Crime, Etc.

Killer Betty Broderick, a "feminist" heroine in some demented circles of our country because she was a wife who was treated like crap by her rich ambulance-chasing husband when he dumped her for a much-younger woman and killed them both in a rage, was denied parole for the 1989 killings.

This woman was so demented that she wasn't happy she was getting $16,000 a month; instead, she had to terrorize ex-husband Dan and his new wife Linda and ultimately killed the golden goose.

She had everything at one point and wound up with absolutely nothing but a prison term.

Broderick STILL can't admit what she did was heinous.

This is interesting:

Kathy Lee Broderick, 38, said at the parole hearing she wanted her mother to come live with her, even though she still misses her father.

"She should be able to live her later life outside prison walls," she said.

However, her younger brother, Dan Broderick, 33, said his mother was "hung up on justifying what she did."

"In my heart, I know my mother is a good person," he said. "But along the way she got lost. Releasing a lost person into society could be a dangerous mistake."

Another report is here:

The story Betty Broderick told was so compelling it took on a life of its own. It apparently did withstand the test of time as she went before the parole board. Hindsight tends to paint a sharper -- and harsher -- picture.

Betty's version: She was a stay-at-home mom who worked to put her husband through medical and law school only to lose her "Ward and June Cleaver" marriage when her husband fell under a younger woman's spell.

Larry Broderick's story: No, she did not put her husband through school. No, they did not have an idyllic marriage. "Normal people just don't seem to get that murderers will lie to save their skin," he told CNN. "And, did you know that dead people have no rights? A person can slander and libel and say anything they want about a dead person, and you can't stop it."

"What the public sees is the older woman dumped for the younger woman, and they get upset about that and forget all the rest," Sachs said.

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Another famous killer isn't likely to fare as well as Broderick:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a ruling that had set aside the death sentence of Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer in the 1980s in a racially tinged case that has made the former Black Panther an international cause celebre.

The justices ordered the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to revisit its 2008 ruling that Abu-Jamal deserved a new sentencing hearing because of flawed jury instructions.

The Supreme Court pointed to its decision in an Ohio case last week, when it said a neo-Nazi killer did not deserve a new sentencing hearing on those grounds.

A mostly white Philadelphia jury convicted Abu-Jamal of killing white Officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981.

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Betty Broderick and Muzzammil Hassan should get together to commiserate. After all, he, too, was abused, in his case by the wife he ultimately beheaded.
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The light is dimming and about to go out for songwriter/sexual assault defendant Joseph Brooks if he doesn't come up with some cash--quick--to stay out of jail.

He's now being accused of faking his sickness.
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In Polanski news, Samathan Geimer is not happy about an L.A. judge moving to have Polanski extradited to the U.S.
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Polanski, Etc.

The Swiss have rejected Polanski's third request for bail.

How did Samantha Geimer's (then Samantha Gailey) words get lost in the hoopla surrounding Roman Polanski's case?

I don't think it even matters now. I have maintained all along that if she wants the matter dropped, who am I to say the freakshow should be allowed to continue?

So How Was It

after over 30 years of doing basically nothing, the U.S. and Swiss governments decided to go after director Roman Polanski?

A series of e-mails uncovered by the Associated Press reveal that prosecutors in Los Angeles were closely monitoring Polanski’s activities in late September while the director was in Austria for the opening of a musical based on one of his films.

Serious discussions took place as to whether Polanski should be taken into custody there. Los Angeles deputy district attorney Diana Carbajal had doubts about the cooperation of the local authorities, writing to her colleagues, “I don’t have experience with any Austrian extraditions so I don’t know how ‘friendly’ they would be to extradition on such a case.”

Polanski was so closely watched—by whom?—that Carbajal knew when the director had checked out of his hotel in Austria on the morning of September 23, and that he would be heading to a film festival in Zürich, Switzerland, ahead of schedule. Carbajal wrote to colleagues asking if it would be more favorable to “maintain our position to extradite from Switzerland.’’ She received confirmation, and Polanski was arrested upon his arrival in Zürich.

The Associated Press notes blandly: “It is unclear from the e-mails why Los Angeles officials were concerned about Austrian cooperation on a Polanski extradition request. There was no reference to Polanski’s history as a Jewish Holocaust survivor whose mother died in Auschwitz, or the sensitivities about having him pursued in the land of Adolf Hitler’s birth.”

