Alex Robert – Dubai Rape Trial Continues

Alexandre Robert, 15, a French citizen was raped by three men in Dubai. One of the rapists has AIDS and Hepatitis. So far Alex has not shown signs of either. Two of the men are already on trial, the third, a 17-year-old juvenile will be tried separately.

For a complete account of what happen to Alex click here.

For an account of the start of the trial click here.

Veronique Robert, Alexandre’s mother, had to be restrained and thrown out of court. Presiding Judge Fahmi Mounir ordered policewomen to take out the woman who jumped from her seat and walked towards lawyer Rukoz Hobeika and shouted at him. The mother had stormed to the middle of the courtroom and screamed ‘shame on you!’ to Hobeika.

Hobeika said: “This case has been a media war. The Public Prosecution should have conducted more serious investigations especially concerning the kidnap, threat and assault charges.”

The defense lawyers Rukoz Hobeika and Saeed al Ghailani began by casting doubt on both Alex’s testimony and his character and accused him of being a sex addict. They also accused the prosecution of fabricating evidence against the two men.

“Where are the stick and the knife with which the victim claims to have been threatened? I.S. and A.R. had an intimate friendship. He had a particular agreement with A.R.

“According to a forensic medical report, A.R.’s symptoms prove that he suffers from a disease (Al Ubna in Arabic) which makes him ask others to have sex with him but not otherwise. He has become an addict to submissive sex.Therefore, he couldn’t have been forced to have sex with the suspects.”

“A.R. told the public prosecutors that he trusted his close friend, I.S., and that’s why they rode his car. The doctor, who examined A.R. less than 24 hours following the incident, reported that the victim’s body had no bruises, though he claimed he was beaten with a stick and assaulted.”

NOTE: In the preceding comments only the initials of the suspects were used: A.K. is the 35-year-old AIDS and Hepatitis suspect. I.M. is the 18-year-old suspect. I.S. is the 17-year-old juvenile. A.R. is Alexandre Robert the victim.

The Public Prosecution charged A.K., his 18-year-old compatriot, I.M., and a 17-year-old teenager (being prosecuted at Juveniles Court) I.S., with deception and kidnapping the 15-year-old student, A.R., and his 16-year-old compatriot, F.K., by offering to drive them home. The three suspects were also charged with having a homosexual affair against A.R.’s will after threatening him with a knife and a stick.

Besides having denied his charge during his first court appearance, A.K. told the presiding judge: “I was drunk at the time of the incident.” The other two suspects also denied their charges.

According to Alex’s lawyer Hussain Al Jaziri, the 35-year-old A.K. should have been charged with attempted murder.

“The suspect knew he has Aids and Hepatitis which are fatal diseases. When he reportedly had forceful sex with my 15-year-old victim, he was aware that those diseases are sexually transmitted. This is a murder attempt. The suspect continued to have sex with my client against his will though he was aware that he could kill my client [if the diseases got transmitted]”

“For two and a half months the police couldn’t control A.K. to get a blood sample, so how would it be possible for A.R. to escape being sexually abused! My client cries day and night. He wishes he dies normally instead of dying of Aids,” said Al Jaziri who is also seeking Dh20,500 in temporary compensation.

The trial continues and a verdict is expected December 12.

Véronique Robert has set up a website boycottdubai.com for those who wish to express support for her son.

 

Internet Love Triangle Turns Deadly

This is one of those stories that you just can’t make up. Thomas Montgomery is a 46-year-old married father of two girls (aged 12 and 14). He gets involved with an 18-year-old girl on the Internet named Jessi. Thomas lies to Jessi and says he is an 18-year-old marine named Tommy who is about to go off to Iraq. Thomas also created another alias for himself as Tom Sr so that Jessi could pass messages and packages through him (Tom Sr) to Tommy in Iraq. The two “young people” continue to chat and get to know each other better. Tommy sends her a picture of a young marine, claiming it was him. Jessi sends Tommy a picture of herself as a beautiful young blond. Tommy falls in love with Jessi. Jessi falls in love with Tommy. Tommy proposed marriage and Jessi accepted. He sent her poinsettias, and she sent him G-strings and dog tags engraved with the message TOM & JESSI ALWAYS & FOREVER.

