If I Were Judge, Jury, and Lawmaker, Too . . .

by Robin Sax

There’s not a week that goes by when someone doesn’t ask me, “How can you prosecute sex crimes without getting ill, jaded or miserable?” Well, while my job is challenging, I consider it an honor and privilege to give young victims a voice, a place to regain trust, and a place to heal. But today, I‘d like to tackle a different question: “What would you do to the change the system?”

So, if I were judge, jury, and lawmaker, here’s my answer. And by the way, I’ll be brutally honest, even if I think you won’t like what I have to say.

1. First, I believe there should be mandatory sentencing schemes in all jurisdictions. Mandatory sentencing schemes should not require specific additional factors that a jury would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Under many current statutes, a case involving two victims would make a case eligible for a mandatory life sentence. If, however, the jury convicted one victim and not the other (which happens very often because jurors like to throw a “bone” to the defendant), then the case may no longer hold a mandatory life sentence.) I believe the existence of the multiple-victim factor alone should qualify a case for an enhanced penalty.

2. I believe that the Supreme Court should overturn the Crawford decision. Under current law, if a victim dies or is legally unavailable for a court appearance, the victim’s prior statements made to the police or hospital would be inadmissible, due to the defendant’s right to confront and cross-examine the witness. I am in favor of the law prior to the recent Crawford decision that allows for admitting victims' or unavailable persons' previous statements made under certain conditions that ensure reliability.Why should a defendant benefit from the death or legal unavailability of his or her victim?

3. Our jury system sounds wonderful in theory Under the Constitution, each person charged with a crime is entitled to have the case heard by a jury of one’s peers., “peers” are people selected from our community who listen to the evidence and determine what the facts are in the case, while the judge decides on the legal issues.

“A jury of one’s peers” is based on the supposed impartiality of a random sample of the population. It assumes that the average accused will share more similarities than differences with a random sample of the population, and therefore will be judged by people who are likely to give the accused a fair shake.

The problem with this theory is twofold. First, those of us who are not “average” will have a much smaller likelihood of having a jury that comprises our peers. Second, the mechanisms of the “voir dire” process, or jury selection, increases the problem by creating juries composed of a greater percentage of poor, uneducated, unintelligent people, with very little experience with the justice system, than their natural prevalence in society.

The solution to this imbalance is a professional jury system. Professional jurors would be laypersons educated for the task. They would be taught to understand the rules of evidence, the trial process and instruction, and would be tested thoroughly on their objectivity. Most important, a professional jury would have no motivation other than ensuring that due process was followed. The complexities, nuances, and intricacies involved in a child sexual assault warrant a professional jury both because of the difficulty of the case and the great danger of releasing a predator back into society if a jury makes the wrong decision.

4. We need better supervision of registered sex offenders. Some ways to improve supervision include requiring registered sex offenders to register their computer Internet accounts, IP addresses, telephone numbers--not just their physical address. They should be required to inform authorities of international travel and there should be an integrated international registration system (like that for known terrorists) to monitor the “comings and goings” of registered sex offenders. Registered sex offenders should also be subject to lifetime counseling and therapy, and not only conditions of parole or probation.

5. Money and time should be available to train the professionals in this field. This goes for all the agencies involved, including law enforcement, prosecutors, advocates, therapists, judges, probation, and parole officers. It's important, of course, to stay current on the latest advances and laws in this area. Additionally, studies show that training and resources alleviate burnout and serve to inspire and motivate people in this line of work.

6. Right now, it’s standard procedure to assign prosecutors and law enforcement to handle sex crimes for a limited time before rotating them to another area of crime. The benefit of being in a vertical unit (handling all aspects of a case from beginning to end) is that there is a high degree of specialization and high accountability for those involved.

The whole theory behind vertical prosecution is to have a group of people trained in this highly difficult area so that they become specialists. However, all too often, once a prosecutor or detective reaches about a year or so in the unit, they get transferred.The bureaucratic thinking is that prosecutors and detectives should be cross-trained in all areas of criminal law, and that specializing narrows a prosecutor’s or detective’s skills. In the sex crimes area, where cases are so sensitive and the victims have their own special needs, I believe that lawyers and detectives should be assigned for a minimum of five years. Also, I believe lawyers and law enforcers should be assigned to these units only if they want to be there. This is not the type of unit for someone who doesn’t have the requisite passion or a tough enough stomach to handle these cases.

7. Specific courtrooms should be designated and designed for child sexual assault (and child abuse) cases, so they are 100% devoted to the needs and realities of kids who testify. For example, courtrooms can be painted in “kid friendly”colors like pastels, so they look more like a classroom than the typical large, windowless, intimidating enclosure. The chairs on the witness stand should be appropriately “kid sized” and adjustable so that a child’s feet can reach the floor. Further, the judges in these cases should be especially trained to handle them, and to be very familiar with the laws pertaining to child testimony. They would thus be able to use their discretion to protect the child and assist the child when giving testimony. This system can be modeled after the drug courts that are in place in many jurisdictions, where specific courts are devoted to drug addicts and focus on treatment, as opposed to punishment. These courts work with the defendants to address their issues and are sensitive to the needs of addicts.

8. There should be limits to an attorney’s ability to cross-examine and badger kids. One of the basic tenets of our Constitution is that criminal defendants have the right to confront and cross-examine the witnesses against them. It often seems that our criminal justice system offers greater protection to the accused than to the child victim involved in a sexual abuse prosecution.

9. Finally, in recent years, legislators have been concerned about defendants who escape punishment for sexually molesting young children because the children are afraid to testify in the defendant's presence. To address this problem, many states have enacted special rules that authorize judges--in certain situations--to allow children to testify via closed-circuit television. The defendant can see the child on a television monitor, but the child cannot see the defendant. The defense attorney can be present where the child is testifying and can cross-examine the child. Closed-circuit TV should be allowed more readily than its current use.

