“Rabbit-faced Baby has 10″ Ears, Buck Toothed Mom Chewed Carrots While Pregnant”

Might sound like an odd headline, perhaps one that makes media diminishment so easy.   But that actual headline was from the same news outlet who broke the story of John Edwards actually having a love child from a long time extramarital affair with a mistress who worked on his campaign – and whom he covered up living with, while using campaign donations and finances, and all while running a Presidential campaign.

The point?  You never know who is going to discover any individual truth;  And the truth doesn’t care about the constitution of who finds it, any more than it cares about the feelings or sensibilities of those who would be affected by its existence.  It just is. (more…)

First a few general house keeping fyi’s.  My sincere apologies for anyone who felt slighted by sending a Twitter DM and not getting a response.  We barely use Twitter; The auto-twitter feature that dispatches post notifications is on auto-pilot and we rarely go to the actual Treehouse Twitter home page.  Only yesterday I became aware of the DM feature and upon checking the ‘envelopey thing’ realized people had submitted notes that sat unattended.  Again, my apologies.

Brass Tacks on the Zimmerman case:

Meet The Clockers:   The revelation that Trayvon Martin’s phone holds a video he made of a homeless man being beaten by Trayvon and his team of co-horts is, well, a big deal.  A VERY big deal.

This means the State of Florida has known since, well, lets be generous, June/July of last year, that they possessed evidence of a crime.   Obviously, it appears they did nothing about it – most likely because it would have presented itself as a diminishment to their case and the narrative of innocent, skittle carrying, teenage Trayvon.

However, now the video is known by both the Defense and the Prosecution, and by consequence the media, I’m sure someone would want to follow up on the criminal activity the video documents.    Someone, anyone, right? (more…)

UPDATE:   Major mistake on my part.   I wrongly attributed the keen strategy to The O’Mara…  I did not notice it was actually written by, and filed by, Don West.  So I take back my compliment of O’Mara and place it where it should be – with Don West.   Figures.  

“Admissibility”, that’s the key question behind the State of Florida attempting to keep the toxicology report on Trayvon Martin out of the courtroom.   Bernie De La Rionda (prosecution) wants to keep the jury from hearing about young Martin’s stoner proclivities.  Mark O’Mara  Don West (defense) feels the jury should know about Trayvon’s illegal drug use.

What’s more interesting, at least to me, is how O’Mara Don West  uses his response to share “NEW”, previously unknown,  discovery evidence.    Well played. (more…)

(Dr. Krop High School – 2007) A student was arrested for possession of marijuana in the butterfly garden in November, during second lunch. [Dr. Krop High School Resource] Officer Darryl Dunn was informed by Crime Watch students and arrested him immediately.

This was the eighth case of student arrests for drug possession this year; which, according to Dunn, is a low number compared to other years.

“Last year around this time, I had about 15 to 20 arrests,” he said. (more…)

Multiple motions filed by the State of Florida last week are coming to light today.   One of the more interesting motions is the “State Motion Regarding The Calling Of A Witness“.

In essence BDLR is filing a motion, in advance of the case even starting, asking the judge to deliver an order, to stop the defense from using the absence of witness testimony to show the weakness in the State’s case.

The motion itself is predictive in nature – meaning the State is predicting the Defense will use a non-called witness against them.    Which begs the following question:

What witnesses are optically so valuable to the State’s case that their absence would prejudice a jury?   (more…)

I’ve been on the phone almost all day today and I’m only just now getting to absorb much of the State’s filings recently released.

However, that said, a cursory review shows both intent and direction the State plans on taking with the case.

We’ll be highlighting some of the motions, individually, from not only a “what” perspective, but also based on the knowledge and depth of previous, and ongoing, research into the mix we will be presenting the more important “why” factors.

As with all discussions considerations of “timing” are key to a greater understanding of “intent”.   Example:  With the discovery phase still ongoing why would the state present blanket motions to “exclude” information from the trial.   One can only logically apply a “predictive sense” or trying to “get out ahead of an issue” to diminish the importance or value of it. (more…)

Gee, given the propensity of the School Superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, to force Miami-Dade School Police to use the Baker Act to divert students way from the criminal justice system….. what could possibly go wrong?

MIAMI (CBS4) – It’s called the silent epidemic; children and adolescents suffering from mental illness.   Without early intervention it’s considered by many experts to be a time bomb.

One of the nation’s leading experts on mental illness, Miami-Dade Judge Steve Leifman, said time is running out. He’s launched an offensive to identify children in trouble and children who might cause trouble.

“Miami-Dade County has the largest number of people with mental illness than any other urban area equivalent in the nation. That’s 52,000 children and less than one-third have access to treatment,” Leifman told CBS4’s Chief Investigative Reporter Michele Gillen.

Leifman is the architect of a project whose goal is to identify mental illness in students. Beginning in March, the program ”Typical or Troubled?” will roll out in a handful of schools across the country. (more…)

Major Hat Tip Recoverydotgod

If you have been following with interest the Miami-Dade School Police Department -internal affairs investigation- you probably have a lot of questions about the diversion program(s) they used.

The interim police chief Gerald Kitchell penned a white paper, in March of this year, for the publication “Police Chief Magazine”.

It is interesting to note the definitions and the processes Kitchell is explaining.

CLICK HERE

It should be noted that the permanent police Chief is expected to be picked soon.

Or as Dear Sharon would say, “Fire in the Hole”!   😀

The trial of George Zimmerman draws closer, so let me clarify some considerations, with perhaps a sense of urgency.   Some, heck, many, are searching for an agenda where none exists.

This is not a fight the Treehouse chose; This is a fight which chose the Treehouse.

First, The Conservative Treehouse (aka The Treehouse, The Last Refuge, the “nutters” et al) has never had any contact with the George Zimmerman defense. Never. Not Once. Ever. Not Mark O’Mara; Not Don West; Not either of their offices, interested parties, affiliates or representatives.

No, nor have we ever tried to contact them; Again, we repeat, “ever”. (more…)

Recently I received advice, from a person closely following the Trayvon Martin / George Zimmerman story, to take some researched evidence to the “main stream” media.   So I did, and I’ll outline my experience below.   What follows is the exact reason why the Media is no longer considered a Fourth Estate.

One thing the media never does any longer is ask questions, the “why” questions.  You’ll notice the mainstream media, in a general sense, only reports on stories, and even then only on the stories they view are within the purpose of their editorial agenda;  And stories fed to them from daily newswires, or occasionally consultants, which they are paid to regurgitate.

“It’s a cost vs. benefit analysis”, I was told by a local Orlando media reporter, “we have limited funding for resources, and expenses, and so the editors only want to expend money on stories that will drive income”, they continued.

As I asked whether or not they would be willing to look into information, or even consider information if it were just presented to them, the response was also oddly disjointed when you think of the original purpose of a news gathering and public interest.

“If it pertains to Trayvon Martin’s criminal behavior, or evidence of burglary, we are not interested”, I was told.  “Our editors and editorial board have decided that nothing about that has anything to do with the events in Sanford”.  “Nor does that have anything to do with the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman”. (more…)