by Diane Dimond on January 30, 2012
In Olden Times This Caught Criminals
Back in the Wild West days law enforcement officers like Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson had few tools to keep the peace. Guile and a gun on their hip were about all they possessed in the face of trouble.
Today’s officers have many more ways of tracking down and capturing the bad guys. That makes their job much easier than in days of old but also more complicated. A recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court may have just made modern day law enforcement more complex.
Bear with me a moment here and I’ll explain why.
First, you should know that the Supreme Court decision I speak of stems from the case of Antoine Jones, a nightclub owner in Washington, D.C. who was suspected of being a part of a massive cocaine selling ring. [click to continue…]
by Diane Dimond on January 3, 2012
What Road Will The New Year Take?
Time for New Year resolutions. Mine take the form of wishes and hopes focused on how to make our crime and justice system safer, saner and more evenhanded for all.
I know some of my wishes are unlikely to come true. But I also know many of them could if we were all determined to make society work better.
I hope that the coach Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State University gives strength and solace to the millions of victims of child sexual abuse everywhere, no matter how old they are now. May each of them understand that society condemns every person who preys on children and that the shame isn’t theirs, it rests solely on the molester. [click to continue…]
by Diane Dimond on December 19, 2011
Blagojevich: Famous For Being Infamous
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. [click to continue…]
by Diane Dimond on December 5, 2011
A Jury Says He Killed Michael Jackson
You may not have been the least bit interested in the recent trial of Dr. Conrad Murray who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of entertainer Michael Jackson. He has now been sentenced to the maximum – four years behind bars for giving Jackson the hospital-only anesthesia Propofol in his home every night for at least two months.
Here’s why the case is important.
The case riveted doctors across the nation. Especially doctors in celebrity studded areas of the country like Los Angeles and New York, Aspen and Nashville, Atlanta and New Mexico where concerts and movie shoots attract some of the biggest divas in the entertainment business.
As the old Hollywood saying goes, “Where there’s a star there are drugs.” [click to continue…]
by Diane Dimond on November 7, 2011
Lily the Therapy Dog Waits
A Golden Retriever named Lily patiently sits at the glass entryway of a red brick building tucked behind Good Samaritan Hospital in Rockland County, New York.
Lily is a specially trained therapy dog and she instinctively knows just what to do when the next troubled person arrives. She gives comfort to the physically and sexually abused and it doesn’t matter if they are young or old, male or female. Lily, and the new Spirit of Rockland Special Victims Unit in which she works, is a God-send to everyone who walks in the door.
This isn’t like the Special Victims Units you see on television. There are no officers with guns bustling about, no metal desks or low hanging florescent lights. There is nothing gritty about this SVU. [click to continue…]
by Diane Dimond on October 31, 2011
Can There Be Too Much Sunshine?
Every state has laws that govern the public’s access to government records. From New Mexico to North Dakota – Alabama to Alaska – each have varying degrees of these so-called Sunshine Laws. The media loves Sunshine Laws because they allow easy access to information. But many on the other end of the equation don’t feel so “sunshine-y” about having their business or personal information revealed to the public. There is no state more liberal in doling out government information than Florida — nicknamed the Sunshine State — and in my opinion their Public Records Law has now put some of their own citizens at risk. [click to continue…]
by Diane Dimond on October 3, 2011
Jaycee Dugard - Survivor, Mother, Activist
My annual Hero of the Year award usually comes up in December but this year I can’t wait. I’ve already picked the person who I think has most changed the world of crime and justice during 2011.
My hero is Jaycee Dugard. She was held as a sex slave, finally rescued and now instead of being withdrawn or bitter, she has embraced us all with details of her harrowing story and formed a charitable organization to help other families recovering from abduction.
Jaycee’s ordeal began when she was 11 years old. Now she’s 30 and finally free of a pair of kidnappers – a convicted sex offender named Phillip Garrido and his accomplice-wife, Nancy. They used a stun gun to pluck little Jaycee off a country road in South Tahoe, California in June 1991 as she waited for a school bus one morning. She remembers clawing at the ground to try to escape, clutching a pine cone as her last touch with freedom. [click to continue…]
by Diane on August 22, 2011
Time To Hear From You!
Some of you have been delighted with me. Some of you want to strangle me. So this column is dedicated to your thoughts about my recent musings on crime and justice in America.
It’s your turn to vent.
No column lately generated as much heat as the one about women caught up in repeated domestic violence that refuse to press charges. I told the story of a New York police officer who lost his life responding to a victim’s 12th call for help. I concluded, “Society cannot remove an adult woman from a perilous domestic situation. She must walk out on her own resolved to find a better way of life.” [click to continue…]
by Diane on July 25, 2011
Crossed Fingers Don't Count in Court
Let’s talk about perjury – a person taking an oath to tell the truth and then lying through their teeth. Perjury is illegal and one can be both fined and thrown in jail for it.
I don’t know about you but my parents instilled in me a sense of honesty that makes me get the shakes at the mere thought of telling a lie after taking a sworn oath. I don’t think I could do it. I would be like that person on Law and Order who suddenly blurts out, “Okay…I told my boyfriend I’d like to see him dead! I’m sorry!” when I really had nothing to do with the murder in question.
I recently witnessed what I believed to be an act of perjury while covering the Casey Anthony murder case in Florida. The lie will go unpunished and that bothers me because it’s the justice system saying, in effect, “Okay, never mind, that oath you took really doesn’t matter.” [click to continue…]
by Diane on July 18, 2011
Future President of France or Rapist?
The first order of business for a man accused of rape is to discredit the accuser. If he can paint her as promiscuous or having some sort of shady background the strength of her charges will diminish. This doesn’t, of course, mean the man is innocent but the more dirt that can be dug up on the woman the better his prospects are for acquittal.
This is the way it has always been and the way our legal system allows these types cases to proceed – smear the accuser and you might just get away with it.
Another ugly little secret about pending rape charges is that if the defense team can’t scare the woman away by telling her what they’ve discovered about her past, they then approach prosecutors. [click to continue…]