10. Currently, admissibility of expert testimony requires the prosecutor to jump thorough a number of legal hoops. And even when admitted, the admissibility tends to be for extremely limited purposes. Expert testimony should be welcomed and encouraged (from both sides) in order to assist jurors in understanding the unique issues when it comes to child sexual assault. The very things that the defense highlights as a way to discredit a child are the factors that can make a disclosure more credible if put into perspective by an expert. These include delayed disclosure, recantation, minimization, self blame, lying first in order to protect the abuser or fearing they are in trouble, and understanding why “smart” kids engage in risk-taking behavior.

11. Defense attorneys should be as sensitive and compassionate about victims as they are about their own clients. There must be legislation to stop re-victimizing the victim through the court process and to cease casting blame on the victim for being a crime victim.

12. Cases involving children should go to trial as soon as possible and definitely no later than six months from the filing. Currently, the most expeditious cases are tried in roughly a year from the date it was filed (not necessarily reported). Unlike fine wine, an aging case never gets better for the prosecution as time goes by.

13. As an alternative to jail and/or prison there should be live-in/lock-down facilities that are meant to work with, treat, and study sex offenders. Like drug rehabilitation, there should be facilities where we can take a low-level sex offender off the streets to ensure the safety of the public and treat them (if possible) or at least learn from the offender.

14. There should be amendments to the rule against double jeopardy (which means you can’t be tried twice for the same offense) to enable the re-opening of proceedings against acquitted defendants where there is compelling new evidence. This will apply to a range of grave offenses, including those involving serious sexual offenses.

15. There should be a total ban, or at least limitations, on what a child sexual assault defendant should be allowed to do in the criminal process. For example, if representing himself, he should not be able to personally direct or cross-examine the complaining children who are witnessing against him. He should not be able to access all the discovery information that a defense attorney (an officer of the court) would normally receive, such as the victim’s school records, rape exam photos, and other confidential records.

16.If a case is appealed after a conviction, it may take two or three years before a court determines whether or not the defendant is entitled to a new trial. If the defendant is granted a new trial, the prosecution would need to bring the victim in to testify again. The new or old testimony could then be presented as “inconsistencies” from the first testimony, thus casting doubt on the victim’s credibility. If the cause for appeal has nothing to do with the victim’s testimony, the victim should not be made to return to court and the entire prior testimony should be stipulated as accurate and complete.

There is no greater concern in society than the concern people have for children. Whether it is providing a better earth, protecting kids from wars, terrorism, criminals, or abuse, our society prides itself on shielding our young. And with good reason--children are powerless to take on the perils of our world on their own. We can give children the voice that they so desperately deserve if our leaders, lawmakers, and voters spoke up on and acted to protect the children we brought into this world.

POSTS FROM ROBIN SAX DO NOT REPRESENT THE OPINIONS OF THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY OR THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE.

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Ink Blotter Sunday - Mother's Day Edition

Ink Blotter

Join our live chat this afternoon for a special Mother's Day edition of the Ink Blotter. We'll be discussing a mother most everyone remembers, and not just on Mother's Day--Kate McCann. It's been a year since her three-year-old daughter Madeleine Beth McCann disappeared during a family vacation in Portugal. Madeleine's parents insist she was abducted. During the investigation into the girl's disappearance, Portuguese police focused on her mother as a suspect. WCI Criminal Profiler Pat Brown is convinced that Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, know what happened to their child. After telling the world they would not leave Portugal without their daughter, the couple finally returned home to England once they were officially named as suspects. Pat Brown has speculated the couple could have returned with Madeleine without anyone knowing--if they packed their toddler's body in a suitcase for the trip home. Could Kate McCann have played a role in the death and disappearance of her daughter? Or is she simply a grieving mother, falsely accused and shamelessly abused by the media? This Sunday, Pat will offer her opinions in a discussion with WCI's Donna Weaver, a missing persons authority who understands the difficulties faced by anyone who investigates a disappearance in a foreign country. Donna is an area director for the Bahamas and Caribbean Region for The Doe Network - International Center for Unidentified and Missing Persons. Today marks Kate McCann's second Mother's Day without her daughter Madeleine. Let us know what you think about Kate. Is she a twice-victimized mother who will continue to live in the shadow of suspicion? Or is the British mum a daughter killer? Don't miss this live chat from 4 - 5:00 p.m. EDT. This will be WCI's last Ink Blotter discussion. (New format!)

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Free Will: Too Much of A Good Thing?

by Lucy Puryear, M.D.

As a teenager I struggled with authority. Yeah, me and every other adolescent who's walked this earth. I balked against anyone telling me what to do, when to do it, or what I ought to think about it. It's my body, my hair, my education . . . so leave me the hell alone. I swore when I had my own children I would never repeat the "sins" of my parents.

And then of course I had my own kids and I knew they needed guidance and gentle influence, and sometimes even some not so popular rules. "No, you can't stay up until two on a school night, no you can't go to a party where there are no parents, no you may not speak to me that way. . . ." And their response to me is the same one I gave my parents: "I can't wait until I'm eighteen and you can't tell me what to do anymore."

What you realize as an adult is that it's not so simple. There are not automatically unrestricted freedoms that come with adulthood. There are still rules, and expectations, and societal norms, and even laws that must be followed. And as I tell my children, "No, you don't have to do what I say, but there are consequences to not doing so." If you break my household rules you may get grounded or lose your allowance. If you break societal laws you may do jail time or worse.

