across 22.00 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire  At 3 A.M. June 26, 1977, attractive young Judy Placido turned to Sal Lupo, the young man she was talking with, and suggested that it was time for him to take her home from the the Elephas, a disco in Queens. The disco was almost empty. The Son of Sam had thinned out crowds all across the city.

“This Son of Sam is really scary,” she told Sal. “The way that guy comes out of nowhere. You never know where he’ll hit next.”

Then as if she had just predicted the future, she later recounted: “All of a sudden, I heard echoing in the car. There wasn’t any pain, just ringing in my ears. I looked at Sal, and his eyes were open wide, just like his mouth. There were no screams. I don’t know why I didn’t scream.

“All the windows had been closed. I couldn’t understand what this pounding noise was. After that, I felt disoriented, dazed.”

Sal’s first impression was that someone had thrown rocks at the car, so he ran back to the disco for help.

Judy looked in the mirror and found herself covered with blood. Her right arm was immobile. She collapsed when she tried to run back to the disco. Sal had also been hit in the forearm. Both victims were very lucky. Although Judy had been shot three times, she had avoided serious injury and death.

Ironically, Detective Coffey had been outside the Elephas about fifteen minutes before the shooting. Once the news came over the radio, he returned to the scene in a flash, but there was nothing to learn from either Judy or Sal about the identity of the assailant.

packaged 5.pac.883 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

The first person to plumb the depths of Jeffrey Dahmer’s depravity was Detective Patrick Kennedy. A huge bear of a man with dramatic handlebar mustache, he engaged Dahmer’s confidence and was the person to whom Dahmer confessed the details of his thirteen-year killing spree.

 

Steven Hicks

 

While Dahmer had fantasies about killing men and having sex with their corpses as early as age fourteen, he didn’t do anything about it until just after he graduated high school in June of 1978. He picked up a hitchhiker named Steven Hicks when Dahmer was living with his parents in the upscale community of Bath, Ohio. They had sex and drank beer, but then Hicks wanted to leave. Dahmer couldn’t stand the idea of Hicks leaving, so he struck him in the head with a barbell and killed him.

 

Dahmer’s senior photo

 

He needed to get rid of the body, so he cut it up, packaged it up in plastic garbage bags, and buried the bags in the Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
woods behind his house. That fall, he attended Ohio State University for a semester but flunked out. At the end of 1978, he left to join the Army and was stationed in Germany. Apparently, he didn’t kill anyone when he was in the Army and this was corroborated by an exhaustive investigation by the German police. After a couple of years, the Army discharged him for alcoholism and he went to live in Florida before returning to Ohio. Once back home, he dug up Hicks’s body, pounded the decomposing corpse with a sledgehammer, and scattered the remains in the woods.

appointed 22.app.006 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Because of his war service, the governor of Mississippi appointed Davis to fill out the Senate term of the late Jesse Speight. He took his seat December 5, 1847, and Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire  was elected to serve the remainder of his term in January 1848. In addition, the Smithsonian Institution appointed him a regent at the end of December 1847.

Davis introduced an amendment to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to annex most of northeastern Mexico. It failed 44-11.

The Senate made Davis chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. When his term expired, he was elected to the same seat (by the Mississippi legislature, as the Constitution mandated at the time). He had not served a year when he resigned (in September 1851) to run for the Governorship of Mississippi on the issue of the Compromise of 1850, which Davis opposed. This election bid was unsuccessful, as he was defeated by fellow senator Henry Stuart Foote by 999 votes.^[10]

Left without political office, Davis continued his political activity. He took part in a convention on states’ rights, held at Jackson, Mississippi in January 1852. In the weeks leading up to the presidential election of 1852, he campaigned in numerous Southern states for Democratic candidates Franklin Pierce and William R. King.

river 2.riv.0002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

On August 15, 1982, Robert Ainsworth, 41, stepped into his rubber raft and began his descent south down the Green River toward the outer edge of Seattle’s city limits. It was a trip he had made on many occasions, yet this time it would be different. As he drifted slowly downstream, he noticed a middle-aged balding man standing by the riverbank and a second, younger man sitting in a nearby pickup truck. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire  Ainsworth suspected that the men were out for a day’s fishing.

