2010 Legislative Session Roundup: Connecticut | Progressive States ...

This is a good start but we still have along road ahead of us...

Lawyers: Hayes wants out of jury selection

Hayes Must Attend Jury Selection | NBC Connecticut

11th Juror Picked In Hayes Murder Trial

Family of beaten Deerfield Beach Middle School teen releases hospital photos - Sun Sentinel

This story appalls.

There are actually a fair amount of ignoramuses claiming that this young 15 yr old girl who was brutally stomped and beaten almost to death last month in Deerfeild beach Fla, while at her middle school, a male non-studentt sent to the young teen who very nearly killed after knocking her down and kicking her defenseless body with steel tipped boots as she lay on the ground in a semi conscious defenseless state.

The majority of the kicks were to her head face chest, any one of which could have killed her via brain injury-internal bleeding and never mind plain old blood loss. The number one area of the body that is injured during so called " intimate/domestic violence"(both dangerously broad definitions used to categorize certain types of violence against women and often misused by law enforcement the courts in the process. always to the detriment of the victim...( but that I'll address later) is the head and face region, often leaving women and girl victims with Traumatic brain injuries, AKA TBI'S which formerly were called concussions, if there was no fracture or inner bleed such as a hematoma--of which there are several kinds-depending on where the bleed is in relation to the brain ie subdural or epidural if you ll recall actress Natasha
died completely unexpectedly from just such an injury last year; consider that the insult to her brain was one single comparatively mild head impact when she fell in the snow during a begginner ski lesson(which meant it was taking place on a very gradual ski slope aka "bunny slope"

Some of you might recall that Natasha was speaking and walking normally just after she fell, even refusing the medical help that the instructor offerred which was protocal for that ski resort for any and all falls no matter how seemingly minor or the status of the client. as she felt "fine" in the minutes following the minor tumble. This is what emergency medical personell and Doctors call talking and they are most dangerous as the patient often seems perfectly lucid and verbally responsive - even chatty right after what can be a relatively innocuous seeming head bump or even a mere shaking of the head. (one does not have to have sustained a direct blow to head to receive life threatening brain damage-similar to shaken baby syndrome or in domestic violence shaken women another common practice anmong abuser,s if a person has there head merely shaken violently-as when a man grabs a woman and shakes her by the shoulders roughly causing her head to snap back and forth, this can cause serious damage and or death, The brain is like a ball of harderened jello and it is encased in our hard skull in order to proect it because itisdso vital to our survival

When someone is shaken or thier head struck into something hard like a wall or floor or like Rhianna a dashboard and windshield the brain literally bounces around inside the skull where there are bony prominances unfortunately that point inward as if very thick thorns almost; this causes several types of damage; one is the regular coup-contracoup injury, which means brain strikes the opposite side of skull that it has been struck into ie wall the floor or fist as it first strikes theone side it gets bruised called a contusion and then it bounces back and then hits the opposite side of the skull as ifin a bouce. Now the victim has two major areas of their brain that are vulnerable to at the very least damage and at the worst bleeding, the laTTER of which can quickly or slowly build up pressuere in the cranial cavity and cause death, coma and or brain damage. The last two are the lucky ones if you can fathom that.

The brain and the head are one of the most common areas of the body struck and damaged in attacks on women and girls both from men they know have dated are dating or sexual predators;As Ive ponited out many of these injuries result in death, coma, brain damage and at the very least, life changing symptoms such as: severe vertigo,(SENSATION of you or your world spinning or moving, when you/it is not) hearing loss, tinnitus, post traumatic headaches that resemble severe migraines (vascular originated) Memory problems aphasia-ie problems speaking or recalling words, tremors,

Then there are the conditions that may result immediately or take years to develop from the time of the attack or the last assault in a chronic domestic violence situation The list includes Parkinson's disease, a severe movement disorder, (think Mohammad ali the boxer and all of the many many blows to the head/face that he sustained over the years. seizures, hydrocephalus- a serious condition where-fluid builds and stays in the ventricles of the brain causing a myriad of symptoms such as severe balance problems, a shuffling gait severe memory impairment to the point where women as young as 28 have to be in nursing type homes for the remainder of their lives-The fortunate ones are able to have either temporary or usually permanent shunts installed outside the ventricles in the brain that continuouslu drain the fluid from that area down to a tube that leads to the outside of the stomach in order to lesson the symptoms which can also include severe issues with memory, learning disabilities, drastic personality changes and one of the scariest tome--dementia,

In fact there is a type of dementia that has been discovered to result years after assaults to the head or repeated years of abuse to face and head area; its actually similar to Alzheimer's disease though it can afflict young persons who have sustained head injury esp multipleones, justas easily -It is called dementia pugilistica ie (as in boxers) and it can occur from either multiple blows to the head and/or choking within an attack or years or simply months-of abuse involving the head and neck.

