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Can't add much to your posts this morning accept to reiterate the obvious -- not just leaking confidential material to the media but leaking it to the jury.I paged back in this thread to return to your post today to ask you if you have any answers as to the difficult question of 'Why' for MT? On Petu comment you made I absolutely agree, not a good friend, self serving and yet another person in the FD/MT orbit who didn't really care about the Victims in the case.
I read your comment initially yesterday and I do think you have brought us back yet again to a question that nobody seems to have an answer to about MT and its been talked about here since the beginning as we have watched this all play out for nearly 4 years in the legal system in CT.
Your view that, "Michelle's best defence was probably the truth with an explanation' is one that I would bet that if you polled 10 defence attorney's that they would agree with you completely. Atty Bowman obviously imo believed it and he worked hard to facilitate resolution outside of a long court proceeding too. Yet, MT and her family have done nothing but vilify him and his efforts now for 3+ years. WHY?
Yet, instead we have seen MT and her new Counsel pursue a very different path. The different path to me as a non atty is basically the old 'catch me if you can' and 'I know nothing' strategy. But, WHY? Is this the better strategy and strategy with a higher probability outcome? To me as a non atty this seems like a high risk strategy with a high probability of negative outcome as you are pitting your defence against the much greater resources of the State and a very motivated CSP evidence gathering operation and with a highly sympathetic Victim in the form of JF and her 5 beloved children.
I'm confused seeing what I've seen from MT and have been watching this all play out now for years!
I'd be curious to hear what you or the the same group of 10 defence attorneys mentioned above would think about the MT legal strategy so far?
As a non lawyer the strategy we have seen from MT just seems like its a cynical and calculated time based bet on the ineptitude or high turnover of CT States Atty's and a bet that CSP LE evidence not making it to trial for jury to hear and the laxity and lack of professional standards required of legal professionals in CT where we have seen Defence Counsel taking a whip saw to the mountain of evidence for 3+ years and Judges allowing it or the State not responding appropriately to the point where what makes it to trial is quite different from what many here possibly expected.
All this is then combined with years of seeing Jon Schoenhorn imo choosing to not really follow appropriate CT procedures in his behaviour representing his client, leaking case evidence to the public via court motions, leaking confidential information to the public/media and conducting a now 3+ year disinformation campaign in the media on behalf of his client which effectively polluted the jury pool imo along with a social media campaign by MT and the Troconis crew that imo had the same effect.
I've watched most of the MT LE interviews a number of times (painful but there was SO much going on) and I simply see Atty Bowman working very hard on behalf of his client to assist her with presenting what she knows to LE and getting to the truth. The dangling of a deal in front of MT at any point in these interviews wasn't even really hidden as we even see then States Atty Colangelo present in Interview 2. Most folks with a similar charge wouldn't have these opportunities from LE and the State and would simply sit in jail pending trial as they couldn't afford bond imo. Any number of times we see Atty Bowman refocusing and clarifying discussion and questions for MT and he almost always was highly effective in getting to the heart of what was being discussed at the time and yet so many times we saw MT very actively imo working against what Atty Bowman was trying to do to move closer to the 'truth'. LE effectiveness imo in this regard was more of a mixed bag in terms of questioning effectiveness imo but they made it very clear to MT that their goal was always to find JF and they kept emphasising the need for truth and information that could move the investigation forward. MT had 3 obvious shots at a deal THAT WE KNOW OF for her cooperation and dismissed them.
Why?
We have seen the Defence posit the idea that MT in LE faced language barriers (think we can put a pin in this idea as she was offered an interpreter and told to ask if she ever didn't understand something), high stress interviews from LE that resulted in MT shutting down or seeking to simply pacify LE by feeding them what she believed they wanted to hear (not sure here either as while frustration and disbelief was evident imo from LE, I saw nothing but courtesy and professionalism from LE and we saw zero to suggest Russian tactics such as those endured by Navalny either!) and given the overall situation and the stress of the investigation I give LE nothing but credit. LE also regrouped and made Interview 3 smaller and less overwhelming for MT which seemed less stressful but yet the deception and lying from MT continued. Why? We saw Atty Bowman in Interview 3 continuing to assist MT with questions as by this time it seemed that he thought he could still make a difference for his client but by the end of this interview it seemed like he too along with LE simply gave up on MT making any attempt to assist or tell the truth. Again, why?
In this case we see a privileged white woman charged with conspiracy murder (top charge) who has spent less than 4 days in jail and has been freely able to travel now for nearly 4 years imo given every opportunity to cooperate and plea down her involvement and YET she never does so. WHY? Also, based on her treatment by the Courts in CT (no jail pending trial) and imo no valid claims for mistreatment or mishandling of her by LE as the interviews imo were all professionally handled imo there is no evidence imo of coercion or mishandling of MT by LE.
The other baffling thing about what we have seen is MT and the Troconis crew going after Atty Bowman with a vengeance in Social Media and we also see MT artist 'friend' imo hiding behind 1st amendment to put on an 'exhibition' in Avon to continue with the theme that MT was 'betrayed' in some way by Atty Bowman and that she is absolutely innocent. We see the Troconis Crew, MT and the 1st Amendment loving/abusing 'artist' going after PG with a vengeance and we also see MT effectively use her atty and Farmington PD to 'steal back' her motor bike from PG when it appears he paid FD who most likely pocketed MT's cash (this to me was a cherry on top of the sundae moment in Court as it showed FD possibly pick pocking MT).
All this came nearly 2 years after the very aggressive campaign by Schoenhorn in pretrial period to have the MT LE Interviews removed from evidence while he also put forward to the Court I believe that Atty Bowman's counsel to MT was effectively legal malpractice if I understood those proceedings properly.
I have no answers to any of this as its probably above my pay grade but my guess is that if a plea had been made long ago at the time of the murder that MT would have been out of jail by now and free to ski the world to her hearts content. We see MT all through this process making her defence choices willingly and YET complaining bitterly of everything that has happened to her as if she were the victim in this tragic case.
I don't see this either as the only victims I see are JF and her children and MT daughter!
MOO
That report should never have been so much as mentioned. Tall about marshaling. And worse. The jury knows it exists. Knows it must be significant, has to wonder what's in it. And all of that is what first Judge Heller and then Judge Randolph intended. But JS and AF had other ideas. Every single day. So wrong.
I hope there are sanctions and they're fierce. And that those actions don't taint deliberations because that would be the height of injustice.
JMO