In the meantime Thomas’ wife Cindy becomes suspicious of her husband’s online activities. She eventually finds some of Jessi’s mementos and unravels the truth. Cindy’s marriage might not have been the happiest, but contending with the layers of deceit she uncovered — not to mention a teenager’s lingerie — was too much:

“What I cannot believe is that you are living out some bizarre fantasy — as father and son,” she wrote in a note to her husband. “If you want to separate — We can… but to continue to lie to me & the kids while she is sending ‘your son’ gifts in the mail is not acceptable.”

The couple stayed in the same house, though Montgomery complained to a coworker about being consigned to the basement. As a mother, however, Cindy felt she had to do something for Jessi. She wrote a letter, enclosing a recent photo of her family.

“Let me introduce you to these people,” she said, describing her husband, Tom, her daughters, 12 and 14 years old, and herself. ” There was no son, she told Jessi, only her husband, a 46-year-old former marine. “From what I am pulling from your letters you are much closer to [my daughter’s] age than mine let alone Tom’s,” Cindy wrote. “Are you over the age of 18? In this alone, he can be prosecuted as a child predator.” Adding that Jessi could be her own daughter, Cindy offered some maternal advice: “Do not trust words on a computer.”

For most people that would have been the end of the story………But in this case the story has just begun!!

Jessi didn’t know who to believe. Was there no Tommy? Or had Cindy invented the story because she wanted Tommy for herself? Jessi found a friend Montgomery had mentioned, Brian Barrett, a 22-year-old student at Buffalo State College who worked part-time with Montgomery and played poker with him. When Barrett confirmed his friend’s trickery, Jessi was devastated. How could her “everything,” as she referred to Tommy, be a nothing? She turned to Barrett for solace.

Their conversations quickly turned intimate. Soon, in public forums online, she and Barrett called Montgomery a child predator and taunted him. Montgomery was furious. “Half the company” thought he was a “fucking loser and predator,” he IM’d Jessi. Parents no longer trusted him with their kids. His life was so destroyed that he appeared to be contemplating suicide. “U can say goodbye forever to me and Tommy,” he told Jessi.

Despite her own anger, Jessi couldn’t turn her back completely on Montgomery. He was all that remained of her lost Tommy, after all. Jessi promised Montgomery she would stop talking to Barrett, saying she took up with him mainly to get revenge. As it turns out Jessi lied. She continued to talk to Barrett. She seemed torn between the two men. Eventually, Montgomery found out that Jessi and Barrett were talking again. He was furious.

Later that evening, September 13, 2006 at 10:16 pm, Barrett punched out of work and walked to his white pickup truck in the parking lot. He swung open the door of his truck, settling into his seat. Three shots pierced the driver’s side window, and Barrett slumped sideways. He’d been shot in the neck and upper arm by what police believe was a .30-caliber carbine rifle.

When detectives later examined Barrett’s cell phone, they found Jessi’s number. Lieutenant Ron Kenyon called her in the middle of the night to confirm that she’d had an online relationship with Montgomery and to warn her that she might be in danger. He then sent a message to her local police department in West Virginia, requesting that a cop go to Jessi’s home at the address she’d given him.

Officer J. L. Kirk arrived the next morning at a dingy white house next to an automotive-parts dealer. But Jessi wasn’t there. Her mother, Mary, said that the teenager was away and that she had no way to contact her. Kirk reported back to Kenyon, who insisted that he’d just spoken to Jessi a few hours earlier and that she had to be in the house. Kirk continued questioning Mary, whose manner struck him as strange. The more he pressed, the more nervous she got until she finally “came clean,” as Kirk put it.

She was the woman Kenyon had spoken to. In fact, she was the woman Barrett had fallen so hard for. And yes, Mary was the woman Montgomery may have killed for. She’d used her daughter’s identity to beguile the two men.

Back in Buffalo, Kenyon couldn’t believe that the Jessi he’d talked to was really her mother. “She was very convincing,” he said. “She sounded like an 18-year-old girl to me.” He drove to West Virginia to see the truth himself — that the lithe 18-year-old blond of Barrett’s and Montgomery’s fantasies was a plump 45-year-old married mother of two with short brown hair.

When questioned, Mary said she joined Pogo a few years ago to relax and kill some time. It was only after she paid for the membership, however, that she realized she’d used Jessi’s screen name. Mary was directed to a teen room, and she never bothered to correct the mistake. She didn’t intend for her many admirers to fall in love with her. Nor did she fall in love with any of them; she says she is happily married to her husband of 23 years. Brian was a “sweetheart” and when he initiated the flirtation, she didn’t know how to discourage it without revealing her true identity. Tommy, she said, “was a child who needed someone to show him they cared.”

