The defense is winding down and famed forensic expert Henry Lee is in China and beyond the reach of a court subpoena. The defense requested to have Dr. Lee’s earlier testimony given out of presence of the jury to be read to the jury. Judge Fidler ruled against the defense request simply because the defense did not bother to serve their witness with the subpona. I somehow suspect we’ve heard the last of Dr. Lee’s testimony. We still may see the jury’s possible field visit to Spector’s castle. There will be some testimony about Lana Clarkson’s computer data. I suspect that Arizona firearms examiner, Lucian c. “Luke Haag will be not now be called. No defense lawyer in his right mind will put Phil Spector on the witness stand. There is no reason for Spector to say anything at all. Was this a tactical defense plan to derail the prosecution’s rebuttal case? It looks like there will be no additional witness baring something after the prosecution’s rebuttal that’s expected to take thr...

He was dubbed the, “Lipstick Killer” who was apprehended while armed with a .25 automatic as he allegedly tried to kill a Chicago cop responding to a routine burglary call. 1946 was not a good year for prisoner’s civil rights in the Windy City. Interrogation rooms were simply confessionals. Police tactics were legendary and make brutality claims of the last three decades pale by comparison. He was an exceptionally bright 17 year-old student and part-time burglar from the prestigious University of Chicago. The crimes committed were in the Rogers Park neighborhood. A lot of burglaries and three brutal murders were pinned on the young suspect. The most notorious of the murders was that of six-year old Suzanne Degnan who’s dismembered body parts were retrieved from various catch basins. Lipstick was used by the killer to scrawl the ominous message on one victim, Frances Brown's living room wall, "For heavens sake, catch me before I kill more I cannot control myself." William...

Left to Right: Jim Cox, Scott Bowerbank, Craig Smith and Rick Krolak When you work with fine people you are never prepared to see any of them vanish from your life in an instant. That’s exactly what happened today in Phoenix, Arizona. My friend, Jim Cox of more than 15 years was killed covering a car chase in Central Phoenix as a video-journalist for KTVK-TV. Cox along with pilot Scott Bowerbank were killed as was KNXV-TV's Craig Smith and Rick Krolak when their two news choppers collided in mid air. All of these fine men had one thing in common, they chose to be where the action was and died doing what they loved best. Their names are now added to a long list of people killed bringing their fellow Americans the news.

I’m very sad to report that retired Chicago Police Sergeant and Rangemaster Roy “Swanny” Swanson has passed away at 85 years of age. Swanny was a Chicago Park District patrolman before that agency merged with the Chicago Police Department. One night while on patrol Swanny had a terrible accident when he ran over a vagrant sleeping in the park. There was an inquiry and Swanny who had superior shooting skills was temporarily assigned to non-driving duties. So it was by accident Swamny was sent to the firing range where the department soon learned that Swanny had a gift for teaching firearm skills to both recruits and veteran cops alike. For the rest of his career with the Chicago Police Department Swanny was exposed to the foul target range air and lead poisoning as he saved lives of cops and the civilians they protect. The thousands of officers he trained and helped bring home safe every night will remember Rangemaster Roy Swanson. Swanny will also be remembered for his gruff voice a...

Few people in the world like pedophiles. These perverted folks steal the innocence of children whenever and wherever they can. Crimes against children are serious and those offenders need to be identified and prosecuted. NBC has brought their own agenda to the table and that is bringing in the cash to keep failing TV news afloat and investor’s pockets full. The Internet based pedophile sting was discovered by TV as a cheap way to attract the voyeuristic viewers that like watching incredibly stupid men destroy themselves and their families. Dateline Correspondent Chris Hansen expertly draws the hapless fools into the most embarrassing and incriminating conversations they will ever have in their twisted lives. Of course the stings are contrived and no children are involved, but for an illusion in the minds of those men finding themselves curious about or attracted to sex with kids. Dateline uses adults surfing sexually charged chatrooms pretending to be young teenagers who lure the...

You can see it in the happy faces of D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and the head of his Gun Gestapo, Chief Cathy Lanier. They lost their ability to ban the law-abiding folks in Washington D.C. from owning handguns. The days of cops kicking down doors because someone dare keep a handgun for self-defense in this city are over. Last March, a three judge federal appeals court panel overturned the D.C. handgun ban holding that the 30 year-old prohibition was unconstitutional. Efforts to get the entire appellate court to hear the case en banc failed. Now time is running out on the stay granted pending appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Rather than roll over, these gun-rights haters have asked the nation’s highest court to declare the Second Amendment as only a right for various government forces to keep and bear arms and not the people. Government always had the right to keep arms without the Second Amendment making that argument absurd. The last time the Supreme Court spoke about the Second Ame...

