Not sure if posted. Here's a new Forbes Business magazine news article on the Coronado case:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/shenegotiates/2011/09/25/money-mystery-murder-in-spreckels-mansion-case/
9/25/2011 @ 12:45PM
Money, Mystery, Murder(?) in Spreckels Mansion Case
By Victoria Pynchon
“A woman screams for help at 11:30 p.m. in a 27-room historic mansion in Coronado, California; a 6-year-old child, Max Shacknai, has fallen two days earlier and is in critical condition; the millionaire boyfriend and father of the child, Jonah Shacknai, and his girlfriend, Rebecca Zahau, have been consumed by the boy’s care and condition in the hospital.”
So writes litigator and legal analyst Anne Bremner in her post More Questions than Answers – Justice Requires that Rebecca Zahau Case Be Reopened over at guest contributor Cathy Scott’s true crime home Women in Crime, Ink.
We’ve reported on the Zahau case ourselves here and here. My own last post noted that the San Diego Sheriff’s office agreed to re-open the case if they had any new leads. If you read Bremner’s article, there appear to be new leads aplenty. Yet the Zahau family’s continued calls for the investigation to recommence appear to be falling on deaf ears.
Why We Follow Money, Murder and Possible Corruption
She Negotiates is a deal-making blog for women hosted by the women’s business page of a mainstream financial magazine, Forbes.com. So why would we cover the purported suicide (and possible murder) of the live-in girlfriend of a pharmaceutical company CEO?
And why does the family persist in its belief that Rebecca Zahau met with foul play even though the state attorney general just last week declined Jonah Shacknai’s request to review San Diego County law enforcement findings about the deaths of his girlfriend and his 6-year-old son?
Why We Write
Whether Rebecca Zahau committed suicide or is the victim of foul play is less a concern for us than the possibility of corruption in the justice system. I don’t mean to sound callous. Of course a young women’s suicide or murder is tragic and heartbreaking. But that’s not why we write.
Guest contributor Cathy Scott writes because murder is her true crime gig. I write about the possible corruption of the justice system because the act of negotiation is the act of a free people and the principled basis for a free and vital economy.
Our freedom to contract is as important as our freedom of speech, assembly and religion. Every time we negotiate an agreement, we place our trust in the legal system to enforce that agreement if our bargaining partner turns out to be a snake oil salesman or is simply incapable of doing what she promised she would do in exchange for the promises we’ve made to her.
If we can’t trust the justice system to be . . . just . . . then we burden our economic energy with self-enforcement a la the Sopranos. And you know how ugly – not to mention time-consuming – that can be.
Criminal vs. Civil Justice
The line between the criminal and civil justice systems is not a bright and obvious one as the prosecution of civil cases following high profile criminal exonerations have proven. Think O.J. criminal (not guilty) vs. O.J. civil (“guilty”
. A failure of the criminal justice system imperils the civil justice system as well because it diminishes the trust people and business place in its equitable functioning.
And those people currently occupying Wall Street aren’t feeling the love of either the economy or the justice system right now. Faith in both systems is a necessary pre-condition to an orderly society that also values free expression and the fair distribution of resources.
I do not write about the Zahau family’s request for the criminal investigation to be reopened because I have an opinion about suicide vs. murder or some other type of wrongdoing. I write about it because questions have been raised and remain unanswered. Because the law should not, cannot distinguish between the investigation of a suspicious death from the balcony of a millionaire’s mansion and one from the fire-escape of a housing project. It should not, cannot distinguish between a suspect who is the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and one who is a barista at Starbucks.
Why It’s Personal
I also write because Mr. Shacknai’s PR firm – Sitrick and Company - took the trouble to view my profile on LinkedIn after I posted Cathy Scott’s first article on the Zahau death. I didn’t like that, particularly because they weren’t simply looking for contact information, not having bothered to contact me.
It felt creepy. I don’t expect anything like it to ever happen again.
Anne Bremner, the attorney whose reporting we quote here, represents Rebecca Zahua’s family as they press authorities for a more thorough investigation into Rebecca’s death. Click here if you wish to donate to the Rebecca Zahau Fund.
About the Author -
http://blogs.forbes.com/people/victoriapynchon/