On November 27, 2006, police arrested Thomas Montgomery on murder charges.

At the trial Prosecutor Frank Sedita argued for the maximum sentence of 25 years, describing Montgomery’s “almost predatory” pursuit of the woman and his resentment of Barrett when she cooled to Montgomery’s advances after 1 1/2 years and thousands of pages of Internet chats.

“My wife and I don’t understand how this could happen, how such evil could walk the Earth,” Barrett’s father, Daniel, said at the sentencing hearing. “To gun down a boy over simple jealousy does not make sense to us.”

Montgomery’s lawyer said fantasy and reality blurred for the then-married father of two teenage daughters, who was involved in his church and was president of his daughters’ swim club. Montgomery, now divorced, attempted suicide in his jail cell after his arrest. He chose not to speak at his sentencing.

“Until September 2006, this was a man who held his head high,” attorney John Nuchereno said. “By September 2006 — call it an obsession, call it an addiction, call it what you want — he was suffering from a diminished capacity of some sort.”

48-year-old Thomas Montgomery, entangled in an Internet love triangle built largely on lies, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for killing his rival for the affection of a woman he had never met.

 

2-Year-Old Girl’s Body Found

In the short 2 years that Riley Ann Sawyers spent on earth, she experienced horrible physical abuse at the hands of her mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, and stepfather, Royce Zeigler. Before dying, 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers was beaten with belts, picked up by her hair, thrown across the room and held under water, according to an affidavit from the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office.

After the little girl died the couple covered her in a purple towel then they went to the local Wal-Mart and purchased a “blue colored Sterilite plastic container with hinges and wheels on one end”. They placed the body of the girl in the container and hid the container in a storage shed for about 1 to 2 months. Eventually they removed the container from storage, took it to the Galveston Causeway and threw it into the waterway, watching it float away.

After the death of her daughter, Kimberly Tenor would tell people that Riley had been taken away from her by the Ohio Department of Children’s Services and even produced a fake letter to back up her claim. The body of the then-unidentified toddler was found on October 29. A fisherman found Riley’s body stuffed inside a blue storage container that washed up on an uninhabited island in Galveston‘s West Bay. A medical examiner said the child’s skull was fractured, and a forensic dentist estimated her age at 2 to 3 years. Police dubbed the child “Baby Grace.” A police artist’s sketch of her was widely circulated in the news media and prompted a call to Galveston police from Riley’s grandmother in Ohio, who had not seen the girl in months. On Saturday, police arrested Trenor and Zeigler on charges of injuring a child and tampering with physical evidence, the sheriff’s department said. Their bonds were set at $350,000 each.

When police interviewed Trenor on November 23, she “gave a voluntary statement on video with her attorney present in which she describes her involvement, with Royce Zeigler, in the physical abuse, death and disposal of the remains of her daughter, Riley Ann Sawyers.”

Riley Ann Sawyers’ real father, Robert Sawyers, and her grandmother, Sheryl Sawyers, gave an interview describing what the little girl was like. See the interview here.

Laura DePledge, the family’s lawyer, said the family whose grief is described as “simply overwhelming,” wants Riley’s body returned to Ohio for a memorial service. “What Riley needs is to be brought home,” she said. “I think this family needs some closure.”

Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo, of the Galveston County Sheriff’s Department asked anyone who knew the child or her family to help detectives reconstruct the events of Riley’s short life.

The toddler’s case has touched even hardened police officers, he said. “Any way you look at it, we carry a piece of her with us, and we’ll always carry a little piece of her with us,” he said. He held up a small, pink-and-white shoe identical to those the child was wearing when she was found. “That says it all. A little-bitty shoe.”

 

Monkey Meat – A Religious Rite?

Mamie Manneh, 39, is in a lot of trouble. The Liberian-born New York City resident is in federal court fighting charges that accuse her of the illegal importation of bushmeat from Africa. The case dates to early 2006, when federal inspectors at JFK Airport examined a shipment of 12 cardboard boxes from Guinea. They were addressed to Manneh and, according to a flight manifest, contained African dresses and smoked fish with a value of $780. While inspecting the shipment the inspectors came upon some interesting items which had not been declared.

