Man Kills Infant Daughter During Sexual Assault

I stopped watching TV cop shows several years ago because truth is stranger than fiction. Just when you think you have heard all the perverted things that people can do, along comes a story that is so disgusting and heinous that makes be shake my head and wonder what has happened to mankind.

Sutton's Bay, Leelanau County, Michigan

If I may reminisce for a moment.... About thirty years ago, I went with a college group up to Traverse City , Michigan. It was Christmas break, and we went for a week-long ski trip to a place called Sugar Loaf. We had a great time on the slopes and in the lodge, where the cozy fire and heated outdoor pool still bring a smile to my face. That was my one and only trip to anyplace in Michigan north of Detroit and Ann Arbor.

Sutton's Bay

The horrendous crime that I write about now occurred in Sutton's Bay, a small town about 25 miles north of Traverse City. It is located on Sutton's Bay, just off Grand Traverse Bay, which is an inlet off of Lake Michigan. The quaint town of Sutton's Bay has a school, a movie theater, a clothing store, and a main industry -- cherries.  According to the U.S. census, it covers 1.1 square miles and is inhabited by around 600 people. Whatever the exact number of population, it is one less than it was 13 months ago.


In August of 2011, 15-week-old Evelynne Deuman died. But she didn't just die. This newborn child was murdered. Murdered by a monster. Murdered by her father.A jury found him guilty this past week.

Beautiful and precious Evelynne Deuman.

This murder shattered the serenity of this tiny village where precious Baby Evelynne lived with her mother, Natasha Maitland, and her father, Steven Deuman. Reports are that nine or ten other people also lived in the trailer that the infant victim and her parents shared. The mother of this child was not involved in her death, and she was instrumental in convicting the baby's father. I hope that she was not married to him, as he will be going away for the rest of his life.

What is horrific about this case is the way that Steven Deuman killed his daughter. To put it bluntly, he stuck his penis in her mouth and suffocated her. From the sound of things, he wore a condom, which was recovered from the infant's mouth. The evidence that the jury heard was chilling. 

In August 2011, baby Evelynne Deuman was found in the bedroom of their mobile home bleeding from the nose, unconscious and not breathing.

 

Deuman wasted valuable time from the moment he found his baby daughter until he called an ambulance.

He later told her mother Natasha Maitland that she had choked on a used condom.

Throughout the trial, he maintained he put his daughter on the bed while he went outside for a cigarette. When he came back she was lying on the floor not breathing with the discarded condom in her mouth.

Subsequent tests showed the DNA on the outside belonged to the baby and on the inside belonged to Deuman.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Phil Green told jurors that Deuman killed the girl during the oral rape, and then he considered scenarios throughout the evening to suggest she died of an accidental cause.

He didn’t call 911, but told Maitland on the telephone that their daughter wasn’t breathing, wasting valuable time which could have saved her life.

He faces life in prison.

You can read more about the trial and what the father of the child alleged happened. His defense--that the child must have rolled off the bed onto the floor and she found a used condom that he and the child's mother had left on the floor--was preposterous and insulting. The jury didn't buy his cock-and-bull story. Not after additional witnesses testified that Deuman had also molested them when they were children. 

If the stories that you hear about men like convicted Deuman are true, he will not last long in prison. Even the most hardened criminals do not like child molesters. Jeffrey Dahmer and Fr. John Geoghan are proof of  that.

Rest in peace, Baby Evelynne.

Yet Another Man Succumbs to Evil

I recall from my days as a prosecutor that attorneys usually assume that a quick verdict in a murder trial favors the defendant. The theory is that the members of the jury know that they have the future of the defendant in their hands, and they do not take this lightly. They will not likely make a snappy judgment that could send someone to prison for years, or to the electric chair for that matter. Rather, they will meticulously sift through the evidence and weigh it carefully, making sure that they get the verdict right.

Naturally, there are exceptions to that commonality. One example happened yesterday in a trial in Joliet, Illinois. Four members of the Vaughn family were killed in 2007, and the one surviving member--the father--became the one and only suspect. It took 5 years to get the case to trial, but yesterday the jury took only 50 minutes to convict Christopher Vaughn of four counts of murder.