The dilemma comes in our society where the government was founded on individual rights of free speech, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms (rights currently being hotly debated), versus the needs of the larger group to be protected from someone's individual rights. Is it okay for you to threaten me with bodily harm as an expression of your right to free speech? Is it okay not to wear a helmet when you ride your motorcycle, if after you squash your brain on the highway, my tax dollars are used to take care of you?

Nowhere is the tension between freedom of religion--an individual's right to choose--and societal laws and norms greater than in the case of the polygamists in Eldorado, Texas. (Women and children after being removed from the compound pictured below.)

So what's so wrong with polygamy? If a woman chooses to be one of five wives, shouldn't she have that right? Not my choice to do so but then no one is asking me to. I assume the FLDS church is just fine with my decision to stay away from them. They're not knocking on my door trying to recruit me as wife number six. So why don't we just leave them alone to practice their religion in peace?

I can think of a lot of religious practices that seem very strange to me. How about taking communion on a Sunday and believing that it is truly the body and blood of Christ? (I actually do believe in that as a practicing Episcopalian, but I'm also willing to admit others might think that practice quite odd and non-sensical.) How about the Jewish practice of circumcision, which is a religious ritual but practiced now by Jews and non-Jews alike? You don't think cutting the foreskin off of a baby's penis a little barbaric?

Where do we draw the line between free will and the safety and well-being of others? The FLDS group from Eldorado believes that they are upholding God's prophetic vision for them to live their lives in plural relationships. The United States has laws that make polygamy illegal. However these groups have been practicing polygamy for decades and mostly have been left alone to practice their religion. But this case hinges on the well-being and protection of minor children. And that's where the issue of free will becomes very important.

We do not believe that children under the age of eighteen (a somewhat arbitrary cut off) have the right to free will. I think mostly because we think they're not mature enough or wise enough to exercise their rights using good judgement. And that's often true. Ask any child whether they thought going to school was a good idea and you'd get many who'd opt for the "only if I feel like it and there weren't any tests" track. So as a society we have chosen to subsume the rights of the child under the rights of the parents. And in the Eldorado case the parents have chosen to allow their underage young girls to be married to much older men and to participate in sexual activity, often against their will. Most of society calls this child abuse, and this is why the children were removed from the compound. Child abuse trumped the right to practice your religion without obstruction from the government.

It will be interesting to see how this case turns out. I think many will be surprised to see that most of the women and children will be allowed to return to the compound. It could be a worse fate for some of these children to be taken away from their mothers and sent to foster care. That can't be the answer for what's in the best interest of these children. And it may be astonishing to many that if given the choice, most of the women would choose to take their children and return to what they consider a safe and nurturing home.

There will be much argument over whether or not these women from Eldorado are acting freely. They have been raised in this environment and some would say "brainwashed" to believe that they are subservient to men and that it is their duty to practice plural marriage. Most of all of us have been "brainwashed" by the way we are raised. I'm an Episcopalian, my next door neighbor is a republican, my best friend was raised to believe in astrology and the power of crystals. But I would say we have free will because we have the freedom to choose whether or not we want to continue the practices of our parents. They may be disappointed or even angry if we choose to vote for a democrat, but we won't be banned from contact with the family.

Adults should be allowed to practice whatever religion, or be in whatever relationship configuration they choose, as long as minor children are not abused, coerced, or denied the right to choose another lifestyle in adulthood. When someone who does not have the right to exercise their own free will is hurt, the law needs to intervene. This is true for children, the elderly, and those with serious and persistent mental illnesses. Thirteen-year-old little girls should not be having intimate relationships with men. That is not religious freedom. That is child abuse.

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Susan Atkins Dying of Brain Cancer

by Kathryn Casey

Well, folks, let's try not be too upset about this. The Manson Family Today website reported this afternoon that Charles Manson groupie and convicted murderer Susan Atkins (photos then and now) is dying of brain cancer and has only weeks to live. At her 1970 trial for the Tate/LaBianca murders, she snickered and laughed, seemingly oblivious to the horror of her crimes, yet in later years she was commended for saving the lives of other inmates. Atkins has been eligible for parole off and on, but it has consistently been denied. She once filed a lawsuit claiming to be a political prisoner. Atkins, who turned sixty just yesterday, has said that she became a born-again Christian in prison. Since she'll soon be meeting her maker, let's hope she did.

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Defending a Guilty Client

by Katherine Scardino

Based on my earlier articles and the replies by the readers, a number of you do not understand how a defense attorney can represent a client who they know is guilty. Since I am about to do just that, I thought I would share my feelings about it.

As I mentioned before, under our Constitution, anyone standing trial for a crime is entitled to certain rights, such as a fair and unbiased trial. We also possess the right to have evidence presented to the jury, as long as it is legally obtained--i.e., no busting down doors and searching your home without either consent or probable cause to do so. We also enjoy the right to have the jury only consider evidence that rises to the level of our standard of proof - beyond a reasonable doubt. Too, there is our right to be presumed innocent until a jury hears this type of evidence, believes it, and renders a verdict of guilty.

All of these constitutional protections have been around since the Constitution was written in the late 1700s. Do they apply to today’s way of living? We have so much more today than our forefathers ever even dreamed of - cell phones, faxes, the Internet. So, some of you say these rules are no longer applicable.

I am preparing for a trial defending a man accused of sexually assaulting his stepdaughter - not just once, but for years. There will be testimony from the accuser, pointing a finger at my client.

Some of you might question - How can you sit next to this person and defend him in a case like that? I will admit to you that these types of cases, those involving children, are the toughest for any defense lawyer - not just in the cold facts of the case, but emotionally as well. Most of us have children. We would want to string whoever harmed our child up by his toes, or by some other body part that is a bit more sensitive.

In defending this client, I am reminding myself of his rights as an accused citizen of the United States. I am looking at the evidence with a hard eye to see if it meets the standard we should expect. Did the State, in its eagerness to solve the crime, zero in on one person and fail to investigate any other evidence?