He asked the older man if he had caught anything. The man replied that he had not. According to Smith and Guillen’s book, The Search for the Green River Killer, the man standing then asked Ainsworth if he found anything, to which Ainsworth replied, “Just this old singletree.” Soon after, the two men left in the old pick-up truck and Ainsworth continued to float down the river. Moments later he found himself surrounded by death.

As he peered into the clear waters his gaze was met by staring eyes. A young black woman’s face was floatingLouis J. Sheehan, Esquire   just beneath the surface of the water, her body swaying beneath her with the current. Believing it might be a mannequin, Ainsworth attempted to snag the figure with a pole. Accidentally, the raft overturned as he tried to dislodge the figure from a rock and Ainsworth fell into the river. To his horror, he realized that the figure was not a mannequin, but a dead woman. Seconds later he saw another floating corpse of a half nude black woman, partially submerged in the water.

Opal Mills, victim of the
Green River Killer

Quickly, Ainsworth swam toward the riverbank where the truck stood earlier. In shock, he sat down and waited for help to arrive. Within a half hour, he noticed a man with two children on bicycles. He stopped them, told them of his gruesome discovery and asked them to get the police. Before long, a policeman arrived at the scene and questioned Ainsworth about his find. The officer disbelievingly walked into the shallow river and reached out toward the ghostly form. The officer immediately called for backup.

Soon after reinforcement arrived at the scene, detectives sealed off the area and began a search for evidence. During the search, a detective made another macabre discovery. He found a third body, that of a young girl who was partially clothed. Unlike the other two girls, this one was found in a grassy area less than 30 feet from where the other victims lay in the water. It was obvious that she had died from asphyxiation. The girl had a pair of blue pants knotted around her neck. She also showed signs of a struggle, because she had bruises on her arms and legs. She was later identified as Opal Mills, 16. It was believed that she had been murdered within 24 hours of her discovery.

Marcia Chapman and Cynthia Hinds,
victims of the Green River Killer

Following an examination of the bodies at the scene, Chief Medical Examiner Donald Reay determined that all three girls died of strangulation. The two girls found in the water, later identified as Marcia Chapman, 31, and Cynthia Hinds, 17, were both found to have pyramid-shaped rocks lodged in their vaginal cavities. They were both held down by rocks in the water.

Reay further determined that Chapman, a mother of two who had gone missing two weeks earlier, had been dead for over a week. She had shown advanced signs of decomposition. However, Hinds was believed to have been in the river for a period of only several days.

Deborah Bonner, victim of
the Green River Killer

The three bodies were not the only ones to be found in and around Washington state’s Green River. Several days earlier, the body of a woman named Deborah Bonner was discovered. Her nude body had been found slumped over a log in the Green River. She too had been strangled to death.

Just a month earlier, another young girl, identified as Wendy Lee Coffield, was found strangled and floating in the Green River. Moreover, six months prior to Coffield’s discovery, the body of her friend Leanne Wilcox was found several miles from the river in an empty lot. It was not believed that the Green River Killer murdered Wilcox, but the opinion of the investigators has been recently challenged.

Wendy Coffield, victim of
the Green River Killer

Within the space of six months, six bodies had been discovered in or near the river. The police detectives at the scene quickly realized that there was a serial killer on the loose. They knew that they had to find and catch him as soon as possible before any more women disappeared.

friend 2.fri.0002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Orenthal James Simpson was arrested on June 17, 1994. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
He would not go on trial for the double murders until January 25, 1995.

He and his best friend, Al “A little help from my friends” Cowling, were taken downtown to the Parker Center and processed late in the evening. In the Ford Bronco, detectives had found a travel bag containing among other things, Simpson’s passport, a disguise kit consisting of a fake moustache and beard and a .357 magnum revolver. Cowling was also found to be carrying $8,000 in cash, which had been given to him by Simpson. Two days later, Simpson pleaded not guilty when arraigned and was remanded to the Los Angeles County jail.  Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Here, he would spend the next fifteen months in a nine-by-seven foot prison cell located in a ward that would have him as its only inmate. Outside his cell was a common room in which there was furniture, a television set, plenty of sports magazines and newspapers and a pay telephone. Although he was a prisoner on remand for two brutal, heinous murders, it seemed that almost from day one, O.J. Simpson was not to be treated as your normal, average, every day suspected killer.