Blake, Kimberly, Abigayle, Christopher, and Cassandra at their home in Oswego, Ill.

The story of how this crime occurred is ghoulish at best and reprehensible by any standards. Even at his trial, Vaughn's attorneys tried to blame Abigayle, the wife and mnother, for the slaughter of the three children and for her own death. But the jury saw through it. Attorneys have to do what they have to do, but I'll bet his defense counsel went home and took long hot showers last night to wash the slime off their persons.

This beautiful family was destroyed, and countless other lives changed forever at their loss, because one man wanted to live a solitary life in the wilderness. Mr. Vaughn will most likely get his wish in prison and when he dies.

But at least for the latter, God's mercy and forgiveness surpasses all understanding. He might take comfort in that, if he is a believer.

More on Hate-Crimes, and A Word on Hate-Artists

Earlier this week I commented on the trial that was going on in Ohio where a number of Amish defendants were accused of hate crimes. The trial concluded yesterday when the jury came back with guilty verdicts against 17 Amish defendants who cut the hair and/or beards of a number of other Amish people. Although jokes have been made about this case, the tragedy is that a number of children will be left fatherless or parentless (some women were also convicted) if the jury imposes jail sentences on the guilty parties.

In my previous comments on this case, I focused on the "hate-crime" aspect. What troubles me even now about this case is that the defendants and the victims were all of the same religion. Can you commit a hate-crime against someone when you are of the same religion, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.? In this case, cutting the hair was doubtless an act that had religious significance. But was it hating the person for his. her crime that caused the actor to act? I can see this if it was a non-Amish person who perpetrated the crime. But if the act is merely something that is unique to the protected class, is that all it takes?

If I know that my mother prays her rosary daily, and I steal her rosary so that she will not be able to say it, is that a hate crime? It seems to me that the Amish who cut the beards of other Amish were not hating the religion as much as they were respecting the religion. In other words, they also believed that you must grow your hair and not cut it, so they were trying to using a tactic that they knew would have meaning to the victims. Thus, if an Amish man's beard is cut off, it is a worse crime than if my husband's beard is cut off. So does this not make crime and punishment subjective to the beliefs of the victim AND the intent of the perpetrator? What is someone had seen the Amish man's beard and thought, wow, that would be great for "Locks for Love," and the person tackled him and cut his beard? Does the fact that he has no idea of the religious significance to the Amish man make it any less serious of a crime?

I could go on and on with scenarios, variations, and questions. Obviously, I am still struggling with this.

What about this guy who claims to be an artist and, in 1987,  puts a crucifix in a jar, urinates into the jar, and takes a photograph. Then he calls it art, names it "Immersion (Piss Christ)", gets praised, and it gets displayed all over the United States. It's not a particularly good photograph either. One of the copies was even attacked and "destroyed" in France, and another in Australia some years ago.

Andres Serrano and his beat-up photo.

Does it not matter that these actions of Serrano hurt the sensibilities of Christians? Why is this not a hate-crime? Is it because he photographed it and called it art? He obviously intends to evoke a response -- namely anger. So wasn't the person who destroyed it merely expressing himself also? Serrano did not create this controversial piece for beauty or aesthetics. He wanted gut reaction, and he wanted notoriety. He got both. And those who find it offensive? Well, they can go to ... another art gallery.

How about this artwork? It's called Piss-n-Poop POTUS. Put that in your museum and smoke it.

Maybe the Amish defendants should have said they were artists.

Man Kills, Boils Wife, Jumps Off Cliff

Earlier this week I wrote about the Jeffrey MacDonald murdercase that captured the attention of Americans over 40 years ago, and which has remained a mystery in the minds of many ever since. That case took place in North Carolina. On the opposite side of the country, another horrific story is playing out in a courtroom in California. While presenting the state’s case against the defendant, prosecutors added another layer of incredulity to the story of a missing woman and the main suspect in her death.

The story began in October of 2009 when a young 39-year-old woman named Dawn Viens went missing on October 18. According to witnesses, Dawn was last seen leaving her chef husband's restaurant in Lomita, California. Dawn's husband did not report her missing, which naturally was led to him being considered with suspicion. Her sister and friends eventually went to police after Dawn had been missing for three weeks, and the investigation began on November 18.

