Sunday, June 7, 2009

First Week of Trial - Weekend Wrap

Weekend wrapup summary is finally posted below.

Upcoming Schedule:

Jury selection starts Monday, June 8 and will
go through Wednesday June 10.

The DA's office expects to finish up jury selection
the week starting Monday, June 15./

NOTE from DeepSounding: To keep the commentary to these posts somewhat
orderly, I will be shutting off comments for most posts, like the NEWS BLIPS,
and leaving commentary open only on the "Header Posting" for any given day, and
the summary posting for that day, if one exists. Just post comments to the
header posting if you want to comment on the news blips, or any other old
posting, even if it's somewhat off-topic. My intent is to always allow
commentary, but group it a bit for more exposure and easier
administration.


Thursday June 4th Summary Below:

13 comments:

  1. Weinberg's heart doesn't seem to be in this case.

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  2. What about his wallet?

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  3. Weinberg is a glamour queen. He's in it for the show, not the dough.

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  4. With this case, he's in it for the dough.

    This is not a fun case. Who knows how much media attention it will get him, anyway?

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  5. Losing two high-profile cases in a row? Ah, the life of a defense attorney, especially one with a guilty client.

    That's positively Geragos-like, and he keeps getting clients!

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  6. Hey Deep Sounding: when are we going to see the latest notes on the latest hearing ?

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  7. Deep Sounding: Are you going to comment on Weinberg's banishing Victoria Balfour from the courtroom ? Do you think it was done on good faith or was it punishment for her taking on Ayres in the first place?

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  8. I will be posting the latest notes and some commentary of my own SOMETIME this weekend. Very likely tonight. (Saturday)

    I will be off-line for most of today, so it will have to wait, at least for a bit.

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  9. I posted my thoughts on the matter on my blog.....hope you don't object...

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  10. From the San Mateo Daily News:

    No plea deal for accused molester
    Ayres, 77, faces 20 felony counts of lewd acts


    BY ELIZABETH PFEFFER
    Bay Area News Group
    Rumors that accused child molester Dr. William Ayres could avoid a criminal trial with a plea bargain were emphatically de­nied by both prosecution and defense at­torneys who insist the child psychiatrist is marching toward a jury trial.
    “We’ve never sought to plea bargain the case, we don’t plan to plea bargain the case, and we’re ready for trial,” said San Mateo County Chief Deputy District At­torney Steve Wagstaffe.
    Doron Weinberg, Ayres’ defense at­torney, said Friday there have not been “serious discussions” of a plea deal for the former San Mateo doctor.
    Ayres, 77, is accused of molesting doz­ens of preadolescent male patients from as far back as the 1970s, though just seven accusers fall under the state’s statute of limitations, which requires such charges be brought by victims who are under 29 or born after 1998. He is facing 20 counts of felony molestation.
    Deputy District Attorney Melissa McKowan, the case’s lead prosecutor, said earlier this week that the defense had approached her with a plea deal a few months back. The prosecutor said that Weinberg was only interested in a pretrial settlement if Ayres remained free on an appeals process.
    For most of his career, Ayres was one of San Mateo County’s most respected child psychiatrists, in 2002 receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Board of Supervisors for his work with youth. He served for more than a decade as president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
    Ayres admitted to performing physical examinations on juvenile psychiatric pa­tients, sometimes of their genitals. His de­fense attorney has argued that these exami­nations were legitimate and routine practice that has been m isunderstood by prosecutors and misinterpreted by the accusers.
    “Dr. Ayres has had a distinguished ca­reer and he is not a child molester,” Wein­berg said. “He has declared his innocence of all these charges and we hope that he will be vindicated at trial.”
    One of the out-of-statute witnesses slated to testify for the prosecution spoke with Bay Area News Group several months before Ayres’ arrest, claiming he was molested by the psychiatrist in 1985 when he was 15 years old. Greg Hogue was one of the alleged victims who coop­erated in the yearlong investigation lead­ing up to Ayres’ April 2007 arrest.
    Hogue told police in 2006 that his school district referred him to Ayres after a note he wrote to a classmate was mis­construed as a suicide threat.
    In the police report, Hogue said Ayres unbuttoned his pants and performed a physical on him during their first session. During another session, he said Ayres sat in a chair in front of him, made him pull down his pants and touched his penis.
    Hogue said he told his mother what happened and she informed her therapist. The therapist made a report about the inci­dent to Child Protective Services in 1987. After an investigation, the complaint was deemed unfounded.
    Victoria Balfour, a freelance writer who assisted police in their investigation of Ayres, said the judge accepted Hogue as a witness because the prosecution argued that his reported out-of-statute molesta­tion corroborated the stories of certain in­statute victims. Although Balfour has not been subpoenaed to testify, Weinberg said the defense had not totally ruled out call­ing her to the stand.
    Ayres remains out of custody on $750,000 bail. He is expected to return to court Monday for the continuation of pretrial motions. Opening statements are anticipated to start on the week of June 16, accor ding to Wagstaffe.

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  11. Patient Advocate: Your article on Victoria Balfour was GREAT!

    I've even stolen from it in my little article on this. But I attributed you. And I implored people to go over to your place and read it. And I'm going it again here.. it's a great write-up. Everyone GO READ IT!

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  12. Trials & Tribulations will follow this case to the end and report as much of the proceedings as we can.

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  13. Thanks Sprocket! Thanks Deep Sounding and troop.....we will appreciate the information....

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