Stashed underneath the smoked fish, the inspectors found what West Africans refer to as bushmeat: “skulls, limbs and torsos of non-human primate species” including green monkeys and hamadryas baboons, plus the hoof and leg of a small antelope, according to court papers. The meat had been smoked.

Shortly afterwards Mamie received a visit from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents. They showed up at her house and she explained to them that she ran a smoked fish importing business. She denied knowing anything about bushmeat from Africa and said she had not eaten any since being in the United States. But after she consented to a search, the agents came across a tiny, hairy arm hidden in her garage. “Monkey,” she explained, claiming the arm was sent to her out of the blue “as a gift from God in heaven.”

Federal prosecutors hit Manneh with smuggling charges that accused her of violating import procedures. Although the importation of bushmeat is not specifically banned, Manneh is accused of falsely labeling her delivery and failing to obtain proper permits, charges that could bring a maximum prison sentence of five years. They suggested she was a menace to man and beast alike. The complaint cited evidence that the illegal importation of bushmeat encourages the slaughter of protected wild animals.

More ominously, the complaint warned of “the potential health risks to humans linking bushmeat to diseases like Lassa fever, Ebola, HIV, SARS and monkeypox.”

The case has attracted attention from an array of interested parties. Wildlife conservationists see trade in bushmeat as a grave threat to dwindling species; epidemiologists view it as a dangerous vector of disease. Many African immigrants, who eat bushmeat cubed and cooked in a stew of onions, garlic, tomatoes and chili pepper, see it as a referendum on a cultural practice.

The case took on a new dimension in February, when Ms. Manneh’s lawyer, Jan Rostal of Federal Defenders of New York, filed a motion to dismiss the indictment, arguing that the meat provides “spiritual sustenance” similar to the bitter herbs served at a Passover Seder.

“Unfortunately for the government,” she wrote, the bushmeat case “represents the sort of clash of cultural and religious values inherent in the ‘melting pot’ that is America.”

Manneh testified last year that before arriving in the United States more than 25 years ago, monkey meat was critical to her religious upbringing. At age 7, “I was baptized and they used that for the baptizing ceremony,” she told a judge. Baptisms, Easter, Christmas, weddings—all are occasions for eating monkey, Manneh’s supporters said in a sworn statement filed with the court.Manneh has managed to recruit some notable allies. Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy picked up the case in April, offering two lawyers to assist Ms. Rostal, who works out of the public federal defenders office. Manneh’s attorneys plan on calling the Harvard professor, Mr. Olupona, to testify to the religious significance of eating bushmeat, according to court papers. Manneh’s church also submitted an affidavit explaining:

“This is something our forefathers did, it is something we learned as children, and it is a part of our treasured relationship with God as African Christians.”

African expatriates like Edward Lama Wonkeryor, a lecturer at Temple University, have long turned to bushmeat as a home comfort: During his earliest trips from Liberia to this country, in the 1970s, his mother would wrap parcels of bushmeat — monkey, bush hog or lion, smoked so it would keep — and slip them into his suitcase. He would save them for events like weddings and christenings, or when he wanted to feel smarter.

“If I were going to take the Graduate Record Examination or the Law School Admissions Test, definitely I would” eat bushmeat beforehand, said Dr. Wonkeryor, who wrote a letter in Ms. Manneh’s defense. “I am really surprised that they are making a big issue out of this.”

In the meantime Mamie Manneh is sitting in prison over something complete unrelated to this case: For assaulting a woman outside a Staten Island movie theater. Manneh drove her car towards her husband and a woman she suspected was her husband’s girlfriend; the husband got out of the way, but Manneh managed to hit the woman.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

After the “turkey dinner” is finished. After the family time. After maybe a few drinks. What do we really know about Thanksgiving? When was the first Thanksgiving? Who started it and why? Why do we eat turkey? If you are not sure of some or all of the answers maybe you should take a look at the history of Thanksgiving or take a Thanksgiving quiz

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody !!

 

Mother Jailed for Truant Daughter

Dawn Joyce, 40, of Pendeford, Wolverhampton, has been sentenced to two weeks in jail. Her crime: Allowing her 14-year-old daughter Carrie-Ann to skip school. In the six months between January and June Carrie-Ann missed a total of 90 days. She “attends” The King’s School in Tettenhall, Wolverhampton. The school has the fourth lowest GCSE results in Wolverhampton although its truancy rate (no thanks to Carrie-Ann) is well below the national average.

