Women in Crime Ink

Reflections on Snow, Crime, and Punishment

2012-01-21T12:17:00.002-05:00

by Anne Bremner
Co-Authored by Bob Sims

Oh no, like salt on snow
I've been melted
Left alone on the side of the road
Is this where I am over
For your sake
Stuck between sleep and awake?

Having been snowbound for days here in wintry Seattle, my thoughts have drifted lately. But, still, I remain vigilant in my thinking about my cases, especially the ones involving missing persons and how inclement weather conditions sometimes affect the lack of crime.

I began pondering this when I started thinking about my clients Chuck and Judy Cox, and their missing daughter, Susan Cox Powell. More than two years ago Susan went missing when her husband Josh Powell supposedly took the couple's then 2- and 4-year-old sons camping in snowy Utah at midnight, browning marshmallows by campfire in the dead of winter.

Many speculate that Susan is out there in the snow, the snow that has melted and then fallen again and again over two long intervening winters. Others speculate she is alive and at some point has been kept secretly by Josh Powell and his father Steven Powell. But not many do. She is somewhere between sleep and awake.

Statistics show that snowy conditions reduce crime rates. This has been described in Dr. Emily Bloom's "The Ice Factor," where she wrote about how "snow slays crime."

And it is true. Crime declines during snowstorms. Is it the calming quiet that tames the beast in us? Or the inablity to get out and do things -- good or evil?"

It reminds me of what my psychiatrist father said when he was doing studies for Prozac, in the face of claims that Prozac made some people kill. My father said it just helped them get out of bed and they would've killed anyway.

"The first fall of snow is not an event, it is a magical event."

The thoughts of an icy, snowy death are unimaginable to me, like learning about those mountain climbers who died on Mt. Everest, as expressed so eloquently by Jon Krakauer in his book, "Into Thin Air."

It's almost akin to Titanic passengers drowning in the dark, icy North Atlantic waters long ago -- the same fate for some on the sinking cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Italian coast recently.

I believe Susan Powell didn't die in the snow, and the snow story just might turn out to be the Cox family's salvation. Almost everyone who has heard the story has scoffed and pointed toward her husband Josh Powell as a person of interest, for the very reason he has concocted this improbable tale.

"The future lies before you, like paths of pure white snow. Be careful how you tread, for every step is sown."

Crimes are not committed in snow.
In fact, such a claim makes me incredulous. As a prosecutor, I use the "footprints in the snow" analogy to describe circumstantial evidence.

When you retire to bed at night, the ground is covered with fresh and pristine snow, untouched. When you wake up in the morning, there are footprints in the snow, leading to your doorstep where the morning's newspaper is there. You didn't see the person deliver your newspaper directly, but circumstantial evidence tells you, via footprints in the snow, that someone indeed did.

Snow. Crime. Punishment. Help us find Susan Cox Powell.

Now and Then

2012-01-18T10:12:00.000-05:00

by Katherine Scardino

As I enjoyed a holiday this past Monday in celebration of Martin Luther King and his accomplishments in promoting racial equality, I thought back over the years to the many changes that have occurred - just in my lifetime. I wrote about this recently during the MLK Memorial dedication ceremonies, so I will not repeat myself.

My question today is, if we were living back in the 1950's and 1960's (and of course a couple of hundred years prior to that..), would you be sympathetic to people who were being discriminated against solely because of the color of their skin, or would you just be “one of the crowd” and not do anything. In other words, do you think you would be an activist against racial discrimination? Or, would you be the kind of person who sticks their head in the sand and pretends the problems do not exist - similar to what the United States and other countries did during the time Hitler was exterminating millions of Jews in Germany.

Would I have the nerve of Rosa Parks who, as a young black woman, refused to surrender her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus to a white person, which subsequently spurred a citywide boycott and helped launch nationwide efforts to end segregation of public facilities? Would I risk being arrested and prosecuted for my beliefs?

Today, we have many people around the world who are making their voices heard about many different subjects. People speak out about endangered species, Wall Street, treatment of animals, democracy - or the lack of it, along with a million other subjects. But, I wonder who these people are. I do not personally know anyone who is a true activist - not in the sense of Ms. Parks. But, I do know they are there and we should all be grateful for each and every one of them.

All of my life I have admired Rosa Parks. Let me tell you a little about her. She was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her grandparents were former slaves and also strong advocates for racial equality. Young Rosa and her mother lived with her grandparents in Pine Level, Alabama. It has been said that Rosa’s grandfather stood in front of their house with a shotgun while Ku Klux Klan members marched down the street. The city of Pine Level had a new school building and bus transportation for white students while African American children walked to the one room schoolhouse, which was often lacking desks and adequate school supplies.

In 1932, Rosa married a barber named Raymond Parks who was an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She became actively involved in civil rights issues by joining the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP in 1943, serving as the secretary to the president.

During the time she was living in Montgomery, the city enforced a city code that required all public transportation to be segregated and that bus drivers had the power of a police officer while in actual charge of any bus. Drivers were required to provide separate but equal accommodations for white and black passengers by assigning seats. This was done by a line that was drawn in the middle of the bus separating white passengers in the front of the bus and black passengers in the back of the bus. A black passenger got on the bus at the front, paid their fare, and then get off the bus and re-board at the back door. When the seats in the front were filled up and more white passengers got on, the bus driver would move back the sign separating black and white passengers and, if necessary, ask black passengers to give up their seat.

On December 1, 1955, after a long day at work at the Montgomery Fair department store, Rosa boarded her bus for home. She sat down in a seat in one of the first rows designated for black passengers. Though the city’s bus ordinance did give drivers the authority to assign seats, it did not specifically give them the authority to demand a passenger to give up a seat to anyone regardless of color. However, the local bus drivers had started the custom of forcing black passengers to give up their seats to white passengers when no other seats were available.

The bus driver walked back to the row where Rosa was sitting, and asked four black passengers to give up their seats. Three others complied. Rosa refused and remained seated. The story goes that the driver said to her “Why don’t you stand up?” Rosa replied, “I don’t think I should have to stand up.” The driver called the police and Rosa was arrested. She later stated that she did not refuse to stand up because she was physically tired, but because she was tired of giving in.

Rosa was arrested and later tried for violating a Montgomery city code. She was fined ten dollars plus a four dollar court fee. The boycott continued with an estimated 40,000 African Americans refusing to ride buses. Some commuters walked, even as far as 20 miles to get to work. Dozens of the public buses sat idle for months, severely crippling the transit company. But, the boycott was faced with strong resistance and some violence by segregationists. The homes of the local NAACP president and a new comer preacher named Martin Luther King, Jr. were attacked.

On December 5, 1955, the black community leaders met at the Mt. Zion Church to discuss strategies and during this meeting, determined that they needed a new organization and a strong leader. They formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) and elected Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the minister of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church as their leader.

The rest is history. Rosa Parks started a new era of activism resulting in new laws, a new world. It is basically, inherently wrong to discriminate or prosecute one person because of the color of his skin. It is wrong for you or I to stay silent when our beliefs are violated, regardless of the subject. I hope that I would have one ounce of the courage of Rosa Parks and speak out, loudly, when any personal, constitutional right is violated. Will you join me?

America’s Serial Killers – How Many Are There?

2012-01-17T10:30:00.000-05:00

by Diane Dimond

It was a small but horrifying item in the Los Angeles Times. “Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying what they call a ‘serious, dangerous serial killer operating in Orange County. Police believe one person is responsible for stabbing three middle-aged homeless men. He is (considered) extremely dangerous to the public.”

Another serial killer, I thought. And then the question: How many serial killers are out there in America?

John Douglas, a former Chief of the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit and author of “Mind Hunter” says, “A very conservative estimate is that there are between 35-50 active serial killers in the United States” at any given time. Often, Douglas told me, they will, “kill 2-3 victims and then have a “cooling-off” period between kills.”

That period can be days and in some cases (such as the BTK Strangler, Dennis Rader, convicted of killing 10 people from 1974 to 1991) even years.”

But others who study serial killers (defined as someone who kills 3 or more people) think there are many more of these demented predators out there than the FBI admits to – maybe as many as a hundred of them actively operating right now.

Why don’t we know the exact figure? Because serial killers are a secretive and often nomadic bunch.

Right before his execution in January 1989 the widely traveled Ted Bundy, described as a charismatic killer, admitted to 30 murders across half a dozen states – from Washington to Florida.

Andrew Cunanan killed at least five people during his wanderings through Minnesota, Illinois, New Jersey and Florida, including fashion designer Gianni Versace in Miami.

The FBI knows death travels and five years ago it set up the Highway Serial Killings Initiative. The bureau reveals it has “a matrix of more than 600 victims and potential suspects in excess of 275.” Since the bodies were found off major highways top suspects are long-haul truckers who may pick up prey in one state and dump the body several states away.

I know this is disturbing to read and you may wonder, “Why should I care? I’m not going to hitchhike at a truck stop!”

Well, realize lots of serial killers stay close to home and their victims are random. The aforementioned Dennis Rader (left) found all his victims in Kansas not far from the Wichita home he shared with his wife and two kids. Rader, the president of his local church, knocked on his victim’s doors and they simply let him in.

John Wayne Gacy, met many of his 33 victims (all young men and boys) at charity events where he appeared dressed a clown. After luring them to his house and murdering them he stuffed them under his Cook County, Illinois home.

Gary Leon Ridgway, the so-called Green River Killer, was convicted of strangling 49 random women he met in Washington. He confessed to killing 71 but authorities believe the number of victims could be over 90.

Jeffrey Dahmer of Milwaukee admitted to killing and cannibalizing 17 young men and boys before he was arrested. Dahmer’s mother, Joyce, once told me her son wished doctors would come study him in prison to help figure out what drove him to do it.

We who write about crime are told that law enforcement nationwide is doing a better job of communicating with each other about suspected serial killers. Indeed, the item I read about the homeless murders was a milestone. In the past, detectives were loath to tell the public about a serial killer on the loose for fear of spooking people. Now, they’ve come to realize that knowledge is power and citizen’s information can be a huge help in solving crimes.

Hardly a state in the union hasn’t had a serial killer. California, Texas and Florida seem to have more than their fair share. And mass graves have been found all around the country. Two examples: The 11 bodies of young women and an infant found on the isolated West Mesa outside Albuquerque. And, an eerily similar case thousands of miles away in Long Island, New York where authorities unearthed 10 bodies – eight women and a toddler along with a man dressed in women’s clothes.

These are among the serial killer dumping grounds that have been found. Many others may go undetected forever.

The best thing we can do is be vigilant. Know that many victims of serial killers put themselves in harm’s way. Most are women who have some contact with the sex trade or illegal drug underworld and if they have children they are in grave danger too.

Dr. Maurice Godwin has studied serial killers for years and one in-depth analysis of 107 of them revealed important information. Godwin found 55% of serial killers began having trouble in childhood and had criminal juvenile records. 45% had been convicted for a previous sex crime. As with so many criminals it goes back to their early formative years and the best lesson we can learn is that when we find a troubled child we best help them. Failure to do so could result in another serial killer walking among us.

More Forensics and Fiction: a book review

2012-01-09T01:45:00.022-05:00

by Andrea Campbell

I have conducted a few interviews with my friend and colleague, Doug Lyle, M.D. Each of his books that have been sent to me to review has set forth promises for the reader and, in my estimation, all expectations have been met. That's why I was happy to receive his latest book, a research title for writers (and lovers of writers and fiction) called More Forensics and Fiction.

Now Doug, also professionally known as D.P. Lyle, M.D., has also acted as a consultant and advisor on various television shows like Law & Order, CSI: Miami, Monk and House, so I know he is adept at research and his medical background makes him one of the best.

Doug also has a web site, The Writer's Forensics blog, that has provided more than enough material for this latest book--due out in April--and has also well-supplied two previous titles, Murder and Mayhem: A Doctor Answers Medical and Forensic Questions for Mystery Writers, and the second, Forensics and Fiction: Clever, Intriguing, and Downright Odd Questions from Crime Writers. In these volumes, Dr. Lyle answers questions, forensic questions, yes--but more interesting, questions from fiction writers and authors who need to add verisimilitude to their stories, and who can't afford to create scenarios unless they are right. Consequently, this makes for a lot of screwy and somewhat "out there" criminal plotting, and also reflects on the type of creative sketches and stretches of the imagination and that makes this book two-fold: a research vehicle and an interesting read.

