Shooting of Markeis McGlockton

The shooting of Markeis McGlockton, a 28-year-old African-American man at a parking lot in a Clearwater, Florida on July 19, 2018, was widely reported by news media as another instance of Florida's controversial Stand Your Ground Law, six years after the shooting death of Trayvon Martin generated international attention and debate. McGlockton was shot by Michael Drejka, (pronounced /ˈdreɪ.kə/ DRAY-kə) outside a local convenience store. Shortly before the shooting, Drejka approached McGlockton's car and began to verbally confront and point at McGlockton's girlfriend, Britany Jacobs, for parking in a disabled parking space without a placard. McGlockton came out of the store and shoved Drejka hard to the ground. At this point, Drejka drew his handgun and McGlockton began to back away. Two and a half seconds after Drejka hit the ground, he shot McGlockton. McGlockton later died from his injuries at a local hospital. McGlockton was unarmed at the time he was shot. Drejka, a white 47-year-old man, was not initially charged for the killing by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, with Sheriff Bob Gualtieri citing Florida's stand-your-ground law as the reason. The investigation was then handed over to the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida State Attorney Bernie McCabe, who charged Drejka with one count of manslaughter on August 13, 2018. Drejka pleaded not guilty to the charge. His trial began on August 19, 2019. Drejka was convicted of manslaughter on August 23, 2019, and was sentenced to imprisonment for 20 years on October 10, 2019. Parties involved- Markeis McGlockton: Markeis Deon McGlockton grew up in Clearwater, Florida, and formerly lived in South St. Petersburg, Florida. Within Pinellas County Schools, McGlockton attended middle school in St. Petersburg; and attended Boca Ciega High School but later dropped out. In 2009, McGlockton met Britany Jacobs through a friend while she was a student at Dunedin High School. The couple had three children together during his lifetime. Jacobs publicly revealed her pregnancy with their fourth child in December 2018. McGlockton formerly worked at a Burger King. He later worked nights as a clerk at a 7-Eleven until his death. While Jacobs worked in the daytime as a certified nursing assistant, McGlockton was a stay-at-home dad for their children. Michael Drejka: Michael Andrew Drejka originally lived in Delaware. His father was a Delaware State Trooper. He had a concealed carry license. Drejka worked for Asplundh Tree Expert Company as a tree-trimmer and often performed cleanup work. He quit the tree-trimming business in 2007 and lived with his girlfriend Cara Lynne Brooks. In 2010, Drejka moved to Pinellas County, where he got married. He later worked as an Uber driver until problems with his vehicle forced him to quit. Shooting: On the afternoon of July 19, 2018, McGlockton picked up Jacobs from her employer with their three children in the vehicle, reportedly a 2016 Chrysler 200. Jacobs took over the wheel and drove the family to the Circle A Food Store so McGlockton could buy snacks for the children. Jacobs illegally parked the vehicle in the store's only handicapped parking space, located on the side of the building. McGlockton went into the store with their five-year-old son, Markeis Jr. While Jacobs was sitting inside the vehicle, Drejka pulled up in his Toyota 4-Runner, after having come from the WaWa on Missouri Ave in Largo. Drejka got out of his SUV and searched for a disabled parking placard on Jacobs' vehicle. Video surveillance shows Drejka starting a confrontation with Jacobs over the parking space. She had the other two children, aged three years and four months, seated in the car at the time. McGlockton had not yet finished checking out when he overheard the store clerk being informed of the situation. Around 3:30 p.m., video surveillance shows McGlockton walked out of the store and walked up to Drejka and shoved him to the ground. Three seconds later, Drejka pulled out a .40-caliber Glock, which he steadied with both hands. McGlockton immediately backed up when confronted with the firearm. As McGlockton backed up to his vehicle he began to turn towards the front of the store and away from Drejka. Drejka then fired a single shot striking McGlockton in the chest. After being shot, McGlockton ran back into the store and collapsed in front of his son. Paramedics did not arrive until 19 minutes later and then rushed McGlockton to Morton Plant Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4:04 p.m. Location: The shooting occurred at Circle A Food Store located on Sunset Point Road in Clearwater. The convenience store has been locally owned by Abdalla "Ali" Salous for twenty years. He was not present in the store at the time of the shooting. Salous previously had issues with Drejka at his business. Both Drejka and McGlockton were regular customers at the store. Salous said that Drejka came to his store daily to buy Monster drinks. A month after the shooting, Salous said the incident hurt the business, but added the public should not be afraid simply because of the assailant's actions. After Drejka was released from jail on bond, Salous stated that Drejka was banned from the property. Drejka was represented by criminal defense attorneys John Trevena and Bryant Camareno. Investigations- Pinellas County Sheriff's Office: The incident took place in an unincorporated area of Clearwater, falling outside the local police department's jurisdiction; thus the investigation was conducted by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, rather than the Clearwater Police Department. Drejka questioned and released: Following the shooting, Drejka reportedly put the gun in his SUV as he waited for law enforcement to arrive. Drejka cooperated with deputies on the scene, and was transported to the North District Station in nearby Dunedin, Florida, for further questioning by detectives. Deputies took possession of his gun. While being questioned by detectives, Drejka stated that he was in fear for his life and had acted in self-defense when he shot McGlockton. He claimed that they did not exchange words with each other and that he thought McGlockton had twitched toward him before he fired his gun. Drejka said he would not have shot at McGlockton if he had stayed still or retreated. Drejka was asked to re-enact the incident, with a detective filling in for McGlockton. Drejka told detectives that he had carried a gun since the age of 22. He revealed that the gun he used to shoot McGlockton formerly belonged to a Delaware police officer. The interview lasted six hours. Gualtieri cites stand-your-ground: On July 20, 2018, the day after the shooting, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri held a 30-minute press conference in which he announced that his agency would not charge Drejka for the shooting death of McGlockton. At the press conference, Gualtieri walked through the events leading up to the shooting and revealed the surveillance video to the media. He started by saying "I'm a big believer in this adage that just because you can, doesn't mean you should. This case may be an example of that. Nonetheless, we don't build it, we just sail it. What I mean by that is: I don't make the law, I enforce the law." Gualtieri cited Florida Statute 776.032 and stated that his office was precluded from making an arrest, due to Drejka's claim of self-defense through Florida's stand-your-ground law. Gualtieri said the investigation would continue before being turned over to the local state attorney's office. In a second 55-minute press conference on July 31, Gualtieri defended his decision not to arrest Drejka. The Pinellas County Ministerial Alliance and NAACP Clearwater were scheduled to stand with Gualtieri during this press conference, but backed out a half hour before it began. State Attorney's investigation: On August 1, 2018, Sheriff Gualtieri announced that the investigation had been turned over to State Attorney Bernie McCabe for review. The following day, McCabe said there was no time frame for how long it would take to complete the investigation. On August 10, Detective George Moffett sent a capias request to State Attorney McCabe recommending charges of manslaughter with a firearm against Drejka. Moffett cited three drivers who alleged that Drejka threatened them with a gun in past incidents. Drejka was formally charged with a single count of manslaughter on August 13. Drejka pleaded not guilty to the charge on August 17. Witness accounts: A man who witnessed the argument between Drejka and Jacobs walked into the store to report it, which led to McGlockton confronting Drejka. After McGlockton was shot, deputies interviewed multiple witnesses at the scene. Two 9-1-1 calls from witnesses were released by the Pinellas County Regional 911 Center on August 16. There are over 100 witnesses in the case. Britany Jacobs: Jacobs was a major eyewitness in the case. She explained her decision to park her vehicle in the handicapped space; although video surveillance shows there were other spaces available, Jacobs told prosecutors that two pickup trucks blocked her from accessing those spaces. Jacobs claimed that Drejka began yelling and motioning at her. Jacobs said that she told Drejka to mind his own business. According to Jacobs, McGlockton told Drejka to "stay away from my girl" as he flung Drejka to the ground. When McGlockton was shot, she attempted to apply pressure to his wound with a shirt. Jacobs claimed the bullet struck McGlockton in the left side of the abdomen, contrary to Sheriff Gualtieri's account that he was shot in the chest. Drejka's account of events: Within a day of the shooting, Drejka had a sign posted outside his home that read: "NO COMMENT". Drejka refused to speak to the press for over a month following the shooting; until late-August his only public account of events came from statements he made while being questioned by detectives. First media interview: On August 31, 2018, Drejka sat down with WTSP reporter Reginald Roundtree for a jailhouse interview. Early in the interview, Drejka spoke about his early life and work profession; the financial and physical hardships he and his wife are facing; and threats made to them immediately after the shooting. Regarding McGlockton's shove, Drejka said he thought he was "tackled". Drejka stated he was in fear for his life and felt that he followed the stand-your-ground law. Drejka said abuse of handicapped parking spaces is a sensitive issue to him, as his mother-in-law and deceased high school girlfriend were handicapped. Drejka denied he was a racist. While Drejka wouldn't change his actions, he did apologize for the results of actions to McGlockton's family. Drejka's wife was subsequently interviewed by Roundtree, with her face hidden by a gray curtain to protect her identity. Public response- Activism and protests: The first protest related to the shooting occurred on July 21 at the Circle A Food Store. A vigil for McGlockton was held at Mt. Carmel Baptist Church the following afternoon, followed by a mass march from the church to the Circle A that evening. On July 25, community activists held a fish fry at Circle A to raise money for McGlockton's family. On the morning of July 27, a protest was staged at State Attorney Bernie McCabe's office. An activist group in Jacksonville held a vigil for McGlockton and other victims of gun violence at the John A. Delaney Student Union later that night. On July 29, members of Allendale United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg created a prayer circle in the middle of a busy intersection to protest the shooting. On August 5, Al Sharpton and Benjamin Crump led the Markeis McGlockton Rally for Justice at St. John Primitive Baptist Church. The Tampa chapter of Black Lives Matter organized a rally outside the church that was held at the same time. On September 19, a vigil was held at Wright Park in Clearwater. Supporters gathered with McGlockton's family and friends at the same park to celebrate what would have been Markeis's 29th birthday. On the one-year anniversary of McGlockton's death anniversary, a memorial and vigil titled Justice for Markeis: A Legacy Never Forgotten was held at Mt. Zion United Methodist Church. Color of Change created an online petition directed to State Attorney McCabe, calling for the arrest of Michael Drejka. The petition received over 10,000 signatures by July 25, and had reached over 45,000 .signatures when Drejka was charged with manslaughter on August 13. On July 31, the organization opened a state-level political action committee as part of an effort to repeal Stand-Your-Ground in Florida. While advocating in favor of Florida Amendment 4 in 2018, Marissa Alexander mentioned the McGlockton case as an example of the state's criminal justice issues. Call for a DOJ investigation: On July 27, Democratic Party U.S. Senator Bill Nelson from Florida sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights John M. Gore, requesting the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Criminal Section to open an investigation into the shooting death of McGlockton. The letter was signed by Nelson and four fellow Democratic lawmakers: Senators Kamala Harris from California and Cory Booker from New Jersey; and U.S. Representatives Charlie Crist and Alcee Hastings, who both represent Florida in the 13th district and 20th district, respectively. The NAACP, along with its Florida State Conference and Clearwater/Upper Pinellas County Branch, called for a DOJ investigation as well. Criticism of Gualtieri's decision: Sheriff Gualtieri received bipartisan criticism over his interpretation of Stand-Your-Ground and his decision to not arrest Drejka. Marion Hammer, former president and lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, stated that nothing in the law prevents a sheriff from making an arrest based on probable cause. Republican Party Florida State Senators Dennis Baxley and Rob Bradley, along with Florida State Representative Bobby Payne, were also critical of Gualtieri's assertion. Five Democratic gubernatorial candidates disagreed with Sheriff Gualtieri's decision, as did the Republican front-runner. The Pinellas County Green Party issued a statement, telling Gualtieri to "get the hell out of Pinellas!" Within a week of the shooting, protesters created chants and T-shirts calling for Gualtieri's removal from office. McGlockton's father expressed regret voting for Gualtieri. In a statement made after Drejka was charged by the State Attorney's Office, members of Black Lives Matter pledged to "continue examining the racist policies and practices of Sheriff Gualteri and the entire structure that allows for this type of vigilantism to flourish." Al Sharpton: During his speech at the Markeis McGlockton Rally for Justice, Sharpton told the crowd "It is not the sheriff's job to determine whether Stand-Your-Ground applies. That ought to be decided in a courtroom and the state attorney's office." Sharpton suggested there was racial bias in the case, saying "If you got to the scene, Mr. Sheriff, and Markeis had been standing over the white man, you would have cuffed him and taken him in jail." Sharpton then criticized Gualtieri: "(Drejka) killed an unarmed black man who was standing up for his family. Lock him up, or give up your badge." Sharpton received a standing ovation from the crowd for the comment. Lock him up, or give up your badge was the top headline on the front page of Tampa Bay Times the following day. The paper's Kirby Wilson listed Sharpton's quote at No. 17 in "18 Tampa Bay quotes that captured 2018". During an unrelated press conference the day after the rally, Sheriff Gualtieri initially said he had no comment on the event. When asked by a reporter about Sharpton's criticism of him, Gualtieri responded: "It's a bunch of rhetoric. I don't pay much attention to it to tell you the truth. I wasn't there, and I don't really care what Al Sharpton has to say. Go back to New York. Mind your own business." Sharpton responded to Gualtieri's remarks, comparing them to "those of sheriffs out of the 1960s that used to call civil rights leaders invited in by victims, “outside agitators.” I came at the invitation of the family & literally thousands of people in his county. Additionally, five candidates for governor joined me because he did not take care of his business. It would not be necessary for me to do so if he took care of his own, and until he does I will keep coming to Clearwater." In a subsequent interview, Gualtieri said about his previous remarks: "I can see where it may not have been the best thing to say, to not do what he was doing, which was to ramp it up. But also I think people like him, who are doing that, need to get called out on it, and people need to say, and not be afraid to say, we're not going to tolerate that here, either. I might say the same thing again." Politicians: The shooting death of McGlockton prompted responses from politicians. Following Drejka's arrest, Tampa Bay Times reported the shooting had become highly politicized. Khary Penebaker, Democratic National Committee Representative from Wisconsin, wrote on Twitter: "Markeis McGlockton is dead & his shooter walks free, what the NRA wanted". Cynthia McKinney, former Democratic U.S. Representative from Georgia and 2008 presidential nominee of the Green Party, asked her followers on Twitter: "What does this look like to you?" Doctor Ron Daniels, the 1992 presidential nominee of the Peace and Freedom Party, urged the black community to boycott Florida. David Jolly, former Republican U.S. Representative from Florida, said "You've seen response from elected officials who maybe believe he should have handled it differently but still generally support the sheriff. He has broad support across Pinellas County and across very diverse constituencies. This will be one of the chapters, but I don't think it will be the defining moment." Florida candidates in 2018 elections: The shooting occurred a month before the primary elections held in Florida on August 28. General elections were held on November 6. Candidates in statewide and local elections expressed their thoughts on the shooting, with some outlining their positions on stand-your-ground laws. Congressman Charlie Crist briefly addressed the shooting at a Clearwater town hall meeting on July 29, noting his call for a federal investigation into McGlockton's death. During the primary race for U.S. Senator of Florida, outgoing Republican Governor Rick Scott expressed sorrow for the family of McGlockton while campaigning at an event in Lakeland, Florida; he placed emphasis on Florida's crime rate, which he claimed to be at a 47-year low. During his governorship, Scott had been criticized for his inaction regarding stand-your-ground cases. Scott's opponent, incumbent Democratic Senator Bill Nelson led a call for a federal investigation into the shooting, but did not immediately comment on SYG during this election cycle. During the primary race for Governor of Florida, five major Democratic candidates — Andrew Gillum, Chris King, Gwen Graham, Jeff Greene and Philip Levine — pledged to repeal SYG if they were elected governor. King spoke about his opposition to the law on July 23. At a press conference in Clearwater on July 26, King said he believed race was a factor in the killing. King was in attendance at McGlockton's funeral. Gillum addressed the shooting at length during a town hall meeting in Clearwater on July 29. The following day, Gillum called on Governor Scott to declare a state of emergency and suspend SYG until the Florida Legislature can offer clarity on how and when the law should be applied. On the morning of August 5, Al Sharpton interviewed Greene and Gillum about the case on PoliticsNation, prior to Sharpton's arrival in Clearwater for a McGlockton rally that afternoon. The campaigns of Greene, Levine, Gillum, Graham and King announced their intentions to attend the rally led by Sharpton. The five candidates spoke at the event and pledged to repeal SYG. On August 8, Gillum participated in a protest at Governor Scott's office in Tallahassee, where he staged a sit-in and sang "We Shall Overcome", which his campaign livestreamed on Facebook. Gillum later took a meeting with Jack Heekin, Scott's deputy chief of staff, as Scott was in Colombia that day. Also on August 8, King released a campaign ad titled "Change Hearts", which features his remarks from the August 5 rally. Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Putnam defended Sheriff Gualitieri's decision to not arrest Drejka, but later supported State Attorney McCabe's decision to charge Drejka with manslaughter. Putnam continued to support SYG but was open to making technical changes to help direct law enforcement officials when deciding on a relevant case. Ron DeSantis, a supporter of SYG, initially remained silent about the case. In a statement published by Politico on August 6, DeSantis defended the law but criticized Sheriff Gualtieri, stating he believed Gualtieri did not analyze it properly. Putnam then expressed his support for Gualtieri, noting that DeSantis had no endorsements from Florida sheriffs and accused DeSantis of siding with Sharpton and liberal Democrats. In an opinion piece published the day before the primary election, Peter Schorsch of Orlando Rising listed the McGlockton shooting as one of the twenty-five defining moments of the gubernatorial primary. In a Rolling Stone profile about Andrew Gillum published six days before the general election, Jamil Smith wrote that Gillum made Markeis McGlockton "a staple of his stump speech." During the primary race for Florida Attorney General, Democrats Sean Shaw and Ryan Torrens both stated they planned to work towards their goal of repealing SYG. Shaw met with the McGlockton family and provided his thoughts and prayers to them. Republicans Ashley Moody and Frank White both said they did not want to see the law change, though Moody showed sympathy for McGlockton's family. "I believe people are going to have Markeis McGlockton on their minds when they vote in November." -Benjamin Crump, Tampa Bay Times, August 8, 2018. Alleged ethical issues- Allegations against Drejka: According to documents from the Pinellas County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller, Drejka has been named the accused aggressor in four prior road incidents ranging from 2012 to 2018. In three of these cases, prosecutors allege Drejka threatened drivers with a gun. Drejka has denied these allegations. Investigators documented the first three cases in police reports; the fourth incident, which allegedly occurred at the same location where Drejka shot McGlockton, was shared with authorities after McGlockton's death. State prosecutors sought to use Drejka's past incidents against him during his trial. Media coverage: The story broke in the Tampa Bay market within hours of the shooting. When Sheriff Gualtieri declined to arrest Drejka, New York Post covered the story that day, while The New York Times covered it the following day. The story was reported on multiple television network news programs (ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News), with video of the altercation aired repeatedly. The story also received coverage on cable news networks such as CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. On the following Monday, Jacobs appeared on ABC's Good Morning America and Nightline. Jacobs and Crump appeared on Anderson Cooper Full Circle the evening after State Attorney McCabe charged Drejka. The story was also covered nationally by The Washington Post, The Hill, The Young Turks, HuffPost, and Vox. The story was featured in African-American publications such as Blavity, Ebony, The Root, The Burning Spear, and The Grio. The story was covered internationally by RT, BBC News, The Week, The Independent, PerthNow, and Sputnik. The New Zealand Herald ran the Washington Post article on their website. The shooting is the subject of the first episode of the BET docu-series Finding Justice (2019). The episode, titled "Stand Your Ground", premiered on March 10. Trial, conviction and aftermath: On December 14, 2018, Judge Joseph Bulone set the trial of Michael Drejka to begin on August 19, 2019. Drejka was no longer using a "Stand Your Ground" defense. Maya J. Boddie of Blavity listed the trial at No. 1 in "5 Verdicts To Watch For In 2019". On August 23, Drejka was found guilty of manslaughter with the use of a firearm. On October 10, 2019, Drejka was sentenced to 20 years in prison with credit of 92 days for time served. He is imprisoned at Lancaster Correctional Institution, near Trenton, Florida, where he was attacked and reportedly wounded by another inmate on February 11, 2020.

