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Friday, April 23, 2010

A Really Bad Deal

In a post yesterday, I compared Det. Tim Deal to Mark Gottlieb, the corpulent police sergeant who was front-and-center in trying to frame the Duke lacrosse player, even resorting to fabricating information. However, Deal does not have just the blood of Gottlieb running through his veins, but also that of Det. Robert Perez, whose lies, fabrications, and refusal to do even basic police procedures gave the world the hoax known as the "Wenatchee Sex Ring," which has identified that sorry Washington town forever.

Now, there are differences and similarities. Like Gottlieb, Deal is more a pawn of prosecutors Len Gregor and Chris Arnt, while in Wenatchee, Perez drove the "investigation," and the prosecution trailed behind. However, before he was done, Perez had managed to have 43 adults charged with 29,726 charges of child sex abuse, involving 60 children in 1995. Not surprisingly, the entire "sex ring" turned out to be a sham, and Perez finally overreached when he had pastor Robert Robertson and his wife indicted, only to have a good attorney working pro-bono who finally took the whole thing apart in court.

(As in the Tonya Craft case, the judge was hostile to the defense and the prosecution made preposterous claims, such as "no evidence is evidence" and beyond. The investigators poured over every inch of the church where Robertson supposedly held huge orgies, but could find not even a speck of semen or anything like that. THAT, according to the prosecutor, constituted inculpatory evidence, although I am sure that the discovery of semen also would have been touted as inculpatory. In other words, "Heads, I win, tails you lose.")

So, now we have Tim Deal as the star of the show. Yet, what did Deal do? As I noted in another post yesterday, in child molestation cases, investigators must answer two questions: (1) Did sexual abuse actually occur? and (2) If so, who did it? However, as the various accounts have revealed, it is absolutely clear that Deal and the investigators decided beforehand that there HAD been sexual abuse, and that they were going to charge Ms. Craft no matter what.

This is a road to disaster, for it turns evidence gathering on its head. Now, given that this case was being pushed by powerful families in Catoosa County (who clearly are shown to be above the law) and two dishonest and corrupt prosecutors, Len Gregor and Chris Arnt, Deal and the "investigators" from the Children's Advocacy Centers in Fort Oglethorpe and Dalton, Deal knew his role and he did exactly what investigators do when they decide beforehand that a real investigation might uncover that none of the sexual abuse even happened.

As in the Duke case, Deal tried to make sure that no road that might reveal the whole thing to be a hoax would be followed. So, he and the investigators began the whole thing with a mindset that no matter what, the children would "disclose" exactly what they wanted them to say, and they were willing to resort to any trick in the book, including the phantom "she 'disclosed' after the video camera was turned off but-I-took-no-notes" testimony of Suzi Thornton. Not surprisingly, Deal stepped into the break to play the deus ex machina role.

As we see in today's account in the Times-Free Press, Deal's sham "investigation" is further revealed. While Deal and the investigators spent much time with the "distraught" mothers, he did not speak to the fathers at all.

Now, keep in mind that one of the fathers clearly was skeptical and told the prosecutors that he believed nothing happened. Their response? They threatened to charge him with obstruction of justice if he did not go along with their scheme. (One of the fathers -- of "child number two" -- even told the private investigator for the defense in a recorded talk that he did not believe that his child was molested, and certainly not by Ms. Craft. Taking a page from Michael Nifong, the prosecutors had the PI arrested in order to keep his own testimony from being heard.)

But it even gets better, as this "sterling investigator" decided that the answers he was getting from one of the children was just not incriminating enough:
At one point, he asked Detective Deal about part of the interview when he asked the child if Ms. Craft had said anything to her when touching her.

According to the transcript, the child said "no." But in the next paragraph, Detective Deal asked again, "Did she say anything or just not to tell?" The child quickly responded, "She told me not to tell."

Mr. King stopped and looked at the detective and, "You just changed her answer?"

"Possibly yes," the detective said. But he said later than through his questions, he had gotten the girl to modify her answer but not to change it.
"'Possibly, yes'." In other words, "Yeah, I might have done that. So what? I can do what I want, and I am doing the bidding of Arnt and Gregor."

