2 Sept 2009 - Today's Current News - ***NO DISCUSSION***

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2009.09.02 Today's Current News - ***NO DISCUSSIONS HERE PLEASE ***
 
UPDATED: OPD Focus Still On Uncharged Foster Dad
Sep 2, 2009 12:37 am US/Pacific
<snipped>
Oakland police said Tuesday that they were continuing to focus their homicide investigation on the foster parents of a missing 5-year-old disabled boy, despite prosecutors announcing there isn't enough evidence to charge them.

Police Chief Howard Jordan said that investigators know Hasanni Campbell was not in Oakland on Aug. 10 &#8212; the day his foster father Louis Ross told authorities the boy disappeared after being briefly left alone in a car outside the Shuz of Rockridge shoe store in the 6000 block of College Avenue.

"We strongly believe and know for a fact that Hasanni Campbell never made it to Oakland on August 10 to College Avenue at 4:15 as was previously reported," Jordan said.

"We are continuing to put our efforts into solving this case and potentially re-arresting Mr. Louis Ross or Jennifer Campbell at some point," Jordan said. "We respect the DA's opinion but we have some more work to do here."

Ross will help with the search for the boy upon his release from Alameda County's Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, his attorney John Burris said, calling the decision not to file any charges against Ross at this time "terrific."

The couple has cooperated fully with police in their investigation, said Burris, who added that he thought the decision by police to arrest Ross and Campbell "was wrong-headed" and "unfair to these two people."

"There was never sufficient evidence against either of them," he said.

Burris believed the arrests were "a tactic to see if they would turn against each other but it was unsuccessful."

"I hope the attention now turns to trying to find Hasanni and the people who possibly kidnapped him," Burris said.


NEW VIDEO: Hasanni Campbell's Foster Dad Out Of Jail 11:53pm PT
http://cbs5.com/video/?id=54841@kpix.dayport.com

Article:
http://cbs5.com/crime/hasanni.campbell.father.2.1157010.html
 
NEW VIDEO: Hasanni Campbell's Foster Father Gets Released From Jail And Speaks To Media
http://serve.castfire.com/video/150769/150769_2009-09-02-014203.mp4

If you have trouble opening castfire video's watch them at this link:
Article:
http://www.kron4.com/News/ArticleView/tabid/298/smid/1126/ArticleID/2878/reftab/506/Default.aspx

Or at:
Special Coverage: The Search For Hasanni (FYI: Many Article's & Video's Are At This Link, but not all of them have been added to this link!
http://www.kron4.com/News/SpecialCoverage/TheSearchforHassani/tabid/506/Default.aspx
 
Foster Father Describes Jail Experience As 'Hell'
Posted: 10:51 pm PDT September 1, 2009
Updated: 1:19 am PDT September 2, 2009
<snipped>
Louis Ross looked worn out when he walked out of Santa Rita Jail in Dublin at around 7 p.m., arm-in-arm with his fiance Jennifer Campbell.

Ross was released after the Alameda County District Attorney decided there was not enough evidence to prosecute him. Ross was arrested last Friday on suspicion of murdering his five-year-old foster son.

Ross described his four days in jail as "hell."

He said investigators tried to deceive him on Friday afternoon, shortly after they arrested his fiance at the Union City BART station without Ross's knowledge. Ross said the police started texting him messages posing as Jennifer.

"Her text messages didn't make sense," said Ross. "I find out she wasn't texting me. They had her in custody. They [police] had her cell phone ... basically coercing me to come out come get her at the BART."

Ross said police then ordered him to come out of his Fremont home. He said when he came out, "about four or five police officers with automatic weapons pointed at me. [They said] 'Walk back up...kneel down'."


When asked what was going through his mind Ross answered, "No sudden movement. I didn't want to be on the next six o'clock news as the next casualty."

During the police interrogation, Ross says he waived his right to remain silent and answered questions from the investigators.

"I told the same story I told the previous detective." he said. "They got the same story; they were not happy with the story they got. They wanted something else."

Tuesday evening, the couple said they will take life one day at a time and continue to look for Hasanni.

"I know I'm innocent," said Campbell. "I know Louis is innocent."

