up and deny incompetence or misconduct, and ultimately, thwart the justice process.<br />
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This can affect almost any justice system, but it's far more likely in smaller areas, because it's a closed system. Everybody in the system knows everybody else in that system and that's a problem. In classical mechanics a closed system is defined as.... <br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="_Tgc">"...a physical</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="_Tgc"> system</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="_Tgc"> that doesn't exchange any matter with its surroundings, and isn't subject to any force whose source is external to the system." </span></span></i><br />
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Applied to human systems (societies, cultures, organisations etc) a
closed system is one which doesn't have new people coming in and isn't
subject to a higher authority. When it comes to criminal justice, a closed system is an incestuous
system, and no I don't mean that the judge is sleeping with his cousin
(he might be, but I can't speak to that). I mean that everybody in
that system is affected by the actions of the others in the system, so
if somebody screws up, it's going to reflect on the rest.<br />
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Obviously there's a limit to this analogy, since Manitowoc County is subject to a higher power; the Nine Levels of Hell, otherwise known as the US system of appeals courts with the Supreme Court at the top.<br />
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So, what does that have to do with New Zealand's court system? A lot actually, because New Zealand is also a closed system, a fully closed system now that we've scrapped appeals to the Privy Council in London. Once you've appealed to the Supreme Court of NZ, that's it. If you lose that appeal, you're done, do not pass Go, do not collect millions in compensation. Here's a handy diagram...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV8H8WcdBEZraPJuULzzfPG7M5-TQEOJKqjoydMD6rltYL6zFTOvcX1L2sc6DXGMjSR7opmYWOVEmnAIL9cYuRQQlUvrTVj4ZUDp-zhTQq3TiMefhDLsQb4xVmETLlqy9XtyzahyomKMk/s1600/image.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV8H8WcdBEZraPJuULzzfPG7M5-TQEOJKqjoydMD6rltYL6zFTOvcX1L2sc6DXGMjSR7opmYWOVEmnAIL9cYuRQQlUvrTVj4ZUDp-zhTQq3TiMefhDLsQb4xVmETLlqy9XtyzahyomKMk/s640/image.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
You can ignore the bottom level, and those weird bits off the to sides, those have nothing to do with criminal justice, the relevant levels are the District Courts through to the Supreme Court at the top.<br />
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The appeals process takes years, even with the Privy Council's removal from the chain. David Bain had already served 13 years of his 18 year minimum term by the time his conviction was quashed, because that's how long it took for his case work it's way up the chain. Once a person has been convicted and sentenced, if it's a prison sentence, they can conceivably serve most, if not all, of that sentence before exhausting the appeals process. This too, is a problem, especially for the wrongfully convicted, but that's not a problem I have any solution for unfortunately.<br />
<br />
What I am concerned about is that closed system I mentioned earlier, and how it can derail the justice process. Once you get past the High Courts, which are located throughout the country, this is when things start to get really insular. There's only one Court of Appeal, it's in Wellington, walking distance from Parliament. The Supreme Court is also in Wellington, also not far from Parliament, and since Wellington is our nation's capitol, this isn't surprising or suspicious. But it does increase the insulation just a little bit, because the judges who sit on these courts all know each other, and they all know most of the major players in politics, business, the media, etc because that's how being small works.<br />
<br />
I want to dispell any notion that there is some kind of conspiracy brewing here. There isn't. This is what you would expect to find in a small country with a small population, because that's being human works, unless you live in a cave in the Himilaya's or something.<br />
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What I am trying to say is that we have to be aware of the incestuous nature of our justice system. We have to point out when decisions made in the "public interest" are actually being made in the interest of those at the top. When somebody that is clearly innocent, isn't exonerated by the Court of the Appeals or the Supreme Court, because the judges that sit on those judicial bodies are more worried about making police, or the lower courts look bad, than they are about justice.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Join Lost Sheep NZ on Facebook!!
https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-89840812694292857722016-02-14T17:27:00.000-08:002016-02-14T17:27:01.284-08:00THE CREWE MURDERS: PART FOUR
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This is the fourth
and final part of my in-depth look at the Crewe murders, if you
haven't already, read <a href="http://lostsheepnz.blogspot.co.nz/2016/01/the-crewe-murders-part-one.html" target="_blank">part 1</a>, <a href="http://lostsheepnz.blogspot.co.nz/2016/01/the-crewe-murders-part-two.html" target="_blank">part 2</a> and <a href="http://lostsheepnz.blogspot.co.nz/2016/02/the-crewe-murders-part-3.html" target="_blank">part 3</a> first.</div>
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In 2012, author
and documentary film-maker, Bryan Bruce, revealed the contents of
letters written by Jeanette Crewe in the weeks before her death.
