GUILTY CA - Dr. William Ayres for child molestation, San Mateo, 2007 #2

  • #301
Thanks for taking an interest and writing to Wagstaffe, Denny/Ziggy.

None of us can understand the pathology behind a prosecutor who not only has a wall/blind spot about Ayres' training, but on top of that tells a falsehood to a mother of a victim about having contacted Dr. Bert Brown, one of six doctors who trained with Ayres at Yale. Here's Dr. Brown, who says he can and wants to help her win her case and can refute Ayres' testimony from the first trial, but the prosecutor not only never contacts him, but then tells the mother of a victim in June "I contacted him but he never called me back."

It is now been four months since the prosecutor has had the info on Dr. Brown, and Dr. Brown still waiting for that call from her. Bizarrely, in her blog comment the prosecutor said that she will check into everything and asks people who have information on good witnesses to contact her.

Perhaps the prosecutor just told the mother of the victim that she had contacted Dr. Brown so that everyone would stop asking her about him and then the prosecutor wouldn't have to call Dr. Brown - ever. But why? Wouldn't you think she would want someone who could help her case? Why try to make Dr. Brown look bad and blame him for something he didn't do? This really defies all reason.


We would all have understood it if she had just said , " I have been too busy to call Dr. Brown but I will " What no one understands why she would make up a story and then try to make Dr. Brown - who just wants to help her win the case - and then try to make him look bad and put him down with a falsehood about him not calling her back.

Why would she say that Jacqueline Amati Mehler, who was at Judge Baker the same year Ayres was - was not "physically able to travel" when Amati Mehler told reporter Victoria Balfour that the prosecutor is "confused" and mistaken - that she travels all the time?

Why would the prosecutor in her blog comment on January 29, 2010, state that none of the Boston doctors the reporter found could confirm to her that they did not train to give physical exams to boys when the reporter has found 19 doctors and the COO of Judge Baker who WILL say that Ayres was not trained to give physical exams to boys? Why would she be more intent in proving the reporter wrong with her own false statements than being interested in looking at the truth about Ayres' training?

We might have understood it had she said "Well, our office doesn't have a lot of money and it's too expensive to fly in the Boston doctors." But why say, for example, that one is physically unable to travel and then put that statement on a public blog, where someone was eventually bound to check it ?

This makes us wonder: is the prosecutor used to making factually incorrect statements? Have people not challenged her in the past? Is this part of a larger pattern? Has she done this on other child abuse cases?

It's as if she doesn't want to know the truth about Ayres' training, or that she's afraid of it. Maybe it would mean facing something in herself. Whatever. The point is, you don't say you have contacted key witnesses to parents of victims when you haven't done it. That sounds like something a defense attorney might do.

Why does the prosecutor seem so intent on ignoring and/or repressing inculpatory evidence that could help her win the case ? What is going on here?

Anyone who is interested in finding out the answers can write to her boss, Steve Wagstaffe. [email protected]
 
  • #302
I'm starting to wonder if McKowan has some sort of mental illness. Seriously. The things she is doing and has done are so nonsensical as to render her intelligence suspect. Or, as I mentioned before, she is purposely throwing the case. I can't believe that San Mateo would hire such a completely incompetent prosecutor so there has to be more to this story. There are things going on behind the scenes that aren't being made public. I would bet my last dollar on it.
 
  • #303
People could also write to Wagstaffe's boss, James Fox:

[email protected].

And they could write to Executive Editor Glenn Rabinowitz at the San Mateo County Times: [email protected]

Also, John Cote at the San Francisco Chronicle who covered Ayres' arrest three years ago. [email protected]
 
  • #304
Great letter, Belinda.
 
  • #305
I have written, I hope it does some good.
 
  • #306
Thank you to everyone for writing. Please post their responses -- if you get any.
 
  • #307
Here is a copy of the letter I sent to Jim Fox:

Mr. Fox:

I am writing to you today regarding my concerns about the San Mateo District Attorney’s Office. My concerns, at this time, are limited to Melissa McKowan and Steve Wagstaffe and the case against William Ayres.

Ms. McKowan has made numerous false statements regarding the prosecution of this case to the parents of Ayres victims and even in a comment she made under her own name on the William Ayres blog on January 29, 2010. She has failed to investigate this case properly or prepare for trial. She has been given a number of opportunities to speak directly with those physicians who trained with Ayres. She has not contacted a single one and has given a different excuse to different parties and on the blog and has, in fact, lied about her contacts with these physicians. She has made it clear that she is not going to succeed in winning this conviction, as she apparently does not wish to succeed.

Ms. McKowan has treated the victims and their relatives in a reprehensible manner, going so far as to threaten to ‘start a file’ on one mother. Had she done her job the first time, it would be wholly unnecessary for these victims to face a second trial. The first trial was lost purely by her failure to rebut Dr. Ayres statement that he was trained to do physical exams, including the genitalia. She has been presented with a list of physicians who trained directly with Dr. Ayres, at Judge Baker and Yale, and they each have firmly refuted this claim. Had she bothered to present any of them at trial, we would not be where we are today. In fact, she had a reporter ‘look over’ Dr. Ayres resume minutes before cross-examination to ‘see if it was okay.’ I, somehow, thought that would be the prosecutors job, not the job of someone who happened to be in the courtroom.

Furthermore, her boss, Steve Wagstaffe, has received a number of complaints regarding her unprofessional conduct and has done nothing to resolve these issues. Is he not, in fact, responsible for his employees? He always promises to act promptly, but always fails to do so.

If Ms. McKowan is not immediately removed from this case, a new failure is imminent. How much must these victims suffer? Why is justice not being achieved for them? Why are they being treated like interlopers in their own case?