Custody battle for Anna Mae He

Anna Mae He (simplified Chinese: 贺梅; traditional Chinese: 賀梅; pinyin: Hè Méi or He Sijia, born January 28, 1999 in the United States), was the subject of a custody battle between her Chinese biological parents, Shaoqiang (Jack) He (S: 贺绍强, T: 賀紹強, P: Hè Shàoqiáng) and Qin Luo "Casey" He (S: 罗秦, T: 羅秦, Luó Qín), and her foster parents, Jerry and Louise Baker. The case received United States national media attention for years and revolved around the claim of Jerry and Louise Baker that Jack and Casey He abandoned their rights to the child when they signed a temporary custody order. Background: Anna Mae He's father, Jack, came to the United States in 1995 on a student visa and attended Arizona State. In 1997 he enrolled in University of Memphis, receiving a scholarship and a stipend for work as a graduate assistant. Anna Mae's mother, Casey, obtained a visa as Jack's wife and shortly after coming to the United States became pregnant with Anna Mae. During the pregnancy, Jack was accused of sexual assault by a fellow student six days after the reported event in October 1998. The University conducted an investigation of the alleged assault and determined that no one saw Jack or the alleged victim together at the time and location in question. Despite the lack of incriminating evidence, Jack He's graduate assistant position was terminated by the University, resulting in the loss of his stipend and health insurance. Jack He was charged with attempted rape, but was acquitted by a jury in February 2002. Later during the pregnancy, the couple was involved in an altercation with the alleged rape victim and the alleged victim's husband in a grocery store. Casey was knocked down and suffered vaginal bleeding. Her condition worsened afterward until Anna was delivered by Caesarean section two months later. Faced with a $12,000 hospital bill and a criminal charge with no stable income, the couple sought help from Mid-South Christian Services which agreed to place the baby in a foster home with Jerry and Louise Baker for three months. During this time Jack He was arrested for the previous sexual assault accusation, which caused the loss of his new job. With only Casey's income as a waitress to survive on, the Hes searched for someone to take Anna Mae back to China to be cared for by relatives but were unable to find anyone. Jack, at the time, also suspected that he was not Anna Mae's biological father as he met and married Casey rather abruptly, and Anna was conceived soon after. It was unknown whether his suspicion had contributed to the couple's decision. Disagreement: Unable to financially care for Anna Mae, the Hes decided to let her remain in the Bakers' custody. The Bakers expressed interest in adopting Anna Mae but the Hes were unwilling. An agreement was reached that would give the Bakers temporary custody and let the Hes retain parental rights. The Bakers claim there was also an oral agreement that the Bakers would raise Anna Mae until she is eighteen years old. But the Hes contend that they did not agree to this and that the arrangement was only temporary. A juvenile court officer's testimony supports the Hes' claim. On June 2, 1999, Jack He and the Bakers met with a Mid-South Christian Services attorney. In the meeting, the attorney told Jack it would be necessary to go to court to regain custody if all parties did not agree to a change in custody. On June 4, 1999, the Hes and the Bakers went to the Shelby County Juvenile Court to obtain the consent order transferring custody to the Bakers. Without the knowledge of either party, the juvenile court officer typed a guardianship provision into the consent order. Because Casey He did not speak or read English very well, she was unable to read the documents and had to rely on an interpreter for their meaning. Three witnesses, including the interpreter, reported that Casey was very concerned that the Bakers' custody of Anna Mae be temporary. The juvenile court officer testified that she was "adamant that at some point she wanted her child back." She was told that signing the consent order was necessary for Anna Mae to obtain health insurance and the interpreter testified that she signed the order believing custody to be temporary. The Hes continued to visit Anna Mae regularly for about an hour a week. Louise Baker began to keep a diary in which she documented the Hes' visits to Anna Mae, writing down when the visits were, how long they lasted, how the Hes interacted with Anna Mae, and what gifts they gave her. In October 1999, friction began when the Hes wanted to take Anna Mae out of the Bakers' home and the Bakers refused. Louise Baker wrote "We would like to get visits to every other week. We feel like they would wean away, but the last 2 visits we could see Casey is wanting to come more." In November 1999, Jack He told Jerry Baker they wanted to regain custody of Anna Mae. Jerry replied that they did not want to give up Anna Mae and that Louise was pregnant and he didn't want her to miscarry. The Hes contacted the juvenile court officer several times during these months complaining about problems with visitation and talking about wanting to get custody back. In May 2000, the Hes petitioned the Juvenile Court for custody. The petition was denied. Jack found work in Georgia and Casey continued to visit Anna Mae until one day she refused to leave the Bakers' home. The police were called. Jack quit his job in Georgia after the Bakers told him that Casey was not allowed to visit Anna Mae by herself. The Hes continued to visit Anna Mae until January 28, 2001 when an argument occurred at the Bakers' home. The Hes wanted to take Anna Mae to a photography studio for a family portrait on her second birthday, but the Bakers refused. The Bakers subsequently called the police. The Hes were told that they could not return to the Bakers' home. The police officer later testified that he said they could not return to the Bakers' house that day but the Hes believed they were being told that they could not return to the Bakers' home at all. The Hes did not see Anna Mae again for years. The Hes contacted the Juvenile Court about regaining custody and in April 2001 filed to regain custody, but since only Casey signed, the petition was refiled on May 29. A hearing was set for June 6 but was rescheduled to June 22 so that the Bakers' lawyer could attend. Meanwhile, the Bakers were advised by their attorney to file to revoke the Hes' parental rights. On June 20, 2001, four months and five days after the January argument, they filed a petition for adoption and termination of parental rights in the Chancery Court of Shelby County. This halted the Hes' petition in juvenile court and transferred the case to chancery court. Case history: In May 2000, Hes petition Juvenile Court for custody of Anna Mae. The petition was denied. In April 2001, Hes petition Juvenile Court for custody of Anna Mae. In June 2001, Bakers petition Chancery Court to adopt Anna Mae citing abandonment and lack of financial support from Hes. In May 2004 after a 10-day trial, Judge Robert L. Childers, a Tennessee circuit judge, terminated Hes' parental rights on grounds of willful abandonment, despite Hes' persistent effort to get custody back via Juvenile Court. This decision was later affirmed by a majority in the Tennessee Court of Appeals on 2005-11-23. Hes subsequently appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court. In October 2006, Hes argue at the Tennessee Supreme Court that the trial court erred in terminating their parental rights. They contend that the facts do not support a finding of willful abandonment, as their repeated effort to seek custody via juvenile court was a clear attempt to visit Anna Mae. After the oral argument, the Hes submitted a motion pro se to the Tennessee Supreme Court, asking the high Court to rule on the custody issue directly. On how to interpret the word "temporary", in their pro se motion to the Tennessee Supreme Court, the Hes maintained that the temporary nature of the custody arrangement hinged on the temporary nature of the hardship they experienced at the time of the arrangement. Therefore, the Hes argue that they have superior parental rights over the custody dispute, as the exception laid out in a landmark Tennessee Supreme Court decision (Blair v. Badenhope) should apply. In January 2007, the Tennessee Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, authored by Chief Justice William M. Barker, reversed the ruling by the state Court of Appeals and ordered that Anna Mae He be returned to her biological parents. In its ruling, the Court said, "We hold that the parents of Anna Mae He did not voluntarily transfer custody and guardianship of Anna Mae He to the Bakers with knowledge of the consequences and, therefore are entitled to superior rights to custody." and "the evidence does not support a 'willful failure to visit' as a ground for abandonment." The case must now cycle back through the Shelby County Chancery Court as the process of returning the child to her biological parents begins. The Bakers will have to pay all legal fees, according to the opinion. After the judgment was entered, on 2007-02-02, the Bakers motioned the Tennessee Supreme Court to rehear the case and stay the custody transfer. The Tennessee Supreme Court promptly denied both motions on 2007-02-09 and ordered the Bakers to pay costs "for which execution may issue if necessary". Immediately thereafter, the Bakers petitioned to the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the transfer of custody. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Bakers' requests on 2007-02-12. The Bakers then petitioned for habeas corpus relief as "friend" of Anna Mae in U.S. Federal District Court, claiming that Anna Mae was under the custody of Tennessee state. The federal judge denied the petition. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Bakers' petition for writ of certiorari in mid-2007, thus ending the legal battle. Transfer of custody: After the final decision of the Tennessee Supreme Court, Anna Mae He was returned to her biological parents. The Bakers do not have any residual rights over Anna Mae. The Bakers petitioned for appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court. They also twice sought to stop the custody transfer. The Court denied Bakers' petition and their applications for stay of custody transfer. Bakers then filed a lawsuit in Federal district court against the juvenile court and the attorney general of Tennessee. The U.S. district court dismissed Bakers' suit for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. With legal recourse exhausted, the Bakers finally gave up. On February 21, 2007, the Bakers released videos of Anna Mae, showing what they explained as Anna Mae He's rejection of her Chinese heritage, saying she would rather live in the United States over China, would not eat Chinese food anymore, and told people that she was Mexican. According to a report from USA Today dated February 21, 2007, Jerry Baker paid Anna Mae US$5 for each question she answered, such as "Where do you want to grow up United States or China?" and "What do you want your last name to be, Baker or He?" The USA Today article noted that she refused to answer the question about her last name. Juvenile Court Judge Curtis Person expressed displeasure that Anna Mae was exposed to this media coverage in the Bakers' home, and threatened to issue a gag order if it continued. Anna Mae had her first visit with the He family on March 15, 2007, in a two-hour visit at an undisclosed location that included a court-appointed psychologist. Judge Curtis Person has said that the psychologist will be responsible for arranging a series of meetings over a period of four weeks, with the visits increasing in duration and frequency. According to Jack He, the first meeting proceeded much better than he and Casey He expected, and that Anna Mae was not crying, upset, or hostile. A second meeting took place on March 18, 2007, also at an undisclosed location. A court-appointed guardian went to Jerry and Louise Bakers' Memphis home on Friday, July 20, 2007 to pick up Anna Mae He. Anna Mae was fully reunited with her biological parents on Monday, July 23, 2007. Child advocacy specialist, Debbie Grabarkiewicz, working with A Child's Best Interest, a national child advocacy organization, argued for Anna Mae to stay with the Bakers and for Anna Mae to remain in the U.S., Anna Mae was "inconsolable" when she was moved and felt she had lost all control over her life. The Hes said she was initially hostile to them. She seemed angry and withdrawn, refused to eat or sleep in her own bed, and was afraid her parents were going to poison her. She was afraid of going to China, which she thought was remote and strange. Her parents say she began to warm up to them after her mother said they never agreed to give her up. Later her parents agreed to let her play with the Bakers' daughter, Aimee, who had always been her closest companion. She then began calling the Hes "Baba" — Chinese for "Daddy" — and "Mama". The Hes invited the Bakers to attend Anna's ninth birthday party on January 28, 2008 on the condition that the Bakers not cry and that they not call themselves "Mommy" and "Daddy" when they talked to Anna. While Louise and Jerry Baker attended the party, Jerry Baker's father did not attend because he didn't think he could refrain from crying. The He family's legal residence in the U.S. was based on Jack He's student visa, which has long since expired. They were allowed to stay in the U.S. during the custody battle. When the legal fight was over, the He family agreed to go back to China to avoid deportation, although Anna Mae had lived in the U.S. her entire life and cannot speak Chinese. The He family boarded a plane to China on February 9, 2008 and had arrived in China by February 11, 2008. The Hes told Anna that they were going on vacation—when the family was interviewed by an ABC News crew in an airport in China and asked how long they would be staying there, Anna blurted out, "Two days!" before her father could respond and said her father's new job in Hunan was in Tennessee. Jack He corrected her. Jack He looked forward to introducing his children to his parents for the first time. Life in China: The Hes hoped to enroll Anna in an international school that teaches in English. Jack He became an associate professor in the Hunan Vocational College of Science and Technology. He was also appointed director of the college's international exchange program. He was later forced to resign due to sexual assault allegations. On July 31, 2008, local Memphis television station WMC-TV published an article stating that Jack He wanted to move back to the U.S. with his family, and that his children were not happy in China. However, in an interview with Chinese newspaper Y Weekend, He said that he did not want to go back to the U.S., that WMC-TV took what he said "out of context," and that it "could not get a good show" from the interview, so it "deliberately made things up." The reporter involved has denied these accusations. In an issued statement, she claimed that Jack He had asked for help returning to the United States "several times." In the interview, Jack He further elaborated on Anna's upbringing with the Bakers. He said that while he felt the Bakers "subjectively love" Anna, the "actual effect" of her being with the Bakers "has not been good." He alleged that the Bakers told Anna that her parents were "illegal aliens who crossed...from...Mexican border and who had disappeared since," and that they told a USA Today reporter that Anna was "abandoned by her natural parents" whereas they "saved this abandoned child or else she would be sent back to the horrible place known as China." In October 2008, local Memphis television Fox 13 reported that friends confirmed the separation of Jack and Casey He, with Casey having sole custody of the children, including Anna Mae. Radio station 600 WREC in Memphis reported that Jack left the family in July after the two argued. Casey said that Jack wanted money from her family, offering her the three children for one hundred thousand dollars. She now lives near her family and said that she and the children are happy; all three of the children are in private schools where both Chinese and English are spoken. Casey does not know where Jack is and does not have his contact information. A November 29, 2008, Associated Press story indicated that Anna Mae and her siblings attend a boarding school in Chongqing, China, during the week and visit their mother on weekends, when they also receive extra lessons in Chinese, art and piano. Their maternal uncle pays the tuition for the children's boarding school and also owns the two-bedroom apartment where the children live with their mother. Casey He told the reporter that sending the children to boarding school was a difficult decision, but her brother persuaded her it would be too difficult to manage the children's schoolwork and daily schedule if she did not. She visits them at the school three times a week in addition to seeing them on weekends. Anna Mae, who is a year behind in school because of her limited Chinese, told the reporter she doesn't like living at her boarding school and doesn't talk to her teachers or classmates because they can't understand her. She couldn't think of anything she liked about China, but said the best thing about school is going home to her mother. Anna Mae told the reporter she doesn't miss her father. Jack He told the reporter he hopes to reconcile with his wife, but he has filed for divorce and custody of all three of the children. As of November 2008, he hadn't seen Anna Mae or her siblings since July. Anna Mae speaks with her former foster parents, the Bakers, on the telephone once a week and they also send her packages filled with some of her favorite foods. Casey He spoke to the reporter about returning to the United States with the children, but said it would be difficult for her to find work there because of her limited English. She hopes that she might be able to eventually afford to send the children to an international day school in Chongqing. In February 2010, Anna told an American ABC News reporter that she misses her classmates in Tennessee. She is still attending boarding school during the week with her brother and sister and reported having trouble with a recent test. She said she now considers herself both American and Chinese. In China she tells everyone that her mother is Casey He and doesn't mention Louise Baker because it is too complicated to explain her relationship to the Bakers, whom she still talks to regularly via telephone and over the Internet. Anna said "I would say it's fair and it's not fair" when the reporter asked if it was fair she had to move to China. In the summer of 2011, Anna and her two siblings went to the US for summer vacation without their parents. They stayed at the Bakers' house. On August 15, 2011, Anna and her siblings returned to China. In November 2017, Local 24 News reported that Anna and her biological sister were back in US living with the Bakers after their mother decided it was the best for the kids.