Campbell said as Ross was waiting to be released, her family suffered another blow. A family court formally took away custody of Hasanni's 19-month-old sister, Aliyah.


VIDEO~ DUBLIN: Foster Father Of Missing Boy Maintains Innocence
http://www.ktvu.com/video/20679831/index.html

Article:
http://www.ktvu.com/news/20680153/detail.html
 
Missing boy's foster dad released - no charges
September 2, 2009
<snipped>
21:39 PDT OAKLAND, CALIF. -- The foster father of Hasanni Campbell will not face criminal charges at this time, a prosecutor said Tuesday, even as police declared that they "know for a fact" that his story of how the 5-year-old Fremont boy disappeared is false.

Officer Jeff Thomason, a police spokesman, said the Walmart trip is "the last time that we have independent information about Hasanni Campbell being alive."

Jordan said while it was unfortunate that prosecutors "did not find it fit" to charge either Ross or Campbell, he respects their decision.

However, he added, "We are continuing to put our efforts into solving this case and potentially rearresting Mr. Louis Ross or Jennifer Campbell."

Friends of the couple plan to search for Hasanni on Saturday at Lake Elizabeth in Fremont.

"The focus should be finding this missing boy," said Campbell's mother, Pamela Clark, 62, of San Francisco. She said of the attention on the couple, "It's like a terrible witch hunt."


2-VIDEOS AND 6-IMAGES~Missing boy's foster dad released - no charges:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2009/09/01/BA3619GT72.DTL&o=

Article:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/01/BA3619GT72.DTL
 
Campbell foster parents released, no charges filed
September 1, 2009 &#8211; 8:23 pm
<snipped>
Citing insufficient evidence, the Alameda County District Attorney&#8217;s office cancelled an arraignment hearing for Louis Ross, jailed last week with his fiancee on suspicion of murdering five-year-old Hassani Campbell, officials said Tuesday.

Despite doubts surrounding the strength of the investigation into the high-profile case, Oakland police officials said the department will continue to investigate the whereabouts of the boy. His foster parents &#8212; Ross and fiancee Jennifer Campbell &#8212; say the boy went missing in Rockridge a little over two weeks ago, but investigators still question that claim and hope to re-arrest the couple, said Oakland Police chief Howard Jordan.

Oakland attorney John Burris, who is acting as an advisor for the accused couple, said the evidence is still too weak to have justified an arrest. He believes that investigators lack convincing evidence to substantiate claims that Campbell was dead or missing prior to August 10, when Campbell and Ross reported that he had disappeared from a car parked behind the Rockridge shoe store.

&#8220;My feeling about this is that the evidence they did have was no more than a suspicion,&#8221; Burris said in an interview this afternoon. &#8220;The D.A. did the right thing.&#8221;

He said the investigation was &#8220;excruciating and very challenging&#8221; for Ross and Campbell, who is six months pregnant. &#8220;They were in the process of building a family,&#8221; Burris said.

Officials at Oakland Police Department could not be immediately reached for a response to Burris&#8217; comments. Burris is a high-profile attorney who has worked with clients including Barry Bonds and Tupac Shakur, and has a record of victories against the Oakland Police Department including a $10.9 million class action lawsuit in the high-profile Riders Case.


This still is from a video, released by Oakland Police today, which proports to show Hassani Campbell at a Fremont store shortly before he disappeared.
hassani_surveillance11-300x200.jpg


Article:
http://oaklandnorth.net/2009/09/01/campbell-foster-parents-released-no-charges-filed/
 
Louis Ross released from jail, last video of Hassani Campbell released
September 2, 3:49 AM
<snipped>
On Tuesday, missing Hassani Campbell&#8217;s foster father was released from jail after being arrested on Friday for suspicion of murder.

Louis Ross and his fiancé Jennifer Campbell, Hassani&#8217;s aunt, were both taken into custody on Friday as authorities announced the couple was suspected of murder and the case of the missing 5-year-old was now a homicide investigation.

Campbell was released on Monday because authorities said they had insufficient evidence against her. The district attorney had until Tuesday to file charges against Ross, but instead released him as well.

