JANUARY 9 - JANUARY 15, 1999
JANUARY 15, 1999
Common sense, children's safety, and Cheri
Good morning. It's still snowing and it is 23.9 degrees. First we have a reader
alert!
WARNING! PLEASE READ IMMEDIATELY! THIS IS SERIOUS!
If you get an envelope from a company called the Internal Revenue Service," DO NOT
OPEN IT! This group operates a scam around this time every year. Their letter claims that
you owe them money, which they will take and use to pay for the operation of essential
functions of the United States government. This is untrue! The money the IRS collects is
used to fund various other corporations which depend on subsidies to stay in business.
This organization has ties to another shady outfit called the Social Security
Administration, who claim to take money from your regular paychecks and save it for your
retirement. In truth, the SSA uses the money to pay for the same misguided corporate
welfare the IRS helps mastermind.
These scam artists have bilked honest, hard working Americans out of billions of
dollars. Don't be among them!
FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!
We thank Chris for that reader alert and valuable piece of information. Now on to more
serious matters.
It seems that many of you agree with me on the conduct of the reporters of The
Era. Thank you. Former mayor of Bradford, Arvid Nelson, believes that they are my
greatest asset. Their lack of professionalism and stupidity, he believes, serve only to
enhance my stature and image.
I don't know about that. I am not much worried about it either. The Politics of
Confrontation, as its been labeled, is nothing more than running government in the
open. Something new for sure when you consider the days of yester year when all
decisions were made in the offices behind closed doors and maybe never even voted on in
public. There was confrontation all right. It took place out of the view of the people and
each deal was traded for something else that could ultimately prove to be personally
beneficial for the Commissioners. Also, lest we forget, the door between the offices of
Kallenborn and Anderson was nailed shut!
Why was the Bradford Area School District the only system open in the county
yesterday? Where was Cheri? Why were our children placed in danger riding in school busses
without seat belts on road that were poor, at best?
Cheri O'Mara is paid $80,000 a year to be superintendent. She is the final say.
The buck stops with her. Why was she unavailable to make a decision regarding the safety
of children? What about the rest of those high priced administrators? Didn't any of them
have a brain in their heads? Are they that uncaring that it never occurred to them that it
might be a good idea to call school for a day?
What they did was unpardonable!
Equally unpardonable is this business over the asbestos in the High School!
Cheri assures us that it is at a safe level. What is a safe level for Asbestos? It is a
banned substance. Schools have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to remove it across
this nation and they have done it during the summer months in containment requiring
special handling when students are not present.
Low and behold, walls are opened and what have we found? Asbestos! It is on the pipes
and once the air hits it the asbestos become airborne. Again, what is a safe level for a
banned substance in the air of a High School? Tell us Doctor Cheri! You seem to
be the expert. You are on the radio saying it is safe. Are you over there breathing it
like the little blond cheerleader I spoke to yesterday?
It's only in one of my classes. We can see it in the air. It gets on my
books, she said.
Now that sounds safe enough to me! What about you? Doesn't that sound safe?
The Bradford Era should be screaming bloody murder! They aren't! This
is a bloody cover-up of poor management and Cheri O'Mara's incompetence and the inability
of the School Board to manage a one car funeral, let alone an entire school district.
Comment on this article at editor@www.mlrmag.com.
JANUARY 14, 1999
When Jim Buck calls
Good morning. It is 5:08 A.M. and it is 6.3 degrees outside. More snow today!
More snow tomorrow! Guess what? It is winter time and we are supposed to get snow! If we
don't, all the complaints about the snow will become concerns about how dry it is, a
drought, wells drying up, and the danger of fire in the forest. We need this snow!
Before I could log on this morning I had to clear my phone messages. Last
night around 8 P.M. Jim Buck phoned. I was probably watching JAG with Aunt Rose
and didn't hear the phone. Nevertheless, when Jim Buck calls, Bud Beck is leery. (He
seldom calls me anymore.) Oddly enough, an e-mail came yesterday that more or less states
my concern regarding Mr. Buck and his reporting. It read: . That article on the
commissioners' meeting in Tuesday's Era was the oddest thing I've read in the paper for a
while. I wonder if Jim Buck teaches his journalism students that it's ok for the
journalist to make the news? My point exactly! Mr. Bucks reporting is not credible
because he omits major parts of the story.