These letters showed that the family was living in almost constant
fear. The strange incidents that had occurred over the last two
years, the unsolved burglary of the couple's home and arson attacks
on both their home and haybarn, had begun to take their toll on
Jeanette in particular. The young mother was too afraid to stay in
the farmhouse alone, so she and the couple's baby daughter would
accompany Harvey throughout the day as he carried out work around the
farm, only returning to the farmhouse in the evenings.</div>
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Jeanette wrote to
her sister, telling her that the family were “barely living, just
existing” due to the fear they felt after the unexplained attacks
on their property. But the question of who was responsible for the
attacks on the Crewe property, and likely also responsible for the
murders, has never been answered.
</div>
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</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Who were the
Crewe's being targeted by? It certainly wasn't Arthur Allan Thomas,
he'd been exonerated and subsequant reviews of the evidence in the
case has backed up that exoneration. So if Arthur Allan Thomas
didn't kill the Crewe's, who did?</div>
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<b> THE THEORIES</b></div>
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<b>1. Len Demler killed his own
daughter and her husband</b></div>
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Before the police
shifted the focus of their investigation to Thomas, they'd begun
building a case against Len Demler, and it was based on a change that
May Demler, Jeanette's mother, had made to her will shortly before
she died. In 1961, Len Demler was in serious financial trouble over
unpaid taxes, which forced him to sell half of his farm to his wife
May, who was independently wealthy. May's original will had left
equal share of her half of the Demler farm to Jeanette and her sister
Heather, with Lenard retaining the use of the farm for the remainder
of his life. But Heather had married a divorced man, a marriage May
had disapproved of, and which led to her cutting Heather out of her
will, and out of her share of the farm.</div>
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Was this enough of
a motive for Len to murder his own daughter? For police, the theory
was made more plausible by Len's strange behaviour in the days
following Jeanette and Harvey's disappearance. Remember that Len
left his baby granddaughter alone for a further hour after finding
her crying in distress in the farmhouse. He went home, called the
trucking company to cancel the collection of some sheep, drove to the
home of his neighbour, Owen Priest, to pick him up and only then
returned to the Crewe farm.</div>
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</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW2UHr_ZWvW73lFfY4q_BvBTLQpimPVUI8pVDeMP6IrTRVX6t5di8U7eqaxRszh3fY3aMlXTsc01NTEiG_C_AiJ2EdNKGa4m2u9e9WM7uBF5bfldQkIus6WgxZRVW3L3GaJx4VqFlE258/s1600/LenDemler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW2UHr_ZWvW73lFfY4q_BvBTLQpimPVUI8pVDeMP6IrTRVX6t5di8U7eqaxRszh3fY3aMlXTsc01NTEiG_C_AiJ2EdNKGa4m2u9e9WM7uBF5bfldQkIus6WgxZRVW3L3GaJx4VqFlE258/s1600/LenDemler.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Len Demler during the search</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Investigators saw
first-hand this strange reluctance of Len's to engage with what was
happening, when they arrived on scene and the first searches began.
While police and some locals started searching the property for any
signs of Jeanette and Harvey, Len Demler went home to draft some
sheep. In the following days, as the search area was extended, Len
Demler would track parties of searchers from horseback but would
never actually join them. Police found this behaviour unusual and
downright suspicious. But they were never able to connect Len to any
of the physical evidence. Len didn't own a .22 rifle and while two
witnesses claimed he may have inheritied a modified shotgun which
could have shot .22 bullets, police never found the weapon. They
also couldn't connect him to the axle weighing down Harvey's body.</div>
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</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
There are other
problems too. To believe that Len killed the Crewe's you also have
to believe that he was responsible for the burglary and the arsons.
But those crimes all took place before May Demler passed away, so
what was Len's motive? Furthermore, Jeanette and Harvey were having
dinner with Len and May, at the Demler's farm when one of the arsons
occurred. So unless Len was able to be in two places at once, he
couldn't have set that fire.</div>
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</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Finally, Len
Demler was 60 when his daughter was murdered, he had arthritis in one
knee and while he would have been capable of shooting the couple,
it's very unlikely that he could have moved both bodies on his own
and dumped them in the Waikato River. Harvey Crewe was not a small
man, he was very tall and weighed around 100kgs, and it would have
been very difficult for Len to move his body, weigh it down with an
axle that was also very heavy, then dump both in the river. </div>
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<b>2.
Murder-suicide</b>
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Another popular
theory is that Jeanette killed Harvey during an argument and disposed
of his body, possibly with help from her father. Then, three days
later, took her own life, and was dumped in the Waikato River by Len,
in an attempt to cover up what she'd done. This would explain the
sightings of a woman on the Crewe farm in the five days before the
crime was discovered. However, when Jeanette's body was recovered,
the autopsy revealed too important things that really undermine this
theory.