There are no "typical" questions as these are forming the basis of fictional stories that involve crime and essentially made-up situations. The questions are however, broken up into parts such as: Traumatic Injuries, Illnesses, Doctors and Hospitals in Part 1, to another part such as: The Coroner, the Body and the Autopsy in Part IV, and, what could be my favorite and final section Odds and Ends, Mostly Odds making up Part V. And, of course, one of the fun parts is that these questions come from storytellers both famous and not, whose goal it is to want their readers to turn the page, so some of them are truly "out there."

Just to illustrate a few of the questions inside More Forensics and Fiction: Will snake venom injected into fruit cause death? What happens when someone swallows razor blades? and Can DNA be obtained from a half-eaten bagel?

And actually, here is a partial answer to a particular question and it is also related to one of my pet peeves (I will explain after): "Do teeth and their fillings remain in a skull twenty years after death? A.: Actually, the teeth often fall from the skull and jawbone. This is due to decay of the gum and the socket tissues that anchor the teeth in place. It depends on the degree of decay and how long after death the skull is found. You can construct your story either way..."(and so on).

As for my own pet peeve, how can someone find an ancient skull and the lower part, the mandible, is still attached? "In decayed bodies, the mandible becomes detached from the skull as the temporomandibular joint and supporting ligaments deteriorate," yet we often see the skull with the jaw attached, even after discovery of years!

More Forensics and Fiction, by D.P. Lyle, paperback, 432 pages, Medallion Press, April 2012.

Trista Reynolds Was No Mom

2012-01-06T00:01:00.000-05:00

by Dr. Michelle Golland

Okay, I feel like I am in an alternate universe on the sad story of missing baby Ayla. Am I the only one who is not buying a word from Trista Reynolds or even her father? This week on The Vinnie Politan show for HLN the focus was to be of the grieving grandfather and victimized mother Trista. My impression of the grandfather’s reaction was totally opposite. Here is a man whose daughter Trista was in drug rehab for alcohol and “other” drugs. Why is this family responding the way they are with nobody addressing how Trista has been as a mom. She was living with an aunt doing drugs. She needed to be forced into rehab and her kids taken from her by the child welfare agency and given to the father. All of this while she has a 9 month of baby from another man. Hello? Are we asleep here people?

Trista Reynolds was no mom. Justin Dipeitro who is being vilified by the media of course being lead by poor victimized not responsible Trista just makes me sick. What we do know is that even when she came out of her drug rehab program she only physically saw her daughter two times between November and when baby Ayla went missing on December. How she can claim bruises and even the broken arm as abuse when she has had no time in the home of her daughter with Justin is suspicious. The way the grandfather kept repeating that why didn’t Justin check on Ayla during the night is just ridiculous. A 20month old child can sleep through the night. If she goes down at 8pm and doesn’t wake up that is not strange to me at all. What is strange is that the Reynolds family is pointing to that as some evidence of neglect and guilt. All it says to me is that they obviously have not been taking care of this child to even know what a normal pattern of care would entail.

Why is that? Because Trista was never really caring for Ayla. She is a drug addict who then secretly goes to the court to get custody for Ayla. Given her history I would be surprised if the court was going to grant her full custody. Also, has anyone wondered how she is doing with her sobriety during all of this major stress? Has anyone in the media been curious what drug was she abusing? Why are we not pushing for more open honesty from the Reynolds family? When I see the Reynolds family on CNN, HLN, ABC and NBC I don’t see a traumatized desperate family I see people trying to manipulate the media and spin the story how they want it be and nobody is asking the questions that might start to unravel some obvious truths. For example, “Trista were you angry that Justin had custody of Ayla? Trista who was taking care of your other child while in rehab? Trista please explain why as a mom you didn’t see your daughter on a regular basis after coming out of drug rehab? Trista do you see how it seems the court may not be willing to grant you custody given your neglectful behavior as a mother to your children, correct? “

So please next time this family is on the air with you stop lobbing softballs and get real already about how this doesn’t sit right at all. It seems to be that Justin Depietro is taking his direction from the police at each step and if you listen closely they are confirming each thing he states in the media. When I see him speak I see a father who is in shock and trying to cope beyond his limits so he is turning to who he believes he can trust which is the police and not Trista. This may be why he hasn’t contacted her or her family. I also think the lack of contact may be directed by the police to increase the anxiety of the Reynolds family because they believe they may have orchestrated this whole mess. When I look at behavior as a parent and behavior right before this poor little girl went missing the only place my finger keeps pointing is straight at Trista Reynolds and her enabling “victimized” family.

Spotting The Liar In the Courtroom and In Interrogation Tapes

2012-01-04T00:28:00.000-05:00

by Dr. Lillian Glass

This past year we saw a lot of courtroom drama from the Casey Anthony case to countless other criminal cases. We have literally watched people lie through their teeth . We watched Cindy and George’s multiple signals of deception as they appeared on the stand. How these two have avoided going to jail for perjury is beyond me. Anyone else who did what they did would be behind bars by now.

Here are some body language, facial language, voice and speech tells you can look for the next time you look at a tape where someone is being interrogated or you watch them giving testimony in the courtroom.

Body Language

Watch if they shirk back or lean away from the interviewer or the attorney when crucial information is discussed.
They may rock back an forth a means of self soothing.
They may bush repeatedly brush off imaginary lint on their clothing.
Fiddling with their hands and wringing their hands on crucial information.
Repeatedly scratching themselves as though they have an itch.
Shuffling their feet during key questioning
Not moving arms or legs when speaking
Hands folded on lap and no movement whatsoever
Audible breathing or immediate changes in breathing pattern
Hunches over during crucial questioning or discussing significant issues

Facial Language

Blushing, flushing or blanching during significant questioning.
Pulling on their nose or ears
Scratching their head , nose or ears, or cheeks,
Puffing out their cheeks and quickly exhaling a large amount of air.
Upper chest breathing and taking in large amount of air.
Adams apple movement and swallowing during crucial questioning
Cotton mouth
Lip licking and licking of teeth
Pursing the lips indicating they are holding back information.
Tilting head to the side during key questioning
Rapid eye blinking
Breaking eye contact during crucial questioning
Staring
Not looking at questioner at all
Eyes can widen during key questioning indicating surprise at getting caught
Rubs eyes during key questioning
Bows head down

Voice and Speech Patterns

Nervous coughing
Constant throat clearing
Dying off at end of sentences
Mumbling or speaking inaudibly
Pitch of voice raises during key questioning
Gets defensive or overly aggressive during key questioning
Answers a question with a question
Repeats verbatim question interrogator or attorney asked
Stammers or hesitates over key words
Says like um uh a lot when explaining things
Goes off on tangents and doesn’t get to the point
Gives too much detailed information
Often doesn’t make sense
Inconsistent stories
Monotone or inappropriate emotion based on topic discussed

While not everyone of these tells means that a person is lying, if you see enough of them during the context of what is being discussed, there is a high likelihood that they are not being forthright or telling the truth.

www.drlillianglass.com

How To Fear Less in 2012

2012-01-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

by Gina Simmons, Ph.D.

A six year old girl sat in my psychotherapy office crying, "burglars will break into my house and steal me." She can't sleep in her bedroom alone because she can't turn off the fear that "a bad man" will climb through the window and take her away. A ten year old boy fears that his parents will be killed. He screams in terror when his mother leaves to go shopping or his father drops him off for school in the morning. He finds it hard to concentrate in school because terrifying thoughts about losing his family take over his brain, making him miserable.

These children psychologically experience the horrors of crime, without actually experiencing any violations. They suffer from anxiety disorders that prevent them from enjoying life. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health disorder in children 9 to 17. About 13 percent of children 9 to 17 will suffer from anxiety at some point in their childhood. Over 25% of children 13 to 18 will meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder, with 5.9% diagnosed with severe anxiety. I see many teens for anger management who suffer from undiagnosed anxiety. Their unreasonable tantrums over food, clothing, and socializing reveal irrational fears about germs, public scrutiny and social embarrassment.

About 40 million Americans, age 18 and older, suffer from the crippling effects of anxiety. This represents 18% of the adult population. Anxiety inhibits social and economic activity, negatively effects health outcomes and causes unhappiness and unnecessary suffering. Irrational fears, or phobias lead to the brain experiencing horrors as limitless as the imagination.

Even those who don't meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder, suffer from worries that impair judgment and inhibit happiness. People worry about terrorism, politics, world war, crime, car accidents, money, health, and anything dark that the mind can imagine. Worries about the future cause the imagination to run overtime playing out negative possibilities at the speed of thought. These thoughts cause the brain to pump out chemicals like cortisol and norephinephrine that put the body in a needless state of stressful arousal. Without a break from this cocktail of stress chemicals, the body can develop symptoms as if it had actually suffered the imagined trauma.

On a positive note, wonderful treatments for anxiety exist today, with high rates of success. Only about a third of people with anxiety actually get treatment for it. This contributes to much of the preventable suffering in the world. Fears of terrorism after the attacks of 9/11 inspired the book Fear Less: Real Truth about Risk, Safety and Security in a Time of Terrorism by threat assessment expert, Gavin De Becker. He makes a living working to protect high profile people from threats by real criminals. He writes about the difference between fear and anxiety. Real fear arises spontaneously when we face an immediate, perceivable threat. For example, a guy running down the street pushes me to the ground, grabs my purse and runs off. My heart pounds, the biochemistry of fear focuses my attention on safety and my attacker. Anxiety mimics real fear, but with one key difference. Anxiety produces fear-like symptoms over something in our imagination. Something not really happening.

One common theme I see in those with anxiety is a sensitive, imaginative nature. Television news reports, films and other media effect them very strongly. In fact, most of us, even those without anxiety, can feel a momentary tightening of the chest, a change in breathing, if we watch alarming news reports. For healthier brain chemistry and for better information, get your news from a variety of newspapers and news magazines. Blogs, without editorial review boards, are not the best source for news information. Blogs, like this one, offer opinions that you should fact check by reading from sources with strong editorial standards.

Gavin De Becker offers suggestions to improve your critical thinking and reduce your anxiety. Remember that television news programs do not exist to inform you. Television news exists to sell products for corporations. They need to keep you watching longer so that you will watch more commercials. To keep you watching longer they use alarming language like "deadly" and "shocking." When one senior citizen dies of the flu, local news reporters write, "officials alarmed by shocking deadly flu case." A more honest and helpful report might say, "some individuals with impaired immune systems could die after contracting this year's flu virus. You can significantly reduce your risk by frequent hand washing and staying away from those with symptoms of the flu." Not that exciting, but more honest.

The language of worry includes words like "possible" and "links." "The suspect, with possible links to Al Queda terrorists, admitted to multiple local bank robberies." A more accurate report might read, "after his recent arrest, a suspect admitted to multiple bank robberies in the Seattle area. An investigation continues." Anyone who has played the six degrees of separation game knows that all of us are loosely linked to everyone. If you have a computer with internet access you're "linked" to everyone else on the planet with a wired computer.

In addition to thinking more critically about the news reports you watch and read, it helps to commit to some brain hygiene habits that lower anxiety, improve your health and strengthen your happiness quotient. According to the authors of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, exercise significantly lowers anxiety, and in some studies works even better than medication. Vigorous exercise increases Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor, or BDNF. BDNF, called "miracle grow" of the brain, helps with all new learning and growth of healthy neurons in the brain. It also helps to repair the atrophy of the memory center of the brain, the hippocampus, after exposure to chronic stress. So don't make a New Year's resolution to lose weight. Instead, resolve to exercise at least 30 minutes every day. Your brain will love you and your body will become more fit.

To relieve anxiety, exercises that requires mental concentration work best. Sports like soccer, tennis, basketball and football require a lot of aerobic exercise and concentration. Activities like yoga, gymnastics and dance also require concentrating your awareness on what your body is trying to accomplish. These activities and many others give a big BDNF boost, to improve memory, reduce anxiety, and strengthen the body. You'll feel happier, look better and fear less. So move it, move it.

Photos courtesy of pink sherbet photograpy and ugg boy ugg girl.