Dannielynn Birkhead paternity case

The Dannielynn Hope Marshall Birkhead paternity case, a.k.a. Birkhead v. Marshall, centered on a child born September 7, 2006 to Vickie Lynn Marshall (better known as Anna Nicole Smith). The child was named Dannielynn, and was registered on her birth certificate as the daughter of Vickie Lynn Marshall (Smith) and her live-in partner Howard K. Stern. Larry Birkhead, Smith's former love interest and photographer, steadfastly maintained his contention that he was the baby's father and filed a lawsuit to challenge paternity after Smith had given birth. Besides Birkhead and Stern, bodyguard/actor Alexander Denk, Mark Hatten and Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, among others, claimed to be the father of Smith's daughter, Dannielynn. Although Stern was listed on her birth certificate, it was not certain that he was the father. At issue in a California court was who fathered the child, who could potentially inherit millions of dollars from Smith's estate. On September 26, 2006, Stern claimed in an interview from the Bahamas with Larry King on CNN that he was the father of Smith's newborn daughter. After much media attention, on April 10, 2007, Michael Baird, who analyzed the results of a March 21 DNA test, announced the results that confirmed Birkhead to be the father of the baby. Name changes: A little over a month after the birth, a copy of the baby's disputed second birth certificate dated October 11, 2006 was made public showing she was renamed and registered as Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern on October 9, 2006. From September 7, 2006 to October 11, 2006 the baby was in the records as Hannah Rose Marshall Stern. After the birth of her daughter, according to G. Ben Thompson, a former boyfriend of hers who is a real-estate developer in South Carolina, Smith wanted to put him down as the father on the birth certificate, but he refused. Thompson also was not convinced the baby was his because he had a vasectomy. Although Stern is named as the father on the earlier certificate, Bahamian attorney signed his name where Stern's signature should have been. This discrepancy made the birth certificate invalid so that it could be possible for a new birth certificate to be asked for and a DNA test sought to determine the father's identity. In April 2007 following the official results of the paternity test, Birkhead changed his daughter's surname to his last name, renaming her Dannielynn Hope Marshall Birkhead. Paternity case and burial proceedings: On February 21, 2007 hearings commenced in Broward County Circuit court in Florida over the disposition of Anna Nicole Smith's remains. Larry Birkhead petitioned the court to ask Howard K. Stern to submit to a DNA test on February 20, 2007, but at the time Howard K. Stern stated he was not willing to do so in a closed conference with Judge Larry Seidlin. The judge had put off the paternity question until after the issue of the location of Anna’s burial was decided. Judge Seidlin awarded custody of Smith's body to lawyer, the guardian ad litem for Dannielynn. Judge Seidlin declared that Smith should be buried in the Bahamas next to her late son. At the request of Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, a Bahamian judge issued a temporary injunction preventing Stern from taking Smith's daughter out of the Bahamas. A Florida Appeals court had suspended a lower court ruling that would have allowed the Smith's burial in the Bahamas. The Fourth District Court of Appeals in Florida, granted an emergency petition by Smith's mother to stop a court appointed guardian for Smith's daughter from taking the body to the Bahamas. In March 2007, Smith was buried in the Bahamas next to her late son Daniel Wayne Smith after Virgie Arthur lost an appeal against judge Seidlin's ruling. Paternity claims- Larry Birkhead: Birkhead was a freelance celebrity photographer in Los Angeles, California. When the question came up, Birkhead denied receiving money for media interviews, though he has received royalties for archived pictures he took of Smith. According to Birkhead's testimony on February 21, 2007 while on the stand he and Smith dated on and off from August 2005 to February 2006. Howard K. Stern: Stern was Smith's attorney who was named executor of her will which was drafted in 2001 by Eric James Lund, Esq. During the case, Stern denied that he had received money from media interviews he has conducted since Smith's death, though he admitted that he gave an interview to Entertainment Tonight on a flight that the show chartered immediately after her death. As a lawyer of Smith's in the continuing litigation over the estate of her late husband, billionaire J. Howard Marshall, he would be entitled to a contingent fee of roughly $5 million, five percent of any money she was awarded. He has claimed to be the biological father of baby Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern. Following the death of the baby's half-brother Daniel Wayne Smith, Smith put his name on the disputed second birth certificate issued for the baby then known as Hannah Rose. Stern's sister, Bonnie, says Smith told her months before the birth that Birkhead could be the father. "When I spoke to (Smith) in March, when she found out she was pregnant, I took her shopping, and she told me the baby was due in mid-October, and that one other person could have been the father and that was Larry Birkhead, but nobody else." Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt: Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, the husband of Zsa Zsa Gabor at the time, claimed that he had Smith as a mistress for 10 years. He was quoted as saying that he could potentially be the father of Smith's daughter and said he would file a lawsuit if Dannielynn was turned over to Stern or Birkhead by the courts. According to the Associated Press, on February 12, 2007 Prinz von Anhalt announced that he would file a paternity claim and that his marriage likely would be over if his claims of parentage prevailed. On February 15, 2007, he filed legal documents at a courthouse in Santa Monica, California seeking a DNA test to determine if he was the father of the baby. On February 20, 2007, he took a lie detector test in his attorney's office in Los Angeles. Prinz von Anhalt passed three lie detector tests that week, according to his attorney. The tests included questions about whether he had an affair with Smith and whether he could possibly be the child's father. On March 23, 2007, he submitted a DNA sample to a Los Angeles clinic even though he was not involved in the paternity suit between Stern and Birkhead. He did not have a sample of the baby's DNA to analyze against, nor did he have a court order to submit to testing, but had stated that he wanted to be prepared if his paternity case had continued. On April 10, 2007 after the paternity test results were made public, representatives of Prinz von Anhalt released this statement wishing Birkhead well with raising the baby: "We never intended to take Dannielynn from anyone, we were just here in case Prinz von Anhalt was the father. We wish Larry luck in raising Dannielynn and we wish him the best." Potential paternity- Alexander Denk: Denk is an Austrian-American film actor and was the personal bodyguard of Anna Nicole Smith until her death on February 8, 2007. Denk, according to his attorney in a joint television interview, also said that he was Smith's confidant, worked for her as her personal trainer, and also was her bodyguard and chef. Denk is also friends with Stern. In the interview with Julie Banderas, Denk said he and Smith were in a relationship and that he knew her for five and a half years. He added that they were intimate on and off for five years. He reportedly told the entertainment news show Extra that he had an affair with his former employer and that it was possible he could be the baby's father. On the show he claimed he and Smith had a passionate love affair that lasted for two years and that Smith suffered from life-threatening seizures, for which she was on medication. When asked if Smith ever revealed to him the identity of her daughter's father, Denk responded, "She always told me she wanted to have her kids with me." Denk was not certain he was the baby's father and told Banderas that Smith "always told me I want you to be there and care for Dannielynn no matter what, no matter who is the father, because I took care of Anna with her health and everything, and she wanted to make sure her baby is healthy. And also this thing about the dieting and stuff, she doesn't want her baby to be overweight and obese. She wants to make sure she is healthy." J. Howard Marshall: J. Howard Marshall II, also deceased, was Smith's second husband. In February 2007, the New York Daily News claimed to have seen an unpublished manuscript by Donna Hogan, Smith's younger half-sister, saying that Smith had become pregnant by Marshall: "To her family, she hinted that she had used the old man's frozen sperm, and would be giving birth to Marshall's child". However, the publisher of Hogan's book, Train Wreck, described the newspaper's claims as a hoax. Paternity case results: On April 10, 2007, Dr. Michael Baird, who analyzed the results of a March 21 DNA test, announced the results outside the Bahamian courthouse that Birkhead is confirmed at 99.99% to be the father of the baby. Although DNA tests revealed Birkhead is the father, final custody of the baby remains unresolved. "I hate to be the one to say this but...I told you so," Birkhead told reporters and tourists waiting outside the courthouse in Nassau after a judge ruled behind closed doors that he was the biological father of Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern, who was born on the island September 7. Larry Birkhead announced that he was the father of Dannielynn, Anna Nicole Smith's baby. Stern says he will not contest Birkhead for sole custody and wants a smooth transition for the baby.

Acid reflux

this is something I never thought I'd get. I was kinda aware of it since its a possible side effect of my back. I also never thought I'd have to watch what I eat because of my back either. I'd usually tried eating healthy. I usually preferred vegetarian things anyways. while I've gotta watch what I eat I've also corrected my back to some degree. I'm also able to manage this disease with medication.