Choking causes anoxia- loss of blood flow to the brain and can then cause brain cells to die thereby causes similiar symptoms diseases and damage as direct blows to the head and or face. There is something called coup contracoup injury to the brain wgich sadly is also very coimmon in dimnestic violence victims as it results from the head being struck into a hard objectie like a wall a headboard windshield of car-think of Rhianna)

Core Energetics Support for Returning Veterans

A great assist to Vets with PTSD and even those who managed to escape this common response to exposure to violence and life threatening situations.

One step closer (maybe) to finding Billy Smolinski

Two articles that are a must read for everyone living in the state concerning new laws and procedures for missing persons largely affecting the crucial first days of the disappearances of any adult person.

Please familiarize yourself with the changes to these important laws, it could someday affect you or someone you care about.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20100330/NEWS01/3300325

Ninth Juror Chosen In Hayes Trial - Hartford Courant

DON PESCI: Hayes’ guilty plea first on, then off -

Good commentery by Don Pesci regarding the recent reversal of co-"defendent" Steven Hayes' surprising- and subsequently- fleeting Guilty plea to the sexual assault and murder charges for Jennifer Hawke Petit and her daughters 17 year old Hayley and 11 year old Michaela.

Appropriately, the piece really speaks more to the absurdity of our Connecticut Judicial system rather than the issue of Mr Hayes's almost predictable recent flip flop of his plea back to his original NOT GUILTY - care of his state appointed attorney's near rabid opposition to criminal accountability especially when it originates from the client/defendent, no matter the hienous brutality of the crimes that he admits to committing. In fact Ive read about twenty articles in the paper and online citing hayes attorneys refferring to his change to a guilty plea last week as a "state assisted suicide" which they would do evry thing in thier powet to stop. And so they did-they obviously wore down hayes until he withdrew his admission of guilt.
When did telling the truth and taking acccountability become "crazy" and bad?
when did the right to a fair defense become THIS?

Another Twist in a Connecticut Triple-Murder Case - NYTimes.com

Cheshire Home Invasion Suspect Hayes Changes Mind Again; Jury Selection To Resume - Courant.com

I suppose we should have seen this coming; Hayes lawyers obviously wore him down until he changed his plea back to not guilty.

I heard today on the news that after Hayes surprise change to a guilty plea in the Petit murders of 07 at last weeks hearing, his staeappomied satomedsslawyers vowed to do " anything and everything in their power to quote "stop Mr "Hayes from committing suicide"-- this, their notion of what pleading guilty to aggravated rape, robbery triple murde, arson and assault , crimes Mr Hayes is clearly guilty of, thereby acccountability for his actions, his crimes and save the surviving victim and thee families family further grief suffering not to mention the state of Connecticut a lot of money in a unappealed guilty plea/ probable eventual death penalty, albeit years and years after so,meomemhawayfromscuslly Yes in this state even when you don't want to appeal a much deserved death sentenc, it seems our system inflicts its very own auto-appeal process onto even its worst violent criminals, costing the family of the victims and any surviving victims unneccesary prolomged heartxhe and angst and the state millions of dollars in the process.

Hayes changes plea back to not guilty

Experts Say Hayes' Lawyers May Lose Fight To Keep Him Off Death Row - Courant.com

Dr. Petit Calls Hayes Guilty Plea a "Moment of Honesty" | NBC Connecticut

This is Steven Hayes finally showing that he wants to do the right thing and it also explains why the competency hearing etc was probably ordered in the first place; he likely told his attorneys he wanted to admit what he'd done and get it over with and they immediately went into typical predictable auto pilot moral less criminal attorney mode and scrambled to have him proved incompetent before he got his chance to change his plea-which is his right as a defendant in a murder rape trial.

Now watch these lawyers do their absolute best to cost the system money and just like the Joseph Duncan case-Dylan Shasta Greene- immediately pounce on pursuing this ludicrous incompetency angle. When did getting a fair defense by the state when one cannot afford their own private attorney, turn into an excuse to throw accountability and human decency and justice out with the morning garbage?

The hijacking of our system by what is by now rote, cost consuming maneuverings, in the relatively rare cases where a defendant wants to actually take responsibility for harming killing raping and and or maiming another human being(s), has got to stop. All of us must become involved if we ever hope to change this complicated mess that has become our justice system.

