I understand your answer and agree with it to a degree. But whether we like it or not, in these high profile cases, public perception can be equally deadly. While Terri may be protecting her rights ....her absolute silence and the legal demeanor of yesterday IMO do her no PR favors. We might wish that a perfect jury pool might someday be selected that is not already half-convinced of her guilt, but unfortunately, with today's media circus, is that really likely?
I believe that if she is ever charged, Mr Houze is likely to move for a change of venue.
His position would be undermined if he or TMH did anything to attract publicity. It's hypocritical to argue your client cannot get a fair trial due to a tainted jury pool if you or the client helped with the tainting.
While that is not the only factor the judge would consider, I think judges are human and fully able to spot and despise hypocrisy.
So, while this silence may protect her rights, is it helping her if she ever gets to court and faces a jury? This is where I have doubts.
I have always thought she should make a public statement, not laying out her timeline, not speaking any specifics...just as the innocent Duke Lacrosse kids did....letting the public get to know her, making herself REAL.
If I had been in the place of those Duke lacrosse players, my goose would have been cooked. I do not present well when the spotlight is on me (versus on my area of expertise). I act nervous and look guilty as all get out. And terrified, which I am sure would make most people assume that I had a guilty conscience, rather than the truth that I'm just easily terrified by personal attention from strangers.
I think it's possible that TMH could be one of those people who is just not all that convincing when they try to convince anyone of anything. If that is so, then putting her out there in public is a lose-lose situation for her.
And again, those Duke lacrosse players knew absolutely that there was no way their DNA would be found in the rape kit. No, the results had not been shared but they knew in the only other way they could have known, by knowing they had done nothing that would place DNA on the accuser's body.
In this case, there is no DNA. If TMH is the perpetrator, there is unlikely to be any DNA evidence either to incriminate or to exonerate her.
Let's face it, the public knows she was with this child since birth...why not hold a press conference where she balances out the pain we see from Desiree and Kaine ...with evidence of her own pain? Why not speak of her love for Kyron and plea for help in bringing him home? This is a woman who went before the public in a string bikini, affecting poses. This is a woman who (as Chris Coleman described the activity) was taking pictures of her "private parts" and sending them in texts. She cannot be THAT shy or retiring!
If this ever goes so far as a trial and conviction, the DA would use any such appearances as further proof of how depraved TMH is.
I see very little chance that anything TMH could say in public would change public opinion in any positive way. At this point, I think she's in Kevin Fox's position: even if she is exonerated, a good many people will continue to believe she is guilty.
Why do something that won't help and may actually come back to bite her down the road?
And why not show that she will answer what she can...i.e. where the money is coming from for her attorney? Why create another mystery , more speculation. Why doesn't she cooperate in the SIMPLE THINGS?
Someone, I think it was 1Chump, said it best, I think: that her attorneys must fight any encroachment onto client/attorney privilege vigorously, lest they open the door to further encroachment.
Yesterday, everything her attorney said (or didn't say) added to the impression that Terri cannot speak because she has so much to hide. That may be an unfair impression, a wrong impression, or even an impression that only certain people believe. But that impression is BELIEVED in many places. Her great Attorney may be winning battles and losing the War because he's losing much of the public narrative.
Giving out any information that is not compelled by a judge is a slippery slope. If you give out some information, it makes it easier to infer exactly what information may be hidden.
Terri's avoidance of answers or statements about the simple things leave the impression that her involvement in this criminal matter is complex. She cannot say she loved Kyron because...well, maybe something may be in the hands of LE...that show Teri doing things no loving StepMom would do. She cannot say where the money came from...because it opens the door to other "activities."[/QUOTES]
Or because it opens the door to her losing her constitutional rights.
And again, I am completely convinced that no matter what she says or does not say at this point, it will be viewed negatively.
If Terri can't make simple statements....it leaves a public impression that there are complex reasons.
And, in regard to the Landscaper with the alias, this takes the whole tragedy beyond hinky to me...almost like some poor piece of fiction writing on the Book Store mark-down rack.
Without the chance to assess the LS's credibility, I really have no opinion on whether the MFH plot is true or not. Just the facts that have been released make me skeptical: he didn't come forward at the time, he didn't come forward at all, he was found as part of the investigation and the sting failed.
We don't know if he has past legal troubles, current legal problems, a motive to wish ill on TMH, mistook a joke for a serious proposition or any number of things relevant to the issue of credibility.