The WSWS has a point about how much time has been wasted going after an old man whose victim has long since forgiven him, but Wall Street crooks are allowed to walk the streets free.

Speaking of the victim, Samantha Geimer is very worried her life is going to be ruined because of all of the circus atmosphere surrounding this matter.

That was why she and her mother didn't want a trial in the first place. But watch the pseudo-feminists say it's not Geimer's call whether or not Polanski be tried. Who gives a shit, after all, what the victim thinks, even if prosecutors couldn't really bring a case against Polanski other than the fact he fled the country? These pseudo-feminists want to make Polanski an example for whatever stupid cause they have.

Polanski has a number of legal options:

Legal experts, however, said Polanski has options beyond begging for leniency. There are a number of legal maneuvers, such as withdrawing his guilty plea, that could result in the case being dropped entirely or in a sentence of no prison time.

More:

The victim of Roman Polanski’s 1977 sex charge has asked an appellate court to drop the charge against the film director, saying the unceasing publicity has disrupted her family, job and health.

Since the director’s arrest last month, Samantha Geimer and her attorney have received close to 500 phone calls from media as far as Germany, Israel and Japan, attorney Lawrence Silver wrote in a statement filed Friday.

Larry King and Oprah have beckoned, and photographers have been camped outside her Hawaii home, trying to take photos or video through holes drilled in their cars and offering gifts to her children in exchange for information, Silver wrote.

“This statement makes one more demand, one more request, one more plea: Leave her alone,” Silver wrote in the filing.

Let her live her life, for crying out loud.

Roman Empire, Etc.

If you think the ancient Polanski case couldn't get weirder, you are wrong: A prosecutor whose actions were noted in a recent documentary about the case says he lied about certain details regarding his contact with the late judge Laurence J. Rittenband:

In the documentary, Wells made it appear that he took the photograph into the judge’s chambers and told him that Polanski was “giving you the finger. He’s flipping you off.” But the former prosecutor said Wednesday that he was working in the judge’s courtroom when a local reporter handed him the photograph and asked him to pass it to the judge.

He said he handed the photo to one of the judge’s staff, who gave it in turn to Rittenband, who reacted angrily.

“He said, ‘This guy is going to state prison!’ And I said, ‘He’s thumbing his nose at you, your honor.’

"And that’s the only thing I said to him,” Wells said. “I never discussed this case with Judge Rittenband either on the record or off the record or in any other way.” Wells said he deeply regretted lying on the film.

Wells, 71, said that he made up the story, believing that the documentary would never been shown in the United States. The film was broadcast on HBO.

You idiot. Other words fail me at this time since it is early in the morning for yours truly.

Regardless of how much of a liar Wells is, the chances of Polanski going to jail over these old, old, old charges are probably zilch, especially in light of the fact his victim, Samantha Geimer, will not cooperate with prosecutors as she believes Polanski has been punished enough.

If the victim says to give it up, I don't see how prosecutors could proceed. That is the bottom line here, and all of the fake outrage doesn't change this simple fact that it is a ridiculous waste of taxpayer money to proceed further.

In any case, Geimer shows far more humanity and class than those idiots in the media and pseudo-feminists who are calling for Polanski's head, including the New York Times.

Polanski Case

Samantha Geimer, the woman who director Roman Polanski had unlawful sexual intercourse with back in 1977, when she was 13, blasted the L.A. district attorney's office today and filed a legal declaration the case against Polanski be dismissed.

The damned thing is ancient, and there are many cases that need to be tried. We now know the Polanski case was fraught with misconduct by the now-deceased judge who oversaw the case.
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Miscellaneous

Ashland, Oregon's, Lithia Park celebrates 100 years on December 15. It's gorgeous, and I have always enjoying walking around there.
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As far as I'm concerned, if the victim in the Polanski rape case, Samantha Geimer, now 43 or 44 years old, doesn't want him to go to prison and believes he should be allowed to return to the United States without being prosecuted, that is good enough for me. The damned case needs to be dropped.

In case you're interested in seeing the documentary, Roman Polanski Wanted & Desired, you can view the entire film at the YouTube link.
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