Major point ignored and not reported: I informed the other
two commissioners that I wanted to discuss replacing Mike Holtz from Kane on the Solid
Waste Authority. His term expired on 10/31/98 and I said I felt we needed new blood that
was more responsive to the little people in the county, not the establishment.
Major point ignored and not reported: Jim Buck
asked Mr. Kahle, the County Solicitor, if he intended to meet with the Solid Waste
Authority Solicitor, Tony Alfieri, to discuss a compromise on the refinancing of the Bond
Issue. Mr. Kahle informed the entire body of the press and media that he had spoken with
the commissioners and they were holding firm on their stance on shortening the term of the
note. Mr. Kahle then made and excellent comparison to refinancing a home mortgage and
commented that what the Authority was attempting to do, regardless of what they called it,
was get new money.
Major point ignored and not reported: Carrying that discussion
further, Mr. Weaver and myself both stated that we had made our decision and were sticking
to it and we wondered what they did not understand about that.
Major point ignored and not reported: Mr. Weaver asked Mr. Petrisek if
an authority member did not in fact say that if the Commissioners did not allow them to do
what they wanted with the savings, then he didn't care whether they did the deal or not.
When Mr. Petrisek affirmed the statement, Mr. Weaver and I both said that we felt the
statement was irresponsible.
Instead of those points being reported in the paper, we read about Mr. Petrisek's
outburst, calling what was going on ".....a pissing contest." (Not
reported , of course, but real professional for a journalist and a former teacher saying
that in public with ladies present and at an open public meeting besides. The Era should
be proud to have this man reporting for it.) We were also led to believe that the
Commissioners were under attack by the headline Commissioners challenged on
stance over landfill when it was the gang from The Era making the
challenge.
So, you ask, why would I be concerned when Jim Buck calls? Think about it!
His message said he wanted to know if I wanted to elaborate on a quote that was
attributed to me by The Allegheny Defense Project in their newsletter? You know -
the environmentalists who want to shut down all logging in the National Forest.
Whatever I may have said, or may have been quoted at saying, you can be sure
that Jim Buck will have taken it out of context and turned it around in an attempt to
convince the people of this county that I am in favor of their cause.
I AM NOT !
I have opposed Cheri O'Mara and the School Board spending $19,000 to support the law suit.
I oppose spending tax dollars to support a Washington, D.C. law firm when we have an
entire Bar Association of Lawyers in this county that should take it on for free, giving
back to the community for a change, instead of taking all of the time.
Without even reading the paper today, it is almost a certainty that Mr. Buck
will have done his best to join me in the cause to shut down timbering in the forest and
put our people out of work. If he had, that is a lie. I am on record stating that the
School Districts are missing the Forest for the Trees . They miss the
impact of lost job, lost real estate taxes, lost sales in grocery stores, drug stores,
restaurants, bars, etc. There is more to this challenge than the money they may lose from
the elimination of timbering in the Allegheny National Forest.
Now, I will wait to see what Mr. Buck has written. I will find out if I am now
supporting something that I indeed do not. I think we are all tired of this. Comment on
this article at editor@www.mlrmag.com.
JANUARY 13, 1999
Get your medication straight George
Good morning. It is 30.7 degrees. The temperature just started falling. It was
34 a minute ago and was raining. The rain has stopped. We probably have a duzy of a day
(drive wise) ahead of us.
Getting right to it, George Petrisek, Era Correspondent, emotionally
attacked me at the County Commissioners' Meeting on Monday. Why can't we all
get along? he cried out. Why do we have to have this governing by confrontation?
That followed George criticizing me for writing letters to the editor. When I asked if I
wasn't allowed to write letters to the editor anymore, George accused me of not getting my
facts straight and claimed that I should have called someone to verify what I was writing
about.
George was referring to my Press Statement that was used as a letter by The
Bradford Era. He was also referring to my linking the alleged customer
that I cost the landfill to Casella Waste Management. The facts that I relied
on were included in George's story and I did not realize that I should find a second
source before taking what he writes as fact. In the future, I will do just that.
However, the problem is not just me failing to verify George's story. The problem is
with George's writing. George claims that he never identified Casella Waste Management as
the lost customer. George claims that the lost customer was in Elk County. Re-reading the
article that appeared on the front page of The Era on January 6, 1999, now that I
have a roadmap on how to read the story, George is right. He never identifies Casella as
the lost customer. Yesterday, as I gave the article to 12 others to read (including two
attorneys), to a person, they got the impression that the lost customer was in fact
Casella.