Little progress was made in locating Dawn in the ensuing months. Indeed, ten months would pass before the case was turned over to homicide detectives, in September of 2010. David Viens quickly became the primary suspect. He had begun dating another woman by the time detectives began to track his moves.

Dawn had not been seen nor heard from since that day in October of 2009. Then on February 21, 2011, police were following David since he was their only suspect. David led them on a chase that ended with him pulling into a roadside parking lot, getting out of his SUV, jumping over a fence, and leaping over a cliff. He plunged down the steep hillside some 80 feet and suffered a number of broken bones. Upon being taken to the hospital, Viens was put into a medically induced coma for a few days. Eventually his breathing tube was removed, and he was able to talk to police.

A few weeks after the cliff-leap, police suspected that Dawn might be buried under the floor of David’s restaurant. He had recently expanded and renovated the place, including having concrete poured for a new floor. Police got a court order to dig up the restaurant floor in March, but they found nothing that helped with the case. Later that month, Viens was wheeled into the courtroom on a gurney to face murder charges. He plead not guilty.

Over the last year and a half since that arraignment, both sides prepared for David Viens' trial. Proceedings got under way recently, and reports of the state’s case began to surface this week. During the trial, prosecutors played a tape where Viens confessed that his wife died after he, suspecting she was stealing from his restaurant, duct-taped her mouth, arms and legs and left her that way for an extended time so that she would not go driving off while under the influence of drugs. Not only that, but the gruesome details to the cover-up have been revealed. Viens admitted to police (during the hospital room interview after he jumped off the hillside) in a taped interview that he boiled Dawn's remains for four days, probably at his restaurant, until there was essentially nothing left of her body.  He then dumped the remains into a grease pit. All that was left was her skull, which Viens said was in his mother’s attic. A subsequent search failed to turn up the skull.

Viens' attorneys will probably argue that Viens was under the influence of drugs at the time he confessed. After all, he was hospitalized with multiple broken bones. We will have to wait to see what a jury does with the evidence in this case. Either way, this story will certainly end up on Discovery ID in the future.

[UPDATE 9/27: Jury comes back with verdict. Click here.]

[UPDATE 1/6/2018: I was watching Discovery ID and halfway through an episode of "The Perfect Murder" I realized the show was about the Dawn Viens murder. I predicted it back in  2012 at the end of my original post! Read more at www.imdb.com/title/tt6982172/reference and watch the full episode (#7) titled "Nurder Well Done" of The Perfect Murder series at https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/tv-shows/the-perfect-murder/ (sign in through your cable service may be required).]

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Video Killed the Wannabe Star: The Frustration of Credit Card Fraud

I read a lot of murder mysteries and watch a lot of Discovery ID shows. Normally when police catch the "bad guy," detectives help gather evidence. Eventually it falls to the prosecutors to present the case to the jury to get a conviction and a just sentence.

In recent years, two things have revolutionized the way cases are prosecuted, and at times can solidify a case that years ago might have been unwinnable. One of these aids is the ability to positively identify a culprit through DNA evidence. The other aid is the growth of video surveillance and the ability of average Joes to capture video footage on cell phones.

In the county where I live, video has been used to help decrease the number of auto thefts. Arlington Police Department was the first in the DC metro area to utilize "bait cars" to capture thieves who have a propensity to steal cars or items from them. Since the program's inception ten years ago, over 200 arrests have been made, and the conviction rate is 100%. That's because the video evidence makes it impossible for the defendant to claim mistaken identity or claim there was an innocent reason for him/them being in the car.

Back in 1979, the year I graduated from high school, there was a song called "Video Killed the Radio Star." We've come a long way since then with video and technology. Earlier this summer, Arlington PD released a few clips from some of the thieves they have caught. The reactions of some of these criminals are priceless.

I know that these simple videos are not as entertaining as some of the cases depicted on the TV show "Bait Car." But the fact that these took place in my city at least lets me know that police are serious about trying to protect the property of the citizens. Criminals cry "entrapment!" when the cops pull them over, but at least the word gets around that these bait cars are out there, and if even one criminal is deterred from taking MY car, then I am happy.


