STORY: "Judges for Justice responds to Robinson report," by reporter Bryan Clark, published by The Post Register on September 14, 2016.
GIST: "Former
King County, Wash., Superior Court Judge Mike Heavey, co-founder of
Judges for Justice, has submitted an initial response to a
recent report on the conviction of Chris Tapp for the 1996 murder of 18-year-old Angie Dodge. That report, written by Twin Falls private investigator Stuart
Robinson, doesn’t point to any reliable evidence that Tapp had
participated in the murder, though he did conclude that Tapp must have
witnessed the act..........Heavey’s six-page response argues Robinson’s report contains “many
factual errors, partial representations of facts, concerning omissions
and erroneous conclusions.” It also notes that former FBI Supervisory
Special Agent Steve Moore is preparing a more detailed response, which
will be submitted within one month. “It’s not surprising that Mr. Heavey disagrees with some of Mr.
Robinson’s conclusions,” Bonneville County Prosecutor Danny Clark said. In 2014 Moore wrote a scathing 85-page critique of the Idaho Falls
Police Department’s investigative work in the case. It found that Tapp’s
confession is demonstrably false. Through Judges for Justice, Heavey and Moore were both involved in efforts to free Amanda Knox
. In an email, Robinson said he would not comment on the response until the more-detailed report is submitted. Robinson’s report doesn’t spell out clearly which pieces of evidence
lead him to the conclusion that Tapp witnessed the murder, but Heavey’s
response addresses two of Robinson’s arguments. The first is that when Tapp was questioned by then-Detective Jared
Fuhriman, he did not directly deny involvement, as Robinson believes an
innocent person would do. Heavey argues that Fuhriman, who Robinson’s report suggests gave
untruthful testimony during the trial, “did not directly accuse Tapp of
involvement that might elicit a denial. Fuhriman tried to build trust
with Tapp and was trying the get Tapp to implicate Ben Hobbs in the
murder.” Heavey further points out eight times in the first interview with
Fuhriman in which Tapp denies having any knowledge about the murder. Robinson’s other argument is that Tapp said that Dodge was wearing a
T-shirt and sweatpants. While Robinson found that the rest of the
information in Tapp’s confession was fed to him during police
interviews, he found no place where they had told Tapp what she was
wearing. Heavey pointed out that Robinson had misquoted Tapp’s statement, and
he points out that Tapp was wrong about the color of both the shirt and
the sweatpants. Robinson also pointed out that Tapp made the statement:
“Like her sweats were half on. One leg was (unintelligible).” He
concluded that this meant Tapp knew Angie’s sweat pants were pulled down
slightly more on one side than the other. Moore previously drew the opposite conclusion, that Tapp was
indicating that one leg of Dodge’s sweat pants had been pulled off
entirely. Heavey also pointed out that Tapp was wrong about the position
of Dodge’s shirt..........Bonneville County prosecutors previously said they haven’t come to
conclusions about the report, and they are awaiting feedback from the
Idaho Falls Police Department, Judges for Justice and Tapp’s defense
attorney."
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.postregister.com/articles/news-daily-email-todays-headlines/2016/09/14/judges-justice-responds-robinson-report#
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The
Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty
incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the
harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into
pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology
system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent
stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
Please
send any comments or information on other cases and issues of
interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.
Harold Levy. Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.