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 She was held as a sex slave, finally rescued and now instead of being withdrawn or bitter, she has embraced us all with details of her harrowing story and formed a charitable organization to help other families recovering from abduction.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…]
The Old Joke About Lawyers
Question: What’s the difference between a lawyer and a shark? Answer: Nothing.
Okay, look, right off the bat I want to say: I work with a lot of lawyers and I count many of them as good friends. But we’ve all heard the old jokes and let’s face it; the public’s general perception of lawyer’s honesty and integrity is pretty rotten. The latest Harris poll on the subject puts attorneys way down at the bottom of the list with members of congress, car salesmen – and, yes, journalists.
But since lawyers are the crux of our justice system I think it is important that we take a closer look at the way some of them operate. Why is it so many of us curl our upper lip at the very mention of dealing with a lawyer? [click to continue…]
Taking a Seat Here Can Change Your Life
Having spent the better part of the last two weeks watching an excruciatingly long jury selection for a capital murder case I’m left wondering – is it time for the United States to begin using professional jurors?
During the last couple weeks I watched intently as prospective jurors took the stand to explain to the court the financial hardship that leaving work to judge another would bring to their lives. Some of them work for employers who grant paid leave for jury duty but often it covered only a day or two. Many others worked for struggling small businesses or are self-employed and they explained that every day they didn’t show up at work was lost profit or a day’s pay docked off their paycheck. [click to continue…]
Sex Offenders Must Be Punished
We’re pretty good at punishing people who are caught and convicted of sexual abuse. We’re not so good at stopping the abuse in the first place, especially when children are involved. After all these years of open discussion about this scourge why is it still so prevalent?
Because, we keep attacking the problem the same old way!
A new project from the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, funded by the Ms. (magazine) Foundation, concludes it is time for us to adjust our collective thinking about sex offenders.
Perhaps the A.T.S.A.’s most important conclusion is that media coverage of abuse “monsters” has warped our sense of who they really are. Television news, movies and books mainly focus on the most extreme “stranger danger” cases, those in which a child is kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered.
In reality, the sexual abuse of kids doesn’t usually come from outside their circle and murder is extremely rare. [click to continue…]
by Diane on April 18, 2011
Ugly Custody Battles Can Result in Parental Kidnappings
Hardly a week passes without hearing something about missing children in this country. Some are believed stolen for sexual purposes, some are found murdered and thousands of other children are kidnapped by one of their own parents.
Today, let’s focus on parental abductors.
For the parents left behind after their former spouse has kidnapped their child there is the agony of not knowing when – or if – they will see their baby again. Even the tiniest clue as to their son or daughter’s whereabouts is vitally important if there is ever to be a re-union.
To those heartsick parents I say – The IRS may very well know where your missing child is but the agency won’t tell you. The Agency isn’t allowed to tell you. [click to continue…]