George's story does not have a consistent train of thought and is flawed.
It jumps from a lost customer to a shortfall in the revenue side of the budget of $860,000
and then talks about New York garbage that is now going somewhere else. As far as the lost
customer being from Elk County; nowhere in the story does the word "elk" appear,
nor is there any mention or inference to Elk County, either. I read your editorial about
going crazy, George. Go to the doctor and get your medication regulated again. Then sign
up for one of Jim Buck's writing courses at UPB and learn point of view all over again. If
your were paid by the word for that story, you certainly took advantage of poor John
Satterwhite that day.
Then came Jim Buck's coverage of the meeting. The headline that spanned the top
of page three proclaimed:
Commissioners challenged on stance over landfill
The inference is that the public had challenged us - not the media. Actually,
the public is now concerned that the Landfill cannot live up to the promises that it made.
They are finally getting the idea that if they are 25% low on the income side of their
budget, it will probably be made up by higher fees for us! It's just like raising taxes!
What happened Monday was a perfect example of what I have said all along. The
reporters from The Era create the news. They do not report it.
There are two new terms associated with Politics these days. One is the Politics of
Personal Destruction. The other is the Politics of Confrontation. In the
first instance, I am a clear victim. George Petrisek has published four different
editorials that have contained personal attacks on me and my integrity. I am
getting the impression that George doesn't like me very much. But then again, as John
Gates put it so well in one of his MLR editorials about George: Who can trust a man
who falls off a curb in broad daylight, stone cold sober, and breaks both arms and several
ribs?
In the meantime, Jim Buck is feverishly trying to find some hidden agenda for my persecution
of poor Bobby Guzan, the drug snitch, who got special treatment and no punishment for
the latest in a line of DUI's. Jim, go talk to the people. People are outraged that this
man continues to drive and drink and is immune to punishment of any kind. No. I have not
ruined his marriage! He and his wife must take credit for their own actions. You can't
blame me for that. As for the Politics of Confrontation - perhaps I am the
author.
You can call it that. I call it open government and asking the questions that the
taxpayers are entitled to know. The temperature is now 26.4 degrees. Be careful driving
out there. Finally, here is a letter that I think you will find interesting.
"Here's a thought; let's kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Ridge can dump his
nuclear waste in our backyard, and the radiation will make the wildlife
glow. Then, the deer will be easier to see and the Pennsylvania Game
Commission can have their wish to have the herd manageable----that is, with numbers you
can count on one hand. This will free the gung ho deputies to play Super-Cop for the
timber owners, stalking and ambushing ATV's, adding the fines to the impoverished PGC
coffers. Its interesting the Chem-Nuclear web-site and Pa. Ass'n of Township Supervisors
site, on the partnership (volunteer host) plan, are still on the Internet. Ridge awarded
the state pharmaceutical contract to the highest donor to his campaign; maybe the timber
people can win the state toothpick contract. You can bet Forest Investments will never pay
the back-taxes for clean-and-green violations. The same people in Harrisburg who drafted
new legislation to liberalize clean and green will see to it these timber barons can have
their cake and eat it too. FIA, in an interview with the media last year, stated they
would like to have all their land leased. When all is said and done (and usually more is
said than done), this might not be a Utopian whim by FIA."
Comment on this article at editor@www.mlrmag.com.
JANUARY 12, 1999
Kathy Wilson and the Friday night conversation
Good morning. Believe it or not, it is 32 degrees right now and it is 6 A.M.
What a change from yesterday!
The balloting is keeping up for the Darwin Award for 1998. We are in a near dead heat
with the boys who went frog gigging receiving 468 votes and the lawyer who went through
the skyscraper window receiving 465 votes. 504 more of you have given a mix of votes but
it is between those two, here at least.
For those of you who were asking about the insult I made on Friday night to the women's
movement, it really wasn't an insult per se, but more of an observation that was not
politically correct. The conversation was in regards to changing values and what was not
acceptable twenty years ago is now very acceptable - or at least people look the other way
and say nothing.
I pointed to a particular field of employment in McKean County and remarked about the
number of lesbians who were holding responsible positions. Attempting not to
sound like Strom Thurmond, I questioned the effectiveness of these people in their efforts
to help others. This marked difference, I said, could possibly leave these people at a
disadvantage, and would certainly cause concern among the "clients" if they had
any inkling of the life style of the person who was in authority over them.