Generally, once a young person makes an accusation against an adult, there is no more investigation. No one calls the accused on the phone and asks whether you did this, or whether you might have a "story" to defend yourself. God forbid there should be an alibi or a reason for this accusation other than the truth of the matter - is there a divorce involved? Or a custody fight where it would be convenient for the father to have this hanging over his head, which would certainly chill the father’s effort to get custody of his children. No. It is straight to an indictment and trial.

So, I am putting my case together to present to a jury, and I will be honest with you, this one is hard. I will do my job to be best of my ability. I have to remind myself - I did not make the facts, I just work with them - and give him a constitutionally fair trial. That is all I can do.

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Who Says The Party's Over?

In 2006, Gang Land News carried the headline "The Party's Over for Paciello," a mob informant who traded Miami nightlife for Club Fed. Chris Paciello's party days might be over, but festivities for the film based on his life are just beginning. Tonight in Miami Beach, WCI's Michele McPhee will be the guest of honor at a soiree celebrating the production launch of UNMADE MAN, the feature film based on her best-selling true-crime book Mob Over Miami.

The event is co-hosted by Miami Magazine; producers John Sherman, Josh Kagan, and Marilyn Haft; PR man Alan T. Brown; and lead actor Jeff Marchetti—whose acting debut was on The Sopranos as mafioso "Petey," a role he enjoyed for several seasons, including the final episode, "Made In America."

This time he's the UNMADE MAN in Florida. In the film, Marchetti (pictured below with Sopranos co-star Joseph Gannascoli) plays real-life thug Chris Paciello, a former member of Brooklyn's "Bath Avenue Crew," a particularly violent cadre of Bonanno crime family henchmen. When Paciello left New York in the early '90s, he tried to reinvent himself in the club scene in Miami, where he became a "South Beach King," running the glitziest nightspots and dating women like Madonna (pictured together at right) and hanging out with stars like Jennifer Lopez and supermodel Naomi Campbell.

Back home in New York, Paciello was the type of character real underworld figures had no respect for, but had occasional use for: "the type of man commonly found on the edges of organized crime, a fringe character who got some peculiar thrill or sense of power through his shady connections," Gay Talese wrote of another unmade Bonanno associate thirty years before Paciello assumed his own supporting role with the crime family. These types were never trusted "when situations were particularly dangerous," Talese added in Honor Thy Father: "types like [him] usually collapsed under pressure and could be coerced by the police into turning informer." History repeated itself with Paciello, who became a government witness.

"If Paciello did everything the government says he did," one of the former Club King's publicists told the Village Voice, "then he deserves an Oscar." Any acting awards won't be going to Paciello, who is doing his time at an undisclosed federal prison.

Michele McPhee (pictured left) was police bureau chief at the New York Daily News when she started covering the story. To learn how Michele became one of the nation's handful of women organized crime reporters, see her interview with South Beach Magazine.

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WEtv Takes on Celeste Beard

by Kathryn Casey

For all of you who read my book She Wanted It All, on the Celeste Beard case, don't miss "Women Behind Bars" on WEtv tonight, 8 C.T. The program will reexamine the case, including a prison interview with Celeste. I don't need a crystal ball to predict that she'll be hell-bent on convincing each and every one of you that she's an innocent woman. Will she succeed?

If you're unfamiliar with the case, here's the nuts and bolts: Celeste was a thirty-something, thrice-married waitress when she met Steve Beard, a recently widowed, 70-year-old, multimillionaire, at the Austin Country Club. Before long, she was living in Steve's house, and they eventually married. He built her a mansion, and gave her jewels, clothing, everything she ever wanted. But, somehow (get ready to be surprised), it was never enough. In the end, this is one of those cases that's stranger than fiction. (If I'd written this one as a novel, no one would have believed it.)

There's Celeste's bizarre treatment of her twin daughters, her affair with her former husband, her sexual liaisons with Tracey Tarlton, a smart but troubled gay woman she meets in a psychiatric hospital, Celeste's suicidal threats, and Tracey's tragic decision to help Celeste free herself from Steve, whom Celeste described as controlling and abusive.

In the end, Steve wasn't as Celeste described him, and police ended up knocking on Tracey Tarlton's door. So watch WEtv tonight, and let me know if Celeste succeeds in convincing you that she's not a murderer.

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Sex Offender Laws Need Some Work

by Stacy Dittrich

Granted, they're all a good start. Meghan's Law, Amber Alerts, Jessica's Law, and the Adam Walsh Act are headed in the right direction, but they still aren't "correcting" the problem. Here, in Ohio, Senate Bill 10, (somewhere around the range of 450 pages), aimed at sex offenders, has been revamped and corrected so many times I'm not sure what the law is!

What I do know is this: If I come upon a registered sex offender sitting in his vehicle, (watching the children and having no other reason of being there), I cannot arrest him. Furthermore, if he decides to follow the school bus from stop to stop--still no arrest.

Okay, so they can't live within 1000 feet of a school, playground, or daycare center, and all of their neighbors are told a perv is living among them. Big deal! Sexual Predators have legs, and they have cars. There is nothing that prevents them from strolling 1200 feet down to the nearest school to find a "fantasy fix" (a child's image to use while sexually gratifying himself). Or, in the worse case scenario, a future victim.

The possibility of pink license plates for sex offenders was presented before the senate. Their reaction? "Oh, the horror! A violation of civil rights!" Regardless, nothing prevented them from passing a bill that allowed judges to issue yellow license plates to DUI offenders, which is also a joke. Why? Because the judges rarely do this. There's the prospect of the poor soul that gets the judge on a bad day. Issued yellow license plates for his first offense DUI, he finds himself being passed on the roadway by a multiple DUI offender who honks, waves, and is prominently displaying "IDRINK4U" standard Ohio plates.