Thorpe affair

The Thorpe affair of the 1970s was a British political and sex scandal that ended the career of Jeremy Thorpe, the leader of the Liberal Party and Member of Parliament (MP) for North Devon. The scandal arose from allegations by Norman Josiffe (otherwise known as Norman Scott) that he and Thorpe had a homosexual relationship in the early 1960s, and that Thorpe had begun a badly planned conspiracy to murder Josiffe, who was threatening to expose their affair. Thorpe, while admitting that the two had been friends, denied any such relationship. With the help of political colleagues and a compliant press, he was able to ensure that rumours of misconduct went unreported for more than a decade. Scott's allegations were a persistent threat, however, and by the mid-1970s he was regarded as a danger both to Thorpe and to the Liberal Party, which was then enjoying a resurgence of popularity and was close to a place in government. Attempts to buy or frighten Scott into silence were unsuccessful, and the problem deepened, until the fallout following the shooting of his dog during a possible murder attempt by a hired gunman in October 1975 brought the matter into the open. After further newspaper revelations, Thorpe was forced to resign the Liberal leadership in May 1976, and subsequent police investigations led to his being charged, with three others, with conspiracy to murder Scott. Before the case came to trial, Thorpe lost his parliamentary seat at the 1979 general election. At the trial in May 1979, the prosecution's case depended heavily on the evidence of Scott, Thorpe's former parliamentary colleague Peter Bessell, and the hired gunman, Andrew Newton. None of these witnesses impressed the court. Bessell's credibility was undermined by the revelations of his financial arrangements with The Sunday Telegraph. In his summing-up the judge was scathing about the prosecution's evidence, and all four defendants were acquitted. Nevertheless, Thorpe's public reputation was damaged irreparably by the case. He had chosen not to testify at the trial, which left several matters unexplained amid public disquiet. Thorpe's retirement into private life was followed by the onset of Parkinson's disease in the mid-1980s, and he made few public statements afterwards. He eventually achieved a reconciliation with the North Devon Liberal Democrat constituency party, of which he was honorary president from 1988 until his death in 2014. Allegations of suppression of evidence by the police before the trial were under investigation from 2015, reaching a culmination in June 2018 when the police said that there was no new evidence and the case would remain closed. Background- Homosexuality and English law: Before the passage of the Sexual Offences Act 1967, which decriminalised most homosexual acts in England and Wales (but did not apply to Scotland or Northern Ireland), all sexual activity between men was illegal throughout the United Kingdom, and carried heavy criminal penalties. Antony Grey, a secretary of the Homosexual Law Reform Society, wrote of "a hideous aura of criminality and degeneracy and abnormality surrounding the matter". Political figures were particularly vulnerable to exposure; William Field, the Labour MP for Paddington North, was forced to resign his seat in 1953 after a conviction for soliciting in a public lavatory. In the following year Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, the youngest peer in the House of Lords, was imprisoned for a year after being convicted of "gross indecency", victim of a virulent "drive against male vice" led by the Home Secretary, Sir David Maxwell Fyfe. Four years later public attitudes had changed little. When Ian Harvey, a junior Foreign Office minister in Harold Macmillan's government, was found guilty of indecent behaviour with a Coldstream Guardsman in November 1958, he lost both his ministerial job and his parliamentary seat at Harrow East. He was ostracised by the Conservative Party and by most of his former friends, and never again held a position in public life. Thus, anyone entering politics at that time knew that revelations of homosexual activity would likely bring such a career to a swift end. Thorpe: John Jeremy Thorpe was born in 1929, the son and grandson of Conservative MPs. He attended Eton, then studied law at Trinity College, Oxford, where, having decided on a political career, he devoted his main energies to making a personal impact rather than to his studies. Rejecting his Conservative background, he joined the small, centrist Liberal Party—which by the late 1940s was a declining force in British politics, but still offered a national platform and a challenge to an ambitious young politician. He became secretary and eventually President of the Oxford Liberal Club, and met many of the party's leading figures. In the Hilary term (January–March) of 1950–51 Thorpe served as President of the Oxford Union. In 1952, while studying at the Inner Temple prior to his call to the bar, Thorpe was adopted as prospective Liberal parliamentary candidate for the North Devon constituency, a Conservative-held seat where, at the 1951 general election, the Liberals had finished in third place behind Labour. Thorpe worked in the constituency tirelessly, using the slogan "A Vote for the Liberals is a Vote for Freedom", and at the 1955 general election, had halved the sitting Conservative MP James Lindsay's majority. Four years later, in October 1959, he captured the seat with a majority of 362, one of six successful Liberals in what was generally an electoral triumph for the Conservative Macmillan government. The writer and former MP Matthew Parris described Thorpe as one of the more dashing among the new MPs elected in 1959. Thorpe's chief political interest lay in the field of human rights, and his speeches criticising apartheid in South Africa attracted the attention of the South African Bureau of State Security (BOSS), who took note of this rising star in the Liberal Party. Thorpe was briefly considered as best man at the 1960 wedding of his Eton contemporary Antony Armstrong-Jones to Princess Margaret, but was rejected when vetting checks indicated that he might have homosexual tendencies. The security agency MI5, which routinely keeps records on all Members of Parliament, added this information to Thorpe's file. Josiffe, later named Scott: Norman Josiffe was born in Sidcup, Kent, on 12 February 1940—he did not assume the name Scott until 1967. His mother was Ena Josiffe, née Lynch; Albert Josiffe, her second husband, abandoned the family home soon after Norman's birth. Norman's early childhood was relatively happy and stable. After leaving school at 15 with no qualifications, he acquired a pony by means of an animal charity, and became a competent rider. When he was 16 he was prosecuted for the theft of a saddle and some pony feed, and was put on probation. With the encouragement of his probation officer he took lessons at Westerham Riding School at Oxted in Surrey, and eventually found work at a stable in Altrincham in Cheshire. After moving there he chose to cut all links with his family, and began to call himself "Lianche-Josiffe" ("Lianche" being a stylised version of "Lynch"). He also hinted at an aristocratic background, and of family tragedies that had left him orphaned and alone. In 1959 Josiffe moved to the Kingham Stables in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, where he learned dressage while working as a groom. The stables were owned by Norman Vater, the self-made son of a coalminer who, like Josiffe, had inflated his name and was known as "Brecht Van de Vater". In the course of his rise, Vater had made numerous friends in higher social circles, among them Thorpe. Initially, Josiffe was settled and happy at the stables, but his relationship with Vater deteriorated in the face of the latter's assertive and demanding manner, and he was unable to form good relationships with his fellow-workers. He began to evidence the kind of behaviour which a journalist would later summarise as his "extraordinary talent for wheedling his way into people's sympathy before turning their lives to misery with his hysterical temper-tantrums." Bessell: Peter Bessell, eight years older than Thorpe, had a successful business career before entering Liberal politics in the 1950s. He came to the party leadership's attention in 1955 when, as the Liberal candidate in the Torquay by-election, he substantially increased his party's vote in the first of a series of impressive Liberal results during the 1955–59 parliament. He was subsequently selected as candidate for the more winnable constituency of Bodmin, and became both an admirer and personal friend of Thorpe, who in turn was impressed by Bessell's apparent business acumen. At Bodmin in the 1959 general election, Bessell reduced the Conservative majority, and he followed this in the October 1964 election with victory by over 3,000 votes.[24] With the prestige of the letters "MP" after his name, Bessell set out in pursuit of serious money-making, while staying close to Thorpe whom he considered the likely next leader of the Liberal Party. Bessell noted that Thorpe, for all his gregariousness and warmth, appeared to have no female friends and lacked any interest in women. The former Liberal MP Frank Owen confided to Bessell his suspicions that Thorpe was homosexual; other West Country Liberals had formed the same opinion. Aware that exposure as a gay man would end Thorpe's career, Bessell became his self-appointed protector, even to the extent, he later said, of falsely claiming to be bisexual, as a means of acquiring his friend's confidence. Origins- Thorpe–Scott friendship: In late 1960 or early 1961, Thorpe visited Vater at the Kingham Stables, and briefly met Josiffe. He was sufficiently taken with the young man to suggest that, should Josiffe ever need help, he should call on him at the House of Commons. Soon after this, Josiffe left the stables after a serious disagreement with Vater. He then suffered a mental breakdown, and for much of 1961 was under psychiatric care. On 8 November 1961, a week after discharging himself from the Ashurst clinic in Oxford, Josiffe went to the House of Commons to see Thorpe. He was penniless, homeless and, worse, had left Vater's employment without the National Insurance card which, at that time, was essential for obtaining regular work and access to social and unemployment benefits. Thorpe promised he would help. According to Josiffe's account, a homosexual liaison with Thorpe began that same evening, at his mother's (Ursula Thorpe, née Norton-Griffiths, (1903-1992)) home in Oxted, and continued for several years. Thorpe, while acknowledging that a friendship developed, denied any sexual dimension in the relationship. He organised accommodation for Josiffe in London, and a longer-term stay with a family in Barnstaple, within the North Devon constituency. He paid for advertisements in Country Life magazine, in an effort to find work with horses for his friend, arranged various temporary jobs, and promised to help Josiffe to realise an ambition to study dressage in France. On the basis of Josiffe's claim that his father had died in an air crash, Thorpe's solicitors investigated whether any money was due, but found that Albert Josiffe was alive and well in Orpington. When, early in 1962, the police questioned Josiffe about the alleged theft of a suede jacket, Thorpe persuaded the investigating officer that Josiffe was recovering from mental illness, and was under his care. No further action was taken. In April 1962 Josiffe obtained a replacement National Insurance card which, he later said, was retained by Thorpe who had assumed the role of his employer. This was denied by Thorpe, and the "missing card" remained an ongoing source of grievance for Josiffe. He began to feel marginalised by Thorpe, and in December 1962, in a fit of depression, confided to a friend his intention to shoot the MP and commit suicide. The friend alerted the police, to whom Josiffe gave a detailed statement of his sexual relations with Thorpe, and produced letters to support his story. None of this evidence impressed the police sufficiently for them to take action, although a report on the matter was added to Thorpe's MI5 file. In 1963, a relatively calm period in Josiffe's life as a riding instructor in Northern Ireland ended after he was seriously hurt in an accident at the Dublin Horse Show. He moved back to England, and eventually found a job at a riding school in Wolverhampton, where he stayed for several months before his erratic behaviour proved too much, and he was asked to leave. After a period of aimlessness in London, Josiffe saw an advertisement for a groom's post in Porrentruy in Switzerland. Thorpe used his influence to secure him the job. Josiffe left for Switzerland in December 1964, but returned to England almost immediately with complaints that conditions were impossible. In his hurry to depart he left his suitcase behind, which contained letters and other documents that, he believed, supported his claims to a sexual relationship with Thorpe. Threats and counter-measures: Thorpe proved to be a lively and witty performer in the cut and thrust of parliamentary debates, and his presence in the House of Commons was soon noticed. In July 1962, in the wake of some disastrous Conservative by-election performances, Macmillan sacked seven cabinet ministers in what was known as the "Night of the Long Knives". Thorpe's comment—"Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his friends for his life"—was widely regarded in the press as the most apt verdict on the prime minister. Thorpe raised his political profile with effective attacks on government bureaucracy, and in the October 1964 general election was returned in North Devon with an increased majority. A year later he secured the office of Liberal Party treasurer, a significant step towards his ambition to become the next party leader. By early 1965 Josiffe was in Dublin, where he worked at various horse-related jobs while continuing to badger Thorpe by letter about his missing luggage and the continuing National Insurance card issue. Thorpe rejected any responsibility for these matters. In mid-March 1965 Josiffe wrote a long letter to Thorpe's mother, which began: "For the last five years, as you probably know, Jeremy and I have had a homosexual relationship." The letter blamed Thorpe for awakening "this vice that lies latent in every man", and accused him of callousness and disloyalty. Ursula Thorpe gave the letter to her son, who drafted a quasi-legal statement rejecting the "damaging and groundless accusations" and accusing Josiffe of attempting to blackmail him. The document was never sent; instead, Thorpe turned to Bessell for advice. Bessell, anxious to be of service to his party's highest-profile figure, flew to Dublin in April 1965. He found that Josiffe was being advised by a sympathetic Jesuit priest, Father Sweetman, who believed that at least some of Josiffe's allegations might be true; otherwise, he asked Bessell, why had he flown all the way from London to deal with them? Bessell warned Josiffe of the consequences of attempting to blackmail a public figure, but in a more conciliatory vein promised to help recover the missing luggage and insurance card. He also hinted at the possibility of an equestrian job in America. Bessell's intervention appeared to contain the problem, particularly as Josiffe's suitcase was recovered shortly afterwards—although letters implicating Thorpe had been removed. For most of the following two years Josiffe remained largely quiescent in Ireland, attempting to establish himself in various careers; part