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 24, 2011
Halloween Fun! But Not For All
The spookiest time of the year is fast approaching and you have likely already heard about local law enforcement officers preparing to keep your area free of danger on Halloween night.
They may be visiting schools to counsel kids on safe practices, they may be warning drivers about watching out for children on Halloween night and in communities across America officers are fanning out to knock on the doors of registered sex offenders.
The idea behind visiting local S.O.’s (as they are referred to) is twofold.
First, it’s a transparent effort to check that the address police have on record for the ex-offender is still good. Second, it is a somber face-to-face warning to the S.O. that they are not allowed to interact with children on Halloween. [click to continue…]
by Diane Dimond on October 17, 2011
Who Dreamed Up The Fast & Furious Plan?
What the hell is going on in this country? And why don’t our federal officials just man-up and admit when mistakes have been made?
Now, keep in mind – I don’t write about politics so this is not a partisan attack. I write about crime and justice. So, take what I’m about to say in that spirit.
And remember the name “Fast and Furious” because I predict you’ll be hearing a lot about it in the days ahead.
Here’s the backstory: Someone at the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives … [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 Dimond on September 12, 2011
Store Surveillance of Mother With Baby in Bag
It has happened again and it breaks my heart.
A young mother in Hendersonville, North Carolina walked into a grocery store recently clutching her boyfriend’s hand on her left and a big heavy looking shoulder bag on her right – a bag that nearly scraped the ground as she walked.
The teenager headed straight for the store’s ladies’ room and stepped inside. When she re-appeared on the grocery’s surveillance video exactly four minutes later she had exchanged her red sun dress for a pair of slacks and a blouse. Her bag was casually slung over her shoulder looking a whole lot less heavy.
Within hours a store employee cleaning the restroom found a dead newborn baby in one of the stall’s trash cans. The 9-11 call to police was painful to listen to as another worker gasped between sobs and begged for help for the dead baby.
Whoever abandoned the little girl had just committed a felony. [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 August 14, 2011
It's Not Illegal For An American To Pray
Today let’s talk about what’s not a crime.
In a country that was founded on freedom of religion, it is not a crime to pray.
It’s not a crime to publicly pray to the deity of your choice. It’s not a crime for someone who holds public office to pray. It’s not a crime to be a politician and also host a public prayer meeting.
But after a recent spate of indignant media coverage I wouldn’t blame you if you thought there was something wrong with Texas Governor Rick Perry’s participation in what was called “The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis” held in Houston. [click to continue…]
by Diane on August 8, 2011
Frank Bender With One of His Creations
A man died recently that I want you to know about. He operated in the shadow of law enforcement and you probably never heard his name. In his own very unique way he developed an expertise that helped bring justice to those who would otherwise never get it.
His name was Frank Bender and when he died recently at the age of 70 at his home in Philadelphia he was the best known of a rare breed of forensic sculptors.
Frank Bender somehow knew how to take a fleshless mummified human skull and reconstruct its face into an eerily perfect facsimile. To compare a photo of the dead person with a finished Bender sculpture would take your breath away.
[click to continue…]
by Diane on August 1, 2011
Untested Rape Kits Add to Victim's Humiliation
The evidence had been there all along. It had been sitting on a shelf inside a cold storage facility at the Houston Police Department for 12 years. After a determined detective tracked it down and sent it off to the lab for testing the state of Texas realized it had a found a serial rapist.
The criminal’s name is Roland Ali Westbrooks and his story highlights why every state in the union should make testing of backlogged rape kits a top priority.
For more than two decades law enforcement has had the ability to take even the tiniest specks of evidence from a rape victim – bodily fluids, stray hairs, fingernail scrapings – and match the DNA findings to information stored in a national data base called CODIS.
Every time a rape kit is processed the DNA print is supposed to be entered into CODIS. And the reason for this is simple: Rapists rape repeatedly. They hardly ever have just one victim. [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…]
