Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Good evening:
Philip Chism was arraigned today in Superior Court and pled not guilty.
I also have updates on Arias and Thomas.
Judge Sherry Stephens issued an order today in the Jodi Arias case denying a defense motion to compel jurors in her penalty phase retrial to reveal their social media and Twitter account information. The defense wanted to monitor the accounts to make sure jurors do not use them to obtain or disseminate information about the case.
Two weeks ago she issued an order banning live television coverage of the penalty phase.
Adolpho Flores reported today for the LA Times that the prosecution played an audio recording yesterday in which defendant Jay Cicinelli could be heard proclaiming that he hit Kelly Thomas 20 times in the face with his stun gun. Cicinelli’s statement was picked up by a body microphone worn by Officer John Ema. Cicinelli is charged with involuntary manslaughter and using excessive force.
Flores reports that Cicinelli’s lawyer, Michael Schwartz, told reporters after court that his client did not really mean what he said.
“That’s not what happened,” Schwartz said outside the Santa Ana courtroom. “What he’s saying is driven by his heightened state of anxiety, stress and disbelief.”
In his opening statements Monday, Schwartz said his client encountered a combative, uncontrollable suspect who grabbed his Taser.
At times what appears to be Cicinelli striking Thomas in the face is him actually hitting the homeless man’s hand to push it away from the stun gun, Schwartz said.
“An officer is trained in the state of California to never relinquish the weapon to a suspect,” Schwartz said.
Yeah, sure. You betcha.
Flores also summarized the videotape of the encounter between police and Thomas.
Jurors on Tuesday were also shown security footage of the encounter between Thomas and police outside a Fullerton bus depot. The 33-minute video is a compilation of cameras from the bus depot and audio from recording devices worn by police officers.
The grainy black and white video is a key piece of evidence in the prosecution’s case and captured the Fullerton police officers hitting Thomas with batons and a Taser, in addition to shocking him with the device. Several people, including Thomas’ mother, cried as the tape played.
Thomas was in a coma after the incident and died five days later.
The footage begins with Ramos approaching Thomas after receiving a 911 call of someone attempting to break into cars.
To read the remainder of his vivid and sickening description, please go here.
Frederick Leatherman Law Blog 
To change to subject for a second. Has anyone been following the digital currency craze?
It was extremely painful to watch the video of this beating, knowing that this man lost his life and his last words were looking for his father for help that would never come.
Like others have mentioned, I did not see resisting arrest but a man who was instinct was to prevent the blows being delivered to his body. I doubt there is a human being alive who would just sit there and take the blows being delivered without raising their arms to defend themselves.
This man was known to the police, they knew he suffered from a mental illness but yet they let their frustrations out on an innocent man. I hope his family finally gets the justice they have sought for their son.
Don’t forget to contribute guys!
A long time ago I worked with mentally challenged, mental illness and physically disabled adults. My wife has been a techer with children woth similar type conditons for 35 years now.
These guys had it all. All had tri-monthly trips to the psychriatrist. We were taught how to managed the guys in case there was a violent epsiode. How to hold them down in such way they would not get hurt or hurt another. About half of those I worked with were fired for abuse, be it intentional or unintentional. I lucked out as I had only 1 guy capable of being violent. He nailed me real good once with a punch, I ran to another room and called for help.
The Cops have the right to use justifiable force so they take the easy way out and use force. That needs to be addressed, and clarified. Just based on looks alone, one can clearly see this guy was not all there, pointless to beat him to death to teach him a lesson.
He had everything a respected job as a law officer .A decent salary a warm home to return to food on the table a comfy bed.
An yet he is so full of pent up hatred that he picks on one of lifes unfourtunates.
Homeless jobless alone with no place to lay his head no money no food ,Is compassion not a neceserry emotion for someone whom after all Is a public servant.
To serve an protect the citizens within there durastriction .Instead of off loading his anger an pent up aggression /hatered at this vulnerable person.
He should have been giving him advice on where the nearest hostels or shelters where,
Not exterminating him as if he were a nonentity a pest no one would miss or mourn.
There but for the grace of God it could be anyone ends up down an out.
Be nice if Ramos becomes homeless, and experiences what it’s like to be rejected.
I live in the OC and have followed this since it first happened. What is really sad is that when you listen to the encounter Kelly Thomas is crying “Daddy” as they beat him death. Heartless mother effers
Kelly also apologizes to the cops as soon as they begin physically harming him.
Today the media reported that Cicinelli’s father is claiming prosecutorial misconduct, just as Fogen’s father did. Too bad there were no cameras recording Fogen’s harassment and murder of Trayvon.
OT
Nelson Mandela has passed away at 95 years old.
The world morns his death, ‘he will remain an icon of national struggle and reconciliation’. (video report)
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/world/live-nelson-mandela-death-leaves-south-africa-in-mourning-20131206-2yuqt.html
Bless his heart. Godspeed.
‘We discovered also that Mandela himself loved to sing… even when he was at Robben Island, Mandela would hold Christmas concerts where he would literally sing to the fellow prisoners’
– Filmmaker Jason Bourque
Does anyone need a joke for the day? Go to the link and read the article, the joke is that these people actually believe their nonsense!! Everyone stay warm and dry during the bad weather the middle of the country is having.
