The Re-Trial is now officially a "GO."
Melissa McKowan announced the people's intent to retry the case.
It APPEARS that Weinberg will be representing ayres again. In chambers (or at some point prior to today's hearing), dates for the re-trial were discussed, but none were selected, and in court, Weinberg then asked for a 2 week continuance before they make a decision.
McKowan stated the people's preference to just set the date, right then and there.
The judge granted the two week continuance, but clarified that they have already discussed potential dates, and that one of those will be selected, so there won't be any further "delay" of the retrial.
The continued hearing will be Friday, September 11th, 2009 at 9AM PST.
(Personal aside: September 11th is always a pretty difficult day for me. This will not be so great, but I'm guessing that McKowan probably suffered long and hard in chambers to keep Weinberg from getting 2 months continuance, so I'm not going to complain too loudly.)
ayres and his wife were present, along with Weinberg and his assistant.
There were 10 other people present in "public" part of the courtroom, at least 9 of whom are known to support the victims in the case. One of them was a juror in the original trial, and was greeted with a very cheerful "Good Morning!" from ayres as he hobbled (allegedly) into the courtroom with his walker.
One representative of the mainstream press was present, just as the judge was wrapping up.
[UPDATE 8/28/2009, 9:30PM PST:] The reporter that showed up at the last moment has published her article. It can be found in the San Mateo County Times. This is an interesting article, and we will have a bit of commentary on it in awhile. You'll note she mentions this blog several times in the article. Well, OK, she doesn't mention the blog by name, instead she refers to us as: "News leaked weeks ago", "Questions were left looming", and "Amid swirling rumors" but close enough right? (RIGHT?) Yeah...
There ARE a few interesting tidbits there though, so go read it. We'll discuss later.
[UPDATE 8/31/2009:] As of 11:26am today, the San Mateo County Times has updated their page to include a note that the "fundraising letter" that they discuss was first obtained by Victoria Balfour, and then reported on this blog on the 17th of July.
Superior Court Clerk's office: 650-599-1170
ayres' criminal case number:SC064366
Ayres thinks his contrarian tactics like saying "Good morning" to a juror who wanted to convict him and "Isn't it a lovely day" to a mother of a victim will intimidate them or throw them off base.
ReplyDeleteIt won't.
Why does the judge bend over backward for Weinberg? Makes me ill.
ReplyDeleteAyres is a sick freak for his hello tactics, wide eyed smiles etc.
ReplyDeleteIt is extemely low class of him and Solveig to partake in acts of WEIRDNESS.
How many people hate Ayres and have seen him at Lunardi's, the symphony and even Solveig at Masterworks Chorale?
Perhaps it's time to do the same.
"Oh hi there are you that child molester? Yeah that's you."
Wonder what his neighbors at
ReplyDeletehis rented condo at
153 N SAN MATEO DR
think of him.
I wish someone would get a photo of the good doctor without his walker. Just so we all know what we feel in our hearts—that Ayres hopes to play on the sympathy of just one juror!
ReplyDeleteDo we have a pool on starting dates? I say mid-January. I hope the reports of an El Nino winter are wrong, that walk from the Caltrain station to the courthouse will be a wet one!
His obnoxious, nauseating smiley greeting was also directed at one of the victim's mothers. He is totally lacking any moral fiber. He is appalling.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they are both lacking FIBER all together!
ReplyDeletePlugged up with fake smiles to hide the pain. Eat some prunes.
This cannot be a lovely day for either of them.
Will Robert Ayres even be able to afford a plane ticket for the retrial?
I heard the family is broke.
Except we haven't heard anything about the daughter, maybe she is hiding her money before they take that too! It's probably stuffed under her mattress.
"This has bankrupted Dr. Ayres and his family and some of his friends. It's been very difficult," Dr. Robert Kimmich said.
ReplyDeleteWhat friends have been bankrupted?
The ones who are foolish enough to support him?
Sorry DS I am going to quote Forrest Gump on this one:
Stupid is as stupid does!
