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This article from Maxim Magazine on Colton Harris-Moore -
“Looking back, it seems obvious that the authorities wouldn’t keep Colton Harris-Moore cooped up for long. The gangly teen giant from Camano Island, 25 miles north of Seattle, had been in and out of trouble since before his teens and was convicted of his first crime at age 12 (possession of stolen property). By 15, he went on an islandwide burglary spree with an older boy named Harley Davidson Iron-wing. When they weren’t being carted off to juvie, they worked their way through the opulent—and empty—summer homes of Washington State’s elite, then disappeared into the surrounding forests.
Ultimately, Harris-Moore spent seven months on the lam as the most notorious fugitive in Puget Sound before cops discovered him holed up in a vacant home. Foolishly, he’d left a light on. Now the boy called Colt found himself in a minimum security facility in Renton, Washington on the outskirts of Seattle. He was smart, a quick study…” read the article here:
Post by: rz
Does anyone want a camper? Its FREE.
If so, its yours so come and take it home.
Your camper can be picked up anytime at
1940 Harbor Sands Ln, Freeland, WA. [South Whidbey Island]
Death Row inmate Darold Stenson, the exotic bird guy from Sequim, who was scheduled to be executed could get a new trial based on evidence contamination.
Seems the Deputy was playing ‘dress up’ wtih the evidence. OUTRAGEOUS. Good thing Monty got his photo taken contaminating these clothes or no one would have known about it. After seeing this photo we wouldn’t trust any evidence found on those pants. We wonder why this didn’t come out during the trial?
The story from the Peninsula Daily News:
In this photograph taken in 1994, Clallam County Sheriff’s Detective Sergeant Monty Martin wears jeans said to have been worn by Darold Stenson the day of the murder of his wife and business partner. Stenson’s lawyers are arguing that Martin might have contaminated the evidence used in Stenson’s conviction
PORT ANGELES — A picture is said to be worth a thousand words.
For the attorneys representing convicted double-murderer Darold Stenson of Sequim, who is fighting a death sentence, the gravity of one photograph taken in 1994 can be summarized in just one word: retrial.
The picture, which shows the lead investigator in the 1993 murders wearing Stenson’s bloodstained jeans, points to possible evidence contamination, the attorneys argue. Read the rest of this entry »
UPDATED: 4:30 pm. Colton Harris-Moore escaped capture yet again, as police scale back the massive search for Colton down to investigation status. From the San Juan Journal here.
Police are all over Orcas Island this morning in search of Colton Harris-Moore.
The following from KOMO4 news website:
ORCAS ISLAND, Wash. — Officers from multiple law enforcement agencies have converged on part of Orcas Island where Colton Harris-Moore is believed to be hiding.
San Juan County Sheriff Bill Cumming said sheriff’s deputies, FBI agents and a dog-tracking team are on the ground, and a U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter is helping with the search.
The search began about 1:15 a.m. on Thursday.
“Harris is believed to be in a very isolated, very rugged area on the west side of the island,” Cumming said.
Harris-Moore has long been a thorn in the side of police, taunting investigators with his brazen crimes.
Each time police have gotten close, Harris-Moore has managed to disappear into the woods without a trace.
He has garnered considerable media attention and was nicknamed the “Barefoot Bandit” after allegedly committing some break-ins without wearing shoes.
Since he escaped from a halfway house in April 2008, Harris-Moore has been sought in scores of break-ins around Western Washington and is suspected of stealing four small planes and crashing each one.
Police suspect he’s also stolen boats and luxury cars, and broken into dozens of homes and businesses, including several on Orcas Island. His total haul may top $1.5 million, officials say.
It’s believed Harris-Moore may have returned to Orcas Island on Feb. 10, when a stolen plane landed on the island after dark and a local grocery store was broken into and burglarized.
His exploits have garnered national media attention, and a Facebook fan page for the teen burglar has attracted thousands of fans. A local business even started selling T-shirts with the teen’s likeness.
UPDATE: This from the San Juan Journal.
News conference update expected at 4:30 pm. today.
The ‘answer them nothing’ defense of the FLDS polygamists seems to have ended. The FLDS have now answered.
