Wisconsin: Something Evil Has Been Happening There For Decades

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Brendan Dassey's First Interrogation Was on November 6th, Six Days After Teresa Halbach Went Missing

"I had to think about it, if I had seen her or not, cuz that was like a week ago and I got a bad memory." - Brendan Dassey, November 6, 2005 (page 22)

Brendan Dassey's first interview was conducted three days after Steven Avery was first questioned (at 7 p.m. on November 3rd) about Teresa Halbach's visit to his property, which was three days earlier (at 3 p.m. on October 31st). Steven would have discussed with his family that Teresa was missing, and he would have shared with them the details of her visit that day. Reporters also interviewed Steven over the next few days, and Brendan would have seen the reports. Bobby Dassey also would have talked to his family about what he saw that day.

Brendan wasn't home from school when Teresa arrived and when she left on October 31st, but detectives were convinced Teresa arrived at the Avery property around 3:30 p.m. and not 2:30 p.m. or earlier. They also were convinced that Blaine and Brendan saw her when they got off the bus at 3:40 p.m. This is because the bus driver told law enforcement on November 5th that she saw Teresa taking pictures of a vehicle when she dropped off the boys by the mailboxes at 3:40 p.m. on October 31st.

The bus driver either confused the day she saw Teresa or she saw someone other than Teresa taking pictures on October 31st. On October 10th, Teresa had been at the Avery property taking pictures of a Grand Prix that Steven was selling, which may have been parked by the mailboxes, along with other vehicles for sale (this is where they parked the vehicles for sale), which included a red and black Blazer. Or, on October 31st, the bus driver saw a woman taking pictures of a vehicle for sale that was parked by the mailboxes, but it was someone interested in buying one of them, not Teresa. During Brendan's November 6th interview, when asked when did he first see Steven after October 31st, Brendan said he and Blaine saw Steven before they went to school on Tuesday: Brendan said Steven drove up by where they were (the school bus stop by the mailboxes) and told them the Blazer would be gone in the next few days because he sold it, which implies he got a call the day before or that morning from a potential buyer.

Brendan had no memory of seeing Teresa because he didn't see Teresa, but detectives didn't believe him when he told them this (there were three detectives that questioned him for about an hour on November 6th). Therefore, as they continued to question him over and over again, he made up a story based on what he had heard Steven and Bobby (and possible Earl Avery) say about what happened that day. And then he gave details about other events that happened during the weeks surrounding October 31st as if those events occurred that day, and he made up some details out of thin air. He did this because that's what seemed to please the detectives.

Brendan tried to tell detectives the truth, that he didn't see Teresa or her SUV when he got off the bus, but they didn't believe him, so he made up a story based on the memories of others and based on his own memories from other days surrounding the week of October 31st, plus he gave other details that may not have been true at all.

Brendan didn't know until three days after October 31st that Teresa had disappeared. Prior to that, he wouldn't have had any reason to be thinking about that day. He was not questioned until almost a week after Teresa went missing. Therefore, since six days had passed before he was questioned, Brendan's memory of that day would have been foggy.

Had Teresa been reported missing the day after she was last seen, everybody's memories would have been fresher. Had Brendan been questioned prior to the family discussing the events and the media reporting on it, his recollection would have been much better, and he wouldn't have been as susceptible to being coerced into giving a false account.

On November 6th, while Wiegert was waiting for school bus driver Lisa Buchner to arrive to get her statement on what she told police two days earlier, detectives Anthony O'Neill and Todd Baldwin were in Marinette County lying in wait for Brendan; and two DCI agents were at Blaine's boss's house in Francis Creek to interrogate him. They wanted the two boys to be without adult supervision. Had O'Neill knocked on Allan Avery's cabin door in Crivitz, he probably would not have permitted them to question Brendan alone (see below for an except of O'Neill's testimony at Brendan's trial). Detectives O'Neill and Baldwin saw Brendan leave the Crivitz cabin with his older brother Bryan, and they instructed Sgt. Degnitz to pull them over (they were on the way to the store to buy soda). They separated Brendan from Bryan and interrogated him.When Brendan told them that he "hadn't seen the girl before" and that he "hadn't seen her vehicle at all," and "never before or even now or anything like that" and that he "knew nothing at all," they didn't believe him. Detectives Baldwin and O'Neill and DCI Agent Skorlinski badgered Brendan until he told them what they wanted to hear. Brendan was asked the same questions over and over again in O'Neill's squad car for about an hour.

The following is a transcript of Brendan's November 6th interrogation.

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Quotes

"The most common way for forensic evidence to be planted is by re-labeling the forensic swabs." - Dr. Karl Reich, PhD

A former New York City narcotics detective testified in court that planting drugs on innocent people was common practice, a quick and easy way to boost arrest numbers. Stephen Anderson, the former detective, is now cooperating with prosecutors and is spilling the beans on the crooked practice of framings and false arrests, often to reach arrest quotas. “It was something I was seeing a lot of, whether it was from supervisors or undercovers and even investigators,” Anderson testified in Brooklyn Supreme Court. “It’s almost like you have no emotion with it, that they attach the bodies to it, they’re going to be out of jail tomorrow anyway; nothing is going to happen to them anyway.” The Drug Policy Alliance, a group that promotes alternatives to the war on drugs, issued a statement calling the case against the officers indicative of larger, systematic failures. “One of the consequences of the war on drugs is that police officers are pressured to make large numbers of arrests, and it’s easy for some of the less honest cops to plant evidence on innocent people. The drug war inevitably leads to crooked policing — and quotas further incentivize such practices.” - Huffington Post, October 13, 2011