The Cult of the Disgraced

2011-12-21T23:40:00.000-05:00

by Diane Dimond

It is an odd thing we do here in America. People who get wrapped up in scandal often become elevated to celebrity status.

You know the type of people I’m talking about – those who are caught up in sex or drug scandals, criminal suspects, or some other type of social misfit who’s every move is followed by reporters. Cameras are there as they hustle in to court, show up for their community service or just try to dodge embarrassing questions about their problematic behavior.

These folks become famous for being infamous.

Think Kato Kaelin whose dodgy testimony at the murder trial of O.J. Simpson got him branded as “hostile” to the prosecution. Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern who engaged in sexual relations with President Clinton. Florida murder defendant Casey Anthony acquitted of murdering her 2½ year old daughter. And, now the former Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich who has admitted that he was, indeed, guilty of corruption after denying it for years.

I call them the Cult of the Disgraced and the Misplaced – a cult that attracts media honchos who are eager to exploit scandal for ratings. Hardly anyone in the cult seems to be out of bounds.

After his 15 minutes of fame at the Simpson trial the mop-haired Kaelin got a radio show and appeared on several TV programs. Monica Lewinsky was chased by all the major networks, newspapers and magazines for her first exclusive description of illicit sex in the White House. (ABC’s Barbara Walters won that race snagging what turned out to be the highest rated news broadcast ever.) NBC vigorously pursued Casey Anthony and tried to fashion a book deal for her in exchange for her first TV interview. And, Blagojevich? Well, he fit right into this cult and eagerly took the bait when TV producers came to call.

Three years ago when federal prosecutors revealed they had recordings of the Governor (nicknamed: Blago) arrogantly attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama, Blagojevich came out swinging. He vehemently denied asking for money in exchange for his appointment to the seat. He also denied that he lied to the FBI and had shaken down constituents for campaign contributions. He called it all a political conspiracy and then instead of hunkering down for the fight of his life Blago took meetings with top TV bigwigs.

Not even Blagojevich’s impeachment by the Illinois State Legislature in January 2009 slowed down the offers. NBC was knocking on the door for Blago to star in the “reality” show I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!

In a petition to the court in the spring of 2009 the disgraced governor, pleading poverty, asked the judge for permission to travel to Costa Rica for the filming. The request was denied. Ultimately, his wife, Patti, took the job and was seen on one episode eating a dead tarantula.

Humiliation heaped upon humiliation, I’d say.

But watching his wife forced to ingest insects to pay their bills didn’t seem to give Blago pause. After hosting a radio talk show he went on to make a deal to appear on The Celebrity Apprentice hosted by Donald Trump. More recently he was hired to be the face of Wonderful Pistachios which admitted they were looking “for some buzz” to attract people to their nuts. There’s a joke in there somewhere.

But this celebration and rewarding of the scandalous baffles me. Has the concept of shame ceased to exist in America? If I was criminally indicted or caught up in a disgraceful episode playing out publicly I think I’d hibernate until it passed. Although, I suppose the lure of the money and the idea that sins can be erased if one is seen on TV is too much temptation for some.

The job of media executives is to get ratings and apparently these kinds of shows – highlighting these kinds of people—attract viewers. Why? I’m at a loss to explain except maybe we watch the notorious to make sure we are nothing like them. Maybe we want to see them be shamed on some level.

When Rod Blagojevich appeared in court earlier this month for sentencing (he was found guilty of 17 corruption charges) he suddenly dropped his past denials and admitted his criminal behavior.

“I caused it all,” he said to the judge. “I was the governor and I should have known better. I am just incredibly sorry.” He was then sentenced to 14 years in prison. Blagojevich’s admission laid bare the phoniness of those who rationalized giving him a shot at the public airwaves by saying, “Well, he hasn’t been convicted of anything…”

We had all heard his voice on that recording made years earlier blatantly trying to trade his public position for personal gain. We knew the real story from the get-go.

Blago must serve almost a dozen years before becoming eligible for parole. Let’s hope by then we’ve all come to our senses and decide that TV programs featuring disturbed, addicted or criminal players are a simply not acceptable. Maybe by then TV executives will stop rewarding the least deserving among us.

Are Cadaver Dogs saying You're Lying?

2011-12-13T11:44:00.029-05:00

by Pat Brown

Funny thing about those cadaver dogs; they haven't got a bone to pick with the person being investigated, no interest in closing a case or in railroading anyone. They just do what they have been trained to do. They may not be perfect in that they miss hitting on a spot, but they don't hit on spots for no reason. They are trained to locate where dead bodies of humans have been, not live human beings, not dirty diapers, not on a package of meat, nor a hundred other unseen types of biological items. There is only one thing that trips them up; the body of a decomposing pig (because of the similarity it has to a human body). Unless you can prove you had a dead hog lying about in you living room or in your car, the hit a cadaver dog makes is going to be on human remains. Actually, I am the one of very few people who could actually have a cadaver dog hit in my house for that very reason since my beloved potbelly pig, Gwendolyn (see the video) did indeed expire on my living room floor; however, most people can't make that claim.

Gerry and Kate McCann, parents of the missing child, Madeleine McCann, dismiss the fact that Eddie, the cadav er dog, hit in their vacation apartment and in their rental car in 2007 (but not in any of their friends' vacation apartments nor early suspect Robert Murat's house or property) as meaningless because cadaver dogs are "rubbish." In that same year, a cadaver dog also alerted to the smell of death in Adrian Prout's UK home after his wife, Kate, vanished. Although he claimed he was innocent and her body had not been found, Prout was convicted. After having a fan club that protested steadily that Prout was railroaded, Prout confessed and indicated the area where the body was buried; then more cadaver dogs helped police in the search and Kate's body was found on his farm.

Next we have cadaver dogs hitting in the case of missing baby, Li sa Irwin, who supposedly was abducted in the middle of the night while her intoxicated mother slept. They hit on one spot in the Kansas City home of the parents, Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin, right on the floor next to the bed in the master bedroom. Deborah, the mother, claims she changed diapers there, but if the dogs were hitting on dirty diapers in the home, I would gather they would hit in more places than that one spot.

Now, cadaver dogs have hit again in a missing child case. Two-year-old Bianca Jones went missing in Detroit on December 2. Her father, D'Andre Lane, who was babysitting her at time, claimed on the day he was to return the child to her mother's home, he was carjacked at 10 in the morning by two men with guns. Now, his story stinks worse than a decomposing body. First of all, the "carjackers" choose him (a streetwise felon) driving a 1994 Mercury Marquis (not exactly a hot car from the most carjacked automobiles list). Daddy, seeing two thugs are about to drive off with his little girl puts up no resistance. Instead he calls 911 and the police go searching for the car.

Oddly, it is found jus t six blocks away (and one block from Binika Jones' house, the mother of Bianca), with no child in it. So, let me get this straight. These two carjackers went to the trouble of ousting D'Andre Lane from a car with a toddler in the car seat, don't take the car somewhere and strip it, don't sell it, don't use it for committing robberies (a common use of a carjacked vehicle) and don't take it for a joyride. They drive just six blocks and dump it. Maybe they didn't realize there was a child in it and, therefore abandoned the car? Maybe, but then why would they take the child? The story blows. And so did Dre's attempt to pass the polygraph. Not only that, but two witnesses saw the action: one saw D'Andre driving alone down the street and the other, standing by a window overlooking the alley, saw Lane pull the vehicle into it and walk away. No baby seen with him or in the car.

D'Andre Lane is swearing up and down he didn't have anything to do with his daughter going missing, but everything about his story has been pretty much been annihilated by the circumstances and witnesses. The cadaver dogs hitting in his apartment and in his car pretty much puts a bow on his story as being a crock.

D'Andre Lane is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, but he isn't a suspect for nothing. In the words of Gerry McCann, "Ask the dogs."

(left: cadaver dog hits behind sofa in the McCann's Praia da Luz, Portugal vacation rental apartment. From police files.)

_______________________________________________

My ebook, Profile of the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, removed from Amazon following threat of legal action by Carter-Ruck on behalf of Gerry and Kate McCann, can still be found online at Barnes and Noble and Smashwords. Keep posted for news of my upcoming legal action with attorney Anne Bremner against the McCanns for tortuous interference with business and libel.

Caveat Emptor: If Walls Could Talk

2011-12-12T00:01:00.015-05:00

by Donna Pendergast

Stigmatized property is property which buyers or tenants may shun for reasons that are unrelated to its physical condition or features. Homes which have been the sites of murders, suicide or which have been reportedly inhabited by ghosts all qualify as stigmatized properties. It is a psychological taint rather than a taint associated with the physical condition of a property. The National Association of Realtors defines stigmatized property as property that has been "psychologically impacted by an event which occurred or was suspected to have occurred on the property such event being one that has no physical impact of any kind."

The Amityville Horror house (pictured above) is an example of a property contaminated by a sordid past. It appears cheery and comfortable but it's history is anything but. Six of seven members of the Ronald DeFeo family were murdered here in 1974 by DeFeo's oldest son who later was convicted of all crimes. George and Kathy Lutz moved in a year later and began to report unusual and bizarre paranormal activity. These events later became the subject of the best selling book and movie The Amityville Horror. Another movie Grave Secrets: The Legacy of Hilltop Drive chronicles true events surrounding a house located near an abandoned graveyard where two human graves were found during excavation for a swimming pool. A series of inexplicable paranormal events followed this discovery. The Jon Benet Ramsey house and the house where Nicole Bown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered are also examples of properties tainted by association with a horrific event.

The subject of stigmatized properties is a complex one and the rules vary state by state. Currently about half of the states have laws requiring disclosure of psychological impairment. Other states such as California have passed legislation limiting the requirement for disclosure of a murder or other violent event to three years after the event. Even in the states with disclosure statutes there is variability in what defects must be disclosed.

Where I live in Michigan there is no hard and fast stigma disclosure statute. The language in the form required under Michigan's Seller Disclosure Act suggests that residential sellers are not required to disclose information about the properly beyond it's physical condition. Since a seller normally does not make any form of representation about the stigmatizing event a claim or fraud or misrepresentation can not be sustained.

Yet many believe that he "bad karma" associated with a violent history or a gruesome reputation should mandate disclosure. Even thought the property may not be changed in a physical way the perception of it has changed and the buyers willingness to purchase may well be impacted. Stigmas also impact the value and future salability of a property.

Buyers make emotional rather than rational decisions when they purchase property. How a property "feels" is often the most factor when purchasing a piece of real estate. So would a property feel differently to a prospective buyer if they knew about the history or the psychic imprint associated with that parcel? With most purchasers that question can only be answered in the affirmative. Knowing that a property is tainted by association with murder, suicide or frightening paranormal phenomenon may well be a deal breaker. The lives and deaths of a home's former residents are considered to be a material consideration by many who want to make decisions based on full consideration of all factors.

What do you think? If you really loved a house would a home's sordid past impact your decision to buy? What about if you got a significant price reduction?

As for this girl-----I like to sleep at night. I'm taking no chances.

Statements in this post are my own and are not intended to reflect the views opinion or position of the Michigan Attorney General or the Michigan Department of Attorney General

Dying in Water: Clues for Foul Play

2011-12-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

"They could be drowning."

by Andrea Campbell

I don’t know if you have ever had the conversation with someone about the worst way to die? Even though I am a swimmer, drowning and the panic associated with taking in water and then succumbing to drowning has been a fear of mine.

That’s why when I was reading about water-related death investigation, I became fascinated about this particular area of examination. Obviously the most common way of drowning would be in a submerged vehicle—a tactic Susan Smith used to kill her small children—then there is drowning in a pool, bath, hot tub or a river, and, yes, even a bucket.

A death investigator looks for certain sign posts that alert him to the possibility of foul play. While we talk about some of the clues the water investigator looks for, you will notice that many of the red-flag indicators are based on well-thought-out common sense ideas and principles. Investigator Kevin L. Erskine—who developed a Master Course in Water-Related Death for the Ohio Peace Officer’s Training Academy and a Children’s Ice Drowning Prevention Workshop—has the wherewithal and savvy to demonstrate just how interesting his discipline is. He has also remarked that if you recognize more than one of the potential indicators of foul play, it gives you the determination to look further than just accepting it as an “accidental” mishap.

Bath Tub or Hot Tub Drowning

Parents have been known to dunk their children as punishment and word from expert's has it, it’s widely practiced. On a child’s body, certainly signs of injury—fingerprint grip marks, or bruising on both sides of the neck could indicate a form of strangulation, while, other bruises showing up around the neck or behind the ears can indicate the assault of forced dunking.

Teerapun FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Other clues would be: the fact that parent’s or caretaker’s clothes are dry; water samples that contain vomit, mucus, soap or urine; inconsistent water temperature, meaning, too hot may be punishment by scalding, or, if the water tests cold or if the water has been mopped up—or wet towels are around—the perpetrator may have waited too long to call or tried to hide a water fight or struggle. Look too, for things missing: no toys, washcloths or soap? These items will usually support an actual claim of bathing.

Also, if during an interview, the parent claims he was distracted yet a sound barrier prevents anyone from hearing the doorbell, an investigator may have reason to look deeper than first believed. Of course, with an elderly person’s drowning, look for a new life insurance policy, severe or terminal illness or disease of the victim, or prior domestic-violence reports.

Submerged Vehicles

If you’ve been watching any fictional mysteries or detective shows lately, you will come across the body in the car scenario where the driver’s seat has been readjusted and couldn’t possibly fit the 5-foot tall victim. Erskine says too, to look at the vehicle’s gearshift—was it in neutral or drive? Is there anything weighing down the accelerator? There is a long checklist of clues to look for, but if there is a blow to the victim’s head and the car or truck is relatively undamaged, that may point to suspicious circumstances for sure.

As you are beginning to see, this can be a lengthy, interesting concept. For more than just casual reading, you might want to check out Erskine’s book with Erica J. Armstrong: Water-Related Death Investigation:Practical Methods and Forensic Applications, published by CRC Press. http://www.crcpress.com

Source: Evidence Technology Magazine, May-June 2011. http://www.evidencemagazine.com

How to Help Child Victims of Sexual Abuse

2011-12-02T00:00:00.000-05:00

by Gina Simmons, Ph.D.

As we learn more about the Penn State child rape scandal, my thoughts and concerns remain with the victims. Many children do not tell anyone what happened. I have clients in their 40's who never told their parents they were raped or molested. Sometimes they don't tell because they were threatened by the perpetrator. Here are a few of the comments said to some of my client victims by their perpetrators:

If you tell, everyone will blame you.
No one will believe you and they will call you a liar.
I'll hurt you and your family if you ever tell.
Everyone will know what a slut you are.
I'll do it to your little sister too if you ever tell.
Your family will know you're gay and never speak to you again.

Perpetrators often pick victims with vulnerabilities they can exploit. Children from single parent families and/or of low socioeconomic status make easier victims - children like those involved in accused child rapist Jerry Sandusky's Second Mile charity. These kids want to protect their family from any more stress, as they might live a paycheck away from hunger and homelessness.

Child victims from wealthier homes or socially prominent families are often threatened with loss of life, social status, or public humiliation. Many child victims take on the heroic burden of protecting their families from pain, by keeping the big secret, at astonishingly young ages. I worked with a little 6 year old girl who said, "I can never tell my mother because she will cry and cry and never stop."

Physical Symptoms

Victims of child rape and molest often go through a familiar painful process. After the physical wounds heal, confusing emotions take hold. Anger, hurt, embarrassment, guilt, shame, fear and revulsion can take residence in the body, causing physical symptoms.

Typical physical symptoms include:

gastro-intestinal complaints
stomach aches and headaches
sleep problems
encopresis
enuresis

Behavioral Symptoms
Children often regress to behaviors of a younger age, before the molestation took place. This provides comfort for them as they can imagine a happier sense of safety and innocence. For some the burden of the secret provokes internal conflicts that leak out in a noticeable change of behavior. Some children go from happy, compliant, obedient angels to angry, incorrigible, destructive delinquents after a rape or molestation. Other behavioral symptoms include:

self-mutilation (burning, cutting, etc.)
eating disorders
substance abuse
sneaking out or running away
changes in friendship group
social isolation
lack of interest in normally pleasurable activities

Damage to Body Image
Rape and molestation change a child's relationship to his or her body. Instead of feeling free to explore the world and master new skills, the body becomes a source of conflict. The little girl assumes her early developing breasts caused the rape. The victimized boy believes his body is defective because it brought on this attack by a pervert. This can trigger a lifelong battle with the body as the enemy of one's happiness and serenity. One young woman raped as a preteen hated her breasts and had panic/rage attacks when men would look at her chest. She begged her parents to have her breasts surgically removed.

Family Reactions Can Hurt Worse Than Rape
Many victims of rape and molestation tell me that they recovered fully from the crime itself, and even forgave the perpetrator. But some feel wounded and resentful years afterward by the reactions of family and friends. Victims of incest often face an even bigger evil. I like this line from the Survivors Speak Out network, "The taboo against talking about incest is stronger than the taboo against doing it." Children raped by family members can be made to feel responsible for the break up of the family. One woman told me that her siblings angrily blamed her for the loss of their father after he was convicted of molesting her. Many victims say, "everyone would be happier if I just shut up and disappeared." That's a cruel and unfair burden for a child to bear.

How To Protect Your Children

Children need to know about sexual matters. Ignorant children are vulnerable. Parents should provide age appropriate sexual education starting with the proper naming of body parts in toddlerhood. Parents need to know that words like "rape", "penis", and"vagina" are talked about on every elementary school playground. It's best if these terms are defined by the parents, and not by a seven year old who watches R-rated films.

Sexual abuse prevention programs, like Good Touch, Bad Touch, provide parents with helpful guidelines for preventing child abuse. It's important for parents to know that just because a child knows the difference between "good" and "bad" touch, doesn't mean that child should be responsible for self-protection. Parents need to remain vigilant. Children should never be coerced into providing physical affection to relatives and friends. This disturbs their ability to set appropriate boundaries with adults or teens who wish to get too close. We all have a natural "ick" detector, and if we've been forced to endure grandpa's icky wet kisses, we can lose that protective instinct.

One of my biggest peeves involves the squeamish, juvenile avoidance of sexual communication in families. It's is one of the biggest, crazy-making ironies of our culture, that sex is everywhere, selling everything and yet parents can't say the words "penis", "vulva" or "vagina" without red-faced embarrassment. Years ago I confronted this discomfort at a meeting at a mental health clinic. A group of professionals were discussing what should be on the new counseling intake form. In a long list of questions about substance abuse, legal difficulties, and family history of mental illness, someone suggested sexual abuse should be on the form. Another therapist said, "oh no, we don't want to open that can of worms." As I felt the bile go to my throat I said, "why is sex abuse any bigger can of worms than substance abuse? Victims need a safe place to talk. It's our job to hear these things, open them up for discussion and help victims heal." The question ended up on the form.

When we feel and act embarrassed talking about sex around children we just add to the pedophiles arsenal of weapons. When we equate ignorance with innocence and virginity with purity, we give the perpetrator the ability to define the abuse as good and the child as bad. Do we want our children so ignorant that they learn about sex from a pervert? Is a raped child any less pure? Perpetrators know that kids are sexually ignorant and parents won't ask the right questions. Child abusers know that adults get all wimpy and squeamish and giggly at the mention of anything sexual. Perpetrators thrive in an environment of denial and avoidance.

What To Do if Your Child Was Molested

If your child shares abuse information with you let them talk. Listen without judgment. Let them know you love them. Call the National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD) for help. Take the child for a medical exam, and consider rape counseling and support groups. Get educated with resources and books like, What To Do When Your Child Has Been Molested, or this helpful article from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.

Imagine that instead of sexual abuse, your child is telling you about getting beat up at school. Would you get all embarrassed and tongue-tied? Would you flip out and get homicidal? It's more likely that you would ask questions like, "what happened?" and "are you hurting anywhere?" Express loving concern, but stay calm and supportive. The child has enough to worry about without having to take care of you.

It's important to know that a child's life need not be ruined by sexual victimization. Many children recover and go onto lead healthy, normal lives after molestation and rape. What's most important is how their loved-ones react, and how safe they feel after the trauma.

Other factors that impact recovery from abuse include:

The severity of abuse
The duration of the abuse
The relationship to the perpetrator

Actress, Goldie Hawn writes about her molestation as a child, in her memoir A Lotus Grows in the Mud. She says she was able to recover and feel normal feelings of trust for men after her mother explained that the perpetrator was "sick in the head." Goldie felt loved and accepted by her mother, and says she was never made to feel "dirty" or defective because of the abuse.

One silver lining in the media's attention to the Penn State scandal is that it might encourage more victims to come out and talk about their abuse. Relinquishing the secret of sexual victimization can help many begin to heal. Realize that a victim is a complex human being, with a unique story. We are splendid and beautiful beings, far more significant than any crime(s) perpetrated against us.

Photos courtesy of pinksherbet photography and Alan Light.

About Pepper Spray

2011-11-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

By Deborah Blum

One hundred years ago, an American pharmacist named Wilbur Scoville developed a scale to measure the intensity of a pepper’s burn. The scale – as you can see on the widely used chart to the left – puts sweet bell peppers at the zero mark and the blistering habenero at up to 350,000 Scoville Units.

I checked the Scoville Scale for something else yesterday. I was looking for a way to measure the intensity of pepper spray, the kind that police have been using on Occupy protestors including this week’s shocking incident involving peacefully protesting students at the University of California-Davis.

As the chart makes clear, commercial grade pepper spray leaves even the most painful of natural peppers (the Himalayan ghost pepper) far behind. It’s listed at between 2 million and 5.3 million Scoville units. The lower number refers to the kind of pepper spray that you and I might be able to purchase for self-protective uses. And the higher number? It’s the kind of spray that police use, the super-high dose given in the orange-colored spray used at UC-Davis.

The reason pepper-spray ends up on the Scoville chart is that – you probably guessed this - it’s literally derived from pepper chemistry, the compounds that make habaneros so much more formidable than the comparatively wimpy bells. Those compounds are called capsaicins and – in fact – pepper spray is more formally called Oleoresin Capsicum or OC Spray.

But we’ve taken to calling it pepper spray, I think, because that makes it sound so much more benign than it really is, like something just a grade or so above what we might mix up in a home kitchen. The description hints maybe at that eye-stinging effect that the cook occasionally experiences when making something like a jalapeno-based salsa, a little burn, nothing too serious.

Until you look it up on the Scoville scale and remember, as toxicologists love to point out, that the dose makes the poison. That we’re not talking about cookery but a potent blast of chemistry. So that if OC spray is the U.S. police response of choice – and certainly, it’s been used with dismaying enthusiasm during the Occupy protests nationwide, as documented in this excellent Atlantic roundup - it may be time to demand a more serious look at the risks involved.

My own purpose here is to focus on the dangers of a high level of capsaicin exposure. But as pointed out in the 2004 paper, Health Hazards of Pepper Spray, written by health researchers at the University of North Carolina and Duke University, the sprays contain other risky materials:

Depending on brand, an OC spray may contain water, alcohols, or organic solvents as liquid carriers; and nitrogen, carbon dioxide, or halogenated hydrocarbons (such as Freon, tetrachloroethylene, and methylene chloride) as propellants to discharge the canister contents.(3) Inhalation of high doses of some of these chemicals can produce adverse cardiac, respiratory, and neurologic effects, including arrhythmias and sudden death.

Their paper focuses mostly, though, on the dangerous associated with pepper-based compounds. In 1997, for instance, researchers at the University of California-San Francisco discovered that the “hot” sensation of habeneros and their ilk was caused by capsaicin binding directly to proteins in the membranes of pain and heat sensing neurons. Capsaicins can activate these neurons at below body temperature, leading to a startling sensation of heat. Repeated exposure can wear the system down, depleting neurotransmitters, reducing the sensation of the pain. This knowledge has led to a number of medical treatments using capsaicins to manage pain.

Its very mechanism, though, should remind us to be wary. As the North Carolina researchers point out, any compound that can influence nerve function is, by definition, risky. Research tells us that pepper spray acts as a potent inflammatory agent. It amplifies allergic sensitivities, it irritates and damages eyes, membranes, bronchial airways, the stomach lining – basically what it touches. It works by causing pain – and, as we know, pain is the body warning us of an injury.