It's worse than just the friends being foolish enough to support him.
ReplyDeleteI'm not at all shocked that other shrinks would make statements such as that "he thought of Ayres as an "upright, knowledgeable, well-trained psychiatrist.""
It's simply deplorable that mental health professionals are standing up and publicly defending actions about which they know NOTHING. If they want to defend him, they should volunteer their services to testify on his behalf in court, but they should not publicly sew seeds of distrust against people who are be victims of the man. This is simply adding another layer of distrust onto people who have already been betrayed by the psychiatric community.
These people have a whole lot of gall, and not very much humanity.
I take a good deal of flak for characterizing ayres as guilty even though he hasn't been proven so in court, and it's about time that some of these mental health "professionals" start taking some flak for implying that all of these victims are liars before they have been proven so.
No victim in their right mind who needs the assistance of a mental health professional would entertain the idea of talking to one of those people.
What a shame.
Nope, the County Times broke all ethics rules in journalism for failing to properly credit this blog.
ReplyDeleteNot cool of them to do this. Not at all.
It's simply deplorable that mental health professionals are standing up and publicly defending actions about which they know NOTHING. If they want to defend him, they should volunteer their services to testify on his behalf in court, but they should not publicly sew seeds of distrust against people who are be victims of the man. This is simply adding another layer of distrust onto people who have already been betrayed by the psychiatric community.
ReplyDeleteThese people have a whole lot of gall, and not very much humanity.
I take a good deal of flak for characterizing ayres as guilty even though he hasn't been proven so in court, and it's about time that some of these mental health "professionals" start taking some flak for implying that all of these victims are liars before they have been proven so.
No victim in their right mind who needs the assistance of a mental health professional would entertain the idea of talking to one of those people.
What a shame.
Bankrupted his friends?
ReplyDeleteI hate to sound like a total bitch here, but there is simply no way I'd "loan" or "give" money to anyone in this situation! Family members, but former colleagues gave him money?
Don't they teach investment planning in medical school? Handing money over for Ayres' defense is not a sound investment.
Unless of course they are looking to take a "bad debt" deduction from their taxes...
Perhaps Dr. Dick Shadoan might want to start a fundraising letter for Robert Ayres...
ReplyDeleteWhy don't the doctors ever comment on his book collection, make statements that those are normal.
ReplyDeleteYou are right DS, damn shame how far the doctors will go to act like Ayres is innocent.
Friends are bankrupt....which ones, the ones he sued?
He sued his friends and colleagues!
The guy is a an a**hole! I am frggin po'ed now!
I believe that Weinberg will come back in two weeks and say he isn't taking the case.
ReplyDeleteThen Ayres will delay by getting a new lawyer.
Meanwhile, I hope that the DA's office really starts digging into Ayres' background in Boston. I believe that what they find will force Ayres to plead guilty.
"I believe that Weinberg will come back in two weeks and say he isn't taking the case."
ReplyDeleteThat does seem to be the feeling out there, at least in the San Mateo County Times article, AND in comments on the new sprocket posting.
I suspected early on that that was going to be the tactic. It seems that the entire strategy is to just delay the whole thing until he's dead.
However, for some reason, I'm feeling about 50/50 on it now. Maybe we'll know on the 11th.
The District Attorney's office needs to do a lot more groundwork and investigating into ayres east coast training and roots and employee history.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't appear that they did enough legwork there to convince a jury on intent.
Since the prosecution is going for a conviction, not just playing around, I think they probably need time to regroup and put everything in order, fix any mistakes and use evidence uncovered, especially evidence from witnesses back east if possible.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, it seems only likely that it will be at least Jan. until a new trial can be held.
If Ayres doesn't use his walker and all that, and maybe his newfound poverty will restrict his diet somewhat leading to weight loss and better health (I can't help being sarcastic), well, a little extra time bodes well for a well run retrial and closure in this case.
I couldn't help noticing that you have a picture of a Dixie Cup in your photo montage. Did Ayres have a large supply in his office? Where were they kept?
ReplyDelete