Criminal Justice Panda

Anonymous asked: as someone who has a vested interest in some of your writings, may i ask who you father was so i may thank him?

I don’t feel comfortable giving away my name except on twitter. (Ironic…)

Anonymous asked: o you know about jimmon jackson?

Nope.

light2thedark asked: LOL I love your blog! Can you make one with an Asian going into Law Enforcement? Whenever I walk into class I'm like the only one!! I'm usually like, "FCK YES! TOTALLY GETTING A JOB!"

I wouldn’t know about any Asians in Law Enforcement. I’m Dutch and Irish. My uncle’s father was an American GI stationed in Japan. He was adopted, but he’s still half Japanese. He works for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

I’m glad that Chase on NBC was cancelled before a full season. It was highly inaccurate in SO MANY respects. I will focus on a few.

The characters didn’t carry Glock 22s, the standard gun for the United States Marshal Service.

The main character drove an $75000 ESCALADE. It wasn’t even the Suburban version of the Escalade, which has a third row and enough trunk space for every weapon and tactical gear needed. Nope, it was the Tahoe version of the Escalade, which has two rows of seats, and a much smaller trunk.

A Federal agency would NEVER shell out for a luxury brand. Why buy a Towncar when a Crown Vic is much cheaper to purchase and repair, even though MOST, not all, parts are interchangeable? I’ve only ever seen a Grand Marquis used as a law enforcement vehicle ONCE even though it has been touted as a car of law enforcement agencies, and that was in the pilot of Justified.

Also, ALL departments, states, or agencies buy in bulk so that they can get cars for half the cost. My uncle works for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and he said that Iowa can buy 100 Chargers total for all the various state law enforcement agencies for $15000. That’s a damn good deal compared to about $25000 for the standard Police Package single car price.

Two or three Chevy Suburbans can be purchased at the bulk rate for the cost of just one Escalade based on the Chevy Tahoe. What Federal Agency would buy just one Escalade? Even a bulk rate would still cost too much. The Chevy Suburban has been the preferred SUV of Federal Agencies since the 1970’s at least.

The Des Moines Police purchased a new Chevy Camaro when I was in elementary school for a Public Relations thing. I haven’t seen it ANYWHERE (not even parades, RAGBRAI, or the Iowa State Fair) since I was in about 8th grade. I’m a sophomore in college now. In fact, when I drive past the motor pool, I only see Crown Vics, Chargers, an Impala/Malibu or two and old Explorers.

Is that how his name is spelled? I was on Spring Break in Virginia and didn’t have any interweb. I only had twitter on my phone, which can’t open news stories, only blurbs from news sources.

Anywho, it’ll be a BITCH trying to find an unbiased jury in the Trayvon Martin case as even I had heard a little about it with no full interweb and no cable news. When the President talks about a case, it goes on the news for a few hours, if not days. If it was already big, it will be bigger.

A friend who wants to be a local LEO for a good sized police department wants this Neighborhood Watch man to burn. He doesn’t really care about a fair trial. That just doesn’t seem right.

Has anyone other than Iowans heard of Donald Piper? My uncle was the lead investigator for the first murder (he works for the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation, DCI from here on).

Back in 1993, Patricia Lange was found dead in her University Park Holiday Inn in West Des Moines, Iowa. She had been sexually assaulted before her murder. The MO is too disgusting to mention.

In 1997, a maid at the Budgetel Inn in Clive, Iowa named Zurijeta Sakanovic was murdered using the EXACT SAME MO. The case went cold until a third murder with an eerily similar, but not the exact MO. Keep in mind that the MO hadn’t been released fully to the public, so that there were no copycats I suppose.

My uncle was assigned the Patricia Lange case back in the mid 1990’s, I believe, he managed to extract DNA from semen left in the hotel rooms. In about 1999, the West Des Moines Police made a break. After a court order for his DNA, he matched with the DNA found at ALL THREE murder scenes.