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
First of all, the
coroner found evidence that Jeanette had been struck with a blow to
the side of her face, and was probably lying on the floor,
unconcious, when she was shot. The angle of the shot to Jeanette's
head is also completely wrong for a suicide, in fact it's almost
impossible to hold a .22 rifle in such a way as to cause the same
injuries that Jeanette had. Although, some have suggested that Len
may have shot Jeanette, possibly at her request, sometime after she
killed Harvey. But I find this highly implausible. Why would Len
agree to help his own daughter commit suicide? Ask any parents
whether they'd prefer their child to be dead or in jail, and most if
not all will probably choose jail. It would explain Len's odd
reluctance to join searchers however, if he already knew Jeanette and
Harvey were dead, and didn't really want their bodies to be found.</div>
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<b>3. The mysterious Farmhand</b></div>
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<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The defense
attourney for Arthur Allan Thomas at his second trial came up with a
unique theory of the crime. He alleged that a farmhand who worked
for the Crewe's, was responsible for the burglary, the arsons and the
murders. The basis for this theory being that the farmhand would
have had access to Harvey's .22 rifle, that that rifle was the murder
weapon, and probably disposed of in the Waikato River, just as the
bodies were, which is why it's never been found. If you're waiting
for me to provide a name or more details about this farmhand, I
can't, because this one paragraph contains all the information I have
about this mysterious suspect. The police certainly never
investigated him, they were too busy convicting an innocent man.</div>
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</div>
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<b>4. Detective Len Johnston</b></div>
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<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In Ian Wishart's
book on the Crewe murders, he goes into all-out conspiracy mode and
points the finger at Detective Len Johnston, the man who was in
charge of the investigation, and was most likely responsible for the
planted evidence that helped convict Arthur Allan Thomas. Wishart
claims that Johnston had a bad reputation, both in the police force
and elsewhere, as a violent and intimidating man that other officers
called 'The Fitter” for obvious reasons.
</div>
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</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Wishart speculates
that Johnston may have been having an affair with Jeanette, or was
possibly blackmailing them over the burglary, which he investigated
back in 1967. Wishart says that Johnston may have concluded the
burglary was an insurance scam and used that to blackmail Harvey and
Jeanette. Perhaps the Crewe's threatened to expose him, or just
refused to keep paying, so Johnston killed them, using the axle which
he'd found on the side of the road where it was dumped, to weigh down
Harvey's body. Later, as lead detective in the murder case, Johnston
plants the axle stubs in the Thomas rubbish dump to make it look as
if Arthur is responsible for the murders. It's a great story, but
there's not a shred of evidence to support it, just speculation and
theory.</div>
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<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Sadly, every year
that passes makes it that much more unlikely that the murders of
Jeanette and Harvey Crewe will ever by solved. Rochelle has pleaded
with police to reopen the case, and urgently. People age, memories
fade, and some of those involved have already passed away. Len
Demler died in 1992, Detective Inspector Bruce Hutton died in 2013,
and Vivian Thomas, Arthur Allan Thomas's ex-wife, passed away in
2011. Arthur is convinced that his wrongful conviction is what
ultimately killed his former spouse, and their marriage as well. I
am skeptical that this case is responsible for Vivian's death from
cancer, especially as it occurred years later, but I think Arthur's
probably right on the money about it ruining his marriage.</div>
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</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The most tragic
thing about this entire case though is that Rochelle, who has waited
all these years to find out who killed her parents, may never get
justice.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10820099" target="_blank">Crewe Murders: Jeanette's fears prior to murders</a> </div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10718467" target="_blank">Vivian Thomas Dies from Cancer Age 68</a> </div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/investigations-and-reviews/crewe-review" target="_blank">The Crewe Review: NZ Police</a> </div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Join Lost Sheep NZ on Facebook!!
