Special Report: Muder [Murder] Without A Trace
Can you convict someone of murder without the body of the victim?
via Special Report: Muder Without A Trace.
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To my knowledge, Stephen Epperly’s case is the only one that oft-discredited dog handler John Preston expressed misgivings about. He gave a statement to the Roanoke Times in 1986 that he may have tracked the wrong trail. Perhaps Preston couldn’t stomach the prosecutorial misconduct of record … from what I’m beginning to understand, law enforcement officers (which Preston once was) are comfortable framing whom they believe to be guilty, and not comfortable at all – unless they’re nuts – with framing those whom they believe to be innocent.
Beginning in 1982, Preston was discredited by 1) an actual perpetrator in Dale Sutton’s Ohio federal case (Julius Manning), 2) skill testing conducted by Judge Gilbert Goshorn for Juan Ramos’ Brevard County, Florida retrial, 3) DNA tests for Wilton Dedge and William Dillon’s unrelated Brevard hearings.
Other Preston convictions have been upset in Arizona and Virginia, and likely elsewhere. A very tight lid is kept on reporting about Preston because feds used him, more than once. They’ve since used DNA-discredited dog handler Keith Pikett, who mucked up @2,500 criminal investigations, compared to Preston’s @1,000. Feds have used other, less prolific DNA-discredited dog handlers, and their own scent dogs have a lousy track record.
The evidence of the tight lid is quite extensive. Florida Governor Bob Graham ordered an investigation of Preston’s activities in Brevard County in 1984. But he ordered the investigation for a specific outcome – for Preston to be found credible. For that reason, Orange County was involved in the investigation.
Orange County has used Preston – with feds participation – to prosecute and convict Linroy Bottoson, who was executed in 2002, twenty years after Preston was initially discredited by the actual perpetrator in Dale Sutton’s case.
Bob Graham went on to “serve” Florida in the U.S. Senate, where he was spent ten years on the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee, which of course oversees the FBI.
The FBI is tasked with ensuring that public corruption doesn’t affect trial outcomes. Instead, they participate in public corruption that affects trial outcomes.
It is the FBI that should be conducting the reinvestigation of Gina Hall’s homicide, and making sure that all 93 pieces of evidence goes to an ethical DNA testing facility, which excludes Orchid Cellmark in Dallas County, Texas, which took no action over receiving William Dillon’s Brevard/Preston evidence in suspect condition (unsealed, but testable), and no action action over receiving Gary Bennett’s Brevard/Preston evidence in even more suspect condition (sealed, but untestable – washed clean).
The Innocence Project of Florida played a role in Wilton Dedge and William Dillon’s exonerations. What the hell they’re doing with Gary Bennett’s case is anyone’s guess. They had Bob Graham’s tainted 1984 transfer of Preston’s investigation to Orange County to fight Charlie Crist’s tainted transfer of Gary’s case to Orange County (which Rick Scott renewed). They withheld evidence to back their own objections, like the improper letters written by Judge John Dean Moxley (one of Gary’s original prosecutors) to then-prosecutor Jeff Ashton.
An officer who was helping me years ago drummed it into my head to follow the money. And I try. Innocence Project affiliates receive hefty grants from Bar associations, and Bar associations want the public to remain uninformed as to their bearing sole responsibility for holding prosecutors and their supervisors accountable for misconduct, by U.S. Supreme Court rulings as recent as Connick v Thompson in 2011. Innocence Project affiliates also received hefty Justice Department grants.
The Justice Department is completely aware that Congressional Oversight of the FBI is negligent, and they’re aware that the FBI has gone rogue. In addition to participating with discredited dog handlers, the FBI bungled the debunking of their Comparative Bullet Lead Analysis as well as the debunking of their hair and fiber analysis, which they taught to law enforcement officers nationwide. The media gives the FBI a pass on all their wrongdoing, including their “lost or stolen” 160 laptops and 160 weapons … which were more likely sold than lost or stolen.
Gary Bennett is innocent, and it’s likely that Stephen Epperly is, too … it apparently ate at Preston in a way that @999 other cases didn’t.
The WDBJ7 “reporters” didn’t interview Stephen Epperly. They didn’t mention Preston’s regrets or his legendary incompetence. They didn’t mention the serious prosecutorial misconduct of record.
What they did reveal was the likely reason for the hoax of pretending to reinvestigate Gina Hall’s homicide … a push to proceed with another no-body homicide prosecution.
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