My uncle was on the stand for the Patricia Lange murder case as the key witness for well over 20 hours over a three day period. After 27 hours of deliberation, the jury found Don Piper guilty in 2000 of the Patricia Lange murder in 1993. The County Attorney (Iowa’s official name for District Attorneys) for Polk County wanted to try the Patricia Lange and Zurijeta Sakanovic murders together, but they weren’t within four years of less of each other, so they couldn’t be clumped together due to Iowa law.

Don Piper was found guilty of Zurijeta Sakanovic’s murder in 2001. Since the first case cost well over a MILLION DOLLARS, it was titled the “Trial of the Century”. The second trial had to be moved to the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City/Cedar Falls/ Waterloo area due to the fact that only 8 of the eligible jurors had heard nothing of his first trial and conviction. I’m pretty sure it was Cedar Rapids, but I do know for a fact that the witnesses had to fly into the Cedar Rapids Regional Airport.

I know that, because I was recently looking through the court documents for Investigation Discovery, which had come into Des Moines to film a documentary about all the previous suspects called “Unusual Suspects” (I think, I just like that I was paid to read the testimony of my uncle to find useful info).

The third murder was never tried because it cost too much for the first conviction alone. Two life sentences (Iowa doesn’t have the death penalty) was sufficient. There are also many cold cases that I wasn’t allowed to look at with similar modus operandis, because there still isn’t sufficient evidence for a conviction.

Anonymous asked: Why is it that you're not running this blog anymore? I don't even know if you'll get this message...hah.

It’s been a hectic year. I don’t have any more available CJ classes at my campus, but I intend to transfer soon to the University of Northern Iowa. Also, no one uses the generator anymore or submits anything.

oliviasudeikis asked: I agree. Personally, though, I like Nancy Grace. But I do agree she comes off too... arrogant? Like she knows everything, when she doesn't. Still though, based on what I personally heard regarding the Anthony case, she was right. But then again, *I* don't know everything. But some of the evidence... I don't know. Maybe the jurors saw some redeeming factor that I failed to see.

I take offense to whenever Nancy Grace thinks she knows more than the jury ever will BEFORE the case starts in court. She “off-puttin’” and I only watch her when Fox News won’t inflame me enough or when I need a good laugh as a Criminal Justice Major.

She’s a mockery of the American Legal System and I fear for the next case that she covers, since it will needless bullshit.

My teacher emphasized how surprisingly often, eligible jurors that have been influenced in any amount actually do slip through the cracks. Yes that’s right, opinionated jurors mask that well enough so that he/she can sway the case. It sickens me almost as much as people attempting to act crazy (for lack of a better term) so that he/she doesn’t have to do jury duty.

oliviasudeikis asked: But isn't jury selection conducted in a manner that weeds out people who have already been influenced by the media?

Yes, it is. What I’m saying is that it severely narrowed down the eligible jurors because of her coverage.

I find it HILARIOUS how Nancy Grace ALWAYS accuses the first suspect of committing the crime that is at trial. She does this without any evidence. Casey Anthony’s verdict further proves that just because Nancy Grace says that you killed someone, statistically you probably didn’t. She’s been wrong before on some high profile cases.

Remember that girl who was missing for over a decade? Everyone assumed the dad, but he had NOTHING to do with it.

In my opinion, Nancy Grace is a strident, arrogant, stuck up bitch who is more harmful with her show than Glenn Beck was on Fox News.

There’s this part of the Constitution which states in essence that you are innocent until proven guilty (not verbatim). Nancy Grace doesn’t abide by that. I’m certain that she’s influenced many high profile trials in her favor regardless of the actual evidence.

Even before the jury was selected, she was claiming that Casey Anthony committed the heinous crime. Her accusatory coverage of the case almost certainly swayed many of the people selected for jury duty before the whittling down began.

CNN should realize before they are sued for libel that her inflammatory remarks hurt the US Legal System exponentially more than she thinks she is helping it.