This starts with availing ourselves with knowledge and awareness of our own states criminal justice system, how it really works, who makes the decisions that fuel it IE the influential state legislators, the influence, or lack thereof of the state judiciary committee, local power attorneys state appointed and otherwise judges prosecutors and thier records and reputations and much more.
I get that its unpleasent to talk or even think about but At the core of all of this lies the need to allow ourselves to truly ponder what the victims of these crimes experience-and put ouraselves and our loved ones in thier place, despite the obvious discomfiture this brings us.
To consider deeply the huge reaching effects of just one murder, rape, one assault one child abduction, molestation, home invasion kidnapping and any and all crimes with violence at the core. The victims must once again become the focal point and then justice, true justice may some day become a reality in our courts--- or at least the norm not the rare exception that it has become.

Hayes’ competency to be evaluated- The Register Citizen News - Northwest Connecticut's Daily Newspaper

Dont get me started with this; it is such a predictable ploy that these guys have become caricatures of themselves.

Dr Petit makes good sense outside courthouse

Looks like I'm not the only one to pick up on the irony of this whole ludicrous...well, I would normally say "process"-- but as there is very little resembling judicial processs or any process for that matter between within the fits and starts, the furtive delays, and advanatgeous side shows- care of... the DEFENSE counsel both DEFENDENTS and yes sometimes aided and abbetted by the state itself. This is not to say that every member of the state including judges prosecutors and the DOC are part of the preoblem but there is a bigger picture here that involves yup- corruption, the by now usual legal blackmail that pretty much runs the judges any straggl\ler well meaning prosecutors and and a whole hoswt of things like ineptitude, politics many of us might never be aware of the full scope of ns then of course complicated further by things like grassroots and larger state organizations such as the anti-death penalty groups and prisoner protective services whose zealotry often far outweighs thier ability to grasp the big picture, much like a battered woman who will excuse her batterers blows slaps and kicks, when he later cries to her over his own abusive childhood-be it real or not depednding on his particular status of personality disorder iie if he has one which one narcicistic full blown sociopath etc.

I draw this seemingly off the path analogy because from where I sit and what I have seen heard experienced I know that thses prsioner/human rights protection groups believe in thier cause and often cannot grasp the concept of true evil and the manipulation that accompanies it. while I do not suggest we torture our prisoners, though mny express just such a desire mostly out of an understandable anger over the obvious guilt of these defendents and what theyve admitted to doing to with aforethought and sans the numbing effects of drugs even our frustration is capped only byt the wish to see justice done and yes relatively swiftly. at least someone with legal power should be abe to advocate loudly for these slain girls and thier mother thier badly beaten
fther whose daily life is still affected by his head injury, tho he never ever speaks of this not wishing to detract from the kidapping sexual assaults and murders of his young blossoming
daughters and kind anc caring wife.

The defense attorneys for hayes and komisarjevsky would like us to forget all that or certainly focus on anything else, but we ahall be tenacious, intelligent and hold bill Petit and the Petit Hawke families aloft during these very challenging times; times. God is with us.

Judge In Hayes Trial Hopes Jury Selection Can Resume On March 15 - Hartford Courant

Talk about irony; Never mind the incessant and transparent stunts of the defense tems and the 'defendents" thmeselves, no novice to the Ct Judicial system themselves.)
recently the main goal woulf seem to be buying more and more "time" for their murdering clients to as they say face the piper. always always at the centerpiece of exch request, complaint and and often ludicrous motion
The worst of all of this moral turpitude is the victim baiting/bashing that has become a constant for both "accused" murderers and their state paid mouthpieces since the beggnning of the "process" we call justice system here in Connecticut very first days following the kidnappings rapes assaults and murders of Jemmifer Hawke Petit hayely and Michaela Pwtit only eleven years old at the time.
Once again the ultimately favorable outcome- in effect reward- in this case extended in the form of improved living arrangements which even other prisoners with perfect behavioral records do not receive, given to Mr Steven Hayeys are a direct result of yet more rule breaking and manipulation of a system that they have had nothing but a clear disdain and loathing for,(just look at hayes' latest mug shot and one can easily see the hatred bitterness which has done nothing but grow since his intiial incarceration.photo taken right after he was taken into custody caught fleeing the Petits burning home and dying famiy.J

ust as both killers shared an obvious contempt for any and all constraints put upon them by society the law, by the prisons they repeatedly found themselves within the walls of- ALWAYS their own volition and choices. Then threes the the Ct court and parole system, never mind basic rules of society at large and Thur own local communities who time and time again gave them new starts and chances to begin again that were never earned.

