Thursday, June 11, 2009

Week 2 of Trial - Jury Selection


Jury Selection is ON HOLD until next week, as they deal with a defense motion to supress some set of facts or other...

We will post information in summary form as we get it in.

There was an article on Monday morning in the Mercury News. It's good to see that the trial is getting coverage in the mainstream press. This article is by Elizabeth Pfeffer, with contribution from Michael Manekin and Amy Yarbrough.

For those who can't make it to the courtroom on a daily basis, the fastest way to get information is through the Superior Court Clerk's office:
Phone number there: 650-599-1170
Ayres' criminal case number: SC064366

29 comments:

  1. Link to story doesn't work.

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  2. Does it work now? I made a small change, but it worked OK for me before too. Should open in a new window.

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  3. Yes it works now.

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  4. Notice the wording on the news article by Doron Weinberg:

    "No serious discussions"

    of a plea bargain that is.

    That is not a direct answer to the fact that there were discussions....I am assuming.

    Ayres must be feeling pretty crummy right now.

    I wonder what he thinks of his jury pool.

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  5. Lively discussion on role of journalist Victoria Balfour in the courtroom:

    http://talkabout.hmbreview.com/topic.php?c=10&d=&o=&t=4269#comment_form

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  6. From Carmina Burana, O Fortuna

    O Fortune,
    like the moon
    Stands constantly changing,
    ever waxing
    or waning;
    hateful life
    now oppresses
    and then soothes
    as fancy takes it;
    poverty
    and power
    it melts them like ice.

    Fate - monstrous
    and empty,
    you whirling wheel,
    stand malevolent,
    well-being is vain
    and always fades to nothing,
    shadowed
    and veiled
    you plague me too;
    now through the game
    I bring my bare back
    to your villainy.

    Fate, in health
    and virtue,
    is against me
    driven on
    and weighted down,
    always enslaved.
    So at this hour
    without delay
    pluck the vibrating strings;
    since Fate
    strikes down the strong man,
    everyone weep with me!



    What a LOVELY, LOVELY job Masterworks Chorale did on one of my favorite classical pieces; now tainted forever.

    (Please forgive my my little transgression, PA. [I hope you're sharing a grin and a tear with me...])

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  7. Your photo montages are so great!

    I just put a cool new option at the top of my blog!

    Deep Sounding you have truly been an inspiration, not just to me, but to a lot of people.

    Sometimes, it is strange how karma brings people together to fight a common cause.

    Hang in there because you know time moves fast sometimes! Then slow when we are waiting.......

    Courage is not just a word it is what you and many others exhibit everyday!

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  8. FYI- That woman who is arm in arm with the good doctor is meek and malleable Thea Leavitt, wife of pediatrician Sam Leavitt. Leavitt referred many boys to Ayres. But when one father asked Leavitt if it was normal for ayres to be undressing his sons and showing them "anatomical drawings" Leavitt just looked uncomfortable and changed the subject.

    Way to go, Sam. What were you thinking?

    But we have noticed that Thea no longer accompanies the ayres to the courthouse. Where are ayres' children and his supporters?

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  9. Scary looking old Santa! He exudes the word guilty! I would not hire him to be Santa at a fn prison!

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  10. Maybe Thea gave up on ayres, no longer supports him. Thea said i ain't holding u up get a walker u fat bastard!

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  11. From Sarah, posted at the SM Daily Journal today June 9:

    jury selection
    went to jury selection and the bailiff told me that there is gonna be 150 today and that i wont be able to sit down at all. and yesterday there were 250 jurors so im going to go back at 3:30 and see how many there are remaining

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  12. Thanks for the compliments PA!

    I LOVE the link at the top of your blog. I'm trying to figure out if it has a rotating picture figure, or if it is something you're doing manually. At one point I saw the photo of ayres with a Svea Schwein - style bacchanal hat painted on... nearly choked laughing.

    The music is Carl Orff's O Fortuna. (Lyrics I posted) it's streaming directly from the Masterworks Chorale website. Icky-ish, given the source, but so very fitting.

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  13. The Chief Deputy DA says only that opening arguments will start the week of June 16. He doesn't say that arguments start on the 16th

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  14. Opening Arguments, then a lot more arguing in between, then closing arguments, after tiral arguments,

    Thanks Doron Weinberg for ya!

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  15. I din't have my coffee yet...

    That's Doron Weinberg for you, meaning argumentative.

    I promise to have sufficient caffeine before writing anything next time.

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  16. Weinberg doesn't have the fire for this case. It won't grab the same media attention that the Spector case had and it's just such a downer of a case.

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  17. Quote from San Mateo Daily News story,June 6, 2009:

    “Dr. Ayres has had a distinguished ca reer and he is not a child molester,” Wein berg said. “He has declared his innocence of all these charges and we hope that he will be vindicated at trial.”

    Never mind that Weinberg used the jumping- out- -from- the- page words "child molester."

    Note also the tentative choice of words "we hope he will be vindicated."

    A confident lawyer would say" He will be vindicated at trial."

    I tell you, Weinberg is struggling with this case.

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  18. I don't see anything distinguished about Ayres career at all. I mean just because a few elected offcials throw you a plaque saying you are great (cost $15.00) and say a nice speech about you really doesn't mean you are distinguished.

    I mean an elected official!

    Other than that being elected to various posts himself just means no one else wanted the job.

    Another title.

    Distinguished? Show me some volunteer work, donations to various causes.

    He only got the gig through the court because he was the "low bidder", that is how government work goes, submit a bid come in low you get the job.

    Was it quality work, well obviously not, in fact, if the County is named in a lawsuit for any wrong doing they may need to re-evaluate using the low bidder who may have a reason for bidding low.

