September 23rd..."Just Following Orders"..... 6 Los Angeles County Sheriff's sentenced to prison. A very sad day for the LASD

Six LA County Sheriffs were sentenced to prison this morning after being convicted of conspiracy, making false statements and obstructing an FBI investigation.

The sentence went as follows:

Lt. Greg Thompson - 37 months
Lt. Stephen Leavins - 41 months
Dep. Gerard Smith - 21 months
Dep. Mickey Manzo - 24 months
Sgt. Scott Craig - 33 months
Sgt. Maricela Long - 24 months 

Plus 1 year supervised release after they are set free.

They were all convicted on July 1st of this year on charges including: obstructing an FBI Investigation, conspiracy, tampering with witnesses, threatening an FBI Agent and making false statements.  

Judge Percy Anderson spoke slowly and firmly stating that the defendants "lacked the courage to do what is right." When he spoke to the defendants, he went on to say: "You broke the vow you made to protect the public and serve the community. You have embarrassed the Sheriff Department and none of you showed the courage to do what's right."  But 'following orders' is exactly what these deputies believed 'to be right!'  Some of these defendants have been with the Sheriff Department for 30 years and have always upheld the law.  So why would any of them now decide to start becoming corrupt when they were so close to retirement?  It just doesn't make sense.  

Judge Anderson also said they all "acted as a shield to protect the dirty deputies...... perhaps it is a symptom of the corrupt culture within the Sheriffs Department".  Yet these deputies were merely following the orders from their higher-ups ~ Sheriff Baca and Under Sheriff Tanaka ~ regarding the handling of inmate (and FBI informant) Anthony Brown.   

The prosecution accused two of the defendants of "scaring and trying to intimidate a female FBI Agent", when what they were doing was simply trying to find out why she had 'smuggled a cell phone illegally into their jail'.   That is a crime in itself.

The Judge continued to humiliate the defendants by saying that they all felt and behaved as if they were "above the law".  He also said that they had a choice between right and wrong yet they repeatedly engaged in the wrong conduct.  

But how is it 'wrong conduct' when they were clearly following orders of their supervisors.  Aren't the true puppet masters Under Sheriff Paul Tanaka and retired Sheriff Lee Baca?

Judge Anderson stated that none of the defendants had shown the 'slightest remorse'.  But why should they feel remorse for a crime that they know that they were not committing?

The attorneys, for the defendants, asked for a punishment of home confinement and/or probation and to also take in to account their careers in law enforcement and protecting the public.  The Judge said he did take this in to account and would adjust their sentences 'downward'.  Yet, the sentences that were adjusted 'downward' were by a few months at the most.

All of these five male and one female Sheriff deputies were merely 'following orders'.  They were protecting their jail and conducting business as usual.  Today they themselves became victims to the Justice System which, as we all know, is often very unjust.

In a nutshell it seems that the actual people who believe that they are 'above the law' aren't these Sheriffs at all.... it's the FBI.  They were quite happy to (illegally) smuggle a cell phone in to an inmate at the Men's Central Jail and yet they received no punishment at all.

Unless I'm wrong, I always thought that it was illegal to fight a crime by committing one (a crime) in order to investigate that crime?

To be continued.......

The Grim Sleeper 'Pre, Pre, Pre,' Pre, Trial Arraignment...

Yet again more delays in the upcoming Trial of the most prolific serial killer in Los Angeles history!

These ridiculous delays do not make any sense to the Prosecution, the Judge, the homicide detectives, the family members or anyone else in the Courtroom.  I don't even think that the delays, which the Defense is causing, makes sense to even them.

I do respect the fact that this case is one of the biggest and most difficult cases to Try in Los Angeles to date, especially how Lonnie Franklin was arrested using 'familial DNA'.   This is the first time this method has ever been used to charge someone with serial murder.

Today, the main female public defender was in the Courtroom (finally).  She said very few words but the words she did say, in response to the Prosecution's concerns for these delays, were: "We are progressing".

To which the Judge responded with: "I don't know what that means."  The Defense repeated the same words again in slightly a different way: "There is progression".  It all lasted less than 8 minutes and we left the Courtroom.

So for 4 years and 2 months (costing us tax payers' so much money) there is still no date set to go to Trial.

My book, however, is now finished and ready to be released very soon.   My book will cover my 'exclusive' one on one interviews, phone calls (and written correspondence) that I have had with the 'alleged' Grim Sleeper ~ Lonnie David Franklin Jr ~ over the past 4 years since his arrest in 2010.   Franklin has never spoken to any media or anyone else outside of his own family except for myself. He gave me the Rights to his life story and this is what my book will be about.

Please stay tuned and I will be posting when my book will be released.....

The 'Alleged' Grim Sleeper Pre Arraignment.. September 4th 2014

At the Criminal Courts Building on Sept 4th there was yet another Pre Trial Arraignment in the 'alleged' Grim Sleeper Case.  As always, the Defense 'need more time', so after 4 years and 2 months of delays, it is going to be delayed even further.