It was when my rotten sense of humor got the best of me, a lady, who is not a lesbian
and is very married, and a friend, threatened me with bodily harm. At that point, I
changed the subject to Kathy Wilson, the woman who was murdered in 1988 and her
murderer(s) have never been caught or prosecuted. My book, Ripe For the Picking,
is about to go to the printer and will definitely be available this year on the
anniversary of her disappearance, May 18th. In the meantime, let me refresh your memories.
KATHY WILSON REMEMBERED...IT WILL BE ELEVEN YEARS ON MAY 18!
I am going to give you a capsule of some of the parts of Ripe For the Picking
with key points highlighted. Also, I will refer to key portions of the copyrighted article
that ran in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL by Staff Reporter, Laurie P. Cohen on Wednesday, April
16, 1997. The article discusses this case, along with others, with respect to one of the
prosecution's key witnesses giving false testimony in an attempt to gain a conviction.
That witness would be F.B.I. Special Agent and purported hair analysis expert, Michael
Malone.
Many misconceptions and incorrect facts exist concerning this murder. More recently on
February 2, 1997 in the Jamestown POST JOURNAL writer Bob Houston wrote
an article titled "Police Probe Several Unsolved Killings." He writes of several
unsolved murders, The Kathy Wilson Murder, being one. In the article he states the
following:
"On May 18, 1988 Kathy Wilson disappeared about noon from the parking lot of
Quality Market in Falconer. Sixteen months later, her body was founded (sic) in a wooded
area along Lindell Road near Lander, Pa.
"Evidence showed Mrs. Wilson had been raped before she was killed.
"Shortly after the woman was found, Jay William Buckley of Jamestown and
Michael Reuben Brown of Falconer were accused of the crime.
"Brown became a witness against Buckley. After a lengthy trial in
Pennsylvania, which had jurisdiction because the body was found there, Buckley was
acquitted.
"To date, no new suspect has been located. The case, at least for (the)
Jamestown Police, remains open."
The reference to this case is loaded with inaccuracies. First, no evidence ever existed
that Kathy Wilson was raped before she was murdered. Michael Brown testified to that, but
later recanted his testimony claiming he was coaxed and coached into testifying against
Buckley even though he was never at the scene of the crime and had no knowledge that
Buckley even knew the Wilson woman.
Second, the body of Kathy Wilson was never found. Only incomplete skeletal remains were
ever found along with articles of clothing scattered about the alleged crime scene. No
cause of death was ever able to be established due to the state of the remains.
Third, Michael Brown was not accused of the crime. He confessed to being present at the
scene while Buckley allegedly raped and murdered Mrs. Wilson. Again, he would later recant
this and other statements saying he only hoped to receive the reward of $28,000 for his
perjured testimony.
Finally, no new suspects are being sought. The general belief among the police in New
York and Pennsylvania alike, is: "Buckley did it and a slick lawyer (Barry Lee Smith)
got him off."
The fact of the matter is that in spite of the existence of solid evidence that has
been purposely withheld from the public, the police have chosen to ignore both
fingerprints and pubic hairs that would positively identify the true murderer. The
discovery of the true murderer(s) would give credence to the claims of Attorney Barry Lee
Smith, Jay William Buckley, THE MOUNTAIN LAUREL REVIEW, and this writer
through a Private Criminal Complaint that Joseph Massa, Jr., State Police Investigator
Herzog, and Michael Brown obstructed justice and conspired to send Jay William Buckley to
the electric chair.
In Harrisburg the Attorney General's Office, headed first by Ernest Preate, then Thomas
Corbett, and now Michael Fisher, have all assisted in this obstruction of justice by
fighting the Private Criminal Complaint put forth by Smith and Buckley and have not
pursued the true perpetrator(s) of the crime. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in a tie
vote has not overturned the lower courts, and in doing so, has upheld the decision of the
Superior Court and ordered that Michael Brown be arrested and tried for perjury and
obstruction of justice.
We can only guess where this case may have lead and who it would have brought
into it as accomplices in the tales that Brown wove in his attempt to send Jay William
Buckley to the electric chair just so he could collect the $26,000 reward. The
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Attorney General, in their wisdom, held Brown
accountable for a single count of Perjury and gave him credit for time served and sent him
on his way. Case closed!