    I just don't see one thing Ayres did that was distinguished, nada, zip.

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  19. Patient Advocate:

    You're spot on. The good doctor never wrote a single paper or did good pro bono work for kids. It was all about getting a steady stream of boys to molest, and it was all about getting a lot of money for it.

    Karma indeed, that all of that money is going towards his defense. And he'll lose the case. And he won't have any money left to give his kids - the kids who haven't shown up so far at the trial.

    What are his kids thinking? Are they following the news ? Do they believe their father is innocent or are they just hope their names won't be dragged down with his?

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  20. Ayres has a horrible sunburn in photo! To much time with Weinberg & no sunscreen. I suggest SPF 77.

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  21. Hmmm... Somehow, I don't think that's sunburn...

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  22. In the official Weinberg dictionary, "distinguished" means "he's been doing this for a long time."

    And by "this" I mean everything: administering court- or parental-ordered "therapy" to adolescent boys being adolescent boys, and teaching them all about "the bad touch" (no disrespect intended to the Bloodhound Gang, it just works here!).

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  23. "Wilson" over at the SM Daily Journal Forum offered some suggestions for witnesses for the prosecution:

    The full name of the smart therapist who reported Greg Hogue's case is Jeff Lugerner.
    He still lives and works in the area. Wonder if he's been called as a witness. He should be.

    Jeff Lugerner was interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle for an April 7, 2007 story "Stain Doesn't Wash Off, Psychiatrist's Accuser Says"

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NGTTP4OGV1.DTL

    Quote by Lugerner on Greg Hogue's case:

    "He continued to be sent families and kids who put their trust in him when the county knew that there was this report put in by me and possibly others," said Jeff Lugerner, who was a licensed clinical social worker when he brought a complaint to authorities in 1987 after Hogue told him Ayres had fondled him at age 15. "That's what's shocking to me. How do you continue to send people to somebody like that when you have had a claim filed against them?"

    Child psychiatrist Dr. David Schwartz, who treated boys at Hillcrest and who knew Ayres also gives damning quotes and information about Ayres in that same article. Officer Rick Nielsen interviewed Dr. Schwartz for the Greg Hogue case in 1987.

    Excerpt from Chronicle:

    Dr. David Schwartz, who worked for San Mateo County from 1965 until his retirement in 1987, said he initially thought highly of Ayres but later grew suspicious when a youth, who was living in a group home, adamantly refused additional treatment by Ayres.

    "I had referred him to Dr. Ayres, but after a visit or two, he refused to go back and he wouldn't talk about it,'' said Schwartz. "His social worker and I were both concerned. That was my first clue."

    His second clue came years later, when a San Mateo detective consulted Schwartz, asking whether it was common practice for a child psychiatrist to perform a genital examination with a latex glove.

    "I said absolutely not," Schwartz said. "I told him that it was entirely inappropriate, unnecessary and potentially very destructive to a child. He did not name Dr. Ayres, but when I said Dr. Ayres to the detective, he nodded. I put two and two together.

    "Child psychiatrists have a lot of power, they are almost priest-like,'' Schwartz said. "These kids were reluctant to see a psychiatrist in the first place. In the child community, going to a shrink is something to be ashamed of. It's a trust issue, and betrayal of trust is unconscionable."

    Schwartz is alive and well in living in California. Will he be a witness for the prosecution about the police investigation into Greg Hogue?

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  24. In his sex ed television series, ayres looks and acts like a very depressed Truman Capote - a much taller Truman Capote, in a bow tie.

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  25. Perhaps any or all of this info is what Whineberg wants suppressed.

    Past settlements included.

    Perhaps the most damning of evidence past allegations and a past settlement combined can only equal one thing in my mind.......Guilty.

    What about David Grossman who was a guest commentator. He was the son of a doctor.

    I mean how much evidence has been supressed for 40 or so years a hella lot.

    Mounds, mountains and Whineberg thinks a few character witnesses for Ayres is gonna throw a sprinkle of water on this raging forest fire......

    No wonder Whineberg needs a delay, he had no idea what he got himself into.....not that I have pity on his bank account.....

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  26. Oddly, the jury can't know about the civil settlement, but Ayres' deposition for the civil suit is admissible.

    The 1987 police investigation into Greg Hogue's case is obviously admissible, because that was a criminal investigation.

    David Gross is an out of statute victim. He is not one of the four who will testify in this case, though he was to be a witness in Steve Abrams' civil suit.

    They should call therapist Jeff Lugerner and Dr. David Schwartz, because they are professionals and were part of Hogue's criminal investigation.

    My guess is that on Monday Whineberg will ask to have the civil suit deposition repressed and then if that is denied, he will immediately ask for a mistrial. Or can you do that before the actual trial starts? Whatever. It will be the first of about 200 mistrial requests he'll end up making. Wonder if he'll beat his mistrial request record that he achieved in the Spector trial? He's set a pretty high bar for himself but we think we can break his own previous record.

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  27. Love the photo on the top right of "The Monster" burning in hell.

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  28. Very interesting comment left at www.millspeninsula.blogspot.com:

    Anonymous said...
    On the $$ issue, ayres saved 20% of his gross earnings each year and invested it for retirement over his 45 -year career. He charged his patients a lot. I beleive he had quite some $$ saved up in his 401K.

    However, his previous settlement must have cost him a lot. Otherwise, he would not had to sell his Hillsborough house. I know that house is his pride and joy.

    The Bill Ayres I knew was arragant, demanding and narcissistic. Though I can't say whether he indeed committed the crimes. The fact that he turned around and sued his own group that always supported him was terrible. And it truely showed what kind of person he really is. I am horrrified that I was once associated with him. I despise him.

    June 12, 2009 2:23 PM

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