Despite their release, investigators still question the couple&#8217;s story surrounding Hassani&#8217;s disappearance and Oakland Police chief Howard Jordan announced they hope to re-arrest the couple.
Hassani, who has cerebral palsy, went missing Aug. 10 and was last seen with Ross, who claimed the boy disappeared after he left him alone briefly in a shoe store parking lot. Police said Hassani never made it to that shoe store, effectively stating Ross' story is false.


Oakland police release last video of Hasanni Campbell
YouTube - Oakland police release last video of Hasanni Campbell

OT: This video is will touch you hearts!
The R.I.P. Shirt
Throughout the bay area family and friends commonly memorialize homicide victims on clothing. In this piece we hear from the victim's loved ones in the location of the murders.
YouTube - The R.I.P. Shirt

Article:
http://www.examiner.com/x-1168-Crim...-jail-last-video-of-Hassani-Campbell-released
 
No charges filed but focus still on couple in missing boy case
September 2, 2009
<snipped>
Detectives continued to focus their investigation on the foster parents of a missing 5-year-old disabled boy despite prosecutors announcing there was not enough evidence to charge them with murder, police said.

Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said Tuesday that investigators know Hasanni Campbell was not in Oakland on Aug. 10. That's the day Hasanni's foster father, Louis Ross, told authorities the boy disappeared after being left alone briefly outside an Oakland shoe store.

"We strongly believe and know for a fact that Hasanni Campbell never made it to Oakland on August 10 to College Avenue at 4:15 as was previously reported," Jordan said.

"We are continuing to put our efforts into solving this case and potentially re-arresting Mr. Louis Ross or Jennifer Campbell at some point," Jordan said. "We respect the DA's opinion but we have some more work to do here."

On Tuesday, police also released surveillance footage from a Wal-Mart store in Fremont recorded on Aug. 6 that they say it is the last known sighting of the boy.

In photographs, the boy is seen wearing jeans, a black jacket, black shoes and a red and blue cap. Hasanni and his sister were captured in the pictures shopping with Ross and Campbell.

Sherri-Lyn Miller, a volunteer whose company has created T-shirts and fliers during the search, said the focus should be on locating Hasanni, not on Ross and Campbell.

"We're not going to treat him as a homicide victim like the police because we don't know that yet," Miller said. "It's time to bring this baby home."


Article:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/crime/No-charges-for-foster-dad-in-missing-child-case-56617582.html
 
UPDATED: Hasanni's foster parents say they're innocent
September 2, 2009
<snipped>
(09-02) 06:25 PDT OAKLAND -- The foster parents of Hasanni Campbell proclaimed their innocence outside jail, saying they had nothing to do with the 5-year-old Fremont's disappearance and attacking the tactics of police investigators who believe their son was killed.

Outside jail on Tuesday evening, Ross told reporters that he was angry at the couple's treatment by police.

"See, I trusted their work, but they've shown through their actions their work cannot be trusted," Ross said. "They've shown through their actions they have an agenda."

Ross said he has repeated his account of what he did before Hasanni disappeared. "They got the same story, but they were not happy with the story that they got," he said. "They wanted something else."

Campbell agreed, saying, "I don't know what type of evidence they plan to come up with or what they plan to do, and I'll leave their investigation alone. I know I'm innocent, and I know Louis is innocent."

Officer Jeff Thomason, a police spokesman, said the Walmart trip is "the last time that we have independent information about Hasanni Campbell being alive." Ross and Campbell said they were the ones who gave the police the information about the shopping trip.

"I gave them a catalog of this, and I supplied them with proof. I said, 'As a matter of fact, here's a receipt. Check the time-date stamp. Look at the video. You'll see him there - you'll see all of us there."

Ross said after police arrested Campbell at the Union City BART Station on Friday afternoon, officers used her cell phone and texted him in an attempt to coax him out of his home on Roxie Terrace in Fremont. Ross said officers with "automatic weapons" ordered him outside.

"You do not destroy people, tear them down or destroy families so you can prove that you were right," Ross said.

Hasanni and his sister were placed with the couple in late 2008. The girl has been removed from their custody. The children's biological parents live separately in San Francisco. Records with San Francisco's Department of Human Services show no history of problems.


