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| San Molesteo Doofus Attorney |
There's a new article in the San Mateo Daily Journal regarding additional California Bar Association discipline related to prosecutor McKowan's conduct with regard to victims during the trial and conviction of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry's celebrity child molester, william ayres.
Read it on San Mateo Daily Journal (pdf)
I added these comments in the comments section, but I don't think they'll allow any comments through (especially mine):
Just a few pieces of additional information / clarification:
1) According to this article, McKowan’s attorney DeMeester states that “McKowan’s critics unfairly blamed the prosecutor for a hung jury — which occurred when the jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of conviction. “ McKowan allowed a recently graduated “attorney” on to the jury. Legal eagles told us (victims and their families) even before the trial was underway that it is a CRITICAL mistake to allow an attorney, ESPECIALLY a NEW attorney, on to your jury, unless you intend to lose/mistrial. The ONE holdout in determining guilt on SIX of the counts was that attorney. So DeMeester is deliberately misinforming you, and it was not “unfair blaming” to claim that largely, the blame for mistrial lies squarely on District Attorney Wagstaffe’s shoulders, due to his staff’s misstep.
2) After the mistrial, the jury indicated that more definitive information about whether or not psychiatrists are “trained” to perform “genital examinations” on patients would have helped them to convict on the few counts that were more in question. The potential witness that McKowan said she contacted (but didn’t), and who was willing to testify, actually trained at the same place and time that the convicted child molester did. He would have likely been the star witness for the prosecution. Before the re-trial finally got underway, a local politician brought pressure to bear on DA Wagstaffe, insisting on a more aggressive prosecution. A second prosecutor was brought on board, AND another witness was found who would be able to testify about the training that took place at the place and time that the convicted child molester was in training. When the child molester’s last set of appeals were denied before the re—trial was underway, the molester immediately changed his plea to no contest. Clearly, the defense knew that the issue of training was so key, that there was no way the molester would prevail given that the DA was FORCED to provide strong witnesses this time around.
I have contended for some time that it seemed that the DA was reluctant to prosecute this child molester, because it would expose them to investigation regarding convictions that they achieved based on recommendations from the child molester, who was a contracted psychiatric evaluator for the County in youth criminal for DECADES. And it appears that, all the while, he was making “you comply with my molestations, or I testify against you” bargains with youthful offenders. Did the youth who refused to be molested have false testimony against them? Did they receive harsh(er) punishment because they didn’t want to allow themselves to be sexually violated?
I’m glad to see that Balfour has finally received some vindication for the slanders against her over the years, by the DA’s staff (I, myself was told by McKowan that Balfour was actually working for defense attorney Doron Weinberg), as well as the often skeptical treatment she has received from the local press, when she was shown to be correct time after time.
So I’ll take the opportunity to thank Victoria once again for the tireless pressure she brought to bear.
Postscripted:
McKowan's attorney DeMeester is telling you a bald-faced lie when he tells you that we "unfairly blamed the prosecutor for a hung jury."
In thinking about it, I remembered that McKowan actually admitted that two specific missteps on her part cost the trial the first time around.
I asked Victoria Balfour if this was her recollection as well, and she pulled out an article from The Mercury News published on October 25, 2011 (pdf).
McKowan actually takes credit for the loss, stating first that she should not have allowed an attorney onto the jury, and second, that she messed up the search warrant process and lost the ability to present "artsy porn" photos of young boys that the child molester had in his possession, and was showing to young boy patients.
Excerpts from the article:
Crucial mistakes
Though McKowan considers the notion that the DA’s office pulled its punches against Ayres outrageous, she acknowledged two mistakes that she believes cost her the conviction.
The first was allowing a freshly minted attorney onto the jury. That young woman would go on to express doubt over the accusers’ credibility and vote in favor of acquittal on all nine counts of lewd and lascivious conduct. This newspaper’s attempts to reach the juror were unsuccessful.
In announcing they were hopelessly deadlocked in July 2009, jurors said they split 11-1 in favor of conviction on at least one count, while the rest ranged between 10-2 and 7-5 in favor of guilty.
McKowan said the conventional wisdom among lawyers is you don’t want one of your own on a jury. There’s a risk that person will second-guess your performance rather than focus on whether the evidence supports the charges. There’s also the potential that person will use his or her knowledge of the law to unfairly influence the panel.
“Everything led me to believe she would be a good juror for the prosecution. I just had a feeling about her,” said McKowan, who now admits she was wrong. “I should have bounced her.”
The other error kept her from showing jurors books found in Ayres’ work file cabinet that featured black-and-white erotic photos of boys. Three books — including “Coming of Age” and “The Sex Book,” by controversial photographer Will McBride — were the closest thing the prosecution had to physical evidence.
Several skeptical jurors later said the books would have helped show that Ayres’ genital exams were sexually motivated. Whether the exams were legitimate or merely a guise for fondling young boys was the central issue of the case.
San Mateo police Detective Rick Decker discovered and seized the books while pulling patient information from Ayres’ files at the behest of Weinberg, the defense attorney. While the prosecution had been given certain information from the files, it wasn’t allowed to root through the records without a warrant.
Freeman later ruled the books were inadmissible, saying they had been illegally collected. McKowan said she should have gotten a search warrant for the books once Decker found them, instead of assuming Weinberg’s permission and a previous warrant to enter the cabinets would protect the seizure.
“It was books of pre-adolescents in compromising positions,” she said. “It was artsy porn.”
william hamilton ayres was arrested on April 5, 2007 on charges relating to his molestation of many young boys while he was alleging to provide psychiatric care to private patients as well as referrals for evaluation from the juvenile court system in San Mateo County. After years of playing demented for the courts, ayres plead "No Contest" and was found guilty of all charges against him on May 16, 2013. ayres was sentenced to 8 years in prison on August 26, 2013. ayres is no longer under the conservatorship of his daughter Barbara Ayres of Sacramento, CA.
ayres has had significant interaction over the years with local politicians on boards like the "Children and Families First Commission," including the DA who was serving when prosecution began Jim Fox and Assemblyman Rich Gordon. In fact, Gordon nominated ayres for a lifetime achievement award for his "Tireless effort to improve the lives of children." ayres has also been vocally supported during his criminal trial by local head-shrinkers like Bart Blinder, Etta Bryant, Mel Blaustein, Harry Coren, Tom Ciesla, Robert Kimmich, Larry Lurie, Maria Lymberis, Richard Shadoan, Captane Thomson, and Harold Wallach.ayres was past president of both the Northern California Regional Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (NCROCAP) AND American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP)