by Diane Dimond on February 6, 2012
NFL Commish Goddell
I wonder if the National Football Commissioner Roger Goodell knows the information I’m about to tell you? If not, may I be the one to clue him in to the shocking criminal background of a guy named Gary who is prominently featured at NFL games … including this year’s Super Bowl?
Around 1980, when Gary was in his mid-30’s he was charged with having sex with an underage 14 year old girl named Allison. He was acquitted.
For the entire decade of the 80’s Gary was considered to be such a dangerous and chronic drunk driver that authorities banned him from getting behind the wheel for ten years. [click to continue…]
by Diane Dimond on December 26, 2011
A Christmas Trend
It’s been a chore trying to figure out an uplifting topic for this Christmas-time column. In a space usually dedicated to the negative aspects of human nature I can think of no better time to highlight the positive.
I’m always on the lookout for trends in crime – troubled veterans returning home and becoming entangled in the justice system, questionable prisoner releases from overcrowded institutions and the recent reported decline in state’s use of the death penalty to name just a few.
But the latest trend I spotted is as far away from crime as I can imagine – and since it is so positively pervasively Christmas-y in its effect – I think it earns a mention. [click to continue…]
by Diane Dimond on November 28, 2011
Occupiers Accomplished Nothing
Somebody has to say it so I will.
Dear Occupiers,
Grow up, will ya’?
In case you haven’t noticed times are tough. And it’s not just here in America. All over the world economies are circling the drain. Whole countries are teetering on the brink of total financial collapse, the gap between the haves and the have-nots continues to widen. Unemployment is rampant almost everywhere and every preconception you’ve had about what this country owes you is hereby cancelled. [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 She was held as a sex slave, finally rescued and now instead of being withdrawn or bitter, she has embraced us all with details of her harrowing story and formed a charitable organization to help other families recovering from abduction.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 26, 2011
A Great American Past-time - Taking Pictures
The scene is repeated across America millions of times each year. Citizens raise their cameras to snap a picture and immortalize what they see. Taking photographs is as much of the American fabric as driving a car.
But since 9-11 that right has begun to erode like so many others: walking unencumbered onto an airplane; living without the multitude of leering surveillance cameras; gaining entrance to a public building without showing identification.
I get the reason for all the cautious security, I honestly do. I think our country is still under the threat of a terrorist attack. But some of those with badges tasked with monitoring the threat overstep their bounds in the name of national security. I can’t get over the feeling that every time they over-react the terrorists – who are determined to change our freedom loving way of life – win. [click to continue…]
by Diane Dimond on September 19, 2011
Sperm Banks Are Big Business
Many years ago I was assigned to cover a story about a certain sperm donor, a newly graduated doctor in Kansas who had donated on such a frequent and regular basis that he was suspected of being the biological father to 500 children. You read that right – 500 children!
My research led me to learn that professors and medical mentors had often urged their male med school residents to donate sperm as a way to a.) Put a little money in their pockets and b.) To help propagate future generations of intelligent children. The belief was that if the sperm came from a person smart enough and driven enough to study to be a doctor, well, all of mankind could benefit from the children they would sire.
An elitist viewpoint, to be sure, but a prevalent one back in the early 90’s. [click to continue…]
by Diane on August 29, 2011
The Day America Changed Forever
As anyone who hasn’t been living on the moon knows the 10th Anniversary of the horrific September 11th attacks is fast approaching.
I, for one, don’t want to hear about it. I really just want to stay in bed all day and bury my head under a pillow.
That doesn’t mean I won’t commemorate the anniversary – because I most definitely and painfully will. But the media drum beat toward the date has already begun and it has put a pit in my stomach the size of a grapefruit.
There are at least 40 different TV specials planned over the next few weeks leading up to the awful date of September 11th. Each of the top three networks – ABC, CBS and NBC has a big boffo special planned, plus extra coverage on their early morning and evening news programs. CNN has no fewer than four separate documentaries on the 9-11 attacks scheduled. The National Geographic Channel plans to devote a full week to its coverage. Countless other cable channels have their own 9-11 plans. And, of course, just wait till you see the onslaught of coverage from your local news stations. I predict it will be non-stop as the date approaches. [click to continue…]
by Diane on June 13, 2011
Dr. Kevorkian Helped Us Think About Death
Hardly a day goes by that I don’t remember holding my stricken mother’s hand as she laid on a special hospital bed we had set up in her living room. It was there she took her last breath. Almost every day I think about how my father died in the bedroom of the home he loved so much. Both my parents passed away exactly how they lived – on their own terms.
They wanted no heroic measures to prolong their lives and they adamantly told me – their only child – that they did not want to die in a cold, impersonal hospital room. They made me promise to abide by their wishes. And just in case, they signed a living will putting it all in writing.
I thank Dr. Jack Kevorkian for that. He started the national dialogue about death that opened up the topic for discussion in my household. [click to continue…]
And, It Restored Our National Unity
Doesn’t it seem sad somehow that it took the assassination of Osama Bin Laden to re-ignite our national patriotism?
For ten very long years Bin Laden has been our Public Enemy Number One, our officially sanctioned Bogey Man. After his death was announced the spontaneous gatherings that occurred outside the White House, at sporting events and other locations around America were truly inspiring, especially when the crowds began to sing the National Anthem.
For me it brought back memories of a decade ago (has it been that long?!) when all of us banded together after the 9/11 attacks and regardless of race, class or political affiliation we collectively declared our pride in – and allegiance to – our country.
After September 11, 2001 we agreed justice would be ours. But, as the years passed we drifted away from that feeling of national unity and our public discourse became mired in ugly and divisive political rhetoric.
Now, with Bin Laden’s death we’ve finally gotten that justice. Feel better? [click to continue…]
Could Her Mother Have Killed Her?
We are presumed innocent until proven guilty in this country. We are guaranteed a fair trial by an impartial jury. That’s the bedrock of our justice system.
But what about the high profile defendant who lives through months and sometimes years of sensational media coverage before their case comes to trial? The potential jury pool in their community can become saturated with negative news about the accused, leaving people to justifiably ask how in the world a fair trial can be conducted.
The upcoming capital murder case of 25 year old Casey Anthony of Orlando, Florida makes my point. [click to continue…]