In general, these are short term effects. Pepper spray, for instance, induces a burning sensation in the eyes in part by damaging cells in the outer layer of the cornea. Usually, the body repairs this kind of injury fairly neatly. But with repeated exposures, studies find, there can be permanent damage to the cornea.

The more worrisome effects have to do with inhalation – and by some reports, California university police officers deliberately put OC spray down protestors throats. Capsaicins inflame the airways, causing swelling and restriction. And this means that pepper sprays pose a genuine risk to people with asthma and other respiratory conditions.

And by genuine risk, I mean a known risk, a no-surprise any police department should know this risk, easy enough to find in the scientific literature. To cite just three examples here:

1) Pepper Spray Induced Respiratory Failure Treated with Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation

2) Assessing the incapacitative effects of pepper spray during resistive encounters with the police.

3) The Human Health Effects of Pepper Spray.

That second paper is from a law enforcement journal. And the summary for that last paper notes: Studies of the effects of capsaicin on human physiology, anecdotal experience with field use of pepper spray, and controlled exposure of correctional officers in training have shown adverse effects on the lungs, larynx, middle airway, protective reflexes, and skin. Behavioral and mental health effects also may occur if pepper spray is used abusively.

Pepper spray use has been suspected of contributing to a number of deaths that occurred in police custody. In mid-1990s, the U.S. Department of Justice cited nearly 70 fatalities linked to pepper-spray use, following on a 1995 report compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union of California. The ACLU report cited 26 suspicious deaths; it’s important to note that most involved pre-existing conditions such as asthma. But it’s also important to note a troubling pattern.

In fact, in 1999, the ACLU asked the California appeals court to declare the use of pepper spray to be dangerous and cruel. That request followed an action by northern California police officers against environmental protestors – the police were accused of dipping Q-tips into OC spray and applying them directly to the eyes of men and women engaged in an anti-logging protest.

“The ACLU believes that the use of pepper spray as a kind of chemical cattle prod on nonviolent demonstrators resisting arrest constitutes excessive force and violates the Constitution,” wrote association attorneys some 13 years ago.

Today, the University of California-Davis announced that it was suspending two of the police officers who pepper-sprayed protesting students. Eleven of those students were treated by paramedics on scene and two were sent to a hospital in Sacramento for more intensive treatment.

Undoubtedly, these injuries will factor into another scientific study of pepper spray, another acknowledgement that top of the Scoville scale is dangerous territory. But my own preference is that we start learning from these mistakes without waiting another 13 years or more, without engaging in yet another cycle of abuse and injury.

Now would be good.

What is Wrong With People?

2011-11-25T09:53:00.001-05:00

by Holly Hughes

The more I hear about the Penn State pedophilia scandal, the angrier I get. A bunch of grown men sat around and did nothing for years, allowing who knows how many young boys to be sexually molested.

It boggles my mind that a grown man walked in on the rape of a child and did nothing to stop it. Forget for a moment the whole question of who it should have been reported to. Just pause and think about what really happened back in 2002 in a Penn State locker room shower. Mike McQueary, a grown man, a graduate assistant at the time, has said he heard the sound of skin slapping on skin. He went into the shower area and saw a young boy, whose age he estimates to be around ten, with his hands pinned up against the wall and Jerry Sandusky was having anal intercourse with the child. In response to this assault McQueary turns and walks away. He doesn’t yell out or stop Sandusky from raping this little boy, he just simply leaves. He goes home and tells his father. Still, neither of them telephone the police.

To this day, despite the indictment and charges levied against Sandusky, that little boy from the shower is still unidentified. No one knows if he is even alive today. Unfortunately, the statistics tell us that abused children often get into drugs, prostitution and other trouble with the law. McQueary tells his “boss,” Joe Paterno, who passes the information on to Tim Curley and Gary Schultz and nothing is done.

This case is a cautionary tale in many respects. Time after time there were multiple opportunities to stop this monster, Sandusky, from abusing children. As early as 1998, Sandusky was reported to authorities as having inappropriate contact with young boys. Despite the fact that Sandusky admitted to the boy’s mother, on tape, that he had showered with her eleven year old son and other boys and “wishes he was dead”, nothing is done. Despite interviewing another young boy who also reports that Sandusky showered with him, nothing is done. The District Attorney at the time, Ray Gricar, declines to prosecute this predator, and nothing is done. Thomas Harmon, who headed the campus police force at the time, closed the investigation and nothing is done.

In 2000, a janitor named Jim Calhoun tells a co-worker and his supervisor that he saw Sandusky engaged in sexual activity with a young boy in the showers. The supervisor tells Calhoun who he can report it to if he wants. Again, another grown man, this time Calhoun, does nothing to stop the sexual assault of a child while it is in progress. No one, not Calhoun, his coworker or his supervisor calls the police and nothing is done.

Another highly disturbing aspect is that all of these grown men (and more) knew Sandusky had six adopted children, took in foster children and ran a charity he had established for “troubled” youth. Did these men honestly think that those children were safe in Sandusky’s care? It is unconscionable to me that all of these men turned away and did nothing at the expense of every victim since the first reported one in 1998. Not one of them can honestly say they thought pedophilia was a one time event. Their behavior is indefensible.

The average pedophile is said to have 100 victim over his lifetime, but I fear Sandusky is far worse than the “average” pedophile. This is a man who, thanks to his friends, had an endless supply of young boys to victimize. They enabled a child molester to continue unchecked for years.

The Penn State officials, who had a mandatory duty to report suspected child abuse, never did so. Their answer was to take away Sandusky’s keys to the locker room. Really? Really? So, what’s the message there, “It’s okay to rape children, just don’t do it on our campus"? I have heard all the excuses. They didn’t want to destroy the integrity of the football program? Well, how’s that going for you boys? The janitor didn’t want to lose his job. How about his humanity? His compassion? His sense of decency?

Having prosecuted homicides, hate crimes and high profile cases for ten years, I didn’t think there was much that could still shock me. I was wrong. The depth of this cover up at the expense of children is sickening. Even as I write this piece, more victims are coming forward. Sadly, there will be more victims unidentified than the number we will know about.

As the Senate schedules congressional hearings and the California legislature proposes laws to prevent this from happening again I can’t help but think of the sad irony. It takes a tragedy like this for people to wake up and realize that we are failing the children of this country in horrifying ways.

Frighteningly, it didn’t take a special hearing of Congress to prevent this particular tragedy. It would have only taken one of those grown men to “man up” and take a stand. To report this monster and expose him, before he abused all of his victims.

Sometimes it takes a village, sometimes it just takes one good man. How tragic that we didn’t have one here.

My Story – The Friends of Amanda Knox

2011-11-23T00:00:00.000-05:00

by Anne Bremner

My initial involvement in the Amanda Knox case came when I received a phone call from King County Superior Court Judge Michael Heavey nearly four years ago while I was at a conference for the American College of Trial Lawyers. Mike and I talked for some time about Amanda's legal plight. I was interested and probably got hooked on this case at that time. Soon thereafter, I met Mike and Tom Wright for lunch and breakfast at AJ's Restaurant on two occasions in Seattle. Following my conversations with these two remarkable men at those meetings, I was hooked for sure.

What happened next is that we met with the Knox family in West Seattle. I then spent weeks with a certain individual watching the crime-scene videos and studying all the evidence of the case. By then I was more than hooked, and completely convinced that Amanda was innocent. I also conducted my extensive research and found my beliefs to be confirmed.

It was decided that I would release all the evidence to the world's press. The individual specifically required me to not reveal that he was the person behind this. I then released the crime-scene videos to the Today Show and a shot was heard around the world. I felt as if I was Daniel Ellsberg releasing the "Pentagon Papers."

Mike Heavey, Tom Wright and I became “The Friends of Amanda Knox”. We were joined by best-selling author Douglas Preston, “The Monster of Florence” who had lived through the same terrifying experience as Amanda with the prosecutor Mignini; Jim Lovering (our brilliant writer and researcher extraordinaire); Paul Ciolino (famed and talented investigator) and sometime later, Mark Waterbury (extraordinary DNA scientist and author of “The Monster of Perugia). This fine group of people were responsible for turning the “supertanker” around of false and malicious press accounts about Amanda Knox. And in that, they turned around the trial.

The Friends of Amanda Knox consisted of a small group of extraordinarily talented and motivated individuals. What I recount here is but a fraction of what they did. I hope that they tell their stories to show how a group with unique and complimentary talents and skills can turn around an international sensation- in what could be a template for other future efforts to save victims of injustice – innocents abroad. The Friends of Amanda did all of the work, I was the mouthpiece or messenger.

This is what we discovered: the now-famous bra clasp with mixed DNA --purportedly Rafael Sollecito's -- turned from white to black from dirt because it hadn't been collected for months and was dropped repeatedly; a policewoman disturbed the crime scene when she crashed through a window in the house by mistake and shattered glass everywhere; investigators did not cover their heads, letting their long hair hang over the scene; unidentified observers were lounging around the scene and talking on cell phones; and the filming of the evidence was conducted like an old high-school audio-visual class project. We called this fiasco "Fellini Forensics," in mock honor of the famous Italian filmmaker's surreal style. My friend Jim Lovering stayed up all night culling through the tapes and then cataloging them.

In addition, the Italian appellate court would discover that the knife that was such an important part of evidence in this case was shoddily transported in a shoe box, further validating the fact that the forensic evidence was unreliable, contaminated and inadmissible.

I then wrote my piece, "Amanda Knox, My Truth and My Challenge," for the Perugia Shock. I also posted it on my Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper blog for "City Brights." Jim was the genius behind these as well. This was a stepping stone for more articles and discussions, including ones with CNN Anderson Cooper (I blogged for AC 360 on the Amanda Knox subject), Bill O'Reilly, Gerald Rivera, Jane Velez Mitchell, CNN.com, AOL.com, MSNBC, CNN, HLN, Fox News Channel, NBC, CBS, ABC, the BBC, most of the United Kingdom press, the Italian press and local Seattle media. I made weekly appearances for years in the national and local media. All told, I have made hundreds of appearances on behalf of Amanda Knox.

A number of on-air personalities -- and even Donald Trump -- offered to fly to Italy -- and have Amanda's family flown there -- and advocate and fund-raise for Amanda and do anything they could on her behalf and bring her home. I appeared on Dateline NBC with Dennis Murphy and the Today Show over time. I developed relationships with most everyone in the national and local media. And I appeared with Sollecito's and Meredith Kercher's attorneys on the Italian version of "Oprah," "Porte a Porte."

I spent a huge amount of time trying to turn people around on the issue: All of the previously mentioned media outlets required this. I met with the UK Observer and did scores of BBC interviews. I talked to Nick Pisa and debated Barbie Nadeau on the air. For three-and-a-half years I went on TV and radio weekly to get the word out about Amanda Knox. I met with Time Magazine's Tiffany Sharples and a fantastic Time story resulted from this exchange. And New York Times writer Timothy Egan interviewed me and others on the case. Tim's two pieces were real turning points for Amanda. I partnered with KING-TV Seattle's Linda Bryon as well as Kathy Goertzen of KOMO-TV in public appearances and speeches.

My assistant, Joan Stapleton, and Tom Wright set up the websites "friendsofamanda.com" and "amandadefensefund.org." They hired a lawyer to create a trust fund at our own expense. They worked very closely with the Knox family on both sites and ultimately turned it over to them. Tom Wright, the true heart and soul of the Friends of Amanda, took on the torch of these projects and developed a world class website that was translated into many languages. It was and is the most definitive site for information about Amanda Knox. The site has received nearly a million hits from all over the world.

Tom Wright kept an ongoing blog on the website to inform the public the press about any new developments. The Internet hits exploded off the charts. The research receptacle that Tom Wright and Jim Lovering, our researcher extraordinaire, nurtured was vast. We advocated for the securing of a State Department lawyer. We spent considerable time on this issue. We actually contacted an attorney, who later became President Obama's White House Lawyer. We then spent a lot of time with John Q. Kelly, who was excellent. The family chose Ted Simon, who ultimately found little apparent success with the State Department. We, of course, wrote to Congress and to Obama. The Friends of Amanda Knox was a force to be reckoned with.

