September 24, 2006
Geragos to Defend Another (alleged) Baby Killer
After nearly a year since Holly Ashcraft was arrested in Los Angeles for the alleged murder and disposal of her newborn baby boy in October 2005, the State of California is conducting a preliminary hearing to determine if Ashcraft will stand trial. Ashcraft’s new counsel of record (as of April 2006) is none other than “high-profile defense attorney” Mark Geragos.
Geragos replaced Ashcraft’s original lawyer, Paul Wallin, who successfully represented the third year USC student in a similar case in 2004 when Ashcraft was suspected (but never arrested or charged) of delivering and disposing of another newborn baby. Thus, we have hit the trifecta of murder cases here: a “Xerox” murder – where an accused gets away with an alleged murder and repeats the modus operandi; the murder of a child by a parent who is described as “very bright, athletic and very upbeat” and “one hell of a good kid” by her family; and our favorite lawyer using his all-too-familiar tactics to exonerate his client.
Ashcraft was arrested after an anonymous tipster called 911 to report finding the newborn in an alley behind a bar popular with USC students. When officers arrived, they found the child's body lying in a cardboard box next to a trash bin. The boy's umbilical cord was still attached, suggesting a medically unattended birth.
Apparently, Ashcraft was so audacious (or careless) she hid the body in an area right behind her second floor apartment.
Back in 2004, she sought medical treatment at an emergency room and doctors determined that she had just given birth. Ashcraft claimed the baby was stillborn and that she “buried it,” but never revealed the location of the baby’s grave. Law enforcement did not pursue charges at the time, but when a second dead infant was linked to Ashcraft within a year, she was not so lucky. Her bail was set at an astonishing $2 million because prosecutors considered her a flight risk. Bail was eventually reduced to $200K so she could post bond and delay the proceedings for as long as possible; which, of course, is Mark Geragos’s indisputable area of expertise.
According to a recent article HERE, DNA of the baby tested in the 99.93 percentile matching Ashcraft’s, and that his death was determined to be a homicide by the results of an autopsy. Geragos’s strategy seems to be to invalidate that his client was pregnant at all:
Mark Geragos, who is representing Ashcraft, ticked off a list of friends and relatives close to Ashcraft, who told investigators they never suspected Ashcraft was pregnant.
When this nonsense fails, expect Geragos to argue that the cause of death is in dispute, there was a conspiracy driven by conservative, right-wing religious fanatics to punish his client (wasn’t there a John Grisham book with this plot?), and that poor Holly is another unfortunate victim of police tunnel vision and politics. I wonder if he’ll turn this into a pro-choice debate to attract the media? This case hasn’t received much attention, but Geragos’s presence is most certainly a harbinger of disaster.
Posted by lorelei at 02:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (181)September 19, 2006
The Trenton Duckett Tragedy
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Where is Trenton Duckett?
Cops arriving at Melinda Duckett’s Leesburg, Florida apartment the night of her son Trenton’s “disappearance” on August 27 may have immediately suspected that the scene was staged. Trenton’s disappearance occurred less than two weeks after his second birthday, which was celebrated at the Venetian Gardens with a combined party for him and his 21-year old mother. Melinda announced the birthday party on several MySpace sites and invited friends and online strangers to bring their friends, family and “a dish to pass.”
From the news stories covering Trenton’s disappearance, a familiar pattern emerges:
Trenton was last seen in his bedroom at the Windemere Villas in Leesburg around 7:00pm.
This information came from Melinda – she claims he was “last seen” at 7:00 pm. But, of course, that is probably false. She may have been the last to see him, but it wasn’t at 7:00 pm. The problem with news stories that repeat information that has not been verified or that originates from the prime suspect in a potential domestic murder is that it presents this information as fact rather than unsubstantiated alibi.
Later in the investigation and after Melinda’s suicide, the reports take a turn toward factual:
Police said no one can confirm seeing Trenton after about five o'clock on Saturday, August 26 and that's a good 26 hours before his mother reported the kidnapping. Police have checked store surveillance tapes and phone records, but they won't confirm what they've found.
Signs of staging:
There is a sign of tampering to the exterior of the apartment that raised our concerns pretty much immediately when we were out at the scene...
Possible motive(s):
Melinda Duckett filed for divorce in June and was granted a temporary restraining order against her husband in July. In her petition to the court, she said Joshua Duckett sent her an e-mail threatening to kill her and their son.
Joshua Duckett, a Wildwood electrician, has denied writing the message and said Wednesday that he has hired a computer analyst to prove it.