Judge Lance A. Ito

On this same day, Superior Court Supervising Judge Cecil J. Mills, announced that the man selected to preside over the case would be Judge Lance A. Ito. The small, elfin man, with a moon pie face, piercing dark eyes and a nervous, quirky mouth above a black beard, was married to the highest ranking female LAPD officer, Captain Peggy York, head of the Internal Affairs Division. Along with one of her former partners, Helen Kidder, Peggy York had served as inspiration for the lead characters in the long running television series, Cagney and Lacey.

Lance Ito was the son of Japanese-American parents who were interned during World War Two. In his teenage years, he was known as somewhat irreverent, decorating his room with Playboy centerfolds and driving a hot Boss 302 Mustang. He was also known to humorously celebrate Pearl Harbor Day by wearing an aviator’s helmet and cape and run through his campus hall shouting out “Banzai.”

His appointment by California’s governor to the bench in 1989 was seen as a wise political choice, partly because of his Asian heritage. But Ito, as the presiding judge in the Simpson trial, would turn out to be a man not in control of his emotions and who would allow sentimentalism to dictate his decisions.

F. Lee Bailey

By this time, Robert Shapiro and a team he was collecting around him were now heading O.J. Simpson’s defense. The first two were F. Lee. Bailey and Alan Dershowitz. Johnnie L. Cochran, a high profile, stylish Los Angeles lawyer who drove around in a Rolls Royce and had once worked in the Los Angeles district attorney’s office, followed them soon after the preliminary hearing.

Gerald Uleman, Robert Kardashian, Carl Douglas, Skip Taft, Robert Blazier joined these three in due course, and two who became known as the DNA Twins- Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, New York attorneys who specialized in DNA testimony. They were all highly paid, high profile, strong-willed characters that would find themselves referred to as the “Dream Team.” At least five other attorneys and numerous back-up staff supported them.

According to Christopher Darden, the assistant prosecutor in the trial, the only thing the members of the” Dream Team” seemed to have in common was a penchant for defending rich people and the ability to create publicity. Lead detectives Lange and Vannatter had a more jaundiced view of the group. They referred to them as the “Rat Patrol.” To the police and prosecution counsels, the “Dream Team” was often slack on logic, but slick on innuendo.

The “Dream Team” designation came, of course, from the media who has a habit of framing titles to suit situations, irrespective of their veracity. It was costing Simpson thousands of dollars a week in fact to be defended by a bunch of lawyers, some of whom had limited or no experience in murder trials.

Attorney Johnny Cochran

Shapiro had never tried a murder case before; Cochran was primarily a civil lawyer and had little, if any, success in defending clients in murder cases. The well-known F. Lee Bailey’s last stab at fame had been 20 years earlier when he had defended Patti Hearst in her famous and high profile bank robbery case involving the SLA, but he had dunked that one, and it had sent his career into serious decline. Allan Dershowitz was a distinguished law professional, but in the area of appellate law and not criminal or trial law.

Lined up against the defense team was the group representing the people of California.

The lead prosecutor was Marcia Clark, aged 41. Born in Berkley, California, she had graduated from University of California, Los Angeles in 1974 and earned a law degree in 1979 from South Western University. She had worked for two years as a criminal defense lawyer before joining the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office in 1981. There, she had handled 60 trials by jury, including 20 murder cases. She had spent four years in the Special Trials Unit, which handled the most complex and sensitive investigations.

While traveling in Europe as a teenager she had been attacked and raped. She had also been emotionally abused by her first husband and was fighting a bitter and acrimonious custody case with her second ex-husband over custody of their two children.