I havnt the room nor the enrgy to delve now into the morals or the rights of other human beings-and were not talking about one or two minor strays off the path we are looking at two life long patterns of men that have used and abused a liberal court system to scoff at and ultimately use manipulated and navigate aided and abetted along their entire criminal careers by alternately apathetic inept and just plain lazy and corrupt Connecticut justice system(AND THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE OUR POLICE DEPTS who usually work hard and put their lives on the line daily despite the frustration of knowing most of their effort and hard work is near futile as they watch the courts release these dangerous criminals via dropped charges nolles plea bargains and a seemingly staunch resolution to turn these courts into little more than administrative processing mills where trials have been rendered so rare that any lawyer with any navigational know how of this system need barely make an effort even for some of the serious violent crimes like rape, severe assault, murder and yes child abuse molestation with perhaps an offer of favor and yes in some cases where the charges serious enough and attorneys familiar enough with the prosecutor-monetary incentives may even cause a charge or two and a sentence otherwise a sure thing, to disappear. Again, were not talking about every court nor every prosecutor in this state, but it happens and lest we are not clear here, corruption need not always involve money; favors, promised or implied, cronyism between lawyers and prosecutors who work" together (ie officially as adversary's but in reality lunch together share political aspirations and more than a golf game or two) make for a violent crime docket that has become irrevocably compromised-and it is the victims of these life changing violent crimes that pay for this corruption. And that is exactly what the aforementioned is, lest it not be clear enough to those who care enough to understand what has happened to our Justice system here in Connecticut.

My original point here was that either and both of these two men including Steven Hayes have well earned repeatedly the daily lifestyle they found themselves in- and not by their obvious guilt over the taking of three lives, for in this country despite how obvious a persons guilt may be we Must temporarily withhold judgement before a trial for teem is inducted
by law. And yet as we adhere with committed tenacity to this tenet and extend far beyond BASIC human right to these prisoners they continue their outright refusal to adhere to the rules regulations such as j k overt breaking a court ordered gag order on the case and co writes a book which in turn his ex partner and lawyers immediately latch onto as a perfect means to an end as a great excuse to yet again put off the beginning of jury selection for Mr Hayes trial -citing unfair disadvantage to their client now due to this illegally procured and written book.
A book that sits in the Cheshire local library where it may be read by children friends of then 11 year old Michaela Petit whose sexual assault and murder, along with her mothers, is described in detail. months long meetings and rallies ensued by concerned town residents who, despite paying taxes for this very library's existance were told it was "the right thing to do for them to buy this book co authored by one of the killers, stock several copies on their shelves despite the fact that its very existance is illegal ie cited gag order never mind the fact that trial for either man no matter the illegality of the books origination which has never been in dispute.

AND NOW Mr HAYES SITS IN A SUNNY infirmary with windows where he had none before his "suicide attempt" drugs to quell his fear and anxiousness, (which he's been given since day one of his incarceration )

books to read and a considerably more comfortable daily lifestyle. And he got that stay his lawyers have been putting in for at every hearing thus far, delays for jury selection the trial itself and the hearings themselves. The reasons thus far have largely been your typical lawyer fare, clear attempts and putting off the inevitable-at the surviving victim and families paying the price emotionally and literally along with the rest of every tax paying good citizen of this state.

more info re the jury selection on the Petit case

"Jury selection in the Hayes case represents a perfect storm of what is wrong with jury selection in Connecticut. Alone among the states, we engage in individual, sequestered, voir dire, with lawyers free to engage in endless individual questioning of jurors outside the presence of all other jurors. In the Hayes case, one of the state's top public defenders, Thommas Ullman, who represents Hayes, is known in routine cases to question each potential juror for an hour or so. In this case, where jurors must be "death-qualified," Ullman will be lucky to get through three potential panel members a day. What's more, the case will be presided over by Judge John Blue, a quirky jurist aching for recognition who has elevated distinctions without difference into an art form. Not since Gilligan's Island has the prospect of pointless dithering been so ominous"

The above was taken from a recent Norm Pattis editorial-see link above-not a big fan of pattis in general- his lack of compassion and ability to empathize with the victims of crime clearly overshadows the value of his legal experience. But he makes a few good points albeit one must Wade through his usual dispassionate stance and oft times outright disrespectful cruel and biased comments regarding the tragic victims of violent crime.

State psychiatrist’s vacation delays Petit homicide trial- The New Haven Register - Serving New Haven, Connecticut

Petit Bracing To Be The Face Of Slain Family - Hartford Courant

An older article but very apt and notable for its courage in speaking in real terms about a crime victims experience within Connecticut courts and just how much tenacity this family has, God bless them.