Along with that, the Office of Attorney General wasted over three hundred
thousand dollars in a convoluted, contrived, and a vendetta contrary to written and case
law against this writer. It is a clear effort to destroy my credibility and even today
they proceed with criminal charges over procedural errors during a political campaign in
1995. The total amount in question is the enormous sum of $370, all documented as being
received and verified as being spent on legal campaign expenses. The problem is the proper
form allegedly was not completed. That is the price of standing up for what is right and
demanding our elected leaders and police do their jobs and not frame an innocent man.
Many of you would say that this is nothing more than sour grapes. Many of you believe,
as I have, that the police, and especially the F.B.I., always tell the truth. We could
never imagine the State Police or a District Attorney manufacturing evidence against an
innocent man in order to get a conviction and send that man to the electric chair. Think
again before you hold that conviction. Look at the record of Special Agent Michael Malone,
witness for the prosecution against Jay William Buckley.
As Laurie Cohen wrote for THE WALL STREET JOURNAL on April 16, 1997:
"It has been nearly two decades since former Army surgeon Jeffrey MacDonald was
convicted of murdering his wife and two daughters in their Fort Bragg, N.C. home. This is
the story that was told in Joe McGinniss's best-seller "Fatal Vision,"
dramatized on television, chronicled in hundreds of newspaper articles and examined in a
dozen judicial opinions."
It seems that years after the Green Beret's conviction the F.B.I. crime lab and Special
Agent Malone came into the picture in this case during one of the many appeals. MacDonald
claimed that his family was murdered by drug crazed hippies , led by a woman wearing dark
clothing, a floppy hat and a long, blond wig and chanting "acid is groovy, kill the
pigs." It seems that Harvey Silverglate, a Boston attorney became interested in the
case.
Making the long story short, he discovered that the prosecution had in its possession
the entire time of the first MacDonald trial a 22 inch long blond fiber discovered in a
hairbrush in the MacDonald home. Silverglate suspected this was from a blond wig.
Describing Silverglate Laurie Cohen wrote:
"Working out of a townhouse overlooking Boston Harbor, he quickly dug into the
evidence and by October, 1990 was ready to bring the case back to court. He asked U.S.
District Judge Franklin Dupree, the same Fayetteville, N.C. judge who had tried the case
in 1979, to grant a new trial. His argument: There now was new evidence-the blond hair
mentioned in the investigator's lab notes and some additional dark fibers that might have
come from an assailant's clothing. These, he claimed in his court papers, potentially
corroborated Dr. MacDonald's story but had been suppressed by the government during his
trial.
"The hair, Mr. Silverglate suggested, might have belonged to Helena Stoeckley, who
at the time of the murders was a 19 year-old Fayetteville resident and heavy drug user who
had admitted that she owned and wore a blond wig and at times had confessed to being
involved in the crime. (Other times, she said she took too many drugs to remember and the
judge had ruled her testimony inadmissible.) She died in 1983."
Laurie Cohen's story in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL goes on to explain how Agent
Malone enters the picture.
"To evaluate these materials for the government, the prosecution in 1990 brought
in Special Agent Malone, then the top hair and fiber examiner in the Federal Bureau of
Investigation crime lab and a near legend among prosecutors for his powerful performances
as an expert witness.
"In reviewing the evidence, Mr. Malone discovered two additional blond strands,
one 24 inches and one 9 inches long. He determined that the dark fibers were ordinary
household debris and that the synthetic hair-made of a substance known as saran-came from
dolls that had been owned by the MacDonald girls. He further asserted in an affidavit that
the saran fibers were "not consistent with the type of fibers normally used in the
manufacture of wigs."
Laurie Cohen points out that he would sum up his investigation that countered all
defense arguments by saying: "In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, I
conclude that the...blond saran fibers in this case are not cosmetic wig fibers."
That would close the door on Mr. Silverglate, at least temporarily. The date of that
statement was May 21, 1991. The trial of Jay William Buckley in the murder of Kathy Ann
Wilson was just beginning. Laurie Cohen writes about that trial.
"At first, the May 1991 trial went badly for the prosecution with the alleged
accomplice admitting hundreds of times that he had lied or changed his story. But Mr.
Malone seemed to turn the tide. In two days of testimony, he tried hard to link Mr.