This was not the first time Dawn has been in trouble with the law over her daughter. June last year she was convicted of a lesser offense relating to Carrie-Ann’s truancy and fined £100. Dawn says she has done all she can do:

“I have done all I can to try and get my daughter to school, but there are a million reasons she gives as to why she can’t go,” she added. “It is making my life hell. I’ve been on anti-depressants and don’t think I can do much more.”

Carrie-Ann does have a number of reasons why she can’t or won’t go to school:

• Having a “bad hair” day
  
• Needed time to tidy her room
• Could not find her PE kit
• Cat hair on her trousers
  
• Dyeing her hair and not liking the color
  
• Not wanting to attend on Mondays
• Being tired

District Judge Shamim Qureshi told Joyce, who had pleaded not guilty: “I accept that a lot of the blame falls on your daughter, but an element of it is on your shoulders. The situation should not have got this far.” She described the case as the “worst aspect of society breakdown” to come before the courts and added that the jail term might force the family to recognize they had to persuade the girl to attend school.

In a statement released after the court case, the school’s assistant principal Barbara Easton said: “We are sad the situation came to this.”

“We’ve worked very creatively with the family and used every imaginable strategy to get the girl to go to school, but the responsibility ultimately lies with the parents.”

However it looks as if the judge’s strategy is not working:

A neighbour said yesterday: “I have just seen her walking past our house to the bus stop with her sister, so her mum being put in prison does not seem to have had any effect.”

Carrie-Ann admitted that she did not go to school yesterday and spent the day shopping instead. The serial truant said she had been unhappy at school and claimed she had been threatened by teachers – allegations which they deny.

“Of course I feel bad about this whole thing,’ said Carrie-Ann, who is staying with her 19-year-old sister, Amy. “I don’t want to put mum through this, but I just don’t want to go to school.”

 

Rape Victim Punished More Severely

In most societies the ideals of justice and fairness are ingrained and upheld by laws written to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. It is generally left to the courts to decided innocence or guilt. Lawyers defend their clients, prosecutors try to prove guilt and judges (and in some cases juries) decide on the merits of the case and make a decision based on the law of the land. There may be extenuating circumstances that mitigate a sentence if a guilty verdict is declared but the idea is to be fair in making a judgment after considering all the facts…….in most societies.

The ideals of justice and fairness took a back seat in one recent case in Saudi Arabia. However before continuing one should always be mindful that various societies have laws and customs that may seem strange and even antiquated by western values, but nevertheless the semblance of what is fair and just should be the goal of any society that respects and protects its citizens. In my opinion, colored by those “western values”, what happened in this case was neither fair nor just.

A young married woman met with an male acquaintance of hers in order to retrieve some pictures he had of her. They were abducted by seven men who gang-raped both her and her male friend. At the trial the men were given sentences ranging between ten months and five years and 80 to 1,000 lashes each. She and her friend were each given a sentence of 90 lashes. The ruling according to Saudi Arabia’s strict reading of Islamic law, blamed the woman for being alone with an unrelated man.

She appealed. The judges responded by increasing the sentences of the rapists to 2 to 9 years. But they also increased her sentence to 200 lashes and 6 months in jail. The judges accused the woman of trying to use the media to influence them. Her lawyer Abdel Rahman al-Lahem, protested:

“Their argument was that it was the girl’s fault in the first place that (the rape) happened and none of that would have happened if she had not met up with the non-related male friend,” said Al-Lahem

“My client is the victim of this abhorrent crime. I believe her sentence contravenes the Islamic Sharia law and violates the pertinent international conventions,” he said. “The judicial bodies should have dealt with this girl as the victim rather than the culprit.”

The attorney was barred from practicing law after authorities confiscated his license. He faces a disciplinary hearing.

“Basic Islamic law states that an appeal shall not harm the person appealing,” al-Lahem told the English-language paper Arab News. “Once this rule is ignored, then people who appeal verdicts are only left terrorized. From now on people will be apprehensive to appeal fearing they might be punished or have their sentences doubled. That’s exactly what’s happened to the rape victim, who only wanted justice.”