As I have said before, it is abundantly clear what happened, and the only reason that this sham is permitted to continue is because Judge Brian House, Arnt and Gregor have been able to act as near-dictators in the Lookout Mountain Judicial District. These are people who organized and then rammed through a sham investigation, and now are demanding a guilty verdict against Tonya Craft even though all of the principals know she is innocent.

The spirits of Mark Gottlieb and Robert Perez rule in Catoosa County. One only can imagine that a number of the other similar cases of child molestation in that district have involved a complete destruction of the rights of the accused, which supposedly is the very foundation of U.S. criminal law.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tim Deal = Roscoe P. Coultrain
Brian House = Boss Hawg

Would call Sheriff Summers Coultrain, but he is busy out chasing down his drunk offspring.

Anonymous said...

You have to love it...Joal Henke is on the stand and the state is arguing relevance of bi-sexuality. What does that tell us?

Anonymous said...

Seriously?

Anonymous said...

I wonder if that is concerning Tonya. I had heard before all of these allegations took place that she was bi-sexual and that is why he has such hatred for her and wanted the kids away from her.

Denise C. said...

Now the ex-husband is up there saying that he knows that Tonya watched a girl on girl sex tape years ago. He probably put it in and made her watch it. Anyway, watching it doesn't mean you are bi-sexual or lesbian or anything else. Furthermore, being bi-sexual or lesbian doesn't mean that you would molest children. Whatever Tonya's sexual preference is doesn't matter.

Dan said...

From twitter:


calliestarnes Witness says didn't mention #TonyaCraft being w/woman or watching porn when he gave original statement. Says he remembered during trial.


And from the ex... how convenient is that?!

Anonymous said...

This just gets crazier at every turn! Who cares if she is bi. That does not equate to child molestation!

Denise C. said...

I'm sorry, but if I was on the jury right now I would be trying very hard not to laugh at this testimony. How can the ex-husband's testimony not be considered inadmissible? He has motive, duh! This is ridiculous. My ex-husband has called DFACS so many times on me it isn't even funny. Every time they come out, we talk for a few minutes, they laugh, and tell me not to worry. They say that the reports are obviously unfounded. Luckily, I don't live in Catoosa County or else I would probably be where Tonya is today.

JoalHomo said...

It must be remembered, that this guy was caught cheating on Ms. Craft several times, and his shot at custody was killed during their divorce by photos of him doing his best doggy imitation in the backyard with some chick.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like they want to mess and confuse the jury pool....why would testimony like that even be admissable!?! And what does that have to do with child molestation... Just character assassination.

Anonymous said...

Who cares if she is bi. That does not equate to child molestation!

why would testimony like that even be admissable

1 - she likes females

1 - victims are female

1+1=2

pretty simple

Anonymous said...

To anonymous 3:24

1 - she is married to a male

1 - her son is a male

1+1=?

Does 1+1= she molested her son? Why wasn't he questioned?

Seems like your 1+1 is not = to 2 in this case! Take your math facts somewhere else!

Anonymous said...

Folks, no matter what the outcome of this butchery of our Constitutional laws or Civil rights may be....no one wins in this case.
Pray to your Supreme Being or whatever your denomination believes, that Tonya will be found innocent of all charges and her children will get back to the safe haven of their true mother who loves them and has their well bing at heart. amen

Anonymous said...

Whomever Anonymous is from yesterday at 3:24, YOU ARE AN IDIOT. Crawl back under your rock and to back to sleep. You obviously can't read or understand the written word. How many people have now "remembered" damaging information during the trial? How stupid. What tall tales. Tim Deal should get a book deal and write fairy tales. He has such a great imagination.

Unknown said...

Det Deal has now railroaded my son didnt allow him to have an attorney, lied to him lied on the stand during his bond hearing, and took a simple making out case in school to life imprisonment
How can lying substandard police officers be taken out of the work force
and our children protected from people with no morals or integrity