of this time was spent in a monastery. It was during this period that he formally adopted the name of Scott. In April 1967 Scott wrote to Bessell from Ireland, asking for help in obtaining a passport in his changed name so that he could begin a new life in America. A second, less positive letter, dated July, indicated that Scott had returned to England and was once again in difficulties, with medical bills and other debts. His lack of an insurance card prevented him from claiming benefits. By this time, Thorpe had succeeded Jo Grimond as leader of the Liberal Party. To resolve Scott's immediate problems, and to prevent a resumption of his tirades against the new party leader, Bessell began paying him a "retainer" of between £5 and £10 a week, ostensibly in lieu of lost national insurance benefits. Bessell also arranged Scott's new passport, but by this time Scott had abandoned his American plans and wished to establish a career as a model. He asked Bessell for £200 to set him up; Bessell refused, but in May 1968 gave him £75, on the understanding there would be no further demands for a year. Developments- Incitement: Thorpe's leadership of the Liberals was not, initially, an unqualified success; his local campaigning skills did not readily transfer to set speeches on national or international issues, and some sections of the party became restless. His engagement to Caroline Allpass, announced in April 1968, reassured those in the party who had reservations about his private life; others were shocked by Thorpe's emphasis on the political motivation for the marriage—worth five points in the polls, he opined to Mike Steele, the party's press officer. For much of 1968 Thorpe was untroubled by Scott, who had acquired new friends and, according to Bessell, had burned his Thorpe letters. His reappearance in November 1968, again penniless and without prospect of work, was particularly unwelcome to Thorpe, as he fought to establish his leadership credentials. Bessell provided immediate relief by resuming the weekly cash retainer, but this was a short-term respite. Early in December 1968 Bessell was summoned to Thorpe's office in the House of Commons. According to Bessell, Thorpe said of Scott: "We've got to get rid of him", and later: "It is no worse than shooting a sick dog." Bessell said later that he was unsure whether Thorpe was serious, but decided to play along, by discussing various ways of getting rid of Scott's body. Thorpe supposedly thought that disposal down one of Cornwall's many disused tin mines offered the best option, and also suggested his friend David Holmes as an appropriate assassin. Holmes, one of four assistant treasurers of the Liberal Party appointed by Thorpe in 1965, had been best man at Thorpe's wedding, and was completely loyal to him. Bessell further maintained that in January 1969 Thorpe called him to a meeting together with Holmes, and that again Thorpe put forward suggestions for eliminating Scott. These were dismissed as impractical or ridiculous by Bessell and Holmes, who nevertheless agreed to give the matter further consideration. They hoped, said Bessell, that if they stalled, Thorpe would see the absurdity of his murder scheme and abandon it. Holmes, who largely confirmed Bessell's account of the meeting, later justified this decision on the grounds that "if we had simply said no, he might have gone elsewhere—and that might have led to an even greater disaster." According to Bessell and Holmes, discussions of the plan ended in May 1969, after the surprising news of Scott's wedding that month. Party enquiry: By early 1971, Thorpe's political career had stalled. He had led the party to a disastrous performance in the general election of June 1970; in an unexpected victory for the Conservatives under Edward Heath, the Liberals lost seven of their thirteen parliamentary seats, and Thorpe's majority in North Devon fell to below 400. Bessell, with mounting business worries, did not stand for re-election in Bodmin. Thorpe faced censure for his conduct of a campaign during which he had spent extravagantly and left the party on the verge of bankruptcy; but the matter was put aside in a wave of sympathy when his wife Caroline was killed in a road accident 11 days after the election. Thorpe was devastated; he continued as leader, but for the next year performed little beyond routine party duties. Meanwhile, Bessell's efforts ensured that for the time being the Scott threat was kept at bay. The missing insurance card meant that Scott's wife, who was pregnant, could not claim maternity benefits. Scott threatened to talk to newspapers, but the matter was resolved by the issue of an emergency card after Bessell's intervention at the Department of Health and Social Security. In 1970 Scott's marriage collapsed; he blamed Thorpe, and again threatened exposure. Bessell successfully prevented Thorpe's name being mentioned in court during the divorce proceedings, and arranged that Thorpe would anonymously pay the legal costs. Early in 1971 Scott moved to a cottage in the village of Talybont in North Wales, where he befriended a widow, Gwen Parry-Jones. He sufficiently persuaded her of his mistreatment at the hands of Thorpe that she contacted the Liberal MP for the adjoining constituency of Montgomeryshire—Emlyn Hooson, on the right wing of the party and a friend of neither Thorpe nor Bessell. Hooson suggested a meeting at the House of Commons. On 26 and 27 May 1971 Scott told his story to Hooson and David Steel, the Liberals' chief whip. Neither was fully convinced, but felt the matter warranted further investigation. Against Thorpe's wishes, a confidential party enquiry was arranged for 9 June, to be chaired by Lord Byers, the leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords. At the enquiry Byers took a tough line against Scott, failing to offer him a chair and treating him, Scott said, "like a boy at school up before the headmaster." Byers's unsympathetic manner quickly unsettled Scott, who changed the details of his story several times and frequently broke down in tears. Byers suggested that Scott was a common blackmailer who needed psychiatric help. Declaring that Byers was a "pontificating old sod", Scott fled the room. The enquiry then questioned police officers about letters which Scott had shown to the police in 1962, but were told that these were inconclusive. Thorpe persuaded the Home Secretary, Reginald Maudling, and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, John Waldron, to inform Byers that there was no police interest in Thorpe's activities, and no evidence of wrongdoing on his part. As a result, the enquiry dismissed Scott's allegations. Further threats: Angry at his treatment by the Byers inquiry, Scott sought other means of pursuing his vendetta against Thorpe. In June 1971 he met Gordon Winter, a South African journalist who was also an agent for the South African intelligence agency BOSS. Scott provided details of his supposed seduction by Thorpe, a story which Winter assured his BOSS masters would destroy Thorpe and the Liberal Party. He found that no newspaper would print the story on largely uncorroborated and unreliable evidence. In March 1972 Scott's friend Gwen Parry-Jones died; Scott used the inquest to denounce Thorpe for ruining his life and driving Parry-Jones to her death. None of these accusations were published. Depressed, Scott retreated into a state of torpor, assisted by tranquillisers, and for a while presented no threat to Thorpe. In 1972 and 1973 Thorpe's political fortunes, and those of the Liberals, revived. Thorpe's personal standing was enhanced when, on 14 March 1973, he married Marion, Countess of Harewood, whose former husband was a first cousin to the Queen. After a series of by-election victories and local government gains, an electoral breakthrough for the party looked plausible when Heath called a general election in February 1974. In that election, with more than six million votes (19.3% of those cast), the Liberals achieved by far their best election result since the Second World War, but under the first-past-the-post voting system this large vote translated into only 14 seats. As neither major party won an overall majority, these seats gave Thorpe (whose personal majority in North Devon increased to 11,072) significant leverage. He was briefly in coalition discussions with Heath, who was prepared to give cabinet posts to Thorpe and other senior Liberals. Thorpe later denied that there was any serious prospect of agreement, and in March 1974 Harold Wilson formed a minority Labour government. In the second 1974 general election, in October, Wilson achieved a narrow majority; the Liberals lost ground, with 5.3 million votes and 13 MPs. After Parry-Jones's death Scott lived quietly for a while in the West Country. In January 1974 he met Tim Keigwin, Thorpe's Conservative opponent in North Devon, and gave his version of his relationship with Thorpe. Keigwin was advised by the Conservative leadership that the material should not be used. Scott also confided in his doctor, Ronald Gleadle, who was treating him for depression. He had shown Gleadle his dossier of documents; the doctor, without Scott's knowledge or consent, sold the papers to Holmes, who had assumed the role of Thorpe's protector after Bessell settled permanently in California in January 1974. Holmes paid £2,500 for the documents, which were promptly burned in the home of Thorpe's solicitor. A further cache of papers was discovered in November 1974, by builders renovating a London office formerly used by Bessell. They found a briefcase containing letters and photographs that apparently compromised Thorpe, among them Scott's 1965 letter to Ursula Thorpe. Undecided what to do with their find, they took it to the Sunday Mirror newspaper. Sidney Jacobson, the paper's deputy chairman, decided not to publish the material and passed the briefcase and its content to Thorpe. Copies of the documents were kept in the newspaper's files. Auberon Waugh on Thorpe's election victory, February 1974: The most disappointing result has been Jeremy Thorpe's success in North Devon. Thorpe was already conceited enough, and now threatens to become one of the great embarrassments of politics. Soon I may have to reveal some of the things in my file on this revolting man. - Private Eye, March 1974. Alleged conspiracy: In their analysis of the case, the journalists Simon Freeman and Barry Penrose state that Thorpe probably formed the outline of a plan to silence Scott early in 1974, after the latter's re-emergence became a matter of increasing concern. Holmes later said that Thorpe was insistent that Scott be killed: "Jeremy felt he would never be safe with that man around". Uncertain how to proceed, late in 1974 Holmes approached a business acquaintance, a carpet salesman named John Le Mesurier (not to be confused with the actor of that name). Le Mesurier introduced Holmes to George Deakin, a fruit machine salesman who, he thought, would have contacts with people who might be prepared to deal with Scott. Holmes and Le Mesurier concocted a story involving a blackmailer who needed to be frightened off; Deakin agreed to help. In February 1975 Deakin met Andrew Newton, an airline pilot, who said he was willing to deal with Scott for an appropriate fee—between £5,000 and £10,000 was suggested. Deakin put Newton in touch with Holmes. Newton always said that he had been hired to kill, not frighten, citing the size of the fee that he was offered—too much, he said, simply to scare someone. While these arrangements proceeded, Thorpe wrote to Sir Jack Hayward, the Bahamas-based millionaire businessman, who had given generously to the Liberal Party in the past. In the wake of the Liberals' February 1974 election successes, Thorpe asked for £50,000 to replenish the party's funds. He further requested that £10,000 of this sum be paid, not into the party's regular accounts but to Nadir Dinshaw, an acquaintance of Thorpe's who was resident in the Channel Islands. Thorpe explained that this subterfuge was necessary to deal with a special category of unspecific election expenses. Hayward trusted Thorpe, and sent the £10,000 to Dinshaw who, instructed by Thorpe, passed the money to Holmes. After the October 1974 election Thorpe again requested funds from Hayward, and again asked that £10,000 be sent via the Dinshaw route. Hayward obliged, though this time with more reluctance and after some delay. No accounting of this £20,000 was ever provided; Holmes, Le Mesurier and Deakin all said that it was used to finance a "conspiracy to frighten", although they disagreed as to how much was spent. Thorpe later changed the story he had given Hayward about special categories of election expenses, and said he had deposited the sum with accountants "as an iron reserve against any shortage of funds at any subsequent election." He denied that he had authorised any payment to Newton or to anyone else connected with the case. Shooting: Newton met Holmes early in October 1975 when, the former claimed, he was given a down payment on a fee of £10,000. Holmes later denied any such transaction, admitting only an agreement that Newton would carry out a frightening operation. On 12 October Newton, calling himself "Peter Keene", drove to Barnstaple in a yellow Mazda car where he approached Scott, claiming to have been hired to protect Scott from a supposed Canadian hit man. This seemed plausible to Scott, who had been beaten up a few weeks earlier, and he agreed to meet "Keene" at a later date. He was sufficiently cautious to ask a friend to make a note of the stranger's car registration number. On 24 October Newton, now driving a Ford saloon, met Scott by arrangement in Combe Martin, just north of Barnstaple. Newton explained that he had to drive to Porlock, about 25 miles away, and suggested that Scott accompany him—he and Scott could talk on the journey. Scott had with him his recently acquired pet dog, a Great Dane called Rinka; this disconcerted Newton, who was afraid of dogs, but Scott insisted that Rinka go with them. At Porlock, Newton left Scott and Rinka at a hotel while he supposedly dealt with his business. He picked them up shortly after 8 pm, and they began the drive back to Combe Martin. On a deserted stretch of road, Newton began to drive erratically, feigning tiredness, and accepted Scott's suggestion that he take over the driving. They stopped; Scott got out, followed by Rinka, and ran round to the driver's side, where he found Newton, gun in hand. Newton shot the dog in the head and, saying "It's your turn now", pointed the gun at Scott. The pistol failed to fire several times; eventually Newton jumped into the car and drove away, leaving Scott and the dead or dying dog by the roadside. After Scott had been picked up in a distressed state by a passing car, the police were notified, and began enquiries. Newton was quickly identified through the Mazda's registration number, and arrested; his story was that Scott was blackmailing him and that the shooting had been intended to frighten him.