I became the target of much ire and vitriol against Amanda because I chose to be the face for the Friends of Amanda Knox. Amanda's attorneys and family were not able to step forward to address the evidence and their public-relations representative was tight-lipped, recommending silence, on the advice of Italian counsel, because of fear of retribution and defamation charges in Italy. Websites adverse to Amanda posted terrible comments about me online, including vicious attacks voiced on the Perugia Shock. Amanda-haters posted tasteless, doctored pictures of me online as well as false and defamatory remarks about me, too. I received more death threats than I can count. Every article or story where my name appeared had hideous, menacing comments. In my 25 years of legal practice, prior to my involvement with the Amanda Knox case, I had never had a negative news article or comment published about me in the media or on the Internet. That all changed with Amanda Knox. I received a virtual avalanche of negative publicity, comments and posts. My involvement in this case nearly ruined my reputation and career.

I staked my reputation and career for Amanda Knox. I would still do it all over again if asked. Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.

Self Mutilation - The New Foreplay

2011-11-21T00:00:00.000-05:00

Katherine Scardino

Self mutilation has been around for a long time. Why? I certainly do not have that answer. Experts say that self harmers use violence to the self as a means of coping with intense emotional trauma, pain or distress. It is a deliberate act that can result in serious damage to the skin or underlying tissues, and possibly cause infection. Sometimes there is permanent scarring. It is not a “fad” or something that only young people do. It is more likely to affect young people, but self harm is being seen in any age group, even among the elderly. One in ten teenagers are self harmers, and most do not receive counseling or medical help. Your children, if not a self harmer himself, probably knows someone at school who does.

Self harm is almost always closely associated with a traumatic event of some kind. He or she may feel depressed, confused, angry, frustrated, fearful, guilty, and the list goes on. But, the self harmer feels there is no other sensible alternative (from his point of view) other than to do violence upon himself. One person who engaged in self cutting said that her feelings were so overwhelming that the physical pain of self injury forced her to focus on something other than those debilitating emotions. This practice has been around for a very long time - remember self flagellation by the bad guy in Tom Hanks’ movie “The DaVinci Code”. The ritual of self flagellation is practiced annually by the Shi’ite, using chains and swords, during Ashura where the Shi’ite sect mourn the martyrdom of Imam Hussein. The Hebrew Bible refers to the priests of Baal “cutting themselves with blades until blood flowed”.

Self cutting is the most prevalent form of self mutilation, but burning, head banging, deliberate poisoning, self biting, hair pulling, picking wounds so they don’t heal are all manifestations of the self harmer. The signs of self injury are not always apparent because the act itself is so secretive. Sufferers will often cover themselves up - wearing long sleeves and pants, even in the warmest weather. If anyone sees the injury and inquires, the response is usually that it was an accident.

Self harm is listed in the DSM-IV-TR as a symptom of borderline personality disorder. Depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, schizophrenia and other personality disorders are also associated with self harmers. Self harm is also apparent in high-functioning individuals who have no underlying clinical diagnosis. These people could be the person sitting next to you on the bus or airplane.

Or - even here in Houston, Texas. Last week a jury heard a criminal trial involving two people who were a “couple”, with children in the house, I might add, who were engaging in burning as part of their sex play. The male partner, Gregory Longoria, Jr., was accused of burning the genitals and breasts of the female partner with a Bic cigarette lighter. The prosecution initially claimed that her nipples were melted and her vagina was melted shut. The charge was later lessened from Aggravated Assault with Serious Bodily Injury to Aggravated Assault with Bodily Injury. Apparently, the medical testimony did not substantiate the “serious” part of the bodily injury.

Nevertheless, a jury found the Mr. Longoria guilty of Aggravated Assault and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. My friend and criminal defense lawyer for Mr. Longoria, Stan Schneider, told me that consent was the defense and that these two had engaged in other types of acts such as bondage and other sorts of specialized “equipment”, if you know what I mean. Mr. Schneider indicated that this type of self-harm had been ongoing.

I have had a case where the wife admitted to self burning as a form of teenage “angst”. It was described as “no big deal”, just a few of us girls getting together and doing it. But, the question most people do not, cannot, understand is “why?” As stated above, the reason is serious and one that needs immediate psychological attention.

So, in summary - it’s a bad thing. It is harmful to the body and a bit strange, but not new. Watch your children.

photos: ChantelBeamPhotography, escalade328s, ChrisGoldNY

Penn State’s Shame of Silence

2011-11-18T19:45:00.001-05:00

by Diane Dimond

Imagine an 11 year old boy from an underprivileged family who gets help from a local charity called The Second Mile so he can spend time with members of the exalted Penn State University football team.

This little boy is ushered onto campus and is introduced around by one of the team’s top coaches. He gets to work out with the players and see the action up close. This kid feels like a King! Boy, wait till he tells his buddies back in the housing project where he lives with his single mother.

But a part of the boy’s dream includes something he wishes he could forget. The coach that brought him to this wondrous place suggests a shower at the end of their special day and when they are both naked engages in sexually charged behavior with the child.

After the coach drives him home the boy says to his mother, “If you’re wondering why my hair is wet, we took a shower together.”

The outraged mother calls police and the first official investigation of Penn State’s assistant coach Jerry Sandusky begins. The year is 1998.

The mother has two conversations with Sandusky while police listened in. Police confirm Sandusky admitted showering with several young boys and ultimately told the woman, “I was wrong. I wish I could get forgiveness … I wish I was dead.” The local District Attorney, Ray Gricar, decides there isn’t enough evidence to press charges.

Somehow word gets back to the University and a short time later Sandusky is told by head coach Joe Paterno that he will never be promoted. Sandusky soon retires but retains all university privileges, including keys to the football locker rooms.

Two years later, in the fall of 2000, in that very same Penn State shower room a janitor named Jim Calhoun comes upon a horrifying scene.

Just so you know the nature of what we’re talking about here I’ll quote a brand new Grand Jury report: “Jim observed Sandusky in the showers …. with a young boy pinned up against the wall, performing oral sex on the boy.” Calhoun was gravely upset and immediately told his supervisor, Jay Witherite. Another janitor, Ronald Petrosky, had also observed Sandusky walking out of the building that night hand in hand with a young boy.

Next, it’s March 2002 and a graduate assistant named Mike McQueary entered the locker room one night and heard a “rhythmic slapping sound” coming from the showers.

Back to Grand Jury report: “He saw a naked boy … whose age he estimated to be ten years old, with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky.”

McQueary doesn’t call police. He calls someone he believes is of a higher authority – the exalted Penn State football coach Joe Paterno. Paterno reports the incident only to his supervisor, Athletic Director Tim Curley. Curley tells the university’s VP of Finance, Gary Schultz, and the university’s President, Graham Spanier.

Not one of these men thought to call police or to try to identify the little boy. Why? Perhaps the 70 million dollars the Penn State football program generates each year had something to do with their silence.

I include the names of all the men who knew about Jerry Sandusky’s alleged activities with young boys because, to me, they are no better than the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church who put blinders on and continuously refused to call in law enforcement lest their precious institution be embarrassed. They all consciously allowed the corruption of young children to continue.

The new Grand Jury report outlines sexual attacks by Sandusky on eight different boys. The most disturbing is Victim #4 who was described as being “A fixture in the Sandusky household … (who was) repeatedly subjected to Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse and Indecent Assault at the hands of Sandusky.” Now 27 years old, the former Second Mile kid says he was victimized in 1996, often when he slept in a basement bedroom at the coach’s home.

Everyone in State College, Pennsylvania knew that Jerry Sandusky had established The Second Mile charity for kids back in 1977 and was actively involved in getting school counselors to refer troubled kids to his program. The Grand Jury reports he would often go to the schools and pull out boys from class for private, unsupervised meetings.

Joe Miller, a wrestling coach testified that in 2006 he found Sandusky in an isolated workout room of the school, on the floor with a young boy in a compromising position. “Miller unexpectedly entered the room and Sandusky jumped up very quickly and explained that they had just been wrestling.”

I’m going to predict we will all be astounded at the final number of young men who come forward to say they were victimized. At this writing the number is said to be more than 20 and some may be the many foster children the Sandusky’s housed over the years.

Sandusky is now out on bail, as are Penn State officials Curley and Schultz, the latter two were charged with lying to the Grand Jury about what they knew and when they knew it.

Some might say I’ve rushed to judge Sandusky but, may I just say, there has been no rush. Instead, there has been a years long campaign of foot dragging and cover up.

Shame on all those grownups who knew or who suspected what was happening and thought their football program was more important.

If Jerry Sandusky has an ounce of compassion he will repeat what he told that mother back in 1998. He’ll say he’s sorry and ask for forgiveness and spare everyone the torture of a trial.

Penn State’s Shame of Silence

2011-11-14T12:34:00.000-05:00

Penn State’s Shame of Silence

Cell Phone Forensics

2011-11-13T21:39:00.001-05:00

By Andrea Campbell

Statistics are that in 2005 over two billion cell phones were out in the universe. Today that number hovers around five billion. Estimates are that that number of mobile phones will grow by another billion in 2012—that’s a lot of communication devices and evidence.

New Technology

Unfortunately for many crime scene investigators today there isn’t a lot of information about how to collect and use mobile phone forensics because this technology is in its infancy. Unless investigators operate in a large metropolitan area where there are plenty of technology nerds to consult, or unless they have access to professional organization training seminars, odds are they will not have the kind of knowledge needed or know how needed to utilize what a phone offers: data from a call list, photographs, text messages, video and more usable leads.

Cyber Forensics

According to Science Daily, “Approximately 80 to 90 percent of legal cases today involve some sort of digital evidence.” It’s the recovery and interpretation of this evidence that is sometimes in question by the courts and, at other times, just difficult to access correctly or to explain to juries. Cyber Forensics also involves other devices such as mp3 players, CDs, and more. Wayne Jansen, researcher with the National Institute of Standards and Technology says, "One of the first things that's looked at is a cell phone now.” But unclear forensic tactics for gathering evidence means that some investigators resort to ad hoc tools and procedures—making cell data likely to face new hurdles in the courtroom.

Flasher Box

Non-experts can transfer cell phone data to a computer with a flasher box. According to Lester Wilson, managing director of a London company that makes forensic tools and who often works for police extracting evidence, "People seem to take joy in recording their crimes to their mobiles. Anything you can think of--street robbery, kidnapping, sex crimes--they're taking pictures…" Apparently getting a “forensic” tamper-free version of a tool has not always been available until more recent machines and software. There will always be some models for which no existing forensic tools work. In that case, "Sometimes the best tools are hacker tools, as long as they've been thoroughly examined and reverse-engineered," said Jansen, who helped write NIST's official recommendations for documenting the chain of evidence and creating tamper-proof files. And with the plethora of cell phone choices, the more complex models can be problematic as they are vulnerable to tampering. This means that using wireless technology, the data can be changed.

Seize, Isolate and Document: Data Mining

According to the National Institute of Justice, by exporting information from multiple digital devices (such as call logs from multiple cellular phones or e-mails from computers) and importing that data into an analytical software package, investigators using data-mining techniques can diagram and visualize a criminal enterprise or a timeline of events. This graphical representation can make it easier for investigators to understand the complex relationships in a criminal enterprise or for a jury to understand criminal activity and the possible connections among offenders in a courtroom presentation

SOP

All cell phone discovery must start with Standard Operating Procedures and handled carefully and documented just as other evidence to prevent contamination or tampering. This starts with the legal rights to collect such evidence, photographing of all phases, isolating the components to prevent remote access or a network signal, maintaining network isolation and proper documentation and, so often overlooked, preparation for the courts. For now some investigators will have to enter into training courses, seek certification and the counsel of veterans, and stay in the loop as far as obtaining the most current software and technologies.

Reference & Resource

Dixon, Evan, “Best Practices in Mobile Phone Investigations”, Evidence Technology Magazine, Sept.-Oct., 2011.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2009/0104-digital_evidence.htm

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2007/05/cellphone_forensics

http://www.nij.gov/topics/forensics/evidence/digital/mobile/welcome.htm

https://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles1/nij/199408.txt

Photos: everystockphoto.com

What Message Does Lindsay Lohan’s Four Hour Jail Stint and Casual Body Language Give to Young People?