I have no sympathy for thugs like these who have no respect for other people's property. Many of them want to be stars in their own minds. My disdain for criminals has been reinforced in the last few months, as I have twice been the victim of credit card fraud. The first time occurred back in June, just before I was set to go to Haiti. My credit card company called to ask me about two suspicious transactions on my credit card to a website called Zoosk.com. Apparently there is a lot of credit card fraud on dating websites like this. One charge had gone through ($13) but the second was denied and flagged ($53). That's when I was notified, and I confirmed that these were not valid charges.

For the next few days I tried multiple times to get information from Zoosk. I called repeatedly and identified myself as an attorney. They were apologetic, but refused to release any information about the person who tried to use my card -- such as a name, address, or email address. I thought about filing a complaint, but I was not even sure who to call. The FBI has online reporting, but that's useless. Any information I might have retrieved probably would have been fraudulent anyway. But it infuriates me that "privacy laws" protect criminals. My card was cancelled, and since I share that one with my husband, we both had to wait until our new cards were mailed to us.

Fast forward to yesterday when I got an email from my same credit card company, asking about a suspicious transaction on the brand new card (the one that arrived in late June). I called the number given for the fraud department and found out the transaction was attempted Tuesday (9/18) evening at 10:48 p.m. ET in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I have never been to Fort Wayne, and I do not know anyone in Fort Wayne. I learned that the transaction had been denied, in the amount of $128.83, at a Meijer store on Lima Road. Not only that, but a second transaction had actually been successful in Fort Wayne, a few miles up the same road, at a Shell station, in the amount of $129.60, at 10:22 p.m. These brazen thugs had swiped the card at Shell, then feeling emboldened had gone up the road and tried again at Meijer. Apparently, the close proximity of these two transactions in a place so far from my normal pattern of spending was what triggered the denial of the second transaction. I do not know if they were inside the store or at the outside fuel station. Hopefully that information will be forthcoming though.

I was so angry to have been violated again. The first time, the Zoosk people said that sometimes these jerks just start punching in 16-digit numbers to try and get one that works so they can buy things or get memberships to prey upon people. That left a lot of questions about expiration dates and PIN numbers, but I decided not to go any farther with investigating. This time, however, I decided to do what I can to get these guys.

Meijer store on Lima Rd

To make a long story short, I made probably 3 dozen calls yesterday and today between the Meijer store, the Shell station, the Fort Wayne Police Department, and even the Arlington Police Department. Every person I have talked to has been extremely polite and, after some initial hesitation, very cooperative. I think when they heard the resolution in my voice and all that I have done to get this organized and provide a tidy package for them to go about trying to nail these guys, they appreciated my effort. I didn't hurt that I told them I am a former prosecutor myself. But there is still a sense of "privacy rights" for the criminals, as I was not entitled to get copies of the tapes nor to get information about who was working at the time to find out  if they could tell me anything about the UNSUB (the term they use on Criminal Minds and in some crime novels for "unknown subject").

Shell Station on Lima Rd

I did learn that both the Meijer store and the Shell station have surveillance video. Having gotten the Fort Wayne Police Department on board, now, the stores are going to make copies and the police will pick it up and review it. It would be so awesome if they spot the criminals on both tapes, get an ID and nail their backsides to the wall. I felt a rush of adrenaline several times as I was calling and explaining and making progress.


Maybe I should go back to criminal law work. But then again, as much as I have changed in the way I view people in the years since I left the prosecutors' office, I would probably never let the defendants cop a plea! Lock 'em up and throw away the key!


As for the thugs who stole my credit card information, I'm hoping the videos at Meijer and Shell are as good as the ones from the Arlington PD bait car!

Houses Passes Buffett Bill

In a brilliant stroke of bipartisanship, the House today passed its version of a "Buffett bill" named after billionaire Warren Buffett, who infamously stated earlier this year that he should not pay less in taxes than his secretary. The Buffett bill would allow millionaires (and anyone else so inclined) to write out a check and pay an additional amount in taxes when they file their tax returns.