Article:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/02/BALM19HELP.DTL&tsp=1
 
Murderers or model parents?
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
<snipped>
Hasanni Campbell's foster parents - whom Oakland police held over the weekend on suspicion of being involved in the 5-year-old Fremont boy's disappearance - would appear to be the least likely of suspects, according to social service records that have been turned over to investigators.

In fact, regular home inspections and other checks by San Francisco's Department of Human Services into Louis Ross and Jennifer Campbell of Fremont show a spotless record of foster parenting.

Hasanni and his baby sister, now 1 year old, were placed with Ross and Campbell, the children's aunt, in late 2008. The children's biological parents live in San Francisco, so social workers in the city kept tabs on them.

Both Campbell and Ross were run through state and FBI databases for any criminal record or instances of child abuse. They came back clean.

Every month, social workers stopped by the couple's home on Roxie Terrace in Fremont. The last visit was July 22, less than three weeks before Ross reported Hasanni missing Aug. 10.

"If anything, they went out of their way to take care of his various medical problems," said a San Francisco social services official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak while the criminal investigation into Hasanni's disappearance continues.

Hasanni has cerebral palsy, and the couple made sure he was equipped at UCSF with special pediatric leg braces. They also regularly took him for treatment at Children's Hospital Oakland, he said.

Although Oakland police say they don't believe Ross' story of Hasanni's disappearance, the San Francisco official is perplexed.

"They were really good foster parents," he said.


Article:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/02/BAVA19H138.DTL
 
Police say missing boy dead, foster parents suspects
updated 11:04 p.m. EDT, Tue September 1, 2009
<snipped>
Police say the foster parents of a missing 5-year-old California boy with cerebral palsy are suspects in what is now being called a homicide investigation.

Jennifer Campbell and Louis Ross, who are engaged, told police in Oakland, California, that Hasanni Campbell disappeared on August 10 while Ross was dropping him off at the shoe store where his fiance worked.

Police arrested the two as suspects, but released them this week pending further investigation, Lt. Jeff Thomason said.

"We had nothing to do with it. He's our little boy we want him and we want him home, and our main concern is finding him," a tearful Campbell told CNN affiliate KGO.

In an interview last month with HLN's Nancy Grace, Ross said he left Hasanni outside his BMW for two to five minutes while he went to get his fiance to open the back door of the store.

"By the time I got there, Jennifer is already out of the store, walking toward me, asking, 'Where is Hasanni?' And I say, 'What do you mean, where is Hasanni?' And I look around to the side, and he is no longer there."

But police believe Hasanni was not near the store August 10, Thomason said.

The officer said the Wal-Mart surveillance footage from August 6 represents the last known sighting of Hasanni alive, independent of his foster parents' reports.

"It shows we have an independent source showing him alive," he said. "We don't believe he was ever in north Oakland on the 10th [of August]."


Article:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/01/california.missing.boy/index.html
 
Police: Hasanni Was Not in Oakland
September 2, 2009
<snipped>
Acting Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said that department investigators "know for a fact" that little Hasanni Campbell didn't go missing from behind a Rockridge shoe store on August 10 as his stepfather claims, according to the Trib and the Chron. In other words, stepfather Louis Ross has lied and is still lying about what happened to the 5-year-old boy. Jordan did not disclose more details on how investigators reached that conclusion, but said Oakland police would not conduct any more searches for the boy unless they got additional credible information about what happened to him. Oakland cops say that the last known public sighting of the boy was on August 6 at a Wal-Mart store in Fremont. Jordan made his comments after the Alameda County District Office decided to not file charges against Ross or Hasanni's foster mother/aunt Jennifer Campbell and ordered them both released from jail.

Article:
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/blogs/police__hasanni_was_not_in_oakland/Content?oid=1187526
 
I missed this updated article sorry!

Missing boy's foster father blasts police
Investigators Don't Buy Story
September 1, 2009
<snipped>
The foster father of a missing 5-year-old boy is out of jail and vowing to find the boy with or without police help. Oakland police released Louis Ross Tuesday night after arresting him on suspicion of homicide.