In the meantime the U.S. expressed “astonishment” at the sentence the young woman received. Sean McCormack, State Department spokesman, stopped short of stronger language against its close ally in the Middle East:

“I think when you look at the crime and the fact that now the victim is punished, I think that causes a fair degree of surprise and astonishment,” McCormack said. “But it is within the power of the Saudi government to take a look at the verdict and change it.”

In response Saudi Arabia is defending the controversial court decision. The Kingdom’s official news agency, the Saudi Press Agency published a Justice Ministry statement reiterating that charges against the woman were proven and criticizing media coverage of the case. It also repeated the judges’ attack against Lahem last week, saying he had “spoken insolently about the judicial system and challenged laws and regulations”.

 

Megan Meier – A MySpace Suicide Victim

Megan Meier a 13-year-old teenager from Dardenne Prairie, Mo is dead. She committed suicide on Oct. 16, 2006. That final act ended the life of a troubled teen searching for acceptance and love. It also caused the break-up of her parents’ marriage. But most of all it was the culmination of a very cruel prank played upon an extremely vulnerable young girl. The following is a story of deceit, revenge and cruelty.

Megan loved swimming, boating, fishing, dogs, rap music and boys. But her life had not always been easy. She had struggled with depression and had attention deficit disorder (ADD). In third grade she had talked about committing suicide and had been going to see a counselor ever since. She was also overweight for her 5 foot 5 1/2 inch frame, weighting as much as 195lbs. But things were beginning to look up for Megan.

She had just started eighth grade at a new school, Immaculate Conception, in Dardenne Prairie, where she was on the volleyball team. She had lost 20lbs. She also decided to break off with her 7th grade girlfriend with whom she had an on-again-off-again friendship……and she found a new friend, a boy she met on MySpace named Josh Evans.

Josh was 16 years old and according to Megan he was hot. Megan got her Mom’s approval to add him as a friend to her MySpace page. Her mom, Tina Meier, was always careful to monitor who Megan talked to. Josh was born in Florida and recently had moved to O’Fallon. He was home-schooled. He played the guitar and drums. He was also from a broken home and told her:

“when i was 7 my dad left me and my mom and my older brother and my newborn brother 3 boys god i know poor mom yeah she had such a hard time when we were younger finding work to pay for us after he left.”

“Megan had a lifelong struggle with weight and self-esteem,” Tina says. “And now she finally had a boy who she thought really thought she was pretty.”

Things went well for a time and Megan was always rushing home from school to talk to her new friend. On Oct. 15th things took a strange twist. Josh sent her the following note:

“I don’t know if I want to be friends with you anymore because I’ve heard that you are not very nice to your friends.”

Megan was puzzled and asked him what he meant and wondered who he had been talking to. The next day Megan handed out invitations at school to her upcoming 14th birthday party and when she got home asked her mom to log on so she could see if Josh had answered her questions. She was very upset when she learned that Josh had suddenly become very cruel to her. Her mom was on her way to an appointment and told Megan to sign off the computer. Megan did not. Shortly afterwards Megan called her mom in tears and told her that people were calling her a slut and that she was fat. She was sobbing hysterically. Tina was furious that Megan had not signed off when she was told to do so. Once Tina returned home she rushed into the basement where the computer was. Tina was shocked at the vulgar language her daughter was firing back at people. Tina scolded her daughter: “I am so aggravated at you for doing this!” she told Megan.

Megan ran from the computer and left, but not without first telling Tina, “You’re supposed to be my mom! You’re supposed to be on my side!”

On her way to her room Megan ran into her father Ron and told him what was happening. He tried to console her telling her everything would be OK. That would be the last time either of them would see Megan alive. Twenty minutes later her mom would find her in her bedroom. She had hung herself, using a belt, in her closet.

As tragic as this story is, this was not the end. Six weeks after Megan’s suicide, her family found out that Josh Evans never existed. He was created by the mother of Megan’s 7th grade friend in order to spy on Megan.

NOTE:

Before continuing with this story, I would like to add a personal comment. There have been various accounts in the news media detailing the events of Megan Meier’s suicide. Most sources have refused to name the person responsible for the creation of the fake identity called Josh Evans. They cite concern for the teenage daughter of the perpetrator. Some feel that by publishing the name, justice may somehow be put in jeopardy. Since no-one has yet been charged with any crime, some argue that this person should remain anonymous. I do not share this opinion. Curt and Lori Drew are the parents of the teenage daughter that was friends with Megan. It was Lori Drew who created the fake identity of Josh Evans. She has admitted this to the police.