Several months ago on my other blog I proposed an amendment  to Form 1040 that would accomplish this same thing.

I feel quite sure that Harry Reid will never let the bill see the light of day in the Senate. He would not want to explain why he is not willing to put his money where his mouth is. Plus Reid knows that Obama would kill him if he (Reid) let the Senate pass it and sent it to Obama to sign!

 

Jeffrey MacDonald and Fatal Vision

I was only 8 years old in February of 1970, so I do not recall much about those days. One thing I do remember is that I could not wait to finish third grade at the local public school that I and several of my siblings attended. I was excited because the following school year my home parish was preparing to discontinue the Catholic high school and re-open its early elementary school that had been closed several years earlier for lack of space. I would be able to attend fourth grade there instead of having to wait until fifth grade. It was an exciting time for me, as I loved school.

However, I had an ulterior motive for wanting to go to Catholic school: I did not like attending CCD. My dislike for the Sunday lessons was my not the subject matter. Nor was it the fact that I had just sat for an hour in Church and was restless. It was simply that I did not want to be in a classroom with kids that I did not know. No other kids from my public school were Catholic, so I had no friends or acquaintances in my CCD class.

I remember that one of those years my CCD class was held in the same classroom that was my oldest brother's classroom, as he was old enough to go to the Catholic grade school. I would try hard to get to the classroom as fast as possible when Mass dismissed so that I could sit in my brother's desk. If  someone else had already claimed his desk by the time I got there, I was miserable throughout that whole class period while longing to kick the other kid out of my brother's desk. That was not a very Christian thing to be thinking while sitting through Sunday school, but as kids we don't reason like that.

As silly as it seems now, I needed that feeling of connection that came with knowing my brother sat in that desk Monday through Friday. I do not fully understand it even as an adult, but the sense of loneliness that I felt when I sat in my CCD classrooms in grades one, two and three was nothing short of depressing. I felt like a prisoner for an hour every Sunday morning. I was always relieved and elated when the class ended, and I was released to go find my other siblings and head for my parents' station wagon that waited to take us home.

I thought of that sense of relief that I felt on being released from my childhood "prison" when I read this morning's headlines. In particular, I am referring to the case of prisoner Jeffrey MacDonald, the central figure in the notorious murder case in North Carolina  in February of 1970. The story has remained a sensation ever since the MacDonald became the only suspect in the murder of his wife and two young daughters at Fort Bragg 42 years ago. The story was even the basis for a a movie called "Fatal Vision" in the 1980s, and has left many people doubting that the jury got the right verdict in the 1979 murder trial of Doctor MacDonald, a former Green Beret.

Over the years the defense team of Dr. MacDonald has insisted that evidence was ignored and that the prosecution targeted MacDonald to the exclusion of all other possible suspects. Indeed, when a woman came forward after the murders to state that she was in the MacDonald home that night of the murders, thus confirming MacDonald's assertion that a woman in a floppy hat was there, the prosecution refused to take her seriously. She was dismissed as a known drug addict who was seeking attention or was merely delusional.

MacDonald's defense team is seeking a new trial based on the fact that DNA evidence has been identified showing the presence of non-family persons in the home at the time of the murders. Also, a witness now says that his sister made a death-bed confession that she was in the home that night. This is the same woman who made the claim in the early 1980s that she was in the house, but at MacDonald's trial testified on the witness stand that she was NOT in the MacDonald house that night. One difference is that now the 2005 testimony of a deceased U.S. Marshall has been presented to show that the woman, who died in in 1983, was threatened (prior to her trial testimony) by the U.S. attorney, who told her "If you testify before the jury as to what you have told me or said to me in this office, I will indict you for murder." Faced with this threat, the witness recanted her assertion that she was in the house, and MacDonald was convicted on three counts of murder.

So, what all of this comes down to is that MacDonald is seeking a new trial or to be exonerated of all charges based on the new evidence. At age 68, MacDonald remarried in 2002 while incarcerated. His wife is his principle agent in the free world. She awaits his release, just as MacDonald still yearns to be free. Only MacDonald knows the truth of what happened that night in February of 1970. But a judge will be making some pretty important decisions that will affect MacDonald's chances for freedom.