2011-11-08T00:00:00.000-05:00

by Dr. Lillian Glass

The fact that Lindsay Lohan has just been released from a 30 day jail sentence after four and a half hours sends a horrible message to young men and women. It says that you don’t have to be accountable for your actions and that you will get away with it. Body language wise she appeared relaxed after her sushi dinner the night before, as she entered the jail, knowing full well that she most likely would not be there very long.

Her nonchalant body language gives a clear message that you can chose bad behavior and it will all work out fine because of who you are.

Even if the jails are overcrowded in Los Angeles, in my view they needed to find a space especially for Lindsay to do the time. This was not her first time, her second time, her third time, or her forth time. She needed to be held accountable.

Seeing how she can get away with everything will not help her life in the long run.

Lindsay came to court with her puffy lip trout pout and arrived at the jail with her stylish high fashion makeup, complete with what looks like a double set of lashes and the latest designer clothing . It appears that is nothing but mere a PR showcase for her . There is no remorse for her continued bad and entitled.

Lindsay has been in jail five times already and she is still in her twenties. This is NOT a good sign. Unless she gets major counseling and deals with the underlying cause that stimulates her aberrant behavior ,she is headed for more of the same as she ages. Trouble will follow her forever unless he gets to the root of her troubles- her parents.

There is no question that the root of her problems have a lot to do with her parents in my view. Last week her father ended up behind bars for the sixth time. For violating a restraining order and for alleged abuse. An enabling mother and an out of control father may very well be contributors towards her acting out.

But like her dysfunctional and forgiving parents, Hollywood is also forgiving, especially if there is money to be made. It seems that money will be made with a full frontal nude photo shoot for Playboy.

It seems that those who have been able to insure her for a film also believe they will make money. But the reality of this is that if the Playboy magazines don’t sell or the films in which she appears don’t sell, there is no next time for Lindsay.

After all , in Hollywood, you are only as good as your last gig and if it doesn’t go well, neither will your career. But then there is always the “comeback” as Hollywood loves a good comeback story a la Robert Downey Jr.

While she may have “lucked out” and beat the legal system for now, in the long run as history has shown us, bad behaviors do have a way of finally catching up with people.

Even though it may be disturbing to see her skirt justice and watch her entitled body language , it may be short lived.

Freedom of Speech, the McCanns, and Searching for Maddie

2011-11-06T12:22:00.005-05:00

by Pat Brown

I have been getting a lot of questions about my search fund to be established with monies from the sale of my book, Profile of the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Some of the stuff certain folks are saying is seriously ridiculous, so I thought it best I make a clear statement with simple points they can understand.

1. I am not giving or receiving any monies from the McCanns' search fund.

2. At present, 50% of monies received from the sale of the Profile of the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann will go to the Pat Brown Maddie Search Fund. The other 50% earned from the book is income, not donations. I am selling a product and do not have to donate all earnings (or any) to charitable causes (however, I do pro bono work on other cases as there are OTHER missing and murdered children and adults than Madeleine in this world, so part of my earnings through any means funds this). I have chosen to donate 50% of the book's earnings to my Maddie search fund since she is the focus of this book.

3. The Pat Brown Maddie Search Fund monies will be not be spent on a personal salary (any time spent will be pro bono). Monies will be used for expenses related to doing a search: travel, equipment, hiring of local PIs, or bringing in experts.

4. If I can cover any search expenses by another other method (media, work in the same location, etc.), then I will do so. I always endeavor to always keep costs low when I do pro bono work so that the funds will stretch further: inexpensive hotels, staying with local people, cheap meals, etc.). If I choose to spend above the cheapest rate I can achieve, I pay out-of-pocket.

5. The Pat Brown Maddie Search Fund will be transparent with all monies earned on the book tracked, all monies put into the account tracked, and all monies spent tracked. A full account will be made to the public of everything associated with my fund and my searches.

6. The Pat Brown Maddie Search Fund has no connection with the McCanns' search fund and the McCanns have not given my fund any endorsement. However, it would seem to me if I search in previously untargeted places and either locate Madeleine or eliminate those possibilities, then the search is nothing but beneficial to the McCanns and is following in the spirit of "Leaving No Stone Unturned."

7. There are four theories as to what happened to Madeleine which influence how one searches for the child; whether one thinks she is dead or alive.

One:, the child died accidentally in the apartment in Praia da Luz and there was a cover-up; then we are looking for a dead child in Portugal, Spain, or England.

Two: a local pedophile abducted Madeleine; then we are looking for a dead child in Praia da Luz, Portugal or nearby.

Three: A woman wanted a little girl and got a man to kidnap Madeleine. Then we are looking for a live child somewhere in the world.

Four: A pedophile sex ring kidnapped Madeleine and she is being raped and abused on a continuing basis. Then we are looking for a live child somewhere in the world.

Now, as one only has limited funds (even the McCanns, although they have been quite hefty), it behooves one to put the strongest efforts into the most likely scenario. If the McCanns were not involved in any way (other than neglect) in the disappearance of their daughter, they ought to be using kindhearted people's donations in the most proper way; looking for a pedophile who abducted, raped and murdered their little girl, get him arrested and convicted so that Madeleine gets justice, and prevent another little girl from the same horrible fate. They should be putting a good portion of their search and investigative efforts into locating a local child sex predator.

Why? Because the methodology and descriptions of how Madeleine was supposedly kidnapped and by whom match a person from the area without even a vehicle to take her away in. There is zero evidence of any fancy plot nor even a person smart enough to park a vehicle in the car park right outside the window of Madeleine's bedroom in with which to make a quick getaway. Instead, we have the purported actions and descriptions of some creepy, not-so-bright fellow walking down the street with a child in his arms in full view of everyone. The chances of Madeleine being taken by a desperate wanna-be-Mom or a sex ring are minimal.

Should the McCanns still consider these rare possibilities and still look for a living Madeleine? Well, I can't blame the McCanns (if innocent) for wanting to believe their daughter is alive, so I can understand and accept that they want to put some efforts into that miracle possibility. However, they should be honest enough and good enough stewards of donated monies I(if innocent) to admit the likelihood of Madeleine being dead is very, very high and the likelihood of her being buried somewhere in Praia da Luz or environs is also very, very high. Their efforts should be concentrated there, with some monies set aside for the miracle.

So, I will be focusing on the two top theories; that Madeleine died in an accident and her body was hidden somewhere, or a local pedophile took her and her body is buried locally. IF it turns out that I get ANY information that proves Madeleine was abducted or if any evidence turns up that points to her murder by a stranger, this information will go straight to the police and the McCanns. If Maddie was abducted and murdered by a child predator, I want justice for Maddie and I want that creep put away and I want other children to be safe from him.

My theory as I laid out in my Profile of the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann is just that; a theory. If evidence surfaces that changes my view of what happened to Madeleine, I have no problem disclosing this and adjusting my theory. Theories change based on available evidence; hence, they are called theories, not facts. Theories often change over time, even those postulated by law enforcement and the McCanns. Even Kate admits in her book, Madeleine, her theories of what happened that night have undergone change as she has spent more time analyzing the evidence or after receiving new information.

Why the McCanns had Carter-Ruck threaten Amazon with legal action to get a theory removed from public view is curious as it is only a theory, an opinion, one person's take on probabilities based on what is known at this point in time. Perhaps we will find out why they went to these lengths when the McCanns get on the witness stand in a court of law (when my lawsuit for libel and tortious interference with business makes it to court; I have retained prominent attorney Anne Bremner of Stanford Frey Cooper). Perhaps, then, they will explain why one person's opinion is so concerning they need to go to extremes to get have it silenced.

Madeleine McCann is the most recognized missing child in the world, with the most media attention of any missing child in the world. Unless I am mistaken, more money has been donated to finding Madeleine McCann than any child in the world. My Profile of the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann should hardly affect such a large and successful (moneywise) campaign; so one wonders if the real issue the McCanns have with my profile is that my theory might actually be correct.

I believe in Freedom of Speech. I don't object to the theories of others on cases even if they differ from mine. I don't even object to someone analyzing my theory and writing their opinion of it. I would never try to shut down their viewpoint (even when things are taken out of context and misrepresented in some way); I merely suggest that interested people go to the source and compare the two viewpoints and think for themselves about what theories and concepts are more supportable by evidence and logic.

The McCanns could simply have ignored this profiler's opinion on Madeleine's disappearance or made a statement that they do not think my analysis is very good. If the book was truly libelous as they claimed through their solicitors, Carter-Ruck, they should have informed me of this or sued me directly. Instead, they went behind the scenes and had the book pulled from the market. Inquiring minds wonder why.

I will be in Portugal in February to support Detective Amaral's fight against the McCanns in court, to begin search analysis, and to hear just what Gerry and Kate McCann have to say.

May the truth come out one day and justice for Madeleine McCann prevail.

The Profile of the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann is available online through Barnes & Noble and Smashwords.

When Parents Hate Their Children

2011-11-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

by Gina Simmons, Ph.D.

I once counseled a 12 year old girl, Amanda, whose parents hated her. Prior to her first therapy session, Amanda had fallen off a wall, breaking her collar-bone. Her father made her wait three hours to go to the hospital because he wanted to watch a football game. In a videotaped session she cried, "why don't my parents love me?" As tears flooded Amanda's cheeks, her stunningly beautiful mother looked at herself on the television monitor and smiled.

While nature provides healthy mothers with lovely bonding brain chemistry, like oxytocin, to stimulate feelings of love and connection, some truly hate their offspring. Hate does not demonstrate itself in simple anger, resentment or hostility. Most parents get very angry when their children misbehave, keep them awake at night, or act disrespectfully. When children disobey parents, a feeling of helplessness follows. When you feel helpless you get angry. Anger can lead to inappropriate discipline and even abuse. In that case parents need anger management training, support and parenting classes. Hate is a different animal.

Another patient described her mother's cold rant, "I wish you had never been born." At 50 years of age the damage from those words still wounded. Another patient said that when her father got angry at the children he would get up from the table and shout, "I'm going to get my gun!" At that point the family would flee the table and hide until the storm passed. When parents hate their children they wish for their annihilation.

The father of Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, coined the term Oedipus Complex, from the Greek story of Oedipus, about a man who killed his father and married his mother. He used this story to describe a stage of child development when a boy wishes to be close to his mother and push his father away. Eventually, the healthy boy resolves the complex when he identifies with his father and becomes independent from his mother.

I prefer to spotlight the other side of the story, the story of Laius, Oedipus' father. King Laius was told by an oracle that he should never have a child with his wife because that child would kill him, marry his wife and become king. After the birth of his son Oedipus, Laius makes several attempts to kill his son in order to thwart the prophesy and maintain his power. The Laius Complex describes parents who feel so threatened by the power of their children that they wish for and sometimes cause their death.

M. Scott Peck, in his chilling book, The People of the Lie: The Hope For Healing Human Evil, described a case where a family brought in their only remaining son for counseling due to depression after the suicide of their other son. While chatting with the boy to make him feel comfortable Dr. Peck asked about Christmas, and if he received any presents. The boy said he received a gun from his parents for Christmas. Concerned that the parents gave a depressed and suicidal boy a gun for Christmas, Dr. Peck asked more questions. Not only did the parents give a gun to their son, they gave him the same gun the brother had used to kill himself.

Hatred of this sort has a cold, calculating quality. Children raised in these homes feel confused, like Amanda. They feel love for and attachment to their parents, but don't understand why they get only coldness in return. Pioneering psychoanalyst Karen Horney used the term, "basic evil" to define parental indifference. She believed it was not the heat of anger, but the cold indifference of parents that led to many neurotic disorders.

When children lack basic warmth and affection from caregivers they can and do die. Failure to thrive, refers to children whose current weight and rate of growth are lower than expected for their age and gender. The emotional deprivation of unloving parents is listed as one of the causes for failure to thrive syndrome.

Some of my patients raised in emotionally deprived environments talk about how lonely they feel when they try to tell their story. "Most people say, 'oh all parents love their children, maybe your parents just didn't know how to be parents,'" one patient shared. Sometimes what helps break down that feeling of alienation is when someone says, "yes, some parents do hate their children." And it's not your fault.

Photos courtesy of: Pink Sherbet Photography, Picture Truths and Vlad Sfichi.

