I don't really consider the stories of the 5N guys all that far afield since we're just hearing 2nd and 3rd hand accounts mixed with some bad reporting. The gist of their stories seems to match. Whether they made up their story or told the exact truth I wouldn't expect 2nd and 3rd hand accounts to be perfect accounts. Filter out some noise and you get the same basic account. If their stories didn't match closely, or if they told someone a wildly different version, somebody would be sitting in jail.
Okay, so we have the stories that CR, MB and JR told friends and neighbors. There are at least 4 or 5 of these, and they contradict each other. But, there's room for 'noise', and the POI aren't accountable for what other people say anyway, so let's take them out of the equation for now...
Unless the lawyer is reading from a prepared statement, particularly a quote from a prepared statement, then it's every bit as much of a 2nd hand account as anything else we'll hear.
...<snipped> that was the attorney just putting his spin on the story to put his client in a better light. <Snipped>
The lawyers have been hired to
represent their clients, so these are not the same as the second hand accounts from other people... But okay, let's just consider the statements the lawyers have given to media about their own clients and ignore the 'spin'
What's left? What actually is their story? Here's what I can make of it:
JR: No Comment -- (We only have an account from an interview with HT. Lawyers have explicitly said they will not give a statement about JR's last interaction with Lauren -- In other words, they have not confirmed that HT's story is actually JR's account. It also happens to be the same story that another witness attributed to MB in an article published the week before)
CR: can't remember anything once he was alone with Lauren. Lawyer says he has amnesia and that MB can confirm he put CR to bed. The other parts of Salzmann's account have turned out to be misleading/ untrue and are irrelevant since he claims his client can't remember anything)
MB: Was at home writing papers, did not drink or do drugs, "put CR to bed" and "watched Lauren leave his apartment". ( I am only including the consistent parts of the statements provided by his own Lawyer, not the many other versions of his story that have been reported)
I believe, perhaps naively so, that if the 5N stories didn't line up for the most part, or that they've told a conflicting version of the story to someone that leaves no chance of misunderstanding, then the entire house of cards would fall apart. That doesn't mean they can't be guilty or lying... It just means they've kept their story reasonably straight in my judgment.
If they haven't committed to a story, there's not much to keep straight.
The only one who has a story is MB -- and even if we whittle it down to its most consistent parts, we are left with 3 things, 2 of which have been publicly challenged by the PI's in the Lohud report:
- MB was sober and writing papers all night (PI's say he was drinking)
- MB put CR to bed
- MB watched Lauren leave (He did not say "Lauren left" He said "Lauren wanted to leave and he "watched her leave". The PI's say MB called JR and brought her over to his apartment.)
In the end, it seems like the accounts we consider to be the POI's stories are just the ones we've put together ourselves, ignoring and correcting the contradictions for them, even though they have never stepped up to do this themselves.