https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-25009014968601147302016-02-09T21:46:00.001-08:002016-02-09T21:46:29.110-08:00Mid-Week Crime News 10/2/2016It's time to take a break from the PCR hearing for Adnan Syed from Serial and take a look at the crime news from this side of the world.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>New Zealand</b><br />
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<br />
A 32-year-old women jailed for murder as a teen is being released on parole. Natalie Fenton was jailed at the age of 15 for her part in the stabbing of a elderly South Auckland man, and has spent half of her life behind bars.<br />
<a href="https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/teen-female-killer-jailed-at-15-gets-parole" target="_blank">Teen Killer gets parole</a><br />
<br />
The man accused of murdering West Auckland woman, Cun Xiu Tian, has lost his bid for continued name suppression in the Auckland high court today. He is Jaden Lee Stroobant, 19, and his trial has been scheduled for five weeks in November of this year. A 43-year-old woman has also been charged as part of the police investigation into the death, but has been granted interim name suppression. Stroobant has entered no plea.<br />
<a href="https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/name-of-alleged-te-atatu-murderer-released?autoPlay=4747365533001" target="_blank">West Auckland Murder Back in Court</a><br />
<br />
A couple found guilty of murdering the woman's husband so they could be together have been sentenced in the Auckland High Court today. The Crown Prosecuter summed up the murder of Davinda Singh as "brutal and callous," and in a victim impact statement, Singh's son said he will never forgive his mother for what she has done. Amandeep Kaur and her lover, Gurjinder Singh (no relation to the victim) were co-workers who began having an affair, then plotted to kill Kaur's husband after he discovered his wife's infidelity. Davinda Singh was stabbed 13 times, and almost decapitated in the brutal attack. They were both sentenced to life in prison.<br /><a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/76736394/takeaways-murder-couple-sentenced-to-life-in-prison" target="_blank">Murderous Affair leads to Life Sentences</a><br />
<br />
Finally, from the "Only in New Zealand" file, Dunedin lines company, Delta Power, have been forced to remove dozens of pairs of shoes thrown onto power lines in the student area of the city. According to a Delta spokesman, the notorious Hyde Street was the worst of the bunch, which surprises no one at all. They're just lucky they didn't have to dodge burning couches and flying beer bottles to get to the shoes.<br />
<a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/76746501/dozens-of-shoes-cleared-from-power-lines-in-dunedins-student-quarter" target="_blank">Dozens of Shoes Cleared from Dunedin Power Lines</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Australia</b><br />
<br />
<br />
Lifeguards on Sydney's Bronte Beach found a new use for their lifesaving skills, foiling the attempted abduction of a7-week-old baby. The baby was sleeping on a towel next to his mother when a man grabbed the child and attempted to flee with him. The mother struggled with the man before lifeguards stepped in. The baby was unharmed and his mother recieved minor injuries in the struggle.<b> </b><br />
<a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/76763945/baby-abduction-foiled-at-sydney-beach" target="_blank">Sydney Lifeguards Stop Baby Snatcher</a><br />
<br />
Two weeks ago I reported on a story about three Australian men accused of the gang-rape of a Norwegian backpacker in Croatia. The men paid a substantial amount of money to escape jail sentences, which has caused outrage both in Croatia and back in Australia, where the men have now returned. Journalists investigating the three men have turned up disturbing evidence that all three were part of a hypermasculine bodybuilding subculture in which women are objectified and male entitlement is the norm. <br />
<a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/76685746/australian-rape-trio-part-of-hypermasculine-bodybuilding-subculture" target="_blank">Australian Rapists Part of Hypermasculine Bodybuilding Culture</a><br />
<br />
An 11-year-old Aboriginal boy is facing murder charges in the death of a 26-year-old man who was stabbed during a brawl. The boy is one of four charged with the crime, and is being held in a juvenile facility until his next court appearance, where he will apply for supervised bail.<br />
<a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/76724455/boy-11-faces-stabbing-murder-charge" target="_blank">11-Year-Old Faces Murder Charges</a><br />
<br />
<b>Pacific Islands</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Police in Papua New Guinea are hunting for a Chinese national accused of committing millions worth of fraud in the impoverished Pacific nation. Zhou Qianbin and his wife, Ge Jiao Jiao are believed to have stolen around $500'000 NZ from their employer and secretly wired it to accounts in Asia. Ge Jiao Jiao is believed to have fled PNG for China already, but Zhou, who's passport was confiscated, is believed to still be in PNG despite failing to appear in court this week.<br />
<a href="http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/296194/png-police-hunt-chinese-national-over-massive-fraud" target="_blank">PNG Police Hunt Chinese National over Fraud</a><br />
<br />
Eight prisoners in New Caledonia have been sentenced to extra terms of imprisonment for their role in an escape attempt and an assault on a prison guard. In January, 20 prisoners at the Camp Est jail tried to escape the prison, assaulting a guard in the process. The jail terms will be added to their existing sentences.<br />
<a href="http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/296179/jail-terms-for-new-caledonia-prison-mutineers" target="_blank">Prison Rioters Face New Charges</a><br />
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<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Join Lost Sheep NZ on Facebook!!
