American Dream wrote:I just got an email from Virginia McCullough, which I will reproduce in its entirety here. Her comments are the italicized ones below.
A.D.
Thanks, A.D. And I'm very sorry for any additional stress you might have incurred as a result of somehow ending up in the interlocutor's chair. I didn't mean to put you in that position; I don't think you should have to be there; and I'll do what I can to avoid inadvertently putting you in it again.
And thanks also, as always, for your unwavering commitment to seeing the right thing done. I hope you know that the fuss-and-bother we were having yesterday proceeded purely from my disagreement with your position as I understood it and was in no way personal. Nevertheless. Your patience and even-temper are much appreciated by me, and I thank you for them.
VM wrote:compared2what? wrote:Speaking of which, I'm still wondering on what grounds Virginia McCullough's forehead remains free of the scarlet "MR/TG" you see on the brow of anyone who hasn't denounced one or both of them in terms strong enough to satisfy you when the entirety of her case for the outrageous injustice that was visited on Richard Hamlin by the court that convicted him is based solely and exclusively on the word of Michael Riconosciuto, with whom Hamlin was put in touch by the PI he hired. Fellow by the name of Ted Gunderson, IIRC.***
The previous quote from one of the last postings by C2W is as off base as they come. Judge Eddie Keller, who tried the Hamlin case, all but totally ignored MR’s first letter to the court...
Or, as you put it in your published coverage of the case:
On February 26, 2004 Susan Hamlin had confessed to molesting her children and to conspiring with a satanic cult to murder her husband. The satanic cult was allegedly controlled by Susan's father, Dr. Sid Siemer. Two days later, following her husband's arrest on February 28, 2004, Susan Hamlin retracted her original statements to the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department.
In the late fall of 2004, held in jail without bail since his arrest, Richard Hamlin hired private investigator Ted Gunderson who was located through an Internet search. Hamlin hoped that Gunderson, who advertised himself as an expert in Satanic cults, would uncover the cult involvement of his father-in-law Dr. Sid Siemer. Susan Hamlin had claimed her father had molested her throughout her childhood and into her adult married life.
This bizarre, wide ranging case landed in the courtroom of Judge Eddie Keller. Keller, a former United States Attorney, closely examined the full plate before him and began slicing the service into manageable portions.
Defendant Richard Hamlin made a verbal request of Judge Keller to bring self described CIA asset Michael Riconosciuto to the Placerville courtroom to testify as a defense witness. On November 15, 2004 Riconosciuto had written a letter to his attorney is which he said:
I have received letters from Ted's (Gunderson) client Richard Hamlin. When TLG (Ted L. Gunderson) first began writing to me about the case with his client and client's father-in-law Sid Seimer (sic) , I was horrified........I know Sid Seimer (sic) from the Wackenhut/Cabazon operation. Sid was close to J. P. Nichols and Wayne Reeder. My reaction to the allegations of Sid's cult involvement was one of horror because of how powerful he is in military and intelligence circles........Sid is at the top in the cult scene on the international level! This guy is extremely dangerous. Sid is a expert in plant biology and epizoology. He was directly involved with the Wackenhut/Cabazon operations biowarfare work with DARPA and the University of California.
Keller decided in an open court hearing that Riconosciuto would not be allowed to testify because his testimony was not relevant to the case.
The intrigue of CIA black operations and the heat of the Cabazon Reservation in Indio, California was neatly severed from the case by Judge Keller who thought that his ruling would sever the fat from his full plate. His honor did not comprehend the persistence of Michael Riconosciuto. On March 30, 2005 Riconosciuto wrote a cover letter to the Chief Judge of the California Superior Court in El Dorado County. In that package he included a "Letter of Judicial Notification" addressed to Judge Edward T. Keller. Both letters tied the cases of Richard Hamlin to the case of Philip Arthur Thompson who was being held in the El Dorado County Jail charged with the 34-year-old murder of Betty Marie Cloer. (Click.) Judge Keller did not respond to the Riconosciuto letter.
Several months later Michael Riconosciuto sent another letter to Judge Keller which was returned unopened to the sender. It was now obvious that His Honor would not allow Hamlin's witness to inject his testimony into the case...
(
snip, but link to full story with full list of rulings that are presented as excessively unfavorable to the defense
here)
....Other interesting issues were brought up during the June 27th hearing. However, in the end Judge Keller made a determination that the extensive correspondence written by Susan Hamlin to others describing incest and satanic cult involvement were not illegally denied to the grand jury because they were not relevant to the charges against Richard Hamlin. Judge Keller filleted the Hamlin case to bare bones eliminating all of the excess fat and perhaps, in so doing, serving up Richard Hamlin's head on a silver platter.
VM wrote:...and then Richard Hamlin did absolutely nothing to bring MR to Calif. to testify at his trial. Richard Hamlin was first chair and the brilliant and dedicated defense attorney Bob Banning was second chair. Hamlin controlled the defense and he did a lousy job of it. Hamlin alleges to be very religious has a long history of being a good schmoozer and a good trial lawyer. However he is also arrogant, sexist, and was his own worst enemy before the trial when he refused a 12 year deal offered by the prosecution that was contingent upon a mental evaluation that could have provided him with an excellent “snapped” defense. The prosecution probably believed he was delusional because of his stated belief in satanic cults out to kill him and the two incidents of discharging a firearm during February 2004, the month prior to his arraignment.
Well. Okay. Please forgive me for perhaps not having been as clear as I guess I should have been.