[97] He made no mention of any deal with Holmes, perhaps calculating that by keeping silent he would maximise his chances of payment from that quarter. Revelations: On 12 December 1975 Private Eye included another short teasing piece by Auberon Waugh which ended: "My only hope is that sorrow over his friend's dog will not cause Mr Thorpe's premature retirement from public life". By this time most newspapers knew of the stories surrounding Thorpe and Scott, but were wary of libel; according to Parris, by keeping silent they were "serving notice on Thorpe that they knew a bigger story must break, and could wait for it". In January 1976 Scott appeared before magistrates on a minor social security fraud charge, and stated that he was being hounded because of his previous sexual relationship with Thorpe. This claim, made in court and therefore protected from the libel laws, was widely reported. The Daily Mail had meanwhile discovered Bessell's whereabouts in California, and on 3 February 1976 carried a long interview with the former MP. Bessell's claim that he had been blackmailed by Scott provided Thorpe with temporary cover. On 6 March newspapers reported Holmes's purchase of Scott's dossier from Gleadle, and a few days later David Steel discovered from Dinshaw, a personal friend, that £20,000 intended for the party had been diverted to Holmes and was unaccounted for. Steel told Thorpe that he should resign, but he refused. In an attempt to reassure his wavering parliamentary colleagues, on 14 March Thorpe made arrangements with The Sunday Times newspaper to publish a detailed rebuttal of Scott's charges, under the heading "The Lies of Norman Scott". Newton's trial took place at Exeter Crown Court from 16 to 19 March 1976, where Scott repeated his allegations against Thorpe despite the efforts of the prosecution's lawyers to steer him away. Newton was found guilty of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, but he did not incriminate Thorpe. Thorpe's difficulties increased when Bessell, fearing for his own position and perhaps scenting the possibility of making money, changed his stance and confessed in the Daily Mail on 6 May that he had lied to protect his former friend. A further concern for Thorpe was the danger that newspapers would publish letters he had sent to Scott early in their friendship. In an effort to forestall this, Thorpe arranged for the publication of two of the letters in The Sunday Times, a paper generally sympathetic towards him. In one of these letters Thorpe referred to Scott by the pet name "Bunnies". The tone of this letter convinced readers and commentators that Thorpe had not been frank about the nature of the relationship. On 10 May 1976 he resigned as Liberal leader amid rising criticism, again categorically denying Scott's allegations but acknowledging the damage that they were inflicting on the party. After Thorpe's resignation the relative lack of press attention to the story for 18 months disguised the extent to which investigative reporting continued. Barry Penrose and Roger Courtiour, collectively known as "Pencourt", had originally been hired by Wilson after his retirement, to investigate the former prime minister's theory that Thorpe was a target of South African intelligence agencies. Pencourt's investigations led them to Bessell, who gave them his account of a conspiracy to murder Scott, and Thorpe's role in it. Before they could publish, they were scooped; Newton, released from prison in October 1977, sold his story to the London Evening News. He said that he had been paid £5,000 to kill Scott, and provided photographs of him receiving payment from Le Mesurier. A lengthy police inquiry followed, at the end of which Thorpe, Holmes, Le Mesurier and Deakin were charged with conspiracy to murder. Thorpe was additionally charged with incitement to murder, on the basis of his 1969 meetings with Bessell and Holmes. After being released on bail, Thorpe declared: "I am totally innocent of this charge and will vigorously challenge it". On 2 August 1978 Thorpe participated in a House of Commons debate about the future of Rhodesia, but thereafter played no further active part in parliament, although he remained North Devon's member. At the Liberals' 1978 annual assembly in Southport, he embarrassed the leadership by making a theatrical entrance and taking his place on the platform. The "Bunnies" letter, February 1962: "Since my letters normally go to the House, yours arrived all by itself at my breakfast table at the Reform, and gave me tremendous pleasure. I cannot tell you just how happy I am to feel that you are really settling down ... you can always feel that whatever happens Jimmy and Mary are right behind you ... no more bloody clinics ... In haste. Bunnies can (and will) go to France. I miss you" - Extracts from a letter from Thorpe to Josiffe, February 1962. Committal and trial: The prosecution set out its case at the pre-trial committal hearing, which began in Minehead on 20 November 1978. At the request of Deakin's counsel, reporting restrictions were lifted, which meant that newspapers were free to print anything said in court without fear of the libel laws. This move infuriated Thorpe, who had hoped for an in camera hearing which would avoid unfortunate newspaper headlines and perhaps lead to the dismissal of the case. Whatever the outcome, Thorpe knew that the adverse publicity would destroy his career, and that Scott would thus have his revenge. As the hearings began, Bessell described the 1969 meetings where he alleged that Thorpe had suggested that Holmes should kill Scott, including the comment about the shooting of a sick dog. The court learned that Bessell had a contract with The Sunday Telegraph, which was paying him £50,000 for his story. Dinshaw gave evidence of the £20,000 he had received from Hayward and passed to Holmes, and of subsequent attempts by Thorpe to obscure the details of these transactions. Newton testified that Holmes had wanted Scott killed: "He would prefer it if Scott vanished from the face of the earth and was never seen again. It was left to me how to do it". Scott gave clinical details of his alleged seduction by Thorpe at Thorpe's mother's house in November 1961 and on other occasions, and also recounted his ordeal on the moors above Porlock Hill. Scott contended that homosexuality was an incurable disease, with which Thorpe had infected him, and that Thorpe therefore should be held responsible for Scott's lifelong care. At the end of the hearing the presiding magistrate committed the four defendants for trial at the Central Criminal Court, commonly known as the Old Bailey. In March 1979 the Labour government fell on a vote of no confidence, and a general election was called for 3 May. This led to a brief delay in the start of the trial as Thorpe, who still had a following among North Devon Liberals, was adopted as their candidate in the election. Largely isolated from his party's national campaign, he lost the seat to Conservative Antony Speller by over 8,000 votes. The trial began on 8 May, under Sir Joseph Cantley, a relatively obscure High Court judge with limited experience of high-profile cases. To conduct his defence Thorpe engaged George Carman, who had established a criminal law practice on the Northern Circuit in Manchester; this was his first high-profile national case. Carman undermined Bessell's credibility by revealing his financial interest in Thorpe's conviction: his newspaper contract provided that in the event of acquittal, only half the £50,000 would be paid. The judge left no doubt as to his own low opinion of Bessell's character; Auberon Waugh, who was writing a book on the trial, thought that Cantley's general attitude to other prosecution witnesses became increasingly one-sided. On 7 June Deakin testified that although he had put Newton in touch with Holmes, he had thought that this was to help someone to deal with a blackmailer—he knew nothing of a conspiracy to kill. Deakin was the only defendant to testify; the others all chose to remain silent and call no witnesses, believing that, based on the testimonies of Bessell, Scott and Newton, the prosecution had failed to make its case. During his closing speech on behalf of Thorpe, Carman raised the possibility that Holmes and others might have organised a conspiracy without Thorpe's knowledge. On 18 June the judge began his summing-up. He drew the jury's attention to the previous good character of the defendants, whom he characterised as "men of hitherto unblemished reputation." Cantley described Thorpe as "a national figure with a very distinguished public record". The judge was scathing about the principal witnesses: Bessell was a "humbug" whose contract with The Sunday Telegraph was "deplorable"; Scott was a fraud, a sponger, a whiner, a parasite—"but of course he could still be telling the truth. It is a question of belief." Newton was characterised as a perjurer and a chump, "determined to milk the case as hard as he can." The mystery surrounding the £20,000 that Thorpe had obtained from Hayward was dismissed as an irrelevance: "The fact that a man obtains money by deceit does not prove that the man was a member of a conspiracy." Waugh felt that the judge's lack of even-handedness could well provoke a counteraction against the accused from the jury. The summing-up became the subject of a scathing parody by the satirist Peter Cook. Acquittal and aftermath: The jury retired during the morning of 20 June. They returned just over two days later, and acquitted all four defendants on all charges. The judge awarded costs to Deakin, but not to Holmes or Le Mesurier who he thought had been insufficiently co-operative in the enquiry. Thorpe made no application for costs. In a brief public statement, he said that he considered the verdict as "totally fair, just and a complete vindication." David Steel, on behalf of the Liberal Party, welcomed the verdict as "a great relief", and hoped that Thorpe would, "after a suitable period of rest and recuperation ... find many avenues where his great talents may be used." In North Devon Thorpe's acquittal was celebrated with a thanksgiving service at which the presiding vicar, The Rev. John Hornby, gave thanks to God "for the ministry of His servant Jeremy ...The darkness is now past and the true light shines. This is the day the Lord hath made! Now is the day of our salvation!" Despite the acquittal, the broader public perception was strong that Thorpe had not behaved well, nor had he adequately explained himself. Ronald Herniman, the Archdeacon of Barnstaple, who was critical of Hornby's melodramatic thanksgiving service, wrote: "There is a great deal of unhappiness about the result at the Old Bailey. As far as most people are concerned, the trial ended with a big question mark over the case". Prevented by his party from a return to active politics, in 1982 Thorpe was appointed by Amnesty International as director of its British section, but after protests from the organisation's staff, he withdrew. Not long afterwards, Thorpe first showed signs of the Parkinson's disease that led to his almost complete withdrawal into private life in the mid-1980s. There was a political reconciliation when, in 1988, following the merger of the Liberals and the Social Democratic Party, the newly formed North Devon Liberal Democrat association made him their honorary president. When he attended the Liberal Democrat party conference in 1997 he received a standing ovation. In 1999, Thorpe published his political memoir, In My Own Time, in which he justified his silence at the trial, and stated that he had never doubted the outcome. Nine years later, in January 2008, Thorpe gave his first press interview in 25 years, to The Guardian. Referring to the affair he said: "If it happened now I think the public would be kinder. Back then they were very troubled by it ... It offended their set of values." Thorpe died on 4 December 2014. After the trial Le Mesurier kept a low profile, after unsuccessful attempts to sell "the real story" to national newspapers. In June 1981, in a series of articles printed in the News of the World, Holmes reasserted his allegation that Thorpe had asked him to kill Scott: "The incitement charge which Jeremy faced was true, and if I had gone into the witness box I'd have had to tell the truth." Holmes, who died in 1990, had previously admitted his participation in a conspiracy to "frighten" Scott, though not to kill him. Bessell's account of the affair was published in America in 1980. He died in 1985; his final years were devoted to a campaign to stop the erosion of the San Diego beaches in California. Newton, like Le Mesurier, attempted to cash in on the case, but failed to find a newspaper willing to print his story. Scott's comments on the affair, immediately after the trial verdict, were that he was unsurprised by the outcome, but was upset by the aspersions on his character made by the judge from the safety of the bench. In December 2014, Scott, then aged 74, was reported to have recently relocated from Devon to Ireland, although John Preston, in his 2016 account, places him "in a village on Dartmoor ... with seventy hens, three horses, a cat, a parrot, a canary, and five dogs." In a BBC investigative documentary broadcast in December 2014, an antique firearms collector named Dennis Meighan claimed that he had been hired by an unidentified senior Liberal to kill Scott, for a fee of £13,500. Having initially agreed, Meighan says, he changed his mind, but provided Newton with the gun used in the shooting. After confessing to the police, he was asked to sign a prepared statement which, according to him, "left everything out that was incriminating, but at the same time everything I said about the Liberal Party, Jeremy Thorpe, et cetera, was left out as well." The BBC's Tom Mangold said that Meighan's account, if true, indicated the existence of "a conspiracy at the very highest level". In 2016 the Avon and Somerset police passed their files to Gwent Police, for an independent review of the original investigation. After the police came to the conclusion that Andrew Newton had died, the Crown Prosecution Service closed the case. In 2018, Gwent Police reported that they had "now revisited these enquiries and have identified information which indicates that Newton may still be alive", therefore re-opening lines of inquiry. On 4 June 2018 the force announced that they had interviewed Newton, who had been living under a new name, Hann Redwin, in Dorking, Surrey, but that he had given no new useful information, and so the case would remain closed. Thorpe on the trial: All three principal prosecution witnesses had ... been destroyed in cross-examination, and the prosecution's case at its close was shot through with lies, inaccuracies and admissions to such an extent that the defence decided not to give evidence. To have done so would have prolonged the trial unnecessarily. - Jeremy Thorpe, In My Own Time In popular media: -At the 1979 Secret Policeman's Ball, in aid of Amnesty International, the biased summing up speech by Mr Justice Cantley was parodied by Peter Cook.[168] The sketch was written and delivered shortly after the trial, and was, according to Freeman and Penrose, "actually not that different from the original". The nine-minute opus, "Entirely a Matter for You", is considered to be one of the finest works of Cook's career. Cook and show producer Martin Lewis brought out an album on Virgin Records entitled Here Comes the Judge: Live of the live performance together with three studio tracks that further lampooned the Thorpe trial. -In 1997 Bloomsbury Publishing published Rinkagate: The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Thorpe by investigative journalist Barrie Penrose. The 2020 novel Beneath the Streets, by Adam MacQueen, is an alternate history version of 1976 where Rinka survived and Scott was killed. -In 2016, approximately a year and a half after Thorpe's death, Viking Press published A Very English Scandal, a true crime non-fiction novel about the affair by journalist John Preston. In May 2018, BBC One broadcast a three-part television miniseries adaptation of the book, written by Russell T Davies, likewise titled A Very English Scandal, directed by Stephen Frears and starring Hugh Grant as Thorpe and Ben Whishaw as Scott.