The Drew’s were close friends and neighbors of the Meier’s. They live on the same street. They attended both the wake and funeral of Megan Meier, knowing fully well that they were responsible for her death. They deceived everyone. They deserve to have their name published and be held accountable for their actions. According to the authorities, no crimes have been committed. But whether or not a crime has been committed, Lori Drew is directly responsible for the suicide death of Megan Meier.

After the deception was discovered, Ron and Tina Meier went to the police and even got the FBI involved in the case. They were told to keep the matter quiet and let the authorities handle the case. One year later, with no charges being filed, they were told that there was nothing to be done. The police could find nothing to charge anybody with. That is when the Meier’s took their story public.

For follow up interviews and news stories see the links below:

Megan’s Story 2 Megan’s Story 3 Megan’s Story 4 Megan’s Story 5

 

Thrill Kill – Teens Arrested

Two Michigan teenagers, Jean Pierre Orlewicz, 17, and Alexander James Letkemann, 18, are in jail accused of killing Daniel Gene-Vincent Sorensen, 26……just for the thrill of it. Not only was Sorensen killed but his head was severed from his body, both his hands and feet were torched (presumably to hide his identity) and his torso was set on fire. His head and body were recovered separately some 15 miles apart. Orlewicz, of Plymouth, and Letkemann, of Westland, were arraigned on one count each of first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder and mutilation of a corpse. The two are being held without bond at the Wayne County Jail. The murder charges carry mandatory sentences of life in prison. Mutilating a corpse carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

What prosecutors are calling a well-thought out murder, began by Orlewicz luring Sorensen to his grandfather’s garage. The two teens had prepared for the murder by spreading a tarp on the floor where they intended to kill him. When Sorensen entered the garage he was stabbed multiple times in the back. He head was sawed off and his body was wrapped up in the tarp. Orlewicz and Letkemann also burned his hands and feet with a blowtorch, possibly in an effort to conceal his identity.

The teens loaded Sorenson’s torso in a pickup truck, dumped it in a cul-de-sac and set it on fire using gasoline. A utility crew found it Thursday morning, police said. Sorenson’s head was found Saturday in the Rouge River.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is in charge of the investigation and held a press conference:

“We’ve all seen a lot. We’ve seen it all,” Worthy said of the case’s investigators. “Still, a crime like this surprises us all.

“Anytime anyone kills just because they want to, and that’s what the evidence seems to suggest here, is bone-chilling. Why anyone would want to do that, especially being 17 years old, it makes us think and ask a lot of questions about our society.”

Apparently the two teens had not known each other for very long. Jean Pierre Orlewicz was a senior at Canton High School and Alexander James Letkemann a recent graduate of Livonia Public Schools. Raymond Cassar, the Letkemann’s lawyer, said Alex is scared and confused. He said Alex had known Orlewicz for about three months before the slaying and described them as mere acquaintances. Both teens have pages on MySpace and do not list each other as friends. Letkemann’s page is here and Orlewicz’s page is here.

The victim, Daniel Gene-Vincent Sorensen, is a registered sex offender which prosecutors say has nothing to do with the case. He was convicted of having sex with a 14-year-old girl when he was 17. He also owed Orlewicz about $400 which again according to prosecutors was not the motive behind the killing. Before meeting with the two killers, Daniel had told friends where he was going. After killing Sorensen the two teens called a third teen to help them with the body. These two events helped investigators solve the case. See a TV news report on how the case was solved

For more TV coverage on this story click here

For a press conference with Alexander’s parents click here

 

Google Billionaire to Wed

Larry Page, 34, the co-founder of Google Inc. announced plans to marry on the weekend of Dec. 8th. The lucky lady is Lucy Southworth. The wedding location has not been disclosed. The two have been dating for over a year.

Lucy Southworth was a biomedical informatics doctoral student at Stanford University. She will be marrying a multi-billionaire. Larry Page is said to be worth $20 billion. The invitation list to Page’s wedding is expected to include many of Google’s current and former employees, as well San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and billionaire Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group.

Former Vice President Al Gore, a senior adviser at Google, has been invited to the wedding but won’t be able to make it because he will be picking up the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway. He said he still hopes to make an appearance through video conferencing.