A Colorful Little Tale of Halloween Poison

2011-11-02T00:00:00.000-04:00

by Deborah Blum

I grew up on a dead-end street in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where remnants of swampy forest surrounded the old wood-frame homes. Live oaks lined the streets. Spanish moss dripped from their branches. Snakes coiled under the ancient azaleas that edged the yards.

It was, in fact, the perfect setting for a haunted Halloween night. And there was this one house, you know, where the yard was so dense with bush and tree that it could barely be seen through its thicket of shadow. To trick-or-treat, you walked up the dark sidewalk toward a faint glow on the front porch, just the one lit window. The air hummed with passing insects and the porch creaked like Dracula’s coffin under your feet, the slow, dry eek of old wood.

Reader, you had to beware on Halloween night. Just a block over lived a maniacal dentist who liked to dress up like a werewolf on October 31 and fill his front hall with clouds of drifting fog created by dropping dry ice (super-chilled chunks of carbon dioxide) into water. Bwa-ha-ha, he would chortle as he opened the door, as the chilly wisps of fog drifted out around him.

But this silent house, dressed in darkness, was so much scarier. We children would gather in front of the gate, unable to walk alone through those prowling shadows. The crowd would form on the sidewalk: tiny pillowcase ghosts and jeweled princesses, small pirates and glittery fairies. When someone decided we’d achieved a safe number, we’d start edging toward the green door at the top of the porch steps. Whispering about what the old man who lived there would hand out – what dangerous treats might wait for us there.

This was the 1960s and even then, people told stories, warned their children, about the psychopaths out there who might drop poisoned candy into one’s hands. In the long history of the holiday, truthfully, this has almost never happened. But the very nature of Halloween – the witch at the door, the monster in the closet – lends itself to such ideas. Wasn’t there a crazy woman on Long Island in 1964, after all, who handed out arsenic to trick-or-treaters she thought too old for the candy hunt?

It hardly mattered that as Snopes points out, she didn’t kill anyone. And her deliberate poisoning attempt seems to be an odd exception to the general goodwill of the holiday. The psychopath at the door is an urban myth. Most of the poisonous Halloween stories turn out to be mistakes or far more personal tragedies. The worst is that of a Texas father who murdered his eight-year-old son in 1974 for insurance money.

He did so by putting cyanide into into the fruit-flavored sugar inside a Pixie Stick, one of the child’s favorites. In an attempt to make the death seem like a random poisoning, the father – Ronald Clark O’Bryan – also gave cyanide-laced candy to his daughter and three other children in his Deer Park neighborhood. These other lethal treats were collected by police as (fortunately) the children hadn’t touched them.

O’Bryan – nicknamed The Candyman by the Texas media – was executed by lethal injection ten years after his son’s death. But people remembered. And they forgot that the worst outbreak of Halloween candy poisoning had nothing to do suspected killers. The biggest poison outbreak – linked to Halloween of 1950 – was simply caused by orange food coloring used by candy manufacturers.

Scores of children across the country fell ill with severe diarrhea and welting rashes after eating candy and popcorn balls tinted by the FDA approved Orange Dye No. 1 ( also known as FD&C Orange No. 1, Acid Orange 20, and Orange 1). The “FD&C” indicates that the dye is used in food, drugs and cosmetics. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Orange 1 was used primarily in candy, cookies, cakes, carbonated beverages, and meat-products such as hot dogs.

As federal investigators would discover upon investigation, the dye was also a rash-inducing occupational health hazard. Orange 1 belonged to a group of seven dyes first approved by the federal government in the year 1906, the first year that this country began regulating food safety. All seven of these dyes were coal-tar dyes, derived originally from the hydrocarbon byproducts of processed coal. Orange 1, for instance, contained benzene, today one of our better known toxic compounds.

But at that Halloween moment in 1950, no one had thought much about colored food. In fact, officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration suddenly realized that no one had really taken a good look at these turn-of-the-century food dyes for almost 50 years. The FDA promptly launched an investigation that found that, yes, Orange 1 was definitely poisonous: an oral dose of one gram of the dye per one kilogram of food killed two out of five mice in a day. A 20-week-experiment mixing the dye into rat food killed three of eight test rats.

The researchers also found that manufacturers were tossing the dye into candy corn and sugary little pumpkins with surprising enthusiasm. According to a 1954 article in The New York Times, one piece of candy was 1,500 parts per million pure Orange 1. Two years later, in 1956, the FDA delisted Orange 1 as well as Orange 2 (used to deepen the color of oranges) and Red Dye No. 32. Twelve other food colorings have been delisted since that time. This doesn’t reassure everyone; consumer advocates still worry over the health effects of food coloring.

But – take at least this reassurance: it’s been a long time since we saw children falling ill across the country because they indulged in an extra handful of candy corn, not realizing that its cheerful orange was a signal for trouble. We’re mostly smart enough to realize that regulating food safety offers more protection than worrying about the crazy man behind the door.

Which brings me back to my friends and I hesitating at that shadowy gate on a Halloween night in Louisiana. Let me tell you what happened, Halloween after Halloween. Slowly, we inched down the sidewalk, creaked up the steps, quavered at the door. Slowly, the door pulled open and the slightly tottering elderly man opened the screen to drop glossy red apples into our bags.

Every year it added an extra thrill to the night. But, reader, you had to beware on Halloween night. I’m almost positive they were just bright fall apples. But our parents wouldn’t let us eat them.

Another Missing Baby

2011-10-28T00:00:00.000-04:00

by Holly Hughes

Once again, another child has gone missing and another mother tells an evolving story. On Tuesday, October 4th, 2011, at approximately four a.m., the alarm was sounded when ten month old Lisa Irwin was reported missing by her parents, Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin. The mother, Deborah Bradley, initially reported that she last saw her baby girl when she put her to bed at ten thirty p.m. Now, weeks into the investigation, it comes to light that she last saw her at six forty p.m.

She has steadfastly refused to speak with local media, when clearly, they would be the most effective outlet to keep Baby Lisa’s story alive in their neighborhood and the surrounding locales. Yet, when she does give an interview to a national media outlet, we hear more disturbing and unbelievable claims.

Deborah Bradley insists she hasn’t spoken to her two boys, ages five and eight, about the night that Lisa disappeared. Another puzzling statement she has made is that she didn’t go looking for her baby, even in her own backyard because she “was afraid of what she might find.” On top of all that, neither Bradley nor Irwin are cooperating with the police and have denied police access to the two little boys who were admittedly present that night, until this week.

All of these behaviors are inconsistent with a mother who desperately wants to find her child. If my child went missing, the police would not have to be hunting me down, begging for an interview. I would be in their face, on their phones and setting up shop in their precinct. I would be tearing around my entire neighborhood, including my own back yard, looking high and low, shouting her name.

I would not lie to the police about the crucial time in question, altering my story by four hours. Surely, Bradley must know that in child abduction cases, every second counts. A perpetrator could be hundreds of miles away, seriously changing the scope and course of the investigation. I don’t think I’m alone in this. I believe this is the way most parents would behave who were not involved.

But does this odd behavior mean she is guilty of anything? It certainly raises eyebrows. Is it consciousness of guilt or just quirkiness. Are there too many coincidences and oddities here? The very first night that Irwin works the overnight shift, Lisa goes missing. The same night, incidentally, that Bradley is passed out drunk. Admittedly someone else could have known that Irwin was to begin the night shift, but who could have possibly known that Bradley would drink herself into oblivion?

They have hired attorneys and a private investigator to handle things. Well, that is hardly going swimmingly. They seem to making a bigger mess. The attorneys made a big deal of announcing they were going to be giving daily press releases and they would open the house, the crime scene, so the press could walk through. Well, neither of those things occurred, raising even more questions.

Much ado has been made about the fact that a “cadaver dog” hit in the bedroom of Bradley and Irwin. Unfortunately, that does not mean there was a decomposing body there. It could be blood from an old wound, sloughed off dead skin, or any number of other things. The forensic testing done on those samples will hopefully give us more definitive answers and point us in the right direction.

Although things don’t seem to look good for Bradley, there are other possible scenarios here. Maybe she is just an emotionally immature young woman who does not know how to handle all that has been thrust upon her.

Police have also reported that several credible witnesses have come forward to state that they saw a man walking with a baby around midnight, the same night that Lisa Irwin disappeared. They have obtained some grainy video surveillance that seems to corroborate that, indeed, there was a man out at that time in the reported area, but it is too poor quality to tell if he is indeed holding a baby. Then there was the finding of a backpack with purportedly soiled diapers in them found near an abandoned house not far from the Bradley/Irwin residence.

Sadly, until Lisa Irwin is found, dead or alive, we will not have any more answers than we have now. There is always the hope that she was taken by someone who desperately wanted a baby to love and raise. At least that way, there is hope that she may be returned to her family some day.

Some Reflections on Segregation

2011-10-24T00:00:00.000-04:00

by Katherine Scardino

I have told you before that I grew up in a small farming community in the Piney Woods of East Texas. I was up there last weekend and on Sunday I drove the three hours back to the big city listening to the radio. I tuned to CNN on my radio and learned that the Martin Luther King National Memorial dedication ceremonies were ongoing in Washington, D. C. I was a young girl during the 50's and 60's and like most young girls, I was caught up in myself and not much aware of what was going on in the world around me. Only as an adult have I thought about that period of time.

I can remember going to the movie theater in my hometown and noticing that the black boys and girls had to sit in the balcony. I remember watching them walk up the stairs as I sauntered to my cushy seat close to the screen. I remember watching them go to the water fountain marked "Black" while I used the water fountain marked "White." As a girl, I never thought twice about the meaning of all that.

As I was listening to the music and the speeches of men and women who spoke at the dedication ceremony that day, I started reflecting upon that period of time for me. I can honestly state that I never once went to any school with an African American child. Further, I can state that I cannot recall ever having known any African American child or adult during my years in this community. I was an adult before I ever had a black friend or realized the enormity of the Civil Rights movement. I wish I had known Rosa Parks. Ms. Parks is the black lady who refused to sit in the back of the bus, and was subsequently arrested. I am not sure what the crime was, but she was taken to jail because she refused to obey the bus driver and proceed to the back of the bus with all the other black men, women and children, as all the white people, you know, sit in the front of the bus. I know that I would have loved her.

Martin Luther King must have been a courageous man. He was considered not only a a peacemaker (since he won the Nobel Peace Prize) but also an agitator. Without him and other people like him, the Civil Rights movement would not have happened as it did. I believe it would have happened, because no group of people in America can be subordinated as that race was and continue without an uprising. (Remember the Revolutionary War and the Civil War?) But, the message of Martin Luther King was agitate. Speak out for your rights as an American citizen, but do it without violence.

How brave these people had to be to speak out. Mr. King was called every name imaginable; he was stabbed, had rocks thrown at him, his house was bombed, and then, finally James Earl Ray happened along and put a bullet or two in him. But, during this period of uprising and demand for equality, Mr. King never wavered. He never said OK, let's stop now. We can live with what we have. After all, the Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education and directed that education in America must be equal. But, I can attest to the fact that during my early school years, that was not the case. And, in my business as an attorney now, from what I can tell, that is still not the case. Our children are not educated equally. We have a long way to go.

It was interesting to me that I even began to listen intently to the MLK dedication ceremonies after my weekend in east Texas. Because, this weekend, I heard the word "nigger" for the first time in years. It was embarrassing and startling to hear someone I know use that term. Of course, as someone who has never learned to hold the tongue and be silent, I did speak out and made it clear that while I cannot demand that she never use that word again, I can demand that it not be used in my presence.

As I drove down the highway, listening to the radio last Sunday, I think I learned something. I learned that every aspect of our childhood does not have to follow you into adulthood. We can learn better ways to do things and better ways to think about our society. We can learn that because of courageous people like Mr. King and Ms. Parks and many others, the African American society in the United States of America can overcome hatred, racism and ignorance. And, we can learn - and remember - what those brave men and women did in the mid-1700's who produced this document called the Constitution of the United States of America that states "all men are created equal" and it is imperative that we uphold that document. It takes time to change, as Mr. King knew, and as our first black president is learning now. We can hope, but change takes longer. We are still changing, but this time around, let's all hope that it is for the good of our country and benefits all of us. What benefits one segment of our society will ultimately benefit all of us.

photo credits (flickr.com): Trevor.Huxham; caboindex; Elvert Barnes; Elvert Barnes 2