Buckley to the murder. At one point, Mr. Malone said he believed the was a "very,
very strong possibility" that the hair (found) in Mrs. Wilson's van came from Mr.
Buckley, who police had said was driving the vehicle. In a devastating blow to the
defense, he further testified that a hair he believed was Mrs. Wilson's was found on a
white blanket in the van belonging to Mr. Buckley's alleged accomplice. In contrast, Ms.
Oakes, the New York State examiner, had found what she termed unaccountable
dissimilarities between the victim's hair and the hair in the van.
"There was good reason for Ms. Oakes conclusion: It turned out that the evidence
had been mislabeled and what Mr. Malone had actually tested a plain white blanket
belonging to Mr. Buckley that had never been anywhere near the crime scene. The blanket
from the van had flowers on a white background.
"Confronted with proof of the mislabeled evidence, Mr. Malone persisted: "I
don't know how it got there, but all I know is...it's consistent with coming from
her."
Laurie Cohen continues in her article in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
"Mr. Buckley was acquitted. Now the defendant's lawyer, Barry Lee Smith has this
to say about Mr. Malone: "The guy's a total liar. My client could have been
electrocuted based on his testimony if I hadn't discovered that he'd been shipped the
wrong blanket."
Interestingly enough, in October, 1994 I had the opportunity to meet the Kardish family
of Elwood City. They are of course Kathy's three sisters, mother and father. While Henry,
the father, was not convinced about the hair evidence, the sisters were and insisted what
Malone said at trial was the truth. They insisted that Barry Smith had tricked him and had
managed to bring doubt on his testimony. They based their belief that Buckley killed their
sister on the single hair that matched on only 14 of 48 possible points of identification.
I pointed out the seven hundred plus times that the star witness, Michael Brown had
lied. I reminded them of how Trooper Herzog was actually directing Brown's testimony from
the court room while Brown testified. They were aware of that and conceded that part of
the case could have been tainted. Their insistence became all that more intense as they
pointed out time after time that Michael Malone was the F.B.I. They don't make mistakes,
they insisted. Buckley murdered their sister and nothing I could say could change their
minds.
In the case of Jeffrey MacDonald that was ironically going on at precisely the same
time, Laurie Cohen of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL continues.
"Here the story could have ended. But the court's words nettled Mr. Siverglate who
is active in the American Civil Liberties Union and objects to the notion that any case is
ever really final. No justice system ever benefited by having a case end with an innocent
man in prison, Mr. Silverglate says. Here was a court saying: "It's really time to go
away." But truth is more complicated than that."
As Mr. Silverglate and his staff took apart Michael Malone's superficial investigation
of the saran fibers they discovered, according to Laurie Cohen, that The National Plastic
Products Co. in Odenton, Md. had once made a "tow" of saran fibers consistent
with a wig worn by human beings. Furthermore, Malone failed to obtain statements from
Mattel Inc. that the 24 inch saran fiber in deed did come from a doll as he had asserted
in his statement to the court. The National Plastics Company had in fact in the 1960's and
the 1970's manufactured human wigs using saran fibers and in giving Mr. Silverglate a
statement to that directly contradicted Special Agent and Hair and Fiber Expert, Michael
Malone.
Barry Lee Smith's words echo and re-echo. "The guy's a total liar. My client could
have been electrocuted based on his testimony if I hadn't discovered that he'd been
shipped the wrong blanket."
We have examined the issue of the blanket in RIPE FOR THE PICKING.
Was this an honest mistake or was this a clever set up? Between November 20, 1990 when
Michael Malone and Special Agent Wenger wanted to take the evidence (hair, blanket, and
pillow) back to the crime lab in Washington and November 27, 1990 when Trooper Povlick
actually did deliver the evidence was one of Jay William Buckley's hairs purposefully
substituted on the blanket in their zeal to obtain a conviction? If that was the case,
isn't it also ironic that in their zeal to obtain a conviction they would place the hair
on the wrong blanket?
Why did the Pennsylvania State Police decline to turn over the evidence right then and
there? Reports of that discussion indicate that it was more of an argument rather than a
discussion. The F.B.I. wanted to get to work immediately but the State Police wanted an
eight day delay.
The Laurie Cohen story in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL points out other cases in
which Special Agent and Hair and Fiber Expert Malone acted as a prosecution hit man. In
each and every high profile case he would enter and offer irrefutable evidence that would
close the door on the defense and their hopes at an acquittal.