Mr. Fox, I sincerely hope you will look into this situation and correct the improprieties that are now occurring on a daily basis. I look forward to hearing from you. I will be forwarding this letter to interested parties, as well as your response. Thank you.

Sincerely,
 
  • #308
Great letter. Thank you.
 
  • #309
John Cote, reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle says he plans to call Steve Wagstaffe on this matter. I would urge everyone who has sent letters to Wagstaffe and Fox to send them also to John: [email protected]
 
  • #310
I wrote as the mother of three sons born in San Mateo County which came to our family through the foster care system. Hopefully we will all get some form of response. I went so far as to name my sons in the letter, hoping that their experiences might be considered.
 
  • #311
Well, IF anyone gets a response, please post here. Thanks.
 
  • #312
Reporter Victoria Balfour has a new post up on the William Ayres blog with more questions about prosecutor's comments about why she didn't use the Judge Baker doctors who trained with Ayres.

Excerpt:

"For instance, the three (not four) Judge Baker Graduates who would allegedly have debunked Ayres' statements about being trained there -- did NOT confirm to the police or the DA what it was alleged in the blogs that they would say. One told me that she had told the reporter who talked to her that she didn't know anything about Ayres and was in school later than him and that although she could say SHE was never trained to give exams, she "couldn't say for sure what his training was." That is NOT helpful. Another one refused to testify and the last one is physically unable to travel and lives in Europe."

--Statement made on the William Ayres blog on January 29, 2010 at 7:12 am by Prosecutor Melissa Mckowan from the San Mateo District Attorney's office.
_________________________________

I would like the readers now to look carefully at the prosecutor's words in her blog comment concerning these doctors I found at Judge Baker. There were actually four, but let's concentrate on the "three "she is referring to. Actually, as she made the one female doctor I found into two doctors, it appears she is only talking about two doctors here.

The prosecutor starts off by saying that the doctors I found did "NOT" confirm to her or the police what they told me - that they were not trained to give physical exams in therapy.

But then in the next instant the prosecutor turns around and contradicts herself and confirms that a female doctor - that would be Dr. Amati Mehler - told her exactly what she told me - that "SHE was never trained to give exams."

Can anyone figure out why the prosecutor would say that they didn't confirm to her what they told me and then in the next breath admit that one did ?

____________

Read more on the Ayres blog " The Judge Baker Doctors Vs. The San Mateo DA: More Questions" http://williamayreswatch.blogspot.com/2010/09/judge-baker-doctors-vs-san-mateo-da.html
 
  • #313
McKowan is now so far off the rails, it would be nigh impossible to figure out what she is doing or what her motives are. She lies and then contradicts her own lies. Incredible.
 
  • #314
I just forwarded my letters along with a note to several local newspapers. I will post any replies I receive.
 
  • #315
Belinda: Thank you.

I have phone numbers of reporters:
John Cote at the San Francisco Chronicle: 415-972-9779
Glenn Rabinowitz, Executive Editor of the San Mateo County Times: 650-348-4325
Michelle Durand at the San Mateo Daily Journal: 650-344-5200 X 102
Anyone heard from Wagstaffe? Ziggy, Ohiogirl or Missizzy? Anyone?
 
  • #316
No, not a word. I wondered if the reporter covering the Tarquin Thomas trial might be a resource?

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/artic...A: Foster dad molested, filmed boys&id=140549

Michelle Durand--Daily Journal Staff

I sure as heck hope we don't learn that Thomas and Ayres hung out together. Make sure you read this article carefully. This is the first time much of this info has been released. I wonder if any of these boys ever needed to be seen by a psychiatrist? The abuse stretches back to at least 1996 and we know Ayres was practicing then. Might be something to look into.
 
  • #317
No, not a word. I wondered if the reporter covering the Tarquin Thomas trial might be a resource?

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/artic...A: Foster dad molested, filmed boys&id=140549

Michelle Durand--Daily Journal Staff

I sure as heck hope we don't learn that Thomas and Ayres hung out together. Make sure you read this article carefully. This is the first time much of this info has been released. I wonder if any of these boys ever needed to be seen by a psychiatrist? The abuse stretches back to at least 1996 and we know Ayres was practicing then. Might be something to look into.

I hope she will be a resource. I sent her and the other 2 people Mercyneal posted above a note with copies of my emails today. Hopefully one of them, at least, is going to check this out and put some additional pressure on the DA's office to rectify this situation.
 
  • #318
I suspect that the prosecutor's habit of making false statements is not limited to her work in the Ayres case. I suspect she may have made similar and confusing falsehoods in other abuse cases, dating back at least a couple of years.

If anyone is planning on writing to her superiors, Steve Wagstaffe and James Fox, I would urge you to ask them to conduct an internal investigation into Mckowan's statements she has made about the Boston doctors and Dr. Bert Brown. I believe that the San Mateo District Attorney's office may discover that they may have a little Jason Blair problem on their hands. Remember him? He was the New York Times reporter who fabricated all of his stories.

I would also like to see Mckowan taken off the case and replaced with another prosecutor. I would urge that people ask Wagstaffe to do so.

Heck, if prosecutor Aaron Fitzgerald wins the Tarquin Thomas molestation case that Missizzy mentions, HE could replace Mckowan.
 
  • #319
Mercy--Can you find out when Mr. Wagstaffe began working for San Mateo County.
 
  • #320
Missizzy: Steve Wagstaffe began working in the San Mateo DA's office as an intern in 1975. He started working as a prosecutor there in 1977. It's the only place he's ever worked.
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
120
Guests online
2,344
Total visitors
2,464

Forum statistics

Threads
632,722
Messages
18,630,938
Members
243,274
Latest member
WickedGlow
Back
Top