She had developed a reputation as a tough, hard and determined litigator who operated with drive and single-mindedness. She was the original prosecutor assigned to the case along with David Conn, an Assistant District Attorney in the Special Trials Unit, who was also at the time a lead prosecutor in the high-profile Menendez brothers murder trial. He was pulled off that case and assigned to the Simpson inquiry, but after a few weeks returned to his original case and was replaced by Bill Hodgman, Deputy District Attorney and head of the Special Trials Division. Hodgman had successfully prosecuted the savings and loan fraud case against Charles H. Keating in 1991. He was highly respected for his legal and diplomatic skills by lawyers and police.

Christopher Darden

Christopher Darden was a Grade Four veteran Assistant District Attorney who had tried 19 murder cases without an acquittal before he found himself immersed in the Simpson case. He was born on April 7th, 1956 in Richmond, across the bay from San Francisco. He had spent 14 years at the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office when Marcia Clark brought him in, initially to handle the investigation of Al Cowling.

These were to be the key players for the prosecution, backed up by at least another ten lawyers and support staff. Vincent Bugliosi, the man who successfully prosecuted the Manson Family, had little respect for them, calling the prosecution the most incompetent criminal prosecution he had ever seen.

Alan Dershowitz

Dershowitz had little praise for them either. In a television interview he said, “In 35 years of practicing law, I never encountered two more incompetent bunglers than Clark and Darden.” He claimed that he had heard Clark whispering to another lawyer in the courtroom, “I want you to remember I’m not wearing any underwear.” Added Dershowitz, “And that was one of her better moments.”

For the hosts of people who believe lawyers are the lowest form of life, the Simpson trial only seemed to reinforce this perception, and to many, the trial became an exercise in chicanery, deceit and egomania, with lawyers to the left and lawyers to the right all fighting to be number one in the spotlight. The “Dream Team” turned into a nightmare. By the end of the trial, Cochran had called Shapiro hypocritical; Shapiro had vowed never to work again with Cochran; Bailey had accused Shapiro of being “a sick little puppy,” and Shapiro referred to Bailey as a “snake in the bed.”

They all of course, had to overcome the most powerful lawyer in court, Judge Ito, who many believed, allowed his robe to go to his head. Christopher Darden stated, “Judge Ito gave the defense the keys to the courtroom. He surrendered his gavel. Johnnie Cochran ran that courtroom, not Judge Ito.”  Bugliosi thought, “Judge Ito displayed little common sense and specialized in making patently erroneous rulings, one after another.”

And so the lawyers and their assistants gathered, their cellular phones chirping and laptop’s humming, and the maneuvering began to stage the grand event that would hold, captivate and, in many instances, sicken, the American people for months to come. The Cirque du Soleil of the legal calendar was shaping up and it would indeed be a grand circus.

To the prosecution, the case was relatively simple and supported by “a mountain of evidence”: Simpson had an abusive relationship with Nicole; was jealous of her since their marriage break-up; had purchased a knife similar in size and shape to the murder weapon. Simpson dropped the bloody gloves, one at the crime scene and one at his home. He wore shoes the same size as the footprints leading away from the crime scene. His blood was everywhere, some of it mixed in with that of the victims. He had a motive; he had the opportunity; he had no alibi for the timeframe of the murders.

To the defense the case was even simpler. Their client was innocent, framed by unscrupulous, devious, lying police officers, aided and abetted by incompetent law enforcement officials and county technicians. The defense lawyers painted Simpson as yet another black victim of the white judicial system. He was on trial because he was a black man, being framed and set up by a white man’s legal system.

But O.J. Simpson was an unlikely symbol of the racial divide between black and white America. He married a white woman and made his high-priced living in the white man’s world, doing business with them, playing golf with them and socializing with them. Rather than appearing as a true representative of the black people, he more typified the division between the rich and the poor, showing just how easily money could buy justice.