Based on the work of Harvey Silverglate and the excellent investigative reporting of
Laurie Cohen, it appears that former Army Captain Jeffrey MacDonald will soon have a new
trial. Based on the expert defense of Barry Lee Smith, the lies and false evidence of
Michael Malone and the Warren County District Attorney's Office were exposed. Still, one
cannot help but wonder where it would have gone without a Barry Lee Smith?
Comment on this article at editor@www.mlrmag.com.
JANUARY 11, 1999
Snowy weekends and a good left hook
Good morning out there. It is 5.2 degrees at 5:30 A.M. I don't know about you,
but I sure feel rested and ready to go.
Remember last Friday? Remember the snow? I know, one day seems much like the
last or the next when we get snow after snow; but many of us just hunkered down to wait
out the weekend. It was a good time to do just that.
Friday evenings are times when local friends generally get together and discuss
politics, news, or whatever strikes their fancy. I am usually tired from the week, but it
never fails that we take some time to discuss what has happened. Last Friday was no
different. We had the Garbage Dump, the Clean and Green issue, and Mr. Guzan to discuss.
Walt and Claudia showed up. We hadn't seen them in awhile. Walt told me to keep it up
and not stop. I laughed. I hear that a whole lot lately. I told him that I wished I just
had time to get a haircut.
People are outraged by Judge Cleland's decision to suspend Guzan's unusually light
sentence because he claimed "....he feared for his life." Hell, one man
told me over the phone when he called to voice his opinion. How do you think I felt
when I was twenty-one years old and sentenced to Western Pen? That's scared! That's
fearing for your life! Others called to report that they saw him driving. I
thought you lost your license when you got your second DUI, they complained.
Another called to tell me that on the day he received the light sentence saying he
could serve his time on weekends: He immediately drove himself to the Liquor Store
where he bought a half gallon of Captain Morgan's rum. Then he went to Louie's and drank
there for the rest of the afternoon. From there he went to the Warehouse and drank the
rest of the night. What makes him so special?
One local chided me calling me ..........a homewrecker. The local people know
what a joke that is - Guzan blaming anything like this for any problems he might be having
at home. That is entirely laughable and if I was his wife, I would divorce him for
embarrassing me like he has. This is truly a poor excuse for a human being. John Cleland
should be very proud of his actions last Thursday. In sentencing this man, he first
slapped every single person in this county who had made a mistake, done their time, and
gone out of the way to mend their ways, directly across the face. Then in freeing him, he
finally spat in their faces. Yes. John Cleland, Michele Alfieri, and Mike Fisher should
all be proud to be doing business with this man.
Changing the subject as I do on Fridays, I managed to deal the women's'
movement an insult.
How would you like a good left hook across your jaw? I was asked. I
immediately apologized. Aunt Rose complimented me for my fast foot work and knowing how to
withdraw from a sticky situation.
Then came snowy Saturday. We were still eating the Chicken Soup from
Thursday and I took a shot at making onion bread. It was a dismal failure. More calls and
messages about Guzan kept me busy and I went back to the drawing board. Undaunted, while
watching football, I took a shot at a loaf of rye bread. That time I had success! We sat
around and ate it and had a small bottle of wine as we watched television. Meanwhile,
snowmobiles were running and the wind was howling. We had the perfect place for Saturday
night.
Aunt Rose was tired of football by Sunday. I put the games on in the
bedroom but began the Star Wars Trilogy for her. Before long, I had forgotten
about the game and was into the 1970's movies like never before! Bringing the sound
through the stereo it was better than the movies. This is just like Flash Gordon,
Harold, Rose told me.
Meanwhile, I took some venison round steak and added some sweet red wine to it, a
splash of soy sauce, a jar of sweet peppers in olive oil, and a jar of tomatoes. I covered
it all and put it in the oven at 300 degrees. I let it bake in the over for 4 1/2 hours
and we ate it over rice with the fresh loaf of Sourdough bread I made while the round
steak was in the oven. We ate between parts two and three and then went back to see the
Empire finally crushed.
This time of year, weekends like this are a God send. They give us the opportunity to
reflect on our lives and spend time with those we love. They are better than holidays
because they are unrehearsed and not pretentious. They are just good. They let us all know
that The force is with us!
Comment on this article at editor@www.mlrmag.com.
JANUARY 9 - 10, 1999
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