Professor, do you have your tire chains ready for your Harley? Or maybe studded tires? I was looking a little bit ago and thinking you might just get a little frozen percepitation in your area.. Take care of Mz. Crane Station and y’all stay warm and dry…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-republicans-see-one-remedy-for-obama–impeachment/2013/12/03/e623d61e-5c65-11e3-be07-006c776266ed_story.html?wpsrc=AG0003271
milbank took the comment out of context. You can watch the hearings here: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/316596-1
bettykath, I really was not focused on any one comment in particular! I simply find it so ridiculous that there has been so much focus on ways to get rid of this man since the citizens elected him at our POTUS, that it has become almost amusing… let’s see, he’s a Muslim that was attacked for attending a Christian church that did not meet their approval. He was not born in the United States, I guess they did not consider Hawaii part of the United States.. It seems as if instead of doing the work of the people these individuals are too busy with their own political agendas in an effort to stop the black man from occupying their white house, never mind that the majority of the voting citizens in two separate elections voted to elect this man to the leadership of this nation, so whether they like it or not he gets to live in the white house…
ok. I just have a thing about people like Milbank taking things out of context and building a story around it. In this case, it is Milbank, not the usual suspects, the Repubs.
I’m not an Obama fan b/c of what he has done to further shred several parts of the Constitution. It isn’t just Obama, this is a bi-partisan effort. Even so, the record of the GOP in the last few years in trying to destroy the government is really, really bad behavior, but so much of what they have done has been with the quiet cooperation of the Dems. It’s good that the Dems have finally put some starch in their collective spine but where have they been for the last 5 years? Obama wants immigration reform but he has deported more people than any other president. He has broken up more of the families he says he wants to preserve. What a hypocrite. The sequester, which cut so many programs, was a bi-partisan agreement. The Senate budget that is being touted is worse the Paul Ryan budget which was draconian. Get caught with a small bag of weed and you go to jail. Get caught committing fraud with bad mortgages or derivatives and you might have to pay a fine that is just a tiny percentage of your ill-gotten gains but no jail.
Rant over, for now.
Regarding Arias’ attorney demand that jurors “be compelled” to turn over their social media info. WHAT? Let those fools dig for it themselves, if indeed they are smart enough to find any .
It’s difficult enough to get jurors to serve, much less forcing them to automatically turn over such info. What a poor precedent that would set . Nonsense.
It wouldn’t be constitutional, period. A person has a right to privacy. Just imagine the 450,000 lawsuits that would result within a month from just one state making jurors turn over their social media conversations when they’re not accused of any crimes.
In fogen’s trial, one juror was excused b/c of a social media post.
True, but the the social media posting was dug up by investigators. The juror (perhaps an alternate, if I recall) wasn’t forced to turn it over.
Let them explain just one thing.
Just one thing.
The GLOVES.
I can explain that.
They were about to kill a guy and worried that he was HIV+.
Um looks like Thomas was trying to protect himself against the blows being thrown by the PD not trying to get the stun gun.
His physical moves are all instinctive defensive moves. He wasn’t planning any kind of offense; he was trying to avoid being killed and he just wasn’t good enough at self-defense to do so. Besides, nobody would have been good enough to defend themselves in that situation; overpowered, unarmed, and outnumbered. They murdered that man.
It is human instinct and common sense to try to fend off whatever it is that is striking you repeatedly during what one can objectively see is a beat down.
That is why defensive wounds will be found on the hands and arms of a person who claims to have been subject to a beating with a number of blows in the range of 20 to 30.
The exception is those who possess the remarkable Afro-Peruvian Gene.
In their case, they can lie back an take 20 to 30 blows with no real damage to themselves or person inflicting the blows due to healing properties in their skin that quickly heal everything.
Hell, you could drop their skull on concrete and a fracture would heal up to a minor abrasion in about one to ten minutes.
Yea their head bounces off the the sidewalk like a rubber ball with no injuries….amazing.
Fogen should be ashamed of himself. Kelly Thomas got a real life-threatening beatdown.
Yeah, a grown man crying for his “Daddy” as he’s being beaten to death is not someone on the offensive
Thanks for the updates.
Like two bullies from hell, Ciccinelli and Ramos harassed and then murdered Kelly Thomas. Let’s not forget that the store owner fabricated his report about someone breaking into cars because he didn’t want Kelly around his store. So the poor kid hadn’t even done anything.
I can understand that everyone deserves a defense, but the lies that the defense team is propagating when you can watch the entire incident unfold on video are so alarming that it makes my hair stand on end.
How does someone’s throat get crushed while you’re pushing their hand away from your stun gun? Give me an ‘effing break.
Naturally, the police were only acting in self-defense. Somehow they were unaware that all they needed to do was to “shrimp” as they could have learned at Kokopelli’s gym. Poor fools misunderstood and defended themselves by (a) putting on gloves to protect their hands from blood and then (b) beating a guy to death.
People are entirely too defensive in this country.
That “shrimping’ story is bogus by fogen’s own words. Shrimping is a movement what would pull his jacket down. It’s a movement of pushing away from the person on top. fogen said he was shimmying and his jacket rode up displaying his firearm (he only carries firearms, not guns).
Oh well, I guess shrimping can only save your life if you’re not shimmying. It’s so hard to keep those he-man-gung-ho-testosterone-utilization techniques separate in one’s mind.
The more video I see of real beat downs, the more I loath George Zimmerman and anybody who supports him.
Thanks for the updates!