The main problem is the lack of separation for offenders. The state is pooling together the violent child predators with the guy who had sex with a disgruntled ex-girlfriend. Angry at the rejection of reconciliation, she files rape charges. The Romeo and Juliet cases still have yet to be addressed. The eighteen-year old senior in high school, in love and sexually active with his consenting, fourteen-year old freshman girlfriend is branded for life. Ridiculous!

When I argue the above with "people in the know," I am promptly informed that stricter laws will do nothing but drive the sex offenders underground. What?!!

Read this following story and tell me if it matters:

- A local sexual predator was recently released from prison. No parole, time served. His victims were all under the age of five and spanned from Florida to Ohio. He ultimately became a frequent visitor to local elementary schools and bus stops, and was suspected in an attempted abduction of a seven-year-old. Parents were outraged. As law enforcement, we scared him, watched him, and threatened him (within the scope of the law, of course) every way possible. The outcome of this? He merely drove to the neighboring county and promptly abducted and sexually assaulted a five-year-old girl. Yes, he's back in prison but it took the innocence and stability of a child to put him there--again.

What most people don't realize is this: There is no rehabilitation for pedophiles. Asking a pedophile to no longer be attracted to children, is like asking a homosexual to wake up tomorrow and live his life straight, or vice versa. It's not going to happen! (For chillingly accurate portrayals of child sexual predators, rent Little Children or The Woodsman.)

My solution? Put the violent sexual predators whose victims are under thirteen in a class of their own--restrict their breathing. Give law enforcement the authority to take action. It's not difficult. The law could read something like: "A state registered sexual offender who knowingly engages in a pattern of conduct that causes inconvenience, annoyance, alarm or panic to any prudent person who believes the person is conspiring or about to commit a sex offense." (Take that, Senate Bill 10!)

My "silent" solution? Torture and death to child offenders on the second offense. I've had the extremely unpleasant experience of witnessing the lifetime of damage these monsters inflict on our children. I'm pretty sure that would nip the problem in the bud. Yes, it's harsh, but I'm funny that way. . . .

Just my opinion.

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WOMEN IN CRIME INK RADIO

Tonight, please join Women in Crime Ink contributors Pat Brown, Stacy Dittrich, Diane Fanning, Vanessa Leggett, Donna Pendergast, and Robin Sax as Dana Pretzer, host of Scared Monkeys Radio, features them discussing today's hot stories and issues in the world of crime. Please feel free to tune in and comment on Tuesday, May 6, beginning at 9:00 p.m. EDT, LIVE ON http://scaredmonkeysradio.com/

Listen to Podcast:

FreeVideoCoding.com

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The Doctor is In (1 of 2 parts)

by Vanessa Leggett

A psychological riddle of sorts has been making the rounds in cyberspace. It might have landed in your Inbox. Now you might be good at guessing the answer to riddles like this one. My failure to solve this particular puzzle cast a self-revealing light on something I'm accustomed to examining in others: Motive.

Though motive need not be proved in a courtroom, in a crime story, discovering and revealing motivation is essential. Motivation is something I brood on as intensely as some people I write about try to conceal it. Here's what I've noticed. Even with suspects who confess—those who are willing to ask themselves and reveal to others the Why of their crimes—what drives us to extremes is often more of a mystery to ourselves than it is to observers.

You might recall a scene from The Silence of the Lambs, where Special Agent Clarice Starling says to serial killer Hannibal Lecter: "You see a lot, Doctor. But are you strong enough to turn that high-powered perception on yourself?"

If you read mysteries and crime stories, you likely see a lot too when it comes to identifying what powers the mens rea behind every criminal act.

In this riddle, you will be asked to discern another's motivation. How you answer will shine a high-powered light of perception on yourself. I racked my brain on this one but did not get it right. Let's see how good you are at guessing motive. Here is the text of the message I received:

The following is not a trick question. It is as it reads. No one I know has gotten it right. A woman, while at the funeral of her own mother, met a guy whom she did not know. She thought this guy was amazing. She believed him to be her dream guy so much, that she fell in love with him right there, but never asked for his number and could not find him. A few days later she killed her sister.

Question: What is her motive for killing her sister?

So that's the riddle. Give this some thought before you answer, then click here to move to the below post: "Are You a Psychopath?"

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Are You a Psychopath? (2 of 2 parts)

by Vanessa Leggett

Note to readers: If you have not read "The Doctor is In" above, visit here before reading this post.

Scenario: A woman, while at the funeral of her own mother, met a man whom she did not know. After meeting him, she was convinced he was Mr. Right. For her, it was love at first sight, but at the funeral she did not ask for his number nor could she find him afterward. A few days later she killed her sister.

Now for the rest of that e-mail riddle:

Question: What is her motive for killing her sister?

Answer: She was hoping the guy would appear at the funeral again.

If you answered this correctly, you think like a psychopath.

This was a test by a famous American psychologist used to tell if one has the same mentality as a killer. Many arrested serial killers took part in the test and answered the question correctly. If you didn't answer the question correctly, good for you. If you got the answer correct, bad for us.

How did you do? If you're like me, you've never been so relieved to have missed an answer.

In closing, I should note that I cannot vouch for the riddle being a "test by a famous American psychologist." Again, I received this as an e-mail message. The one that landed in my Inbox had been forwarded to recipients from New York all the way to Texas. The original sender was someone I don't know at all.

Come to think of it, I may not even know the person who sent it to me—at least not as well as I might have thought. He may have had an unfair advantage in guessing what would motivate someone to commit murder. He's a criminal defense lawyer. All the same, he did not say how he did on the test. . . .