FLDS are defending themselves by claiming they don’t practice polygamy but rather they practice adultery. We don’t know which is worse. Looks to us they have just thrown their wives and children under the bus.
If these Mormons honestly believed God ordained them to practice polygamy, then why not stand up, tell the truth and trust God to take care of them?
The following from Brooke Adams ‘The Plural Life’ blog
Here are excerpts, quoted from Michael Emack’s Motion to Dismiss his bigamy charge:
1. In the purely religious unions at issue in this cause, there is no holding out that the cohabitating parties are “married,” nor is there any intention by any participant to be “married,” in anything other than a purely religious sense.
2. It is well settled that fraud is the gravamen of bigamy, and no fraud or deception of any kind is involved here.
3. The strict scrutiny required by the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act prohibits the state from criminalizing that religious practice as “bigamy,” with the attendant substantial burden on defendant’s religious and associational rights, unless the state can meet its burden to show it has a compelling interest and is using means narrowly tailored to further that interest.
4. The state’s prosecution in this cause arises out of and is based on a label defendant and his church apply to a religious ordinance he considers essential to his salvation. To criminalize such religious conduct violates defendant’s rights of religious conscience and freedom, equal protection and association.
5. The FLDS do not believe they become legally and civilly married by engaging in celestial marriage.
6. Defendant is legally and lawfully married to Sarah Hammon.
7. While legally and lawfully married to Sarah Hammon, defendant has cohabited with one Ruleen Johnson Jessop, a person other than his spouse Sarah Hammon, in this state.
8. Defendant and Ruleen Johnson Jessop participated in a “celestial marriage” on or about August 5, 2004.
9. Defendant also engaged in “celestial marriages” to two other women prior to his “marriage” to Ruleen Johnson Jessop.
10. The definition of “marriage” is set forth in the Texas Constitution: “Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman.”
11. Defendant and Sarah Hammon do not, however, hold themselves out as being only in a union of one man and one woman, nor does either party intend to be only in a union of one man and one woman.
12. Those who do not seek the state’s imprimatur, and who do not hold themselves out as having done so, do not cross the threshold that would subject them to criminal punishment for what would essentially be an abuse of or affront to the state’s power and prestige (as well as a fraud on one or more other parties).
13. The principal purpose of these unions is to bind generation to generation for spiritual purposes unique to FLDS faith and practice, such that the entire community is strengthened and edified and the participants’ hope in exaltation is advanced.
14. Those who choose, for religious or other personal reasons, to refer to themselves as “married,” even though they know the law does not so regard them, should be free to do so within their private sphere.
15. Imposing criminal penalties on such a basis would be equivalent to disciplining an individual who goes by the name of “Doctor W,” but who is not, in fact, a licensed physician, for violation of state licensing requirements even though he has never held himself out as, professed to be or intended to be a legally licensed doctor or to have the medical expertise that licensed status is designed to ensure.
16. The statute cannot extend to criminalize an individual’s entry into a religious union where there has been no attempt to elicit the state’s recognition of marital status or to procure the attendant benefits of this status under the law, where neither party has held himself or herself out as having done so, and where neither party to the union believed it to have such legal import. Read the rest of this entry »
UPDATE: 3/19/10 @1:50pm
The jury has sentenced Merril Leroy Jessop to 75 yrs in prision, and a $10,000. fine.
The Verdict was determined in one hour!
Merril Leroy Jessop “kept a pleasant face while 51st District Judge Barbara Walther read the jury statement and pronounced the word “guilty.”
You’ve got to admire Merril Leroy’s keep sweet attitude.
Following from the San Angelo Standard Times – website.
SAN ANGELO, Texas — A Tom Green County jury has found Merril Leroy Jessop, 35, guilty of sexual assault of a child in connection with allegations he illegally married an underage girl.
Jessop is a member of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
He kept a pleasant face while 51st District Judge Barbara Walther read the jury statement and pronounced the word “guilty.”
Jurors heard closing arguments this morning and left at 11:30 a.m. to deliberate.
Attorneys were summoned back to the courtroom at 12:30 p.m. upon hearing that the jury had reached their verdict.
Even more from the Salt Lake Tribune -
#4 – Texas you rock!
Learn more about the FLDS here and here.
Post by: rz