But when I said "the entirety of her case," I was referring strictly to the entirety of the case you made for the outrageous injustice done to Richard Hamlin in the articles you wrote about his arrest, trial and conviction, which are posted on
NMN. Where I read them. And if you mention his refusal to plead at all, let alone depict it as a bad decision, you either must have done it in a story that's not linked from the page that all the others are on or -- equally possible -- I overlooked it. Please send me a link if so, and I'll apologize for having mistakenly said, in good faith: Really? You'd sure never know it from reading your stories about him.
Nor is there so much as a hint that you thought him sexist or arrogant. ("In typical male fashion Richard Hamlin decided to confront Sid Siemer over the physical and sexual abuse Susan was alleging her father had inflicted upon her and the Hamlin children. Words were exchanged between the Hamlin and Siemer family members and things became more vitriolic.")
Indeed, one rather gets the impression that you thought of him as a good father and flawed-but-loving husband with an admirable track record as an attorney. ("Richard Hamlin had an unblemished record as both a prosecutor and a defense attorney. The marriage between the Hamlins had lasted twenty years and had produced four beautiful children.")
Maybe because you consistently cast him as the good guy (and leading man) of the piece, much persecuted by the lunkheads and satanists into whose hands his fate had fallen:
The opening curtain was on February 26, 2004 when husband and wife walked into the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department and Susan Hamlin made a bizarre confession that detailed the molestation of her children and her involvement in a Satanic cult led by her father that intended to murder her husband.
Two days later Richard Hamlin was arrested and Susan Hamlin retracted her entire confession claiming her position as lead actress in the drama.
El Dorado County Detective Rich Strasser now appears as the heavy who investigates the alleged crimes admitted to by Susan Hamlin for less then forty-eight hours and arrests Richard Hamlin.
Politically ambitious El Dorado County District Attorney Gary Lacy enters the scene from stage right and finds himself glowing in the limelight. Never one to undercharge a case and having survived a close re-election race, Lacy confidently takes center stage and charges Richard Hamlin with numerous felonies including, but not limited to, terrorist threats.
The play's leading man Richard Hamlin held in jail without bail is now looking at 25 years to life if convicted in a jury trial. Several trial dates were postponed and the trial in now scheduled for October 11, 2005.
The upcoming trial would still only be a high profile domestic violence case except for the debut of one more character actor -- former CIA asset Michael Riconosciuto. This highly intelligent scene-stealer comes on stage with his straight man, former FBI agent and Satanic cult chaser, Ted Gunderson. Gunderson serves for awhile as Richard Hamlin's private investigator. Riconosciuto communicates with Richard Hamlin and tells Hamlin that he can reveal a great deal about Susan Hamlin's father Dr. Sid Siemer and his activities in and around the Cabazon Indian Reservation in Indio, California.
Furthermore, there's really not a whole lot from which to infer that in your opinion, the prosecution thought he was crazy for believing satanists wanted to kill him in the story that's headlined: "
WAS THERE A PLOT TO MURDER RICHARD HAMLIN?"
More importantly, Hamlin convicted himself, much like Philip Arthur Thompson, when he (1) took the stand and (2) audio taped himself beating his wife Susan while he called her every name in the book.
Kate and I each met separately with Richard many, many times in the El Dorado County Jail and we attended every day of the trial.
I take you at your word. However, your readers would never know any of that, including that it's your opinion that he convicted himself. Because you don't make it part of the case-in-entirety to which I was referring. And accurately and fairly characterizing, too.
Where was C2W or maybe I just did not recognize her sitting in the courtroom of visiting Richard in jail. It amazes me how very much C2W thinks she knows when she knows next to nothing.
No, no, no -- οἶδα οὐκ εἰδώς, oída ouk eidós, in fact. Not that it's any very big deal or anything like that. I can easily see how you might have formed the opposite impression. Plus, it just doesn't seem like very good sportsmanship to start harshly berating a total stranger for being unfamiliar with the foundations of the intellectual and philosophical outlook on which you base your approach to life. So, you know: Innocent mistake, at most, and no flag on play. I'm basically just correcting it for correctness's sake. But enough about me. And...
Back to topic:
I wasn't there, obviously. I would have said so if I had been. However, since my remarks were solely about your coverage of the trial rather than the trial itself, they're in no way disqualified by one iota by my not having been in the courtroom. I mean, perhaps you've had a different experience than I. But as far as I've ever noticed, my analytic reading skills have never been affected one way or the other by which trials I've attended and which I've skipped.
____________
Details aside, thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. I very much appreciate the courtesy. However, should you wish to do so in future, I'd also very much appreciate it if you left A.D. out of it and just did it directly. For A.D.'s sake if not for mine, although I'm emphatically speaking for myself alone and not for A.D. It would actually be very out of character for A.D. to complain about anything that anyone asked him to do that he believed to be for the greater good. As I said above, no person's commitment to a cause he believes in is stronger or more tireless or more tenacious.
That notwithstanding, though. However willing he may be to act as your courier and however little you're imposing on him by asking him to do it, since it's not any more of an imposition on you just to post whatever you might have to say to an RI forum member directly to the RI forum than it is for you to send the post to A.D. in an email and ask him to post it....Well, you know. Res ipsa loquitur: To whatever extent it is an imposition, it's an entirely unnecessary one. So I'm sure you'll do the right thing, for which I again thank you, in advance.
All best wishes for the new year to you.
Sincerely,
c2w