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Ink Blotter - "The Judas Tree" & Polygamy

Ink Blotter

Join us this afternoon for a live chat that should be anything but garden variety. Today's subjects are polygamy and "The Judas Tree," a play based on real-life serial killer Dorothea Puente. Our special guest today is the playwright of "The Judas Tree."

Mary Fenger Gail (pictured below) will discuss the process of adapting a play from an actual crime story. Mary will join us for the first half-hour, from 4:00 to 4:30, and she will be happy to answer your questions about the creative process of generating a surreal script from an all-too-real crime story.

"I think theater should take us to unfamiliar worlds in a magical way," Mary told the San Diego Tribune. "More magic, more madness, heightened passion, acting that's beyond verisimilitude." "The Judas Tree" certainly fits the bill. At the center of the crime musical and courtroom drama is a mystical garden where flora burst from the surface and corpses dance below, giving testimony from the grave. If you missed Diane Fanning's post on the actual woman serial killer whose crimes were discovered when authorities spotted corpses in her garden, visit here.

The New York Times calls the production "a mythical play of operatic proportion," characterizing the world premiere as "a tale of magic, murder and seduction." MultiStages Theatre says it's a "multidisciplinary feast for the senses." And audiences are responding. Opening night was a sellout. "The Judas Tree" runs through May 11 at the CSV Cultural Teatro La Tea in Manhattan. Women in Crime Ink thanks MultiStages Artistic Director Lorca Peress for giving our crime blog some play in the Playbill.

The last half of the Ink Blotter will feature a discussion of the child custody issue with the Eldorado polygamist sect. At 4:30, WCI's Defense Attorney Katherine Scardino and our Policewoman / Novelist Stacy Dittrich will heat up the discussion. The question at issue: Did the government have a lawful right and/or a moral obligation to remove children from their families? This should be a spirited chat between our former sex-crimes cop and WCI's criminal defense lawyer. If you missed Kathryn Casey's post on the polygamist sect, click here.

See you in the blue "Ink Blotter" box along the right sidebar, nearly halfway down the page.

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Mystery Man - Todd Matthews

by Todd Matthews

There are 100,000 missing people and more than 7,000 unidentified bodies listed with the FBI-NCIC. I came to care deeply about one of them, a Jane Doe that led to my dedicating my life's work to the mission of reconnecting families with their missing. This endeavor led to my being one of the founding members of The Doe Network- International Center for Unidentified and Missing Persons, and Project EDAN. (EDAN facial reconstruction composite of Todd Matthews pictured above.)

Unidentified, But Not Forgotten

It all started for me with the Jane Doe nicknamed the "Tent Girl," an unidentified body found in a canvas tent wrapper dumped along the side of the road in Kentucky in 1968. Nearly twenty years would pass before I learned of Tent Girl. In fact, I wasn't even born until two years after her remains were discovered. I would learn of her through my wife Lori. Her father had found the body. Tent Girl was murdered.

Why could I not forget Tent Girl, a woman whom I had never known? I think it had something to do with my own family. Unlike my wife, who has many siblings, I only have one surviving brother, Mark. He and I still bear the mental scars of the passing of our younger brother Greg and sister Sue Ann. They died as infants, but never left our hearts and minds. That's how Lori and I came to feel about Tent Girl, as we built our own family.

Mark and I visited the cemetery where our siblings were buried. Tent Girl made me sad because she had no known family to visit her grave. So whenever Lori and I went to Kentucky, we visited Tent Girl's grave. In a way, we made her part of our family.

But I had a longing to connect her with her own family. I searched area libraries and newspapers to comb through hard-copy archives, searching both for stories about the Tent Girl. This went on for a decade. At times I felt I was going nowhere, but I was learning.

Criminology in a Technical Age

The advent of the Internet changed the face of research, making it easier, more affordable, and realistic. Distance was no longer an obstacle. Naturally, investigators also benefited from instant access to people with information.

The Yahoo-based "Cold Cases" group was one of the first of these such "virtual" gathering places, which led to the formation of others, such as the Doe Network. Over the past decade, an increasing number of Web sites devoted to particular cases of missing persons have been created. One of the first was my own for the Tent Girl. (The earliest page still exists, though crude by today's standards.)

Message boards dedicated to other subjects came to be used to post information about missing persons and lost loved ones.

Finally a Breakthrough

It was a night like a thousand nights before, the evening I found what I was looking for at last. I had discovered a message board with a posting by a woman looking for her sister last seen in Lexington, Kentucky. The description very closely matched the description etched onto the Tent Girl's headstone. The feeling in my heart was greater than anything concrete I was reading on the screen. I knew I had found them--the family of the Tent Girl.

An exhumation and DNA revealed Tent Girl was 24-year-old Barbara Taylor, a wife and mother who would have been a grandmother by that time.

Lasting Impact

Connecting Barbara with her family was a profound and fulfilling moment of my life. Tent Girl had a deep impact on others as well. In 1968, long before I knew of the case, the discovery of her remains had led to the establishment of the Kentucky State Medical Examiner's Office. Then three decades later, in 1998, her identification led to the creation of a state-based Web site by the Kentucky Medical Examiners office: UnidentifiedRemains.net.

Case files are in a constant state of review and are cross-referenced by researchers, law enforcement, and the public. The Doe Network alone has helped bring closure to more than forty cases of missing or unidentified people. That network continues to gather data on thousands of other similar cases to help keep them in the public eye.

Techni-Criminologists

Often people involved in using the Internet to help solve crimes are called "amateur sleuths." I prefer terms like "advocate" and "volunteer." The volunteer effort has progressed and has taken the shape of an actual science. Those of us who seek the technology of the Internet and other computerized resources to resolve cold cases have found a niche that truly deserves a name. I like the term "Technology Criminology."

