Well I'm starting to wonder just what Judge Cohen thinks IS in the jurisdiction of his court. He has the official word from Indonesia as to what HM was convicted for and has had it for a very long time. Accessory to murder. He has a statement from her well paid Indonesian attorney at the time who claims that she was actually convicted of being an accessory after the fact but because that is not an option in Indonesian law the official translation is accessory to murder. I am sure that he's not seriously going to take the word of a corrupt defense attorney. And neither should he be listening to the prosecution or the judges in the trial who are also corrupt. The conviction is accessory to murder...period. So...that should be good enough to rule on the slayer statute. But no. We also have the fact that the FBI has an ongoing investigation open with regards to what actually happened, not what the bribes in Indonesia claim happened in their corrupt court. One person in the US has plead guilty to his part in it. Still not enough apparently. Why?
SBM
Kamille, you are well known on this forum as a passionate and tireless defender of Sheila. In that role you have often found yourself an outspoken critic of Judge Cohen. So I hope you are seated when reading this.
I think you have unwittingly defended the Cook County judge.
There are a lot of moving parts in the Illinois Slayer Statute. One element: if a person is found guilty in a criminal proceeding of first or second degree murder -- game over. No benefits from a will, a trust or the like.
As you point out, Heather was not found guilty of either of these triggering crimes. As you point out, she was found guilty of something different: accessory to murder.
So while I was confused why the Indonesian verdict was insufficient for a Slayer Statute ruling, you have immediately honed into the reason: it is not a charge articulated by the statute.
Rather than dragging the dude across burning hot coals, I think we all should be celebrating Judge Cohen.
Why? Because after the Bali verdict he could have ruled: since the criminal conviction falls short of the Slayer Statute requirements, unless and until Heath Mack is found culpable in a civil proceeding, she is entitled to continuing support from Sheila's trust.
He didn't make that ruling. He saw that despite the conviction falling short of automatically triggering the Slayer Statute, there was ample evidence that she would be found guilty in a civil proceeding. Hence, Heather was denied funds for appellate attorney fees, for example. And he said no more funds would be disbursed until the Slayer Statute matter was settled.
Why it has taken so long, I have no idea, but we can guess that many of the the delays have been engineered by Heather's attorneys. (Attorneys I hope who never see another penny of Sheila's trust, although better them than Horrible, Horrendous Heather.) And perhaps in part due to the fact that the cogs of American justice blithely accept delay as just "one of those things."
Neil "I admire the speed of turtles" Cohen is not one who we would hold up to young judges now taking robes as an example of excellence. But neither is he a villain.
And what's up with your reference to the FBI investigation?
An
investigation of me into X cannot be used against me as proof of X. That is the law in the US.
Like most Americans, I have shamefully woeful knowledge of Canada. But I'd be mighty surprised indeed if the mere existence of an investigation in your country could be used as proof in a court of law of guilt. Aren't you guys a Magna Carta country?
All the evidence we get from the crappy press reports is that there will be a civil Slayer Statute hearing. I assume the FBI evidence will be introduced. Does anyone here have any doubt that Heather will be completely slammed in such a proceeding? The fact that Cohen doesn't want any disbursements from the trust until the hearing concludes screams that he knows what the finding will be.
Let the law work in its terrible, clunky, plodding, inexorable way.
Let Heather accumulate huge legal fees for which she will be solely responsible and which Sheila's trust will never pay.
Let Stella live for months without Trust support so that when the Trust is finally found to be hers her caregivers can't suddenly claim it's impossible to raise her without money for Heather's cigarettes and cheeseburgers.
Let Heather be deported to America in 2025 to be tried in US Federal Court for conspiracy to commit murder and be sentenced to 20-plus years in a federal pen without cell phones or amoral snack-fetching assistants from Australia.
Let it happen. And be glad.
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