There were a couple of things I found puzzling:
Why would VW be compelled to reveal that there was a problem with MM as a witness?
Is the timing such that VW is referring to MM telling the truth the first time [then contacted him about how he f-ed up] and when she said that there was a problem, that he was now lying? Or else, what problem would there have been? Couldn't the DT just have kept mum and not called him (which is what ended up happening)?
Or did VW have something entirely other on MM?
Or, was MM refusing to testify for the defense (I don't know how all this works)?
Also, how could the DT not have known about the magazines and what was in them? The timing had to be that the was caught out with the magazines and therefore she went pro per (presumably so she could "straighten out" MM without being recorded).
From the perspective of Estrella, the magazine codes were evidently a big infraction. The DT didn't know?
It appears that ALV submitted a report. That report was never produced, mentioned, consulted, at trial, IIRC. The cross proceeded from notes and verbals when JM questioned her in his office.
A report with redactions was referenced. That must be the ALV report? Why would there be redactions? Clearly, this is somewhat problematic, because JSS ordered that the redactions be restored and highlighted. In other words, she wasn't allowing the redacted version.
Did JM get to see that report? Or were the redactions to hide things from him in advance of the trial? So, this wasn't about prejudicial information going before the jury?
What exactly had been lying to her attorneys about for a whole year before she wrote the notes in the magazines? She'd probably lied about 1000 things!
I thought the magazines had been gifts from ALV, so now I'm confused about timing. The domestic abuse ruse came after the pedo letters?
1. The magazines weren’t gifts from ALV, ALV wasn’t hired yet.
2. The claimed abuse fairly early on. According to DeMarte, the reported numerous incidents to Dr. Sheryl Karp, far many more than she did to ALV.
3. The lying for a year and coded magazines. Good question. One year from intercepted magazines on August 4, 2010 would date back to July or August 2009. The 10 forged pedo letters weren’t sent until April 2010. Nurmi and Washington replaced the ’s first attorneys in August 2009, and as far as we know, she was still claiming ninjas for a while past that, since Nurmi supposedly had to talk her out of that non-defense.
One of the pedo letters referenced TA viewing *advertiser censored* on a computer, which did contradict her subsequent story of *advertiser censored* on a paper falling chaotically to the floor smack at her feet.
If computer vs. paper was the contradiction, then either she had been peddling the pedo lie to her attorneys for many months before forging the letters and was chastising MM for the computer vs. paper *advertiser censored*, or she was telling him he had ****ed up for something else she’d written in the letters that didn’t have to do with *advertiser censored*…perhaps another broken finger story, who knows.
(She told Karp that TA broke her finger out of rage in February 2008 when she was fired from Mimi’s, not on January 22, 2008 about pedo and when that paper didn’t fall to the floor. Also, IIRC, the either initially told ALV computer not paper, or ALV noticed that Samuels’ or Karp’s notes said computer but the had told her paper).
4. I know the DT acted surprised when JM whipped out the coded magazines at trial, but IMO, for the reasons you state, there is no way they didn’t know about the codes before the August 8, 2010 pedo letter evidentiary hearing.
JM disclosed the magazines to them as evidence before August 8. They would have known about JM’s subpoena (on the Superior Court’s record), and why in heck would he have wanted and needed a subpoena to intercept a couple of irrevelant magazines sent to her?
5. The timing WAS she was caught trying to witness tamper (August 4) and then went pro per (August 8). The coded messages implied her attorneys would be running the show on August 8. Something sure did seem to change in a very short time.
JM has all but said MM was to testify on the 8th then didn’t. Nurmi has said MM was his one “good” mitigation witness but couldn’t testify because of matters relating to the pedo letters. It seems pretty clear MM was to testify about the pedo letters on the 8th.a
Why didn’t he? And why did she go pro per? Dunno, can only speculate. Someone must have warned MM (in whatever manner) about testifying. Could have been either JM, the DT, or Ann Campbell (co-smuggler) if he was warned before August 8, or the herself after she went pro per the morning of the 8th.
JM went first on the 8th, the didn’t humiliate herself until the next day when she stumbled through questioning her fellow criminal Estrella inmate. Perhaps they didn’t have enough time to adequately rehearse? Perhaps they had only one evening, after the spoke with MM on the morning of the 8th, but didn’t return to Estrella from court until early evening, at the earliest?
Why did she go pro per? It may have been just so she could speak directly to MM. Or, it may have been because her attorneys finally told her, after being presented with evidence of her attempted witness tampering, that the pedo letters wouldn’t fly, and she refused to accept that as final.
The contraband evidence that she had been practicing forging TA’s handwriting had been turned up weeks earlier, and JM had disclosed it to the DT. Nurmi has said he became suspicious about the letters’ authenticity at that point, but he doesn’t seem to have acted on his suspicions, for whatever reason, and didn’t stop fighting JM about the letters’ exclusion until August 15, 2010.
6. Why did Washington tell Judge Duncan about “problems” with MM’s testimony? Dunno. One guess, and only that, is she might have been covering her own derriere. Suborning of perjury by attorneys is a big no-no-no-no. Maybe she was skittery about getting too close to that line?
fftopic:
