Century City Stabbing Murder Investigation Takes A Sudden Turn

Century City, CA --The L.A. Times is reporting that the FBI is involved in an investigation of James and Pamela Fayed's gold trading business. The investigation was underway at the time of Pamela Fayed’s murder.

In high octane divorces such as Fayed’s criminal accusations by one spouse against the other are common. My obvious thought’s go to a really nasty betrayal giving rise to an incredibly volatile motive for murder.

James Fayed has retained Los Angeles Criminal lawyer Mark J Werksman and it's safe to say Fayed is no longer answering any questions posed by law enforcement.

If there is the slightest amount of probable cause for criminal fraud you can count on law enforcement pulling that trigger and arresting James Fayed just to lift his passport if for no other reason pending any trial. Let me go out on a limb and predict that a quick arrest unrelated to murder is in the cards.

Updated! Click here for the very latest information on this investigation

Here’s what the L.A. Times has to say.

Trial Number Two For Phil Spector May Have Only Limited TV Coverage

Los Angeles, CA.—This time it will all be a lot different. The second murder trial of Phil Spector may not be continually broadcast. Court TV is no longer covering high profile trials under their new direction and name, Tru-TV. Other TV news outlets are very unlikely to provide full-time trial broadcast crews.

One reason is local and national news directors feel the public does not really care about these high profile trials. Another reason is the budgets for such coverage no longer exist since TV viewers have fled the medium in droves.

Court TV provided a cheap Internet Feed of the first trial to KTLA-TV and KNBC-TV. With the help of a streaming video broadcast both KTLA -TV and KNBC-TV were able cover the entire trial on their websites. The KTLA-TV effort was anchored by veteran reporter Marta Waller and various lawyers used co-anchors. KTLA-TV also ran a Court TV style Internet forum that became more of a gossip outlet for those who hated Phil Spector.

Over all KTLA-TV and Marta Waller did a much better job of covering the trial than KNBC-TV or Court TV.

It’s almost certain that there will be only limited trial coverage of the second trial for regular news broadcasts. There will be sporadic coverage throughout the trial and of course closing arguments and the verdict.

I think the best we can hope for is that the news outlets may send bloggers to give a running blow by blow description of the trial for their Internet sites. The result will be few pictures and video.

There seems to be some TV interest in having bloggers favoring both the defense and prosecution side to give their impressions of the trial to a TV audience.

Pamela Goudie Fayed, Century City Mall Area Murder Mystery

Century City, CA—Pamela Goudie Fayed, 44 of Camarillo in Ventura County was stabbed to death Monday evening in an nearby parking structure of the Century City Mall. Witnesses heard the victim’s blood-chilling loud screams that echoed throughout the mall until her last breath.

Century City Mall area is a place where crime is the exclusive province of some upscale shoplifters and a few dishonest store employees. This is as safe a place as can be found around any trendy mall. These types of crimes are unheard of where the high fashion ladies spend huge amounts of money so they dress and look wonderful.

I can’t help but wonder what Fayed needed for that extraordinary look for a special event in her second coming as a divorcee? The mother of two children was there for a reason. Maybe she was there for something more mundane. She was at a building located at at 1875 Century Park East, that houses officers for lawyers, accountants, movie producers and others. Perhaps Fayed was there to take care of her many business ventures. By now police know this answer for sure.

Who was the killer? Witnesses reported seeing a man fleeing inside a red SUV. It’s difficult for anyone to remain inconspicuous in any red vehicle. I think the red vehicle is a red herring perhaps driven by someone afraid of being victimized like Fayed.

Was this a professional hit or the personal act by her killer? That’s just what police are asking. With today’s motion pictures even amateur killers can do a somewhat professional job. CSI and Law and Order always reveal the latest ways police locate evidence and solve crimes.

Police have all but ruled out robbery and are focusing in on that old story of the high end nasty divorce gone wrong.

The widower, 45 year-old James Fayed’s life is about to change over the killing of his wife and it may be far more then he may be able to stand. Together the couple owned Goldfinger Coin and Bullion Sales and a second Internet business, e-Bullion.

Fayed is related to the owner of Harrod's Department Store In London, UK.

The couple was in court having a difficult time equitably dividing tens of millions of dollars in assets. The money involved is an obvious motive for murder.

There is no time like the present for the hapless widower to be unavailable to police and the LAPD interrogation confessional as he follows the advice by a great criminal lawyer. The widower’s troubled brother, Anthony Fayed had his own bad blood with the murdered victim and he too will need a lawyer of his own.

Both men will need a top notch defense investigator to uncover the woman’s activities and to find others she may have had conflicts with.

I strongly suspect that Pamela Fayed’s Killer also knew where and why she was visiting the Century City Mall. I’d hope the LAPD has examined her car, home and computer for surveillance GPS equipment, keystroke collection programs and bugging equipment. This stuff is frequently employed by spouses trying to gain advantage in divorce proceedings.

The family of Pamela Fayed may well need their own private investigator to do a little fact checking and some things the LAPD can’t or won’t do in pursuit of a solution to this troubling case.

I believe that the widower has the ability to return to or settle in a country that may not honor extradition. This is a case that may well provide major roadblocks and landmines that will inhibit those normal solutions.

Police have not formally announced either a suspect or person of interest in this crime.

Stayed tuned folks this will be yet another case waiting to be tried by media gossip long before the facts are discussed in any courtroom.

Updated! Click here for the very latest information on this investigation

Drew Peterson Gun Charge Dismissal Effort Nixed By Will County Judge

Joliet, IL--In a ruling handed down this morning by Will County, Circuit Court Judge Richard Schoenstedt he refused to dismiss a felony Indictment against retired Bolingbrook police sergeant Drew Peterson for, Unlawful Use of a Weapon.

The issue is the length of the barrel on Peterson’s Colt, AR-15 rifle he used in connection with duty on the department’s SWAT Team. The Illinois State Police claimed the barrel was 3/8 on an inch too short of the required 16 inches for civilian ownership. Apparently the judge did not agree with defense lawyer Joel Brodsky’s position that a federal law in fact allowed such possession.

The ruling came after a motion made last month by Peterson’s lawyer to dismiss the allegation based on a federal law that allows such weapons to be in possession of police officers.

Now this case moves into the discovery phase and it’s expected that the defense will seek to have Peterson’s rifle examined and measured by a firearms expert. I have repeatedly reported that it’s really unlikely that the barrel is 3/8” too short. Nobody would go to the trouble of cutting that small amount of steel and re-machine the threading. There is no possible benefit to the owner of such a weapon.

Judge Schoenstedt set a pretrial hearing on this matter for August 28.

It seems clear that the judge avoided making a final dettermination and is simply allowing the case to move forward. It looks like the defense request in not by any means dead.

Here is the Judges ruling:

LEOSA Opinion[1] - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: LEOSA Opinion[1]

L.A. Government Is The Ultimate Nanny

Los Angeles--The L.A. City Council has stepped in to control the diet and nutritional choices for residents of certain poor neighborhoods. The council was concerned about obesity and all those diseases that are enabled through poor nutrition. Yesterday, they banned new fast food restaurants in or near poor neighborhoods.

I’m trying to figure out why only folks in the poor neighborhoods are worthy of having the food police? Perhaps the concerned folks on the City Council could bring more laws that would mandate good table manners and brushing teeth after every meal while they’re at it.

What makes politicians believe they must interfere with absolutely every aspect of our lives? Where in the Constitution did they suggest America’s free enterprise needed to be strangled by red tape, regulations and outright bans?

With the unlimited lawmaking ability of city councils, county, state and state federal government we will soon have killed every tree in America to make enough law books. Is this really what our founding fathers wanted?

Rock And Roll Without Music---EARTHQUAKE!!!

Los Angeles 11:42 AM.–Being in a multiple story building while the building begins shaking is unsettling. I’m always prepared for any emergency but felt foolish that I was wasting time looking for my wallet, keys, cell phone and gun so I could escape a potential disaster. Quick! I need my laptop and cameras! There’s no time! Had this been a big one I was toast and knew it.

The building went up and down numerous times before it began to rock back and forth. It seemed like little more than 2 minutes but soon the quake slowed down and stopped and that gave me hope.

I also knew the odds were slim that this was going to hit really big. After a deep breath and a quick phone call I went outside and saw the wide smiles of people, mostly UCLA students that were glad to be alive and not dealing with property damage.

At this time we all seem safe and things are getting back to normal. I can’t help but wonder how they weathered this quake at the downtown L.A. pre-trial hearing of record producer, Phil Spector that was most certainly going on during the quake. Now that hearing and results will be a small news story being pushed aside for our seismic excitement. I know from my contact there that the trial has been pushed back until early October and most serious defense motions have yet to be ruled on. I don’t think that new date is set in stone either.

Just when you think you’re in control of your world Mother Nature and God can send you a message.

Update: The quake did not strike until the Spector hearing was over and he was out of the building. I thank my kind source for that tidbit.

Our Birthright, The Fifth Amendment

We in America were protected by our brilliant founding fathers better than most will ever realize. We have a Bill of Rights that most folks don’t really know about or think are only protections for serial killers.

A regular visitor to this blog was just sworn in as a citizen. He is a refugee from the United Kingdom. He sought citizenship because he admired our freedom that exists in few countries on this planet. He sent me a link to a Tucson, AZ blog link, Disloyal Opposition.

I got a lot of questions as a firearm instructor about cooperating with police after someone justifiably shoots another in self-defense. I put an entire half-hour into my presentation to cover this subject. I always get lots of argument about my instructions to students about the four words I tell them to say, “I want a lawyer.”

The emotionally charged critics of my advice tell me, “No! Tell the cops you shot him because you were in fear of your life!” Confession to the police that it was you who shot that man may be good for your soul, but too often for the police it’s a rock solid confession. The cops are not psychic and until you told them they could only guess who shot who.

These critics of my advice to stay silent quickly counter with, “You have to trust the police!” Then I hear another familiar refrain, “If you got nothing to hide you can talk to the police!”

Most prosecutors in big cities hate gun-rights and self-defense and will enjoy putting you on trial for your life for killing even the most vicious criminal. To avoid being jailed for one to three years and being bankrupted you really have no choice but to shut up.

That jail time and monetary loss will happen even if you’re found Not Guilty! I have seen many of my clients walk out of jail after an ordeal like that destitute with their family shattered by divorce and a dark future. Your life will have changed.

Don’t take my word for it but that of a really dynamic speaker, Professor James Duane of the Regent University School of Law.

When you finish Professor Duane’s video it’s time to watch a long time police investigator George Bruch of the Virginia Beach Police Department explain the reality of Professor Duane's message.


Unfortunately the good professor and detective left an incredibly important point out of their presentations. Anything you say to anyone other than a spouse, physician or lawyer can also be used against you.

Parents, children, siblings, friends, co-workers and cell-mates will be subpoenaed to testify about those things you may have told them. It gets to be fun for prosecutors when your own loved ones try to help you by exaggerating or mistakenly repeating whatever you may have said to them in front of a jury.

Don’t talk to police or anyone but your lawyer about anything at all while you’re under investigation.

The “N” Word And Other Insults

We Americans are so candyassed and super-sensitive about such terms as Nigger, Kike, Slope, Wop, Spick, Polack and Mick.

You can call people the most vile of insulting names and nobody cares until race is involved. The question I have is who is more ignorant, the person using the words or those reacting or more often over-reacting to them.

I’m not sure why that too many African-Americans use the ‘N” word on each other but absolutely go bananas when they hear that word said by members of other races.

Fighting words? Hardly, just pure and simple bad taste. Civilized folks avoid those words. These are only words and we give these words and those who use them raw power they don’t deserve.

If people would stop programming themselves to be offended and remember the, Sticks and Stones” rhyme instead the nasty racial epithets those ugly words would soon disappear.

Am I For Or Against Drew Peterson?

Los Angeles—Yes, I do serious criminal defense investigations along with other endeavors. When I’m retained to work on a defendant’s behalf I’m on the side of exploiting reasonable doubt and mitigating despicable acts that people do. I prefer the matters where a client is innocent any day and there are an abundance of them to handle.

If I’m retained on a criminal case I cannot also blog about it. No defense lawyer would allow that and when it was discovered any judge would impose one of those rare gag orders. The defense attorneys would be very unhappy about that.

As for those high profile criminal cases I showcase here are for the most part matters where reasonable doubt and serious questions of innocence are very real.

Private investigators like me exist for one simple reason; people lie and do so freely even while under oath in courtrooms. That includes government witnesses and people designated by police as victims. Our job is to learn the truth for our clients so it can be exposed to civil and criminal juries.

Whose side am I on when I write about retired police sergeant Drew Peterson or record producer Phil Spector? That’s an easy answer. I’m on the side of the presumption of innocence, Due Process and fair trials. That in no way makes me a political Liberal. I subscribe to the concept that it’s better that we let a dozen killers go free rather than destroy the life of one innocent person.

Every day in America, prosecutors have been getting more frightening laws passed that make convicting innocents easier. They are done under the bogus disguise of “Victim’s Rights”. Closer examination reveals there is little for victims but sneaky ways to admit hearsay evidence or to inhibit or prevent solid defense investigations.

Victims and witnesses have no stake in the outcome of criminal trials. The accused have their entire lives on the line even if they face only a few years behind bars.

Criminal trials are held for only three reasons. One is the defendant is innocent and demands his day in court or two, that the state has a really week case. The third is where the prosecution has demanded the maximum penalty such as death or life without parole and the defendant has nothing to lose by making the government prove their case at a trial.

Most criminal cases are settled in plea agreements with the defendants getting a bargain in the process. Criminals could shut down the whole system in a single day by all demanding a trial in unison. The entire system would collapse and never recover.

I’m on the side of Freedom where the Secret Police can’t just arrest people and make them disappear. I’m on the side of Liberty where we don’t punish everyone for the criminal acts of a few.

Many people would rather hold trials by gossip. Whoever screams the loudest or puts on the best show wins. That worked for the Taliban but it won’t work for me. I refuse to apologize for my support of our entire Bill of Rights.

Len Wawczak Responds to Crimefile News

Bollingbrook, IL--I received a comment from one of the Illinois State Police self described informants, Len Wawczak. Wawczak claimed that he and his wife used Illinois State Police eavesdropping equipment during a seven month period to somehow implicate, retired Bolingbrook police sergeant Drew Peterson in the mysterious disappearance of his fourth wife Stacy Peterson.

For obvious reasons I can’t reprint his remarks for the libelous statements and gratuitous profanity contained in the response.

Here is an excerpt from his comment where Wawczak defends his Bankruptcy with an explanation that is in no way supported in the official court records.

Here is the excerpt:
“I would like to talk about the bankruptcy for a few though , if anyone knows anything about filing bankruptcy then you would know that my case was filed May 11th 2004 and dismissed July 14th 2004 ( 2 months later ) that's not even long enough to do a chapter 13 which by the way is a pay-back plan ( so I had plans on paying everyone back ) and not chapter 7 where the creditors get nothing . At any rate the case was DISMISSED two months later because I had worked out a deal with the creditors on my own and seen no reason for me to pay a court appointed trustee extra money every month to do what I could do on my own . The reason I was so in debt is because my mother had come to live with me and she was very sick ( I didn't want to send her to a nursing home , the thought of that made me feel horrible ), we had home hospice coming in a few times a week and her doctors worked with us as well . We took care of my mother in my home for years and as you all know insurance company's don't pay everything, so between that and my mothers prescriptions it just ate me up money wise ( money in the bank - gone - refinanced the house 2 times , etc ) will I deny that I filed bankruptcy 1 time ? No I wont , I chose to do the right thing which was take care of my mother in her last stages of life so if this makes me a terrible person then I guess I am .”

Here are additional documents that should set the record and Mr. Wawczak’s personal credibility straight.

bk motion and order] - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: bk motion and order]

Why Victimize Drew Peterson’s Innocent Children?

I have wondered what it would be like for Drew Peterson’s Children to be caught in the middle of the investigation and search for Stacy Peterson. I think we can all agree that no child deserves punishment for what their parents are merely suspected of doing. With respect to Peterson’s children the government ‘s conduct must be reigned in somehow.

I personally take no position on the guilt or innocence of Drew Peterson for any crime. America’s presumption of innocence is something that I’m thankful about. It’s the hallmark of a free country along with free speech and the right to keep and bear arms.

If police can establish a crime and probable cause to make an arrest that is their mission that we all must respect. A suspect’s Due Process rights to a fair trial will follow. Proven guilt will be punished under our justice system.

During an interview with Peterson's lawyer, Joel Brodsky he expressed concerns about continuing police conduct and the emotional damage that's being inflicted on the children. Brodsky wrote his own appeal for for Peterson’s children and I have his permission to publish it.

broadsky letter - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: broadsky letter

Breaking News! Drew Peterson Attacked BY Police Informant!

Click on scene picture to enlarge.
Bolingbrook, IL.—Self -described Illinois State Police informant, Len Wawczak is in custody of Bolingbrook police after he was arrested for battery on Drew Peterson outside the Hydrogliphics barber shop on Schmidt Rd in Bolingbrook just walking distance from Peterson’s home, The attacked happened shortly before 2:00 PM.

Witnesses claimed to have seen the "wired" informant attack Peterson while Peterson's back was turned. Reportedly neither Peterson nor his attacker required emergency medical treatment. Wawczak should be eligible for release on the standard $1000.00 bail after he completes the booking process and his fingerprint clears a standard warrant check.

Update: Bolingbrok police have asked the Will County State'sAttorney for approval of felony charges. If they are approved the bail must be set by a judge in Joliet before Wawczak can be released.

Second update: Bollingbrook police have infact charged Wawczak with a single count of misdemeanor battery on the signed complaint of Drew Peterson. Peterson has left the Bolingbrook police stattion. After processing Wawczak may post his bail if he has the dough.