Melinda Duckett filed for divorce from Joshua Duckett on June 14, and the two were fighting for custody of Trenton.
Early on, familiar lines were drawn between the families of the estranged couple:
Police are trying to verify the mother's account of what happened. Her side of the family was not at Tuesday's news conference with police.
Trenton Duckett's father, Joshua, and his family stood right next to investigators Tuesday to plead for Trenton's safe return. They call themselves Team Trenton and wore t-shirts with a picture of his smiling face.
Melinda said she hasn't attended recent news conferences to keep the feud with her estranged husband from overshadowing the search.
Keep the focus on Trenton, right? Just as the focus on Trenton was becoming more like a laser beam, Melinda commits the ultimate selfish act of suicide; thus taking any information of Trenton’s whereabouts to wherever the soulless go after death.
If Mark Geragos were defending Melinda, this bit would go into the "No Playbook for Grief" argument:
Law enforcement officials told the WESH 2 I-Team that police found freshly painted walls in some places, and in the back, trash thrown out by Duckett was filled with Trenton's toys.
But what grabbed investigators' attention were the pictures. They said a lot of pictures of Trenton, including the sonogram printout from when Duckett was pregnant, were all thrown away in the trash.
Does this remind you of anyone? You can set your watch to these types, they are so predictable
Based on some of Melinda’s posts on MySpace, she was familiar with guns and had gone to a firing range this past summer. Who knows what she was plotting at the time, but it’s becoming clear that there was a method to her madness. She was obviously seeking new romance and an escape from her “two full-time jobs”, full-time school and single parenthood, and likely hoped that Joshua or a mysterious intruder who could fit through a 10” slit cut in a window screen would be the prime suspects.
Melinda’s body language and affect during media interviews set new standards for stoicism and evasiveness. Even Scott Peterson could squeeze out a few tears (and other facial fluids) for Diane Sawyer. Melinda’s expression was blank; at least those times when she wasn’t closing her eyes. Once again, the ice cold blood of the pathologically selfish seems to stifle any emission of passion or sympathy in their performances. Acting lessons would not have helped.
Police said they do not believe Trenton was taken by an intruder. They are asking everyone in Leesburg and Lady Lake to search their own properties, though they admit a mother harming her own child and then faking a kidnapping would be rare, but not impossible.
On the contrary, there are many cases in the annals of crime history in which parents kill their children to escape the inconvenience, expense, and romantic hindrances. Cameron Brown (accused, not yet convicted), Nicole Diar, Diane Downs, and Susan Smith immediately come to mind.
This case is incredibly tragic and sad, but not unusual.
Posted by lorelei at 08:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (165)September 17, 2006
When We Were Very Young
A selection of tot shots of some of your favorite misfits including Lisa, Barbara, Nadine, Jo Anne, Doe, CountryGirl, Christina, Vero, Anne, Deege, and yours truly.
I would have uploaded a movie/slide show, but the file was too big.
If you have a tot shot you'd like included, go ahead and email it to me.
September 05, 2006
Stephen King's "Cell" Out
It used to be years ago I could pick up a new Stephen King novel and look forward to a thrilling escape for a week. King tended to write tomes at least 500 pages long, filled with complex back stories, parallel plots, flawed and likeable characters and wry social commentary. Not so with his latest release, Cell - as disappointing as a 45-second roller coaster you wait in line two hours to ride.
Throughout the narrative, mostly told from the point of view of a comic-strip artist Clay Riddell, seeps an underlying cynicism and indifference unlike most of King’s better works. Gratuitous violence and gore clutter up the already abbreviated storyline, as though King had surrendered to sound-bites and podcasts for the short attention span of the audience he cautiously parodies.
The premise had potential: a “pulse” that reprograms people’s brains, compared to erasing the disk on a computer, is generated simultaneously to every person’s cell phone, creating a subhuman culture of cortex-driven animals who display various behavior, at one time of birds, at another of beasts. The reader is never certain of the origin of the pulse, who developed it, what its purpose was, or how many people were affected. These are just a few of the gaping holes in the storyline that beg explanation.
Departing from all good fiction, including his own, King completely omits a villain in this book. The reader has no idea who the bad guys are, what their agenda is, or whether they suffer any backlash or consequences because of the unpredictable behavior of mind-wiped humans. The “flock” (what the characters call the living dead) become the enemy: a sort of nameless, faceless horde of wraiths who were once friends, spouses, neighbors or children. It just doesn’t work well at all.