https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-24568052074607788912016-02-08T14:39:00.001-08:002016-02-09T17:56:46.169-08:00Adnan Syed Post Conviction Relief hearing: Day 4It's been an exciting and adversarial day in the Baltimore court today as the PCR hearing for #AdnanSyed continued into it's fourth day.<br />
<br />
First on the stand was State's witness, FBI cell expert Chad Fitzgerald, who became very antagonistic during the defense's cross of his testimony from Friday. Fitzgerald accused defense attorney C. Justin Brown of handing him "manipulated evidence," referring to the call record and cell tower documents provided. Brown pointed out that the document was the same document originally provided to Guttierez by the State back in '99, the clear implication being that the State gave Adnan's defense documents that had been doctored to make it that much more difficult to prove his innocence. Brown was skillfully able to get Fitzgerald to admit that the cell information given to the defense was redacted and totally inadequate compared to the prosecution's documents, which Brown was also able to show to the court, and which are clearly very different.<br />
<br />
This is clear prosecutorial misconduct, and the State's own witness inadvertantly helped to prove it. Fitzgerald certainly won't be getting any overtime bonuses for his testimony. <br />
<br />
Next up was Dave Irwin, an expert witness for the defense, who, as an experienced defense attorney, was called on to critique the representation of Adnan's original defense attorney Christina Guttierez. Adnan's PCR claim relies on proving ineffective assistance of counsel, or in non-lawyer speak, proving his lawyer back in '99 was derelict in her duty. For those of you unfamiliar with the case, Christina Guttierez's career took a nose dive shortly after she represented Adnan, resulting in her being disbarred for mishandling client funds and for numerous failures in her cases. She died only a few years later due to health problems, which Adnan's current attorney claims had a serious impact on her effectiveness in 1999 when she represented Adnan in his two murder trials.<br />
<br />
Irwin first testified on Friday, but due to time constraints, both parties elected to postpone his cross-examination and redirect until today. This time it was prosecutor Thiru Vegetales turn to go on the attack, unfortunately for him it didn't go quite as planned. Irwin stuck to his guns on the fact that Guttierez had been negligent in her defense by not contacting alibi witness, Asia Chapman, who testified last week. Thiru tried to turn the tables on Irwin by presenting him with a number of hypothetical scenarios in which an attorney might choose not to contact an alibi witness, but Irwin skillfully dismissed them all. Irwin's testimony made it very clear that to not contact an alibi witness, even if you never intend to put them on the stand, is a clear example of ineffective assistance of counsel. He went so far as to say that the only excuse for not contacting said witness would be if that witness lived on a space station, and even then, Guttierez should have called NASA just in case.<br />
<br />
Pretty unequivocal really.<br />
<br />
These hypotheticals proposed by the prosecution led to yet more hilarious hashtags on Twitter, here are a few of my favourites<br />
#ConspiracyThiru<br />
#HypoThiruTical<br />
#Irwinning<br />
<br />
After Irwin was done demolishing the State's argument that Guttierez failure to contact Asia was a "strategy," the State called their final witness. You might remember him from Friday's funniest hashtag, yes, it's former Woodlawn Library security guard #UselessSteve. Turns out that Steve wasn't so useless after all...at least from a defense point of view, because even though he was the State's witness, he ended up helping to support the defense's case. Steve, who had to be escorted to the Court by a police detective, because he apparently believes that Twitter trolls are planning to kill him, first testified that there were no security cameras in the Woodlawn Public Library back in '99, only to change his story later on when cross-examined by the defense. Steve's testimony seems to have hurt the State more than anything, because he came across as indecisive, unsure and said he didn't even know about the Hae Min Lee murder until he was contacted by the State...last week. That's right folks, one of the State's main witnesses in this hearing didn't know anything about anything until last week.<br />
<br />
That pretty much tells you all you need to know about the State's case right there.<br />
<br />
The weather started going from bad to worse after lunch, but both sides were able to finish putting their cases. Both the defense and the State rested at the end of the afternoon session, but with confirmation that the hearing will continue tomorrow, weather permitting, to allow rebuttal witnesses. It is very likely that one of the defense rebuttal witnesses will be Abe Waranowitz, the AT&T cell expert who testified for the State originally in '99. Waranowitz contacted the defense team recently after learning that the State had mislead him with regards to what exactly he was testifying to, and he will most likely be called to rebutt the testimony of FBI agent Chad Fitzgerald.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-syed-hearing-day-four-20160208-story.html" target="_blank">Baltimore Sun article on today's proceedings</a><br />
<a href="http://www.thefrisky.com/2016-02-09/adnan-syeds-post-conviction-hearing-day-4-chad-fitzgerald-dave-irwin-are-back-plus-useless-steve-testifies/?utm_campaign=autotweet&utm_medium=ref&utm_source=sc-tw" target="_blank">The Frisky: Day 4 Recap with funny cartoons from the in-court reporter</a><br />
<a href="https://audioboom.com/boos/4160732-adnan-s-pcr-hearing-day-4?t=0" target="_blank">Undisclosed: Day 4 recap</a><br />
<a href="https://t.co/8jdLKrqB4i" target="_blank">Susan Simpson recaps Day 4</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Join Lost Sheep NZ on Facebook!!