Gil Garcetti

The Grand Master of the Ring, Gil Garcetti, the District Attorney of Los Angeles, started the circus off by formulating a mystical and breath-taking non sequitur decision that would in essence chart the future of the trial before it even began.

glitters 4.gli.00002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

In Key West, Florida, police arrested a street performer known as “Gold Man” on a warrant for the charge of selling crack cocaine Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
to an undercover cop. When he’s not entertaining tourists, “Gold Man” goes by Daryl Brooks, and apparently spends his days chasing all that glitters.  Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

famous 4.fam.0003 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Italy’s most famous porn star Cicciolina, born Anna Ilona Staller, has led a tumultous and controversial life. In 1974, Staller was banned from the United States after she burned an American flag as a sign of protest in front of a crowd of 24,000. In 1987, she was elected to the Italian parliament, and continued to be active in politics after the end of her term as an advocate of sexual freedom, sex education, decriminalization of drugs, opposing the death penalty and censorship. Staller was engaged in a vicious custody battle after an equally vicious divorce from her husband, famed artist Jeff Koons, who first fell in love with her when he saw her in a porn magazine. In 2006, she offered herself to Osama Bin Laden, saying ‘he can have me in exchange for an end to his tyranny.’

nothing 6.not.99332 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Penn State University’s cheerleading squad proved it would stop at nothing to defend the honor of the school’s football team, the Nittany Lions. The cheerleaders reportedly surrounded a woman, plastered her body with lion’s-paw-shaped stickers and punched her in the face after she belittled the university’s sports program. School officials said at least six cheerleaders admitted to the Sept. 17, 2004, altercation, but the victim decided not to press charges.  Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

allegations 8.all.993993 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

A box removed from the attic of the lead investigator in the famed Susan Reinert murder case has yielded evidence that seems to raise serious questions about the case and could clear convicted killer Jay C. Smith.

A duplicate of the comb that connected Smith to  Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire  the crime scene, investigative notes that contradict prosecution testimony and a letter from an author offering an investigator $50,000 before arrests were even made were found in a box that Trooper Jack Holtz was apparently discarding.

All evidence from Smith ’s trial is supposedly sealed by court order and stored by the state attorney general’s office.

William C. Costopoulos, the Lemoyne lawyer representing Smith, a former Upper Merion High School principal who was sentenced to death for Reinert’s murder, filed papers in Dauphin County Court late Friday asking Senior Judge Robert L. Walker to put all evidence from the case in the care of a court-appointed custodian.

Costopoulos also asked that the judge order the prosecution to explain why the evidence was not turned over to the defense, and to allow him to analyze some evidence.

Smith and William S. Bradfield Jr., Reinert ’s fellow English teacher at Upper Merion, were convicted of killing Reinert and her two children in 1979 to collect $750,000 in insurance in a case that evolved into a national best seller and a highly rated CBS miniseries. The bodies of the two children, ages 11 and 10, were never found.

Wellsville flea marketer Mark A. Hughes said he stumbled across the box in material he collected after being hired by Holtz to clean out the attic and basement of the trooper’s Lower Paxton Twp. home.

Hughes turned the evidence over to Costopoulos on March 17, believing it showed a police cover-up in the case. Hughes was the subject of a brief theft investigation initiated by Holtz after the trooper learned of the box.

Hughes was questioned for more than two hours by state troopers Thursday, but Dauphin County District Attorney Richard A. Lewis said he will not be charged.

Chief Deputy Attorney General M.L. “Skip” Ebert Jr., who is handling the Smith case, said he was waiting to see what evidence Costopoulos has before assessing its impact on the case.

However, he said all the evidence was ordered sealed by the court at the close of the 1986 trial and is supposedly in sealed boxes in the possession of the attorney general’s office.

“The evidence that was presented in the trial in Dauphin County was sealed by the court and those containers are with me,” Ebert said. “Once the materials are turned in, then, in the presence of the court, maybe some of these boxes will be opened and we’ll find out what’s in them.”

State police officials would not return repeated phone calls from The Patriot-News. Holtz was unavailable for comment.

Smith received three death sentences in the 1979 murders, but was granted a new trial in December 1989 by the state Supreme Court.  Costopoulos is now arguing that a second trial would constitute double jeopardy because of misconduct by prosecutors.

Hughes’ discovery will further strengthen that argument, Costopoulos said.