Hundreds of e-mails a day from people searching for their missing loved ones are sent to advocates willing to help. This is a new age where the ordinary man can step up and make a difference. It doesn't matter your sex, age, race, or physical disability. When you think about it, we are all one big family.

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Don't Forget Your ID Saturday Night

Be sure to watch Investigation Discovery tonight, when you can see the work of two of our partners in crime: 48 Hours Producer Jenna Jackson and Crime Writer Vanessa Leggett, who was interviewed for "Texas Confidential," a story that originally aired on CBS's 48 Hours. The one-hour program details the murder of Houston socialite Doris Angleton, the wife of a multi-million dollar bookmaker who catered to Houston's elite. Doris's husband, Bob Angleton, was also a police informant. Doris had filed for divorce two months before she was gunned down in her home. Police were convinced Bob conspired with his estranged brother Roger to commit the perfect crime. Three people have been jailed in relation to the murder case: the suspected conspirators, Bob and Roger Angleton, and even the writer, Vanessa Leggett. But to this day no one has been convicted of murdering Doris Angleton. To find out why, watch ID on Saturday, May 3, at 7:00 p.m. EDT. For preview and program description, visit here.

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Mystery Man - Clue Box

This week's Mystery Man's calling to be a voice for missing and unidentified persons began when he solved the identity of the Tent Girl case, Barbara Hackman-Taylor, after a ten-year journey that ended in 1998. He is also Media Director for the Doe Network, a consultant to Emmy-award winning producer Dick Wolf ("Law & Order"), and on the Advisory Panel for the U. S. Department of Justice NamUS (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System) database project.

Tomorrow's guest contributor has appeared on many national television shows, including "Leeza," America's Most Wanted, 48 Hours, "TechTV," "Good Morning America," and the Paula Zahn Show. Articles about our Mystery Man and his advocacy work have appeared in hundreds of newspapers and periodicals, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, and People Magazine. He hosts a weekly radio show that publicizes unidentified and missing persons cases. A documentary featuring our guest contributor's work was recently broadcast on the BBC. A second documentary about his life will be presented at the next Sundance Film Festival.

So be sure to check back here tomorrow for when we unmask this week's fascinating Man of Mystery.

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Booklist Gives Casey Novel "Singular" Honor

Contributor Kathryn Casey's debut novel has received a star from Booklist, a fitting symbol for SINGULARITY, a book with a star already on its cover. Featuring a Texas Ranger who happens to be a woman, SINGULARITY is first in a series of Sarah Armstrong mysteries. A star from Booklist indicates the book is "outstanding in its genre." Allison Block of Booklist praised Casey's novel: "An impressive fiction debut for true crime author Casey, whose memorable heroine has brains, moxie, and heart. Happily for readers, this is the first in a series." St. Martin's Minotaur will release SINGULARITY on June 24, 2008. Congratulations, Kathryn.

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Clemens Thrown a Curve

by Jenna Jackson

To be accused of something that could destroy your life – and the lives of those around you forever – would be a nightmare. Especially when you are a public figure – and there is never a shortage of false or exaggerated accusations flying around. They're easy to make and generally not so easy to refute.

Take this week’s story of baseball great Roger Clemens (pictured above, left).

DAY ONE - In a story Monday in the New York Daily News, he was accused of having an affair with country singer Mindy McCready for ten years. At the time, he was married and father to two boys. He’s still married and now has four boys.

And it gets worse. The accusations – from “people with intimate knowledge” – are that the affair started when he was 28 and playing for the Boston Red Sox and when McReady was a mere 15.

I have no idea if any of this is true – but I cannot imagine how hard this week has been for his wife of so many years, Debbie – and his four sons. And the fact that the article that broke this “news” is based entirely on anonymous sources makes it hard to digest.

I’ve been a 48 Hours producer for ten years. I completely understand the need and importance of anonymous sources. They can give you information and lead you in directions you may not have known about otherwise. They can be extremely valuable.

One of my good friends and fellow bloggers, Vanessa Leggett, went to federal jail to protect her sources. I’ve always felt this was among the most courageous things I’ve ever witnessed. But Vanessa has dozens and dozens of sources to back up the book she’s writing about River Oaks bookie Bob Angleton – only some of them are anonymous, and she’s checked every one of those out to the hilt.

When it’s a story like this – one that could destroy someone’s life, not to mention his children’s – there should be at least one legitimate, reliable source who will go on the record to tell the story. Especially when it appears on the front page of a New York City newspaper – which will then spread like wildfire around the country to every other paper and evening news show by the end of the day.

DAY TWO - Clemens, through his lawyer, vehemently denies the charges of the affair. He says McCready was a close family friend – but that they were never intimate. But McCready, “tearful but resolute,” according to a Nashville newspaper, said she couldn’t deny anything in the original NY Daily News article. Not a great day for the Rocket. Except that McCready has had a tumultuous past -- so she might not necessarily be credible, either.

He said/she said stories are the hardest to cover – and the hardest for authorities to investigate. Our WCI blog is based on crime – and, if this story is true, it should be considered a crime against Clemens' wife and children, all obvious victims. But there could have been real crimes committed, especially if McCready really was only 15 when the alleged affair began. It’s possible that Clemens could be charged with that even now – in Texas, the statute of limitations extends ten years from the age when someone becomes legal, which is age 18.

And, as everyone in the country likely knows at this point, Clemens is dealing right now with other criminal allegations – namely that he used steroids over the years to enhance his baseball performance and that he lied about it under oath to Congress.

None of us know what -- if anything -- Roger Clemens is guilty of. But I’m inclined to think the bigger “crime” is that of throwing allegations out into the public arena without the proof to back them up. This affair very well might be true. But once the allegations are out there, it doesn’t really matter. The harm to him and – more importantly – to his family is already done. By the time the truth comes out, if it ever does, it will have become secondary to his ruined reputation.