https://www.facebook.com/lostsheepnz/</div>Sakura ShinRahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887226995545588889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7522628725080537415.post-89843290602008524532016-02-06T09:42:00.000-08:002016-02-13T07:46:35.436-08:00The Crewe Murders: Part 3This is part three of an in-depth examination of the Crewe murders. Check out <a href="http://lostsheepnz.blogspot.co.nz/2016/01/the-crewe-murders-part-one.html" target="_blank">Part 1</a> and <a href="http://lostsheepnz.blogspot.co.nz/2016/01/the-crewe-murders-part-two.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a> first.<br />
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<br />
<h3>
<b> The Trials of Arthur Allan Thomas</b></h3>
<h3>
<b> </b></h3>
In November of 1970, after months of investigation and multiple searches of both the Crewe farm, and the properties of the two main suspects, police arrest local farmer, Arthur Allan Thomas, for the murders of Jeanette and Harvey Crewe. The motive according to police? Jealousy, because Jeanette rejected Thomas' attentions all those years ago, prior to her marriage to Harvey Crewe, and Thomas' marriage to Vivian.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWCr6SPVWjJQQDAOZRDG2Iucyy7IQ7Qkzm7JHHXkEq1D-9K9oZ3fXgyndRgxvEUOBlEemIiwIGI-MdjEhNOISXSLt4NR7uQ1zUFIYt2IlAiE9fLaULB7OpX_k4Vo3bfJ-sZ8TGLvMGKPU/s1600/1812641d-8058-4e82-a8e9-5c017f016261.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWCr6SPVWjJQQDAOZRDG2Iucyy7IQ7Qkzm7JHHXkEq1D-9K9oZ3fXgyndRgxvEUOBlEemIiwIGI-MdjEhNOISXSLt4NR7uQ1zUFIYt2IlAiE9fLaULB7OpX_k4Vo3bfJ-sZ8TGLvMGKPU/s320/1812641d-8058-4e82-a8e9-5c017f016261.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Arthur Allan Thomas maintains his innocence, but the police have a strong case against him, complete with "smoking gun," or more accurately, smoking bullet casing. In October, while conducting yet another search of the section surrounding the Crewe house, Detective Sergeant Charles finds a .22 bullet casing in one of the garden beds. By this time, police know that both Crewe's were killed with shots to the head from a .22 rifle. They have confiscated more than 70 rifles from Pukekawa locals for test firing, including a .22 belonging to Arthur Allan Thomas, and another belonging to Lenard Demler. On August 28th, the forensics expert tells investigators that he has excluded all but two of the rifles as the possible murder weapon.<br />
<br />
The test-fire cartridge casings are compared to the casing found at the Crewe property and a match is made to .22 rifle belonging to Arthur Allan Thomas. This cartridge case comes to be known as Exhibit 350. But as if that wasn't damning enough, the investigation team are also able to link Thomas to the trailer axle found weighing down Harvey Crewe's body. That trailer, and it's ownership history will go on to become a major point of contention at both of Thomas' trials.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>The trailer and the .22</b><br />
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<br />
When police finally find Harvey Crewe's body on September 16 1970, he is wrapped in fabric tied with galvanised wire, the kind of wire used for fencing paddocks on farms throughout New Zealand. Harvey's body is also weighted down, which is why it takes so long to be discovered, tethered with a different kind of wire, copper wire, to a rusty vehicle axle.<br />
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjko2HeBLJ91kUCheIkrGggpBRZr2cq531qekvSBS719QxoPpRZfBFJ_eA-31hu30tkcpRC__Alv4qda9U-y6fIIXeyFkPr_QAkom8byWWb1QWjYF0zYxf2g6mofpqsWItRxVhVw_SLrkE/s1600/Axle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjko2HeBLJ91kUCheIkrGggpBRZr2cq531qekvSBS719QxoPpRZfBFJ_eA-31hu30tkcpRC__Alv4qda9U-y6fIIXeyFkPr_QAkom8byWWb1QWjYF0zYxf2g6mofpqsWItRxVhVw_SLrkE/s320/Axle.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Officers hold up the axle found with Harvey's body </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Police immediately begin the task of tracking down the origin of the axle. On September 18th, Detective Sergeant Jefferies appears on national TV news with axle, asking for members of the public to assist in identifying it's origins. As a result of this broadcast, Charles Shirtcliffe comes forward and provides information about a trailer he bought in 1956, and subsequently sold to a man working at the Meremere Power Station later that same year.<br />
<br />
In October, the NZ Herald publishes a photograph of the trailer provided by Charles Shirtcliffe, along with details of it's sale and an appeal for the power station worker to contact police. The next day, Patricia Whyte, who recognises the picture as being a trailer she formerly owned, comes forward with details of it's purchase and sale in 1959.<br />
<br />