He said the most critical piece of evidence found in the box is a comb marked 79th USARCOM  Smith ’s reserve unit. During the trial, an identical comb was introduced by prosecutors and alleged to have been found under Reinert ’s body when it was discovered in the trunk of her car at a Swatara Twp. motel.

Sealed in an evidence bag with fingerprint lifters and marked with FBI lab identification numbers, the comb is not the same one that was presented at trial, according to Costopoulos’ petition.

The comb police used to link Smith to the crime scene at the 1986 trial was labeled as a trial exhibit and the comb in the evidence bag is not, Costopoulos said.

Furthermore, based on Ebert’s comments, the comb presented at the trial should be sealed with other evidence in the attorney general’s office.

In addition to the comb, a Jan. 29, 1981, letter from author Joseph Wambaugh – who wrote “Echoes in the Darkness,” a best-selling book about the case – shows he offered Holtz’s late partner, Sgt. Joseph Van Nort, $50,000 for information before there were any arrests, according to the petition.

“P.S. Since I would start the leg work immediately we should be very careful about being seen together for the sake of your job,” Wambaugh wrote. “As far as witnesses would know, I received all my information from news stories and anonymous tips.”

Efforts to contact Wambaugh for comment were unsuccessful.

The box also contained 23 numbered and dated notebooks prepared by Holtz, with the exception of number 13. Costopoulos claims the 13th
notebook covers a time period when Holtz was dealing with jailhouse informant Raymond Martray, who testified Smith admitted killing the three.

Costopoulos has long challenged whether there was a deal with Martray to testify. He alleges in the petition that Holtz wrote in another notebook that Martray quoted Smith as saying he “did not” kill Reinert .

In an interview with another jailhouse informant, Holtz’s notes state that alleged co-conspirator Bradfield admitted that he acted alone in the slayings, according to the petition.

Further, Holtz’s notes show that witnesses told him Reinert’s daughter, Karen, wore a blue pin with the letter “P” on it, like one that was found in Reinert ’s car, the petition states. One witness testified at Smith ’s trial that she wore a green pin like one that was allegedly discovered in Smith ’s car a year after the murder while the former principal was incarcerated.

Costopoulos had little comment about the new twist in the case, saying the petition “speaks for itself.”

“Normally exculpatory evidence comes from the commonwealth,” he said. “This is the first time I got it from a junkman on the way to the incinerator.”

Costopoulos’ petition blasts what he calls the error-laden prosecution of the case, which has taken new turns nearly every year since Smith ’s conviction.

Costopoulos initially attacked the conviction after it was discovered that rubber evidence lifters containing sand reportedly taken from Reinert ’s feet were found in an evidence locker during the final days of the trial. They were not revealed to the defense until more than a year later.

The lifters support Costopoulos’ allegations that Reinert was killed at the New Jersey shore by Bradfield.

He also notes in the petition that hair and fiber evidence that the prosecution used to link Smith to the slaying was lost from 1983 until the middle of the trial in 1986, receipts that refuted Bradfield’s alibi are missing, the 911 tape alerting authorities to the discovery of Reinert ’s body was mistakenly destroyed, Reinert ’s body was accidentally cremated, and the autopsy audio tape was lost until after the trial.

“In this case, the commonwealth has consistently concealed or `lost’ material,” Costopoulos charges in the petition.  Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

“Until a judge tells me what to do with it, I intend to keep the box I got from the junkman,” Costopoulos said.

withdraw 5.wit.00300 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

The writer states in line #8, “You will withdraw $118,000.00 from your account.” The kidnapper may know the Ramseys are wealthy, but how does the writer know they have $118,000 in their account. Most kidnappers would simply state “get the money.” They don’t care where you get it from just get it.

8.	You will withdraw $118,000.00 from your account. $100,000 will be
9.	in $100 bills and the remaining $18,000 in $20 bills. Make sure
10.	that you bring an adequate size attache to the bank.

The amount of $118,000 is a relatively small amount of money. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire Kidnappers are greedy. A true kidnapper would demand much more money.