Journal

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Weird prosecutor tricks?

If I lived in Rome, Georgia, I would be wondering why and how the prosecutors there keep their jobs. Given how much the CBLDF has spent so far defending Gordon Lee, they must have spent a great deal more than that of the taxpayer's money in trying to prosecute him. And now things have got even stranger...

Details at http://www.cbldf.org/pr/archives/000294.shtml

Lead counsel Alan Begner says, “I have never -- as a criminal trial lawyer for thirty years -- seen a complete changing of the facts like this. Throughout the last year and a half, through written statements, the investigation, and the presentation of evidence before the grand jury, as well as the written accusation and indictment, the State had steadfastly asserted that the comic book had been handed to the nine-year-old. The dismissal of the charges today reflects the prosecution’s admission that everything that was presented as evidence before was untrue, and that they had stuck to the false facts through procedure after procedure in the case. We now intend to investigate how a year and a half of statements based on one set of facts has now been changed at the last minute to another set of facts.”

Cadle adds, “To find out about this significant factual change in the allegations against Gordon at 3 PM on a Sunday when we were supposed to be going to trial at 9 AM on a Monday is disconcerting. It unfortunately has the result of costing Mr. Lee and the Fund tons more time, effort, and money. As attorneys, we’ve done what we’re supposed to do and we’re going to keep doing that. Alan and I were ready, willing, and able to go to trial this week, but unfortunately we now need to incur more legal time and expense to move forward.”

(Mark Evanier has a theory about this - http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2006_04_03.html#011279)

It's definitely time to say thank you to any of you who have contributed to the fund recently. And it's time for me to do several of the fundraising things I keep meaning to do but have been putting off. (For example, about a decade ago I grabbed a few dozen of my older black tee shirts, signed them in fabric paint and gave them to the CBLDF who sold them at conventions for about $50 a shirt. I think it's time to go and buy some new pots of fabric paint, and time to go and look in the basement for cool rare things that would sell on eBay. And I have to investigate what happened to Scott McCloud's WHY I AM NOT NEIL GAIMAN print, which we were both going to sign...)


Several people let me know that the CBLDF website wasn't accepting donations or memberships -- I think it's now all fixed. http://www.cbldf.com/ is the place to go -- some really cool stuff up there, although it's time to overhaul the section of my stuff and remove the things that we've run out of.