Ross is being quite vocal about the police department. He claims they have a preconceived theory about Hasanni's disappearance and says police know for a fact, in their hearts, that he killed the boy and that he was never really kidnapped.

As for now, the district attorney is siding with Ross, who is a free man after being released from the Santa Rita jail where he had been held since Friday on suspicion of murder. Investigators point to recently-released surveillance video from August 6th, of Hasanni and his family at a Fremont Walmart, as the last known citing of the boy.
They just do not believe the foster parents' story.

"We are continuing to put our efforts into solving this case and potentially re-arresting Mr. Louis Ross or Jennifer Campbell at some point," Police Chief Howard Johnson said.

"See... and I trusted their word. But, they've shown through their actions their word cannot be trusted. They've shown though their actions they have an agenda," Ross said referring to investigators' efforts to implicate him, including texting him from foster mother Jennifer Campbell's phone after the two were arrested last Friday. She was released Monday evening. He was released Tuesday night.

Currently, no one is in jail for Hasanni's disappearance. But, police say there is one prime suspect in this case and it is Louis Ross. The search for Hasanni will be continued on Saturday at Lake Elizabeth in Fremont. The organizers of the volunteer search are looking for divers to look in the lake.


VIDEO: Missing boy's foster father blasts police
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=6995105

VIDEO: Louis Ross Released From Jail
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=6994721

VIDEO: No Charges In Hasanni's Disappearence
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=6994373

RAW VIDEO: Hasanni's Last Appearenance
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=6994584

Article:
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=6995073
 
Not Enough Evidence - Foster Parents Released
Wednesday, 02 September 2009 7:26AM
<snipped>
Acting Oakland police chief Howard Jordan claims police know for a fact that little Hasanni Campbell was never in the Rockridge area where his foster father, Louis Ross, claims he went missing.

Jordan refused to say what those facts are, but the district attorney believed there was not enough evidence to prosecute Ross, or Hasanni&#8217;s foster mother, Jennifer Campbell, on murder charges.

Legal analyst and former prosecutor Steven Clark says police were trying a standard technique when making the arrests.

&#8221;The police tried to separate the couple and get incriminating statements, and see if under police pressure they would disclose more information,&#8221; said Clark. &#8220;So the arrests were used as a police investigative tool, which is frequently done to get information from a suspect. So I think it was a good police tactic, it just didn&#8217;t, unfortunately, produce enough evidence to generate a charge at this time.&#8221;


AUDIO: KCBS&#8217; Bob Melrose Reports
http://www.kcbs.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=3993394

Article:
http://www.kcbs.com/PD-Maintains-Foster-Parents-Guilt/5134988
 
Search for Hasanni continues Saturday at Lake Elizabeth in Fremont
Posted: 09/02/2009 04:10:11 PM PDT
<snipped>
Volunteers and donations of food and beverages are needed for the Saturday search for Hasanni Campbell, the disabled Fremont boy who was reported missing Aug. 10.

Sherri Miller is organizing the search of Lake Elizabeth at 40000 Paseo Padre Parkway in Fremont. A certified diver contacted Miller to volunteer his time, and the San Jose volunteer search and rescue team will bring diving equipment to the search, which starts at 9 a.m. Saturday. But Miller said Wednesday she still needs volunteers to register people at the start, assign tasks and assist with lunch.

She said she also needs donated food and beverages to feed the volunteers.

Miller, the owner of All in One Stop, a San Leandro print shop, got involved in the search the day after the 5-year-old boy was reported missing from the rear driveway of Shuz of Rockridge, a shoe store where Jennifer Campbell, the boy's foster mother and aunt, works.

Police said Tuesday the couple are the only suspects in the case and that they have evidence that the boy was never at the shoe store.

Since Hasanni went missing, Miller has printed thousands of missing-person fliers and dozens of T-shirts with Hasanni's face and information about him and the case.

Miller got involved in searching for missing children after Sandra Cantu of Tracy went missing earlier this year. The 8-year-old girl later was found dead, and Sunday school teacher Melissa Huckaby, 28, has been charged with the killing.


Article:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_13255429
 
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