A crucial aspect of Zellner’s effort to overturn Ryan Ferguson's conviction was obtaining two recantations from key witnesses whose testimony placed Ferguson at the crime scene. They admitted to lying after being pressured by police and prosecutors. Zellner has become a standard bearer among civil rights attorneys and has long been known as a fierce courtroom advocate — armed with a recorder-like memory, trial techniques that include videotaped re-enactments of crime scenes and, perhaps most crucially for her clients, an ability to elicit the truth from co-defendants or witnesses who have previously lied about innocent defendants’ involvement in crimes in order to save themselves. Quite simply, she gets people to talk. And to tell the truth. - Chicago Lawyer Magazine, December 2014

“What drives me is the abuse of power—the bullying and the victim. I have such a strong reaction when I see people who can’t defend themselves... When I watched the Avery case, I felt that the attitude toward him by the prosecutors and the state was that he was disposable. It was almost like a class thing. [His family] didn’t matter, they had no power. The longer I watched it, the more angry I got.” - Kathleen Zellner, Newsweek, April 8, 2016

“We are continuing to examine every aspect of Mr. Avery’s case and all of his legal options. We are confident Mr. Avery’s conviction will be vacated when we present the new evidence and results of our work to the appropriate court.” - Kathleen Zellner, The Wrap, January 11, 2016

“There is evidence that already exists in the case that points to a different location and a different suspect. We've got a combination of forensic evidence and a tip from somebody that we've interviewed multiple times that we think is credible... I've never seen a more graphic, compelling illustration of a crime scene that was fabricated.” - Kathleen Zellner, The New York Times, August 18, 2016

During a press conference on August 26, 2016, Kathleen Zeller said: “[In the post-conviction petition] we're going to lay out all of our investigation that we have done that will point to a third party. That was not successfully done at the trial level. I think the most reassuring thing is that we are going to get to the bottom of who killed Teresa Halbach... we're not going to disclose that until we do the post-conviction petition. But I can tell you that the testing we've already done will establish Mr. Avery's innocence. But we are going to do the whole thing; we're going to do every conceivable test. We've been contacted by scientists all over the world, volunteering, offering us ideas. And now we've got it pinned down to the testing we need to do to determine once and for all: was the evidence in the vehicle planted, was the DNA on the bullet planted, was the car key planted, was the DNA on the car key planted? We're going to be able to answer all of those questions because it's been almost 10 years since the verdict and there have been really huge developments in forensic science... Because he [Avery] never made any incriminating statements. The [Dassey] confession has been invalidated. So you're down to the evidence at the crime scene. You're down to the key, the hood latch, the blood in the RAV and the bullet.” When asked, “Do you just have one suspect in mind or are you looking at multiple suspects?,” Zellner replied, “In fairness, yeah, we are looking at multiple people, but we are narrowing it down.” And when asked, “What can you tell us about the suspect?,” she answered: “Nothing. Nothing. Not until I file [the post-conviction petition].”

“Not 1 but 8 plants: bullets, bones, blood, camera, cellphone PDA, key, car + false confession. World's best experts on it. #MakingAMurderer” - Kathleen Zellner, Twitter, January 17, 2017

“There’s always an element of misconduct. Police, prosecutors—They’re actually able to sleep at night knowing they’ve convicted an innocent man. They rationalize it. They say ‘I didn’t convict him, the jury did!’” - Paul Henderson, Private Investigator, May 7, 2013

"My biggest problem with police interrogations is they don't believe anything you say. So right out of the gate everyone is a liar as far as they are concerned. They are pretty much trained to be cynical of society and given power over them at the same time. They claim you are lying, while they themselves lie. To them, the end justifies the means when you’re a police officer protecting the citizenry from the scum of the city." - Reddit

“I think people become jaded when they spend too much time as a prosecutor, or if they first come to be a prosecutor after being a victim of some kind. They start seeing all of the accused as a subclass of humanity that doesn't deserve due process. Then they start watching Nancy Grace, and hanging around with the like minded, until their journey is complete. Unfortunately it is within human nature to descend down these paths to prejudice, to form self congratulating, witch burning mobs, and to rationalize the injustices they cause by dehumanizing their victims.” - magilla39, Reddit, October 11, 2017

"She’s not intimidated by anybody. In particular, she doesn’t have much respect for authority. She has a willingness to challenge and be skeptical of authority. And she has a real compassion for the underdog. Most of the people in prison are dangerous, violent criminals who belong there—she knows that. She’s not starry-eyed about criminals. But she’s not starry-eyed about people in authority, either." - Robert Zellner, January 2018

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rededicated his department to working with local law enforcement on civil asset forfeiture efforts that bypass the need for criminal convictions to seize property—and also bypass state and local safeguards. Forfeited funds are split between federal and local agencies in a lucrative arrangement for everybody but the victims. "Equitable sharing" collaboration between federal and local agencies was suspended under former Attorney General Eric Holder, but the new regime is jump-starting the program. Yes, Sessions promised that "the federal government will not adopt seized property unless the state or local agency involved provides information demonstrating that the seizure was justified by probable cause." But that's cold comfort if the probable cause comes from eager cops planting bags of drugs hither and yon. The evidence—not planted—suggests that police officers don't need more incentive to falsify reasons for slapping on the cuffs. Day-to-day pressures to meet arrest quotas, out-do colleagues, or spackle over errors in judgment seem to have already done the job in spades. - J.D. Tuccille, July 24, 2017

'If I was able to spoon feed an audience for 10 hours facts that I could pick and choose, edit or even create from other clips I could get an audience to believe whatever I wanted them to believe." - Ken Kratz, Daily Mail, February 13, 2017

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