Police are finally putting together a fuller picture of what happened to Jeanette and Harvey Crewe on the night of the murders. A crime scene photo showing an open window with a clear line of sight to Harvey's armchair suggests that the killer may have shot Harvey from outside the house, through this window, before going in and subduing and shooting Jeanette. The police stage a reconstruction of this scenario to test it's plausibility, with one of the officers playing the part of Harvey Crewe. This reconstruction is a success, and demonstrates that the theory of Harvey being shot from outside the house is very plausible.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOAS8ihnFPLoNw_EdzHT1ILsrjlpuGOFYwwdCgyfRnheD9k8H0bhQwqa4J-E3xSz3ylDIRe1zXiy6yBkqL0WvTuqg48kL8YR03Z1haqw4u7yhfqm5H62Cb4-zsPqF96cWO8tB-E9cTrj0/s1600/ReconstructHarveyChair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOAS8ihnFPLoNw_EdzHT1ILsrjlpuGOFYwwdCgyfRnheD9k8H0bhQwqa4J-E3xSz3ylDIRe1zXiy6yBkqL0WvTuqg48kL8YR03Z1haqw4u7yhfqm5H62Cb4-zsPqF96cWO8tB-E9cTrj0/s320/ReconstructHarveyChair.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Reconstruction of Harvey being shot from outside</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;">Police are still focusing on Lenard Demler as their prime suspect at this point, as demonstrated by his being bought in for multiple interviews, and being accused by officers during those inteviews in the hopes of gaining a confession. This focus shifted significantly in mid-October of 1970, after police recieve a call from Heather Cowly, the step-daughter of Charles Shirtcliffe, who previously owned the trailer. Cowley tells police that she remembers the trailer being sold to a Mr Thomas who lived on Mercer Ferry Road.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Police immediately visit Thomas and show him a photograph of the axle found with Harvey's body, but Thomas states that he's never seen it before. They show him a photograph of the trailer, and Thomas agrees that it looks very similar to a trailer that his father had once owned. Police also speak to Richard Thomas, Arthur Thomas' brother, who remembers driving the trailer to a man in Meremere named Roderick Rasmussen, who conducted repairs on the trailer. Rasmussen even recycled parts of the old 1929 trailer to build the trailer currently owned by Arthur Thomas.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Slowly but surely, the investigation team are building a case that points, not to Lenard Demler, but to Arthur Allan Thomas. But what's the motive? Why would Arthur Thomas, a hard working and seemingly happily married farmer, want to murder the young couple? A review of the leads they already have takes police back to a phone tip from the early days of the investigation, before the bodies had even been found. Back in July, police had received a tip from a friend of Jeanette's, that Arthur Thomas had once been interested in Jeanette romantically. It's this tip that gives police the motive they are looking for. Now they just have to prove it.</span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: small;">The Crown's Case</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;">The Crown prosecutor, David Morris, contends that Arthur Allan Thomas was obsessed with Jeanette Demler, and that he had become so jealous over her marriage to Harvey, that he murdered them both. Morris even claims that Vivian Thomas, Arthur's wife, is the woman witnesses saw on the Crewe farm in the two days after the disappearance, and that it must have been she who looked after Rochelle. The Crown's case was as follows...</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>June 17th 1970, 7-9pm</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Arthur Allan Thomas can no longer contain his jealousy over Jeanette's marriage to Harvey Crewe, so he drives to the Crewe farm with his .22 rifle and finds an open louvre window with a clear view to living room, and the armchair where Harvey Crewe is sitting after his evening meal. Arthur fires through the window, shooting Harvey once in the head, killing him almost instantly.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Arthur then charges in to the house and shoots Jeanette once in the head, she falls in front of the fireplace, leaving the blood smears that are clearly visible in the crime scene photos. Arthur drags the bodies to his car, leaving the bloody marks found by the doorstep. He wraps the bodies in fabric, tied with galvanised wire taken from his farm, ties Harvey's body to the axle from his decomissioned trailer, and dumps both bodies in the Waikato River. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">The jury is convinced by the overwhelming physical evidence and expert testimony; the bullet casing from Arthur's .22, the axle and the galvanised wire, both traced back to Arthur Allan Thomas. They find Thomas guilty, and sentenced him to life imprisonment. On appeal in 1972, Arthur Allan Thomas' conviction is quashed by the Privy Council and a new trial is ordered. But he is convicted again, by a second jury, based on the same theory of the crime, and most of the same evidence. Case closed.