The last time we were in Court, for yet another pre -arraignment, the Defense eluded to this new delay was due to audio recordings that I'd had with their client.

The Defense stated that they need to go through a large number of audio recordings of my extensive jail interviews and telephone conversations which I'd had with their client, Lonnie Franklin, since he was arrested in 2010.   They claimed they would need at least a year to go over all of this information.

I obviously felt very awkward as I sat in the Courtroom, minding my own business, to be spoken about with the implication that, now, the cause of these delays are in part my fault.  The Judge hadn't a clue what the Defense was talking about but another 'woman' with a position of power knew exactly what the Defense meant.  She then chimed in and attacked me, in her typical way of attacking people.  I responded to her very nicely and corrected her by saying that 'I'm an author'.  

I shouldn't have responded as I was not 'called upon to respond', so for the next time I'll know better. However it's a little difficult when everyone is referring and speaking about me, (and one woman angrily attacking me) when I was sitting right there.   Apparently she is known to attack everyone so I should have been prepared that my day was coming.  It seems that vindictive women are everywhere in Los Angeles, yet I'm surprised that with her being in a high position in the Courtroom, that it doesn't exclude her from behaving like one.

On the morning of September the 4th it went pretty much the same way as it does every few weeks with the Defense using as many 'stalling tactics' as they can.   As always the Defense asked the Judge "May I just say something?" And her usual response is "No you may not!" Usually because he is interrupting someone.

The jist of this whole morning was about not turning over the 'discovery' of the evidence and also delaying the return of those 'discovery items'.  The Prosecution stated that "Not one item has been returned by Consul yet"  The Defense's excuse was that they didn't want to send it back in dribs and drabs and wanted to send it all at once when the testing was completed.

Bottom line is that the Defense wants more time... as always!
The Judge and Prosecution want a Trial date and the response from the Defense was typical:  "I'm not ready for Trial!"

So we continue to spin our wheels waiting for this case to go to Trial and these delays are all being caused by the Defense.

I am shocked, yet again, by the Justice System here in America in letting this nonsense happen.  This pending Trial has now become a farcical.  I am desperately sorry for the victims family members who should have had this Trial over and done with by now so they can have some form of closure regarding their loved ones.   This is truly a disgrace!

There are no such things as coincidences....

So now that I have finished my book on the 'alleged Grim Sleeper', and I have been asked by the homicide detectives to delay the release due to the fact it is such a high profile case, so, I have been pondering what to write about next.

I know for a fact that, for my future writings, I am compelled to write about the (possibly) 'wrongly convicted' of murder and/or rape who are incarcerated here in the US today.   These stories can turn out to be so satisfying when a person is released due to DNA evidence proving them innocent.

When I helped an innocent man on Oklahoma Death Row receive 3 Stays of execution in 2010, I knew then that my next mission would be to write a show and/or a book about the wrongly convicted. This was all inspired by the life and death of Jeffrey David Matthews.

Yes, I will say this man's name here in this Blog as he is no longer with us.  Tragically he was not given a 4th Stay of execution as a new Governor came in to office with whom I was not in regular communication.  Therefore she did not grant him a 4th Stay of execution and on January 11th 2011 he was put to death.  1.11.11 was that fateful day.   I am still friends with his mother to this day.

I would love to write about the LASD and FBI case and trial.   Mainly because I not only know some of the people involved, but I have studied this case and have first hand information from when it began.  Also, I was there for part of the trial and know how many facts were not allowed to be entered in to evidence.  I also know that the law states that one cannot fight a crime with a crime. However, as this is still an on going investigation, I will wait and see if it is something I can truly sink my teeth into.

In the meantime, I have come up with three people that I feel would be ideal as subjects for my next book or one of the three people to be the focus of the whole book.  I've been throwing these names around to my friends and co-workers for this past month and here comes the: 'Nothing is a coincidence in life':

Back in 2010 while I was interviewing with the 'alleged' Grim Sleeper, I had also spoken with a man who resided in the LA County Jail who had been suspected and accused of rape.   From the documents that I had read, and also what he had told me, I strongly believed that he had been wrongly charged with the crime of rape.   This person was well known with an onscreen profession and I also think this added to his being accused of these atrocities.  Vindictive women know no bounds.  Yet the Courts seem to side with them and have put numerous men away for rape only to find out later that the 'woman lied because.......' (the reason is unimportant).  Bottom line is 'the woman lied' and an innocent man's life was ruined forever.

I hadn't spoken to this person since he left the LA County Jail in 2012 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, however he was always in the forefront of my mind to write about someday in the future.

Well, today I received a call from a prison and it was this very person who was calling me.  The one I had been speaking about just recently as the subject for my next book (or a large part of my next book).  He was calling to see if he could send me the latest information from his Lawyer and how it has recently been proved that he was not at certain places where he had originally been accused of being.  He will also be sending me more documented facts that prove his case to be possibly fabricated.

We talked for quite a while and this has given me the final push to continue following my passion of writing about the possibly 'wrongly convicted' who are victims of the Justice system today.

There are no coincidences in life....only things that are destined to happen.