by Diane on July 13, 2009
Jon and Maureen in Happier Days
How many times have you heard about a missing person case? To be sure there are hundreds of thousands of Americans reported missing every year. Some come right back home. But too often families of the missing either get the horrible news that their loved one’s body has been found or they continue to suffer with the quiet torment of no news at all. Then there is the group of missing people who aren’t really missing at all. They are hiding. They’re called the “maliciously missing” by a woman who knows the subject all too well. Her name is Maureen Reintjes and on May 19, 2005 she kissed goodbye her husband of 24 years at their new home in Las Vegas, Nevada and he disappeared. No warning, no reason, he was just gone. [click to continue…]
by Diane on June 30, 2009
Mom and the King of Pop - but not the Pop of the Kids
Those of us who’ve covered the Michael Jackson beat have long known that Michael Jackson’s children are NOT biologically related to him. I’ve been saying that on national television since the death of the King of Pop. I think the kids now deserve to know their true lineage. A few of us reporters actually knew the identity of the sperm donor who entered into a three way agreement with Jackson and Debbie Rowe to create the two oldest Jackson children. On Entertainment Tonight and the Insider I challenged the sperm donor to come forward and help out the children since biological Mom Debby Rowe seems disinterested in them. Today the latest bombshell in this fast moving story….Us Weekly Magazine and a team of reporters and editors had the guts to go for it. [click to continue…]
by Diane on June 29, 2009
Mel Hall the Rapist
I am sick of it. I am sick to my core with professional athletes who escape true justice when they break the law.
Some of these guys project such a powerful image no one dares report their criminal behavior. A recent case in point is former major league baseball player Mel Hall who dodged charges of sexual assault against young girls for years. Finally, a Texas jury found him guilty of the decade old rape of a 12 year old girl. At least 3 other females testified at trial that Hall also sexually assaulted them when they were underage. Hall has now been sentenced to 45 years in prison.
For every Michael Vick who goes to jail there are countless other athletes who get the kid-glove treatment in court [click to continue…]
by Diane on June 22, 2009
Returning Vets Need Understanding
In America everyone is supposed to be equal in the eyes of the law. But we’ve got a growing group, a particular class of defendants entering American courtrooms who I believe need special consideration. They are soldiers returning from war.
Several studies conclude that between 30% to 40% of the approximately 1.6 million vets of Iraq and Afghanistan will “face serious mental-health injuries” like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and problems from traumatic brain injuries. Experts in the field report both those conditions are linked to anti-social and criminal behavior.
Now, to me those numbers – up to 40% of the troops afflicted – seem high. But if it’s even half that it’s too many brave souls returning home needing special help. So, what do we do with a soldier, who put their life on hold to go to a foreign land to fight for our liberty, when they come home and get into trouble with the law? [click to continue…]
by Diane on June 15, 2009
Confiscated Guns
We want police to get dangerous guns off the street, right? Well, they are – in record numbers. Now the problem is what to do with all those confiscated guns.
A routine traffic stop yields a rifle in plain sight in the back seat of a car driven by a convicted felon.
A domestic abuse call uncovers two unlicensed pistols inside a home where a woman has called 911 after being battered by her husband.
A take down of a local drug dealing operation nets police a cache of illegal weapons – from semi-automatic to half a dozen 357 Magnums.
What happens to all those weapons? [click to continue…]
From a crime and justice standpoint it’s a stupid move to try a terrorist in a civilian court of law. But that’s the plan, folks.
Ghailani, "High Value Terrorist"
Ahmed Ghailani will be the first Guantanamo terror suspect to be brought here and tried in our civilian criminal court system. And that Ghailani will be tried in a New York court – a scant distance away from his Muslim brother’s most successful terror attack on America, the spot where our World Trade Center Twin Towers once stood – is lunacy.
This man is the poster child for the term “enemy combatant” and those people are supposed to be tried by military tribunals. But we’ve gotten ourselves in a twist over this guy because we let him stew at Gitmo too long. Since there are others like him waiting in the wings we best get this right from the get-go.
[click to continue…]
Domestic Abuse Hurts So Many
She dug her heels into the carpet and put all her weight into trying to hold the door shut. Blood trickled down her face, her hands shaking uncontrollably. As she fumbled to engage the lock she heard him on the other side of the door, cursing, promising to kill her this time. Despite the terror she never thought to call police for help. Her husband still wore his patrol uniform, his service revolver at his hip. One move toward the phone to call his office and it would be bullets coming through the door …
Domestic violence happens everywhere. In poor, middle class and wealthy households terrible secrets are being held. Overwhelmed by the pressures of life some people snap and lash out at the person they are supposed to love the most.
This column is about a specific type of domestic violence. The type perpetrated by police officers once they go home. It’s the “Big Blue Secret” … [click to continue…]
CEO Buckmaster Denies Sex
Jim Buckmaster must think we’re stupid. He’s the C.E.O. of Craigslist the popular and controversial internet classified ad site. Faced with another major public relations disaster, this time the murder of a young woman who reportedly hooked up with her killer via Craigslist, all Buckmaster had to say was, “I would not describe any section of our site as ‘sex related.’” He admits Craigslist does feature an “erotic services” section but, he says, it was not designed to offer more than “legitimate escort services, sensual massage or exotic dancers.”
What does he think “erotic service” leads to – a game of paddy cake? [click to continue…]
by Diane on April 20, 2009
The Antidote To Ugly Crime News
Sometimes America seems like an ugly place to live. The Associated Press recently reported that “there were 53 mass shooting deaths in the United States in the past month.” Shocking and the details are gruesome. Among the killings was a pair of triple homicides of police officers in California and Pennsylvania; a father near Tacoma, Washington thought his wife was cheating and killed his five children and then himself; an angry ex-husband gunned down 8 people at the North Carolina nursing home where his former wife worked; an unemployed Vietnamese immigrant in Binghamton, New York slaughtered 13 innocents at a civic center before committing suicide.
But I don’t want to dwell on the ugly today. Not today.
Let’s concentrate on what’s good about Americans. The instinctive values and integrity found in the vast majority of us who would never commit a crime, let alone mass murder. Americans who would automatically step up like Captain Richard Phillips did. [click to continue…]
by Diane on March 28, 2009
Sound Off!
It’s time again to let some of you get a turn to sound off about what I write in this space.
Every week I examine some crime and justice related topic that captures my attention. You readers don’t always agree with my thoughts.
Jose Armas seemed angry about my column on the growing number of felony cases, like ID thefts, traced back to illegal aliens. “The real criminals,” he wrote, “Are the employers, the magnets who lure them and hire them with impunity, and then stand silently by as their undocumented workers are demonized by politicos, the media, illegal vigilantes, racists and biased so-call authorities like Dimond who commit media malpractice.”
Wait, illegal aliens commit the crimes and I’m the bad guy?! Go figure … [click to continue…]