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">There's just one problem. It was all a lie.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">In October of 1970, Detective Sargeant Charles breaks the case wide open when he finds that bullet cartridge on the Crewe farm, that is later matched to Arthur Allan Thomas' .22 rifle. Lead investigators claim the reason it wasn't found earlier is because that particular section of garden had not been searched previously, and that it was noted during a conference of the investigation team that same month. Enter Constable Ross Meurant. He remembers the Crewe case very well, because it was his very first homocide inquiry, and he wanted to do things "by the book." Meurant had searched that section of garden back in August, and even dug up a small shrub so he could sieve the dirt looking for evidence. Meurant maintains that had there been a bullet cartridge in that garden back in August, when he searched that area, he would have found it. Which means that someone must have placed it there after the initial search, for an unsuspecting D.S Charles to find.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIHtQA47boU_ZCXiUcFa6w9QO2PNfM6jIGrYue2AlqAa_NjXe6NPyT4tM1_dC2cZmAwo49K-TZ_eYpIX_Wgmu2ZHzQjaHk0ODETiqBmxHnGLZ04pCC9jYNWK31pJtzkEYj7TjDS4WOsx0/s1600/DSCharles350Site.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIHtQA47boU_ZCXiUcFa6w9QO2PNfM6jIGrYue2AlqAa_NjXe6NPyT4tM1_dC2cZmAwo49K-TZ_eYpIX_Wgmu2ZHzQjaHk0ODETiqBmxHnGLZ04pCC9jYNWK31pJtzkEYj7TjDS4WOsx0/s320/DSCharles350Site.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">D.S Charles points out where the bullet cartridge was found</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Then there's the trailer axle, and the matching axle stubs that went with it. The axle had been traced back to a trailer once owned by Arthur Thomas Senior, and later used for parts by Rod Rassmussen. The Thomas family testified in court that Rassmussen had cut the axle stubs off the axle bar, but had not returned those parts to the Thomas's once he was finished building the new trailer. However, Rassmussen asserts that he did return the axle stubs, and that they were thrown into the Thomas farm's rubbish dump. Those axle stubs were later found in that rubbish dumping area by lead investigator, Detective Len Johnson.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Six young men came forward to testify that they had towed an old car from the Thomas farm five years earlier, along with an old axle, which they later dumped on the far side of Pukekawa along with other unwanted junk from the old vehicle. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Things weren't looking good for the Crown or the NZ Police, and they only got worse after veteran journalist Pat Booth wrote a series of scathing articles. Sarah Keonig was not the first journalist to uncover a glaring case of wrongful conviction. Pat Booth was able to prove that although both bullet cartridges had the stamp on the bottom, the stamps didn't match, meaning they hadn't come from the same production line at the same time. The cartridge from the Crewe farm came from somewhere else, and had been planted.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizyyItQSnwUgeX2o5Rc_Q4uRUzK1jiN59BMnYhVK7lmU6LDCBRO64S1sZXviLVG9iZJ9ol3j03XPNMvMi0KvoPgdoiHzfU97LzfmsLAiuVzghu3xoA4hlVDkQh_kjZ_jcEGOsrLztHsRc/s1600/PatBoothBullets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizyyItQSnwUgeX2o5Rc_Q4uRUzK1jiN59BMnYhVK7lmU6LDCBRO64S1sZXviLVG9iZJ9ol3j03XPNMvMi0KvoPgdoiHzfU97LzfmsLAiuVzghu3xoA4hlVDkQh_kjZ_jcEGOsrLztHsRc/s320/PatBoothBullets.jpg" width="274" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Comparison of bullet stamps showed no match </span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Did I mention that Arthur Thomas had an alibi for the night of June 17th 1970? Well, he did. Thomas's wife Vivian and his cousin, Peter Thomas, both testified that Arthur had stayed home all night, nursing a sick cow instead of attending a ratepayers meeting in Pukekawa that was scheduled for that evening. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Public anger and outrage was growing, as was the evidence that the police investigators had manufactured the case against Arthur Allan Thomas. In 1980, Prime Minister Robert Muldoon recommended to the NZ Governor General that Thomas receive a full pardon. The Governer General agreed, and Arthur Allan Thomas was pardoned and released after 9 years behind bars.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Coming up in part 4, the final episode of the Crewe Murders.....</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Why was Jeanette Crewe to scared to stay in her house alone in the weeks before her murder?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Who really killed the Crewes? Alternate theories</span><br />
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