There is only a small ensemble of main characters whom the reader follows from the beginning to the end of the story, none of them well developed save maybe Riddell, and even then we are given but snapshots of his life before “the pulse”. If you ever read The Stand, you know that King goes into great detail about the background and personality of all the characters, especially the most important participants. Where was that eye for detail in Cell? Where’s the flesh? There was already far too much blood.
I would not have been so disappointed in the ending had King given us more to care about, imagine and hope for prior to cutting us off like a sudden break in wireless service. Cell left me with the sense of incompletion and disconnection and not a little frustration imagining what he could have done with this story if he had wanted to.
Rating: 2-1/2 stars, and that half star is only because the dialogue is, as usual, pretty good.
Posted by lorelei at 05:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (152)September 02, 2006
"What I did on my Summer Vacation"
Did anyone really have to write an essay like this for class? I never did. I don’t think my teachers cared what we did over the summer. Not that I ever did much: swim, lounge around, stay under the radar, hang out at the mall, ride my bike down to the beach. There wasn’t much to do until you were old enough to have a job or drive a car.
It’s really an ironic title for the entry, since this summer the only thing I took “vacation” from was Misfitting, and everything else spread out to fill in the gaps. My little crew had a very busy summer. As many of you know, I moved, and I did it without professional movers, so I’m simply delighted to have the agony and sheer exhaustion of that horrible experience behind me. Between the cleaning and schlepping, I used muscles that haven’t been heard from in years, although I became stronger and fitter as a result. There’s always a silver lining. Another benefit to moving is being motivated to organize or get rid of things that you have had packed up for years and don’t want to take with you. In the beginning, I sorted and bagged and drove things to various charities or recycling facilities. Toward the end, when I was going through those last few boxes and that last closet, I became extremely unsentimental, if not downright cold-blooded.
On the kid front, there were the usual swimming lessons, day camps, summer camp, and field trips; but because our new neighborhood is on a private street with a private beach, we had to gear up for lakefront living. The kids got new bikes: one ready to ride, one in a box (yes, I assembled it all by myself. I was ecstatic to find the adjustable wrench), and water shoes to wade in. They collected beach glass, skipped stones, watched the boats or played with the neighbor kids. They were in heaven. Even now that school has begun, they are on the beach or riding around to take advantage of the daylight and warm weather while it lasts.
It took over two years to get into a courtroom, but in late June through mid-August, the California murder trial of Cameron Brown finally took place. After hearing six weeks of testimony and nearly a week in deliberations, the jury deadlocked over the degree in which to convict Brown. From reliable accounts, all but two jurors agreed that Lauren Key’s death was not an accident. Immediately after Judge Arnold declared a mistrial, a new trial date was set for mid-October. Pat and I kept a blog on the Brown case and will update it as events occur. Meanwhile, as in Peterson, the defendant’s apologists have set up their own blog as a venue to discuss the egregious violations against poor, innocent Cam Brown, gnash their teeth over the corrupt court officials, vilify the dastardly DA, and dissect the detritus of the issues, many of which never saw the light of a courtroom. (Big yawn, here.)
The highlight of the summer was my visit from Pat (“CountryGirl), when she flew in from California to drive with me to Michigan as a surprise birthday present to Lisa. Other misfits in attendance included Vero and Barbara; but there were several honorary misfits by the end of the evening. As another surprise, the misfits unable to be there in person organized a group phone call and birthday song in somewhat unison (heh) from cities across the globe.
Naturally, I brought the infamous pastel striped shirt for the requisite photo ops, and eager volunteers at Lisa’s party posed with it. The remarkable popularity of the shirt inspired the idea to send it to misfits all over the world and assemble an ongoing photo essay detailing that damned striped shirt’s adventures. Thus began “TDSS World Tour.”
Late August came much too soon and the kids are already back to school. As I have mentioned in entries past, I long for the summer to dally endlessly beyond its official final weekend. However, there is work to do and we have many subjects to discuss. The agenda here is to have fun, make friends and learn something every day. Welcome back to the journey!
Posted by lorelei at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (153)September 01, 2006
Home Sweet Home
Gee but it's great to be back home
Home is where I want to be.
I've been on the road so long my friend,
And if you came along
I know you couldn't disagree.
It's the same old story
Everywhere I go,
I get slandered,
Libeled,
I hear words I never heard
In the bible
And I'm on step ahead of the shoe shine
Two steps away from the county line
Just trying to keep my customers satisfied,
Satisfied. ~ Paul Simon
Welcome back, everyone! I have an entry brewing for our homecoming!
Posted by lorelei at 06:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (124)