Irene Elizabeth Laughlin has the unusual alias of “Punkin Pie” She was Lana Clarkson’s very best Friend until her tragic apparent suicide at record producer Phil Spector’s home four years ago. Laughlin was called to testify as a defense witness to shed light on Clarkson’s state of mind before her death. Clarkson confided her hopes, dreams and failures, for years along with suicidal thoughts to Laughlin during the period just before her life ended. Laughlin has a heavy burden to deal with, and that's the guilt of perhaps not having done enough to see that Clarkson got help from mental health professionals and instead tried to cheer up her profoundly depressed friend herself. That obviously did not work and Clarkson died. Laughlin’s testimony also revealed that the Clarkson family lawyer and others essentially tampered with a witness (Laughlin) in a criminal investigation by telling Laughlin to withhold information about Clarkson’s suicidal thoughts. That may have been what caused...

I have always hated injustice and have railed that reasonable doubt must rule in every criminal case. I’ve been abused by my own friends for accepting the O.J. Simpson verdict and often demanding that we error on the side of letting the guilty go free rather than convict the innocent. Our criminal justice system must be fair or we will have a police state rather than a free country in which to live and raise our families. Remember Adolph Hitler had his own judges too. People become instant converts to my way of thinking when the unthinkable happens, and they get accused of a crime when they’ve done nothing wrong. On October 8th 2005, Chicago police officer Michael Mette of the Fillmore District was attacked by a Dubuque college student, 20-year-old Jake Gothard while attending a birthday celebration at his brother’s home. Before it was over this week, officer Mette was arrested, prosecuted, convicted and now faces a mandatory five-year Iowa prison term. I...

Chicago’s WMAQ-TV fired an enterprising investigative reporter for crossing those vague and ambiguous journalist's lines in pursuit of a story. TV stations want the ratings for their very survival and sometimes put incredible pressure on reporters to come back with real news. A salacious and big story in the Chicago area is that of missing Plainfield women, Lisa Stebic, a mother of two. Plainfield police zeroed in on the “usual suspect”, Craig Stebic the estranged soon to be divorced husband of the woman. Police just don’t have either probable cause to arrest anyone or the body of the missing woman, yet. There’s little doubt that this is a sensational tale of domestic intrigue and murder. These cases are broken through the words and behavior of the suspects. Keeping your target nervous and talking nearly always does the trick. Sooner or later they get caught in lies or simply spill their guts. Apparently Jacobson knew this and wanted to break the case herself and also slau...

Former Spector defense lawyer Sara Caplan failed to give prosecutors their phantom fingernail fragment evidence they’d counted heavily on to make their case. Prosecutors, Pat Dixon and Alan Jackson somehow invented a theory that Lana Clarkson put up a fight with Phil Spector and had a small portion of her acrylic fingernail shot off during the shooting. Sara Caplan revealed that Dr. Henry Lee, a forensics expert picked up a unknown white object off the floor hours after the cops turned over Spector’s home to his legal defense team. Had Dr. Lee found any items of relevant physical evidence he’d have been required to turn it over to police or prosecutors. Dixon and Jackson claimed that any fingernail fragment somehow contained bullet wipe. Prosecutors claimed that this would prove Spector murdered Clarkson. Today that theory was more like butt wipe than bullet wipe. Sara Caplan was asked for the first time for the size of that item and she said it was about the size of her finge...

The murder trial of record producer, Phil Spector has turned into a predictable mess that has little to do about the death of Lana Clarkson or actual evidence that she was murdered or that Phil Spector is a killer. Judge Larry Paul Fiddler let in everything including the kitchen sink to influence the jury exactly as the evidence starved prosecutors wanted to the absolutely prejudice of the accused. That as prosecutors, Pat Dixon and Alan Jackson spend every waking moment trashing the defendant’s character in every possible way. When prosecutors don’t have a case for murder, they can win by making the jury hate the defendant and pity the dead woman. Adding to the circus is the defense team headed by the judicially castrated and now absent Bruce Cutler. I can’t help but believe that every single Spector defense lawyer now wishes he or she never went to law school. I suspect they also are praying to see the day they can pee on Larry Fidler’s tombstone. Now the foremost defense forensi...

Ronald Regan led the country for eight really good years. He was a peacetime president that fought the taxem’ to death and reckless spend mentality that makes slaves out of too many Americans. Since the great man left office we’ve had a sorry bunch or pathetic pretenders to the throne. Two big government, Texas Liberals wearing Republican clothing, and the commander of the Waco TX Military Assault Team, who governed American with a Whitehouse intern performing sex acts on him under his desk. Twenty-four years of mediocre jerks and an Arkansas criminal running this country was way too long. The two major political parties have put up their presidential lineup and it was horrendous. The Democrats put up the mastermind perjurer of Travelgate, and a Black Maverick with a drug history, while they try to raise a former Vice President from the dead. Republicans have offered their best Left Wing Liberals who pretend to be Republicans. Leading off is a former New York Mayor, Communist North V...