My boyfriend keeps saying “poooooooor Roger” -- I’d counter with poor Roger’s family. And poor any of us who might happen to be in the public eye, making you ripe for allegations, true or not.

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How a Predator Stalked Me on a Dark Interstate

Hunt for Justice by Cynthia Hunt

He wanted to kill me that night on the interstate.

That’s why the disappearance of Jessica Cain is something I still ponder a decade later. I was a 26-year-old reporter at KTRK-TV, the ABC affiliate in Houston, when Jessica vanished. The year was 1997.

How Could Jessica Vanish from the Shoulder of a Busy Texas Interstate?

The beautiful 17-year-old performed in a musical that night and afterward went with her fellow cast members to a restaurant. Proud parents C.H. and Susie Cain left their daughter and headed home. Jessica (pictured left) promised she would be a few minutes behind them.

When Jessica didn’t show up a short time later, her dad became worried. He drove down I-45 and found Jessica’s 1992 Ford Pickup on the shoulder of the interstate. Her wallet, license, and keys were still inside the truck. That was the last night anyone saw Jessica.

No Witnesses. No Real Leads. Nothing.

The F.B.I searched for witnesses but none materialized. Investigators believe someone either tricked or forced her to pull over on that major interstate, abducted her, and got away.

I covered the intensive search for Jessica. I covered the growing reward for her safe return. I covered the teenagers who could not believe that the president of their high school drama club could become another tragedy leading the ten o’clock news. I also covered the investigators and their theories of how the predator got her onto the shoulder of the interstate. We may never know, but my experience says the victim doesn’t always react the way we expect.

The Night an Interstate Predator Stalked Me

I was a 19-year-old college sophomore at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. I was interning at the ABC affiliate in Birmingham to get a taste of the big city. I would work through the ten o’clock news and drive an hour back to campus.

One night, I left the TV station and stopped at a well-lighted gas station located by a new McDonald's to get some gas. My parents had instructed me to never stop for gas at night but I thought I was a young invincible journalist. As I was putting gas in my car, I thought I saw someone out of the corner of my eye staring at me. I glanced over in that direction to see if I saw correctly. I did.

His Chilling Stare

The bearded man was in his truck about fifteen yards away giving me a cold, dead stare. He wasn’t trying to hide it. He was fixated on me. I pretended I didn’t notice. As I finished, he drove between the gas station’s building and me, yelled something unintelligible, and drove away.

What a weirdo, I thought.

The Predator Watches for Sign

My little sister Angelia, then 11, needed some help with her homework so I pulled to the phone booth right by the gas station and called home. I didn’t want to make her wait until I was back on campus. I still had forty-five minutes to drive, and it was almost eleven o’clock.

We talked for a half hour. I got in my car and pulled back onto I-459. Immediately, a vehicle pulled behind me and started flashing its headlights.

My first thought was that it was one of my girlfriends from Birmingham on her way back to campus. I was like many naïve college students and had put a University of Alabama sticker on my back window. Anybody from campus would have known my distinctive big car. I thought for a second about pulling over.

Then I worried that something could be wrong with my car. Maybe the driver was trying to warn me. The headlights were still flashing.

A minute later the interstate emptied onto I-59 and the flashing grew desperate. I then knew this wasn't someone with the intention of helping me. That instinctive feeling didn't frighten me. It made me angry.

How the Predator Tried to Force Me to Pull Over

Interstate 59 is the dark, forest-lined highway that runs from Birmingham to Tuscaloosa. In many places, trees even grow in the median between the eastbound and westbound sections.

I sped up. The flashing vehicle tailing me sped up.

The vehicle pulled into the other lane and I hit the brakes. It hit the brakes.

I sped up again. He sped up.

I suddenly hit the brakes again. Finally, the vehicle was right beside mine in the fast lane. I could clearly see into the truck—that cold stare focused on me again.

I know—you crime buffs knew it was him by now, but I hadn’t even thought about the gas station weirdo. Remember, I had spent a half hour on the pay phone. I thought he was long gone.

The Surprise the Predator Didn’t Expect

The second I recognized him, I was angry and took my 1990 model cell phone and held it up in front of my Pontiac’s bright dashboard and shook it in the air. Remember this was years before everyone had cell phones. My portable cell phone was huge.

The second he saw my phone, he blew up and started driving all over the road. He got back behind my car. I sped up to 80-90 mph. He closed in on my bumper.

I’ll never forget seeing his headlights disappear in my rearview mirror. He was inches from hitting me.

I thought about calling police—but was uncertain of what mile marker was I near.

He weaved erratically from side to side. The odd thing was I still wasn’t scared. I was furious. I changed lanes, hit the brakes, and tried to get this predator’s license plate. No luck. He was too fast and I couldn’t get behind him to see the plate.

After harassing me for another mile or so he took the next exit and disappeared.

My brush with a predator was over in less than ten minutes.

Bad Reaction

Did I act like we would’ve guessed? No. I never called police. I didn't even call the newsroom for help. It makes no sense to me now.

I was a college honors student working as a journalist. My parents had given me countless speeches on how to protect myself. I knew better than to stop and get gas at night. I knew how to use that cell phone.

We all know that predator studied me as I talked on the pay phone to my sister. He thought I didn’t have a cell phone. Little did he know my retired Marine father had put a portable cell phone pack in my car for just this kind of emergency. I was too cheap to use the minutes to call home. It was 1991. Minutes were expensive.

There is little doubt in my mind that monster went on to abduct and kill other young women. I wish I could do it all over again and do a better job of reacting. I wish I could’ve just done the logical thing and called police. For Jessica and all the others—how I wish.

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