Disappearance of Dulce Maria Alavez

Dulce Maria Alavez (disappeared September 16, 2019) is an American child who vanished near a playground in Bridgeton, New Jersey and is believed to have been abducted. A reward has been offered for finding Alavez. Disappearance: On September 16, 2019, 5-year-old Dulce Maria Alavez and her brother were playing on the swings, while Alavez's pregnant mother was in her car, 30 yards away, playing a scratch-off lottery ticket and helping her (Alavez's mother's) younger sister with her homework. It was around 4 pm to 5 pm (ET) when Alavez suddenly vanished from the playground. Alavez's brother (by himself) returned to his mother's car, crying and unsure where his sister went. Search and aftermath: -Over 100 police officers were part of a search party who looked in the nearby woods, but found nothing. The suspect is described as a light-Hispanic male 5'6 to 5'8 and driving a red van. Police have no strong suspects as of February 11, 2020. -Dr. Phil and In Pursuit with John Walsh carried segments about the disappearance. -In February 2020 following leads, a search for Alavez was conducted in Austintown, Ohio. -As of December 2020, Alavez had not been found.

Nicholas Waggoner Browning

Nicholas Waggoner Browning is an American convicted mass murderer from Cockeysville, Maryland. He is currently serving two life sentences for murdering his parents, John and Tamara Browning; and his two younger brothers, Gregory, 13, and Benjamin, 11; in February 2008 when he was 15 years old. The murders were the subject of a documentary on Killer Kids titled "Spoiled Rotten and Bad Dream". Early life: Browning was born in Maryland on February 9, 1992. His father, John W. Browning, was a prominent local attorney, and his mother, Tamara, was a homemaker. He had two younger brothers, Benjamin and Gregory, was an honor student and boy scout who attended Dulaney High School in nearby Timonium, and played varsity golf and lacrosse and was a skier. Murders and confession: On the evening of February 1, 2008, a week before his 16th birthday, Browning went into his house after other family members were in bed and shot each of them using a gun belonging to his father. According to police reports, he confessed to the killings of his family on the following Sunday and was charged with four counts of first-degree murder. He was denied bail at a hearing later that day. Guilty plea and imprisonment: Under a plea agreement reached with prosecutors, Browning pleaded guilty in January 2009 to four counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to four life terms in prison with two life terms to be served consecutively. Browning may become eligible for parole in 2031 after serving 23 years of his sentence with good behavior. He is currently incarcerated at Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland, and was denied a sentence reduction in 2014.

Joe Metheny

Joseph Roy Metheny was an American murderer from the Baltimore, Maryland area who said that he was a serial killer and had killed up to 13 people. However, sufficient evidence was only found to convict him for two murders. His victims were heavily involved with alcohol and addictive hard drugs, as was Metheny himself, and the killings also involved brutal sexual assaults. Early life: Metheny's attorneys said that he had been neglected as a child, that his father was an alcoholic who was killed in a car accident when Metheny was six, and that his mother had neglected her six children while she worked double shifts outside the home. Metheny said that his parents often sent him to live with other families in "foster-like" arrangements. Metheny falsely claimed that his mother was dead. His mother said that they were somewhat poor and she had to work hard as a waitress, barmaid, and food truck driver, but she had provided her children with a normal family life, and the children had never gone hungry or been put into homes of other families as Metheny had claimed. She said that Metheny was an above-average student, always polite, and not mean as a child. She said that "he was smart and had a good childhood. If he was neglected, it was his own fault. It was a pretty good home." Metheny joined the United States Army when he turned 18 in 1973. His mother said that he had served in Germany, although he claimed that he had served a tour in Vietnam and had become addicted to heroin while in an artillery unit there. His mother said that she had no recollection of him serving in Vietnam, and the circumstances of his service were reported as unverified in press reports. American involvement in Vietnam had ended by that time. Metheny seldom contacted his mother after he joined the Army. She said, "He just kept drifting further and further away. I think the worst thing that ever happened to him was drugs. It's a sad, sad story." Murders and confessions: Metheny was ironically known as "Tiny" in the 1990s, as he was 6′1″ tall, large-framed, and overweight. He had been spending time in bars, living with bands of homeless men in makeshift camps in South Baltimore, and spending nearly all of his money on crack cocaine, heroin, and liquor. However, he held a steady job as a forklift driver and was universally described as intelligent, well-spoken, and very well-mannered. Metheny murdered Cathy Ann Magaziner in 1994, a 39-year-old woman who had been convicted for prostitution, and buried her body in a shallow grave on the site of the factory where he worked. The body remained there for more than two years. He later said that he had strangled her and that he dug up her skeleton six months later, put her head in a box, and threw it in the trash. Metheny was tried for murder in a different case in 1995 for allegedly killing Randall Brewer and Randy Piker with an axe at a homeless "tent city" campsite under Baltimore's Hanover Street Bridge. There had been disputes involving rival groups of homeless men, and Larry Amos stole the murder weapon and used it to kill Everett Dowell, another homeless man. The bodies were discovered on August 2, 1995, the same day that Dowell was killed. Amos was arrested and accused of first-degree murder and pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter; he was released after serving one year and nine months of an eight-year sentence. A jury concluded in July 1996 that there was insufficient evidence to convict Metheny of murdering Brewer and Piker, but he later said that he was guilty of those murders. Metheny killed Kimberly Lynn Spicer in mid-November 1996 by stabbing her with a knife. He kidnapped Rita Kemper on December 8, 1996 and attempted to rape her. According to prosecutors, he shared drugs with Kemper in the trailer where he was living at the pallet factory site. She refused to have sex with him and ran out of the trailer, so he chased her, beat her, dragged her back into the trailer, and then pulled down her pants and attempted to rape her. Kemper said he had attempted to murder her, saying: "I'm going to kill you and bury you in the woods with the other girls." She escaped through a window of the trailer and fled to police officers in the area. Metheny then asked a friend to help him bury the body of Spicer which he had been hiding at the factory site since killing her a month earlier. The friend reported it to the police on December 15, 1996, and Metheny was arrested and charged with her murder the same day. The owner of the business was arrested with Metheny as they left a Christmas party and was charged as an accessory after the fact for allegedly disposing of evidence. Metheny began confessing to other murders, as well as that of Spicer. He led police to the shallow grave where he had reburied Magaziner's decapitated remains. Much of the skull was missing, but the police were able to identify Magaziner from dental records. Police said that he had chosen young white sex workers who were addicted to heroin and cocaine. The killings also involved brutal sexual assaults. He was indicted for killing Toni Lynn Ingrassia, age 28, but those charges were later dropped for lack of evidence. He claimed to have also killed three other prostitutes along Washington Boulevard in Baltimore, although there was no evidence of most of those crimes other than his confession. He said that he had thrown bodies in the Patapsco River and they had never been found. The Baltimore Sun newspaper reported in 1997 that it was not clear how truthful his claims were about how many people he had killed, although he said that he had killed up to 10 people. His attorney said that he was remorseful and that drugs and alcohol had changed his personality and made him violent. Sentencing: He was tried in 1997 in the Kemper case and given a sentence of 50 years for kidnapping and attempted sexual assault. He was acquitted of attempting to murder her. He was sentenced to death in 1998 for the murder of Spicer. At his sentencing hearing, he said that he committed murders because he "enjoyed it", he "got a rush out of it, got a high out of it" and "had no real excuse why other than I like to do it". In August 1998, he pleaded guilty to murdering and robbing Magaziner, and prosecutors sought the death penalty in that case, as well. He received a sentence of life in prison in that case. His death sentence was overturned in 2000, and the sentence for the murder of Spicer was reduced to life without parole. The rationale for the death penalty was that the murder had been committed in committing a robbery, but the evidence indicated that robbery was not his motivation. Death: He was found dead in his prison cell at the Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland, on August 5, 2017, at the age of 62.

Reading

A couple weeks ago I'd gotten the opportunity to get a new book. I love reading criminal justice stuff. My family know I'm a criminal justice major so they know I like reading that kinda thing. My brother is sick of me reading the same thing over and over again. It's another reason to read a new book. Plus, its on a case I've never heard of.

Puzzles

Once back in the spring a lady from my church who lives down the road from me brought me puzzles. I'd bumped into her on the way to my house. She was going to leave them in my mailbox if she'd not bumped into me on the way to my house. That was super sweet of her. It was early days of the pandemic. We likely didn't know how long it would last.

Cutting down on peanut butter

While eating peanut butter is still a part of my diet eating that kinda thing in as much as I'd had been a couple weeks ago isn't as much. I still love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They're great vegan protein and something to look forward to on the weekend. When I'd gone vegetarian, I'd also occasionally eat vegan food too. Peanut butter and Jelly was a good vegan thing to eat.

Game night

Once when my mom went outta state I'd decided I'd had some free time and I wasn't doing homework or whatever I'm like ok I'll go to game night. I'd seen a bunch of my friends and we'd caught up. They'd been a little concerned about my brothers food poisoning. I'd assured them my brothers was ok. I'd chatted with my friends and a guy challenged me to a dance off. After the spiritual thought left. The next day mom said, "how was game night?" I was jolted out of my lie down and asked, "how'd you know about game night?" She'd seen the email saying what I was doing.

Eat a ton of meat

When I went vegetarian for a month I noticed how much meat my family eats. I eat a good portion of that as well but I try eating vegetarian and vegan to some degree. I still like things like meat and other animal products but sometimes I need vegetables. My dad and brother needed help digesting the soul food mac and cheese served at thanksgiving last November. We ate very well but its kinda hard to do so if you can't eat it.

Leg issues

I've always had some sort of leg issues. My legs are uneven (1 us flat and 1 isn't). I've used dancing to other types of workouts to help with said issues. My legs hurt a lot but they're still my natural legs and I've not had any major surgery on them. Dancing helps strengthening my body including my legs. I've had more than my fair share of leg injuries. They are still here.

Dancing to tone up

I'm doing some dancing to tone up my body. It's something I've done from time to time. Mom also uses dancing to gage how well I am energy wise. When I was injured I could only do it a short while before getting out of energy. That's bad but luckily as I've gotten better and in less pain I've gotten back into dancing and I am able to go longer and stronger. It also helps I am on medication that helps with a side effect of back issues.

Bored

I'm kinda getting bored of the criminal justice and scary video genre. Possibly as I'm getting thru most of them I'm seeing them for the 7th time. As much as I like that sorta thing especially when I'm doing heat therapy I'm bored of it. It is a good thing to watch while walking but I'm not out walking every day. I love that especially since I'm a criminal justice major but I'm getting bored of them. Luckily, I've got some books I can read.

Scoliosis corrections

After my accidents I took a yoga class that seemed to make my mild scoliosis even more mild. It's still there but if I'd had an X-ray now it would be so mild you might not even notice it. Another thing is I got an inch and a half taller, which might not seem like a lot but for someone barely over 5 feet tall 1.5 inches is huge. That's the good thing about my back getting corrected. The bad thing is all my clothes fit different. Mom says it's weight, which DOES play a part but it's mostly gas and loose skin.

Didn't realize

I have a brother who doesn't realize things. Things like the definition of certain words, when things are going to happen or that certain things run in families. He's not dumb just doesn't realize certain things. Things just go in 1 ear out the other in certain people like my brother.

Scoliosis accidents

I've mentioned my scoliosis accidents before. I was in total agony. I could barely function without pain killers. It sucked. Luckily, I was able to get it under control to some degree. If you're in pain, I don't blame you. I'd needed a doctor's appointment for my mom to realize I was in agony. It took her a while to realize how much pain I was in. I can't speak for everyone but for me a high fiber diet mixed with a ton of fluids helped. If you're like me and needing to watch your weight vegan food can help. I'm also dehydrated and extra fluids help with accident recovery. While it's what's right for me.

Too much peanut butter

Mom's been buying me WAY too much peanut butter. I ate a ton of it when I went vegetarian for a month but now I'm kinda sick of it. Trust me, it's a good thing to have for a snack like on veggies, homemade sandwich crackers, to add to sandwiches and French toast and on toast and oatmeal but you can have too much. It's a great vegan protein which I needed during a month of vegetarian/vegan. Mom's awesome with that since she's also trying to watch her weight.

Fashion gene

In my family we have a "fashion gene". It's not a real gene but it's real in the sense mom isn't fashionable but 3 of the kids are. We've got 1 where it "skipped" sort of. Our dad has it and maternal aunt has it but mom doesn't so that's why it "skipped". We joke who has it and who doesn't. Our family isn't 100% style conscious but we've got stuff we can work with.

Brushing my hair

I've got super long hair. It's a hassle to take care of. While I've got to take care of it brushing it isn't at the top of my list. Sometimes I'll brush it but often I'm so tired I won't. Mom's happy I've got longer hair. She frequently calls it pretty. When I brush it it'll come out curly. That's partially why its hard to remember to take care of it. I often don't get a ton of haircuts. Sometimes I'll get it cut every couple of months other times it'll be 18 months before I get a haircut. now it's long and I can still have it over my shoulder even in a ponytail.

Shamrock shake and mcflurry

last year my family drunk way too many Shamrock shakes. up until a few years ago I'd always wanted 1 but never got 1. at first they're ok now we're totally addicted to them. last year during the pandemic shutdown we'd had way too many. now we have them a bunch when we can. They're awesome. today I had a shamrock mcflurry. they're awesome. I love shamrock stuff. pretty sure I'd had 1 when I met a girl I'd play with at a daycare I used to volunteer at.

Tofu curry

I love Indian food. Strangely so does my family for the most part. When I'd begged to go somewhere I wanted to go to for my birthday my family fell in love with it too. Something I should be aware of as I'm a sort of vegetarian is the Tofu curry. I've never made something like that so maybe that's something I'll do. Mom's always pushing me to try that sorta thing.

Crazy day

I had a crazy day yesterday running from place to place. It wasn't fun and I was tired. Luckily I'd got stuff done so while it was crazy I'm done. Least I got them done and I can take it easy now