Maybe, Phil Vetrano can't help himself and he really wants to be caught....

In a very recent interview with NANCY GRACE since Chanel Lewis was found guilty after a re-trial, the victim's father, Phil Vetrano, re-established how near to the time of Karina Vetrano's actual time of death he was out in the same patch of weeds in the Gateway National Park supposedly "looking for" his daughter at a particular spot along the route where she said she would be running.  That spot was closer than the supposed "sneaker throw" away from where HE LATER 'FOUND' HER BODY

So much anticipation  ---  Phil Vetrano started having "a bad feeling" only fifteen minutes after his daughter had left to go jogging on the August 2016 day that she died. He went out into the weeds looking for her a short time later.

If you believe some of this Howard Beach mamaluke's twisty-turny story,  it sounds like Phil Vetrano was ready to start looking for Karina's body BEFORE SHE DIED....

That leads to a few key questions:

Why wasn't he able to save her, if he was out and about, and so nearby ?

Why didn't he see or hear anything indicating that Karina was in a life and death struggle; or right after that, that somebody was cleaning up and rearranging the "crime scene,"  including re-posing Karina Vetrano's body at the crime scene ???

Why didn't Phil Vetrano see Chanel Lewis either kill is daughter or doing any of the stuff that he supposedly did around the "crime scene" after her murder ?????

A series of TRAVESTIES led to the "GUILTY VERDICT" and "JUDGE ALOISE' SENTENCE" of lifetime imprisonment of Chanel Lewis

NYS SUPREME COURT JUSTICE MICHAEL ALOISE is the keystone in the faulty arch of white "criminal justice" that has put CHANEL LEWIS in jail for life 

Chanel Lewis is going to be one of the historic names in the  >>> evolution <<<  of real justice for black people caught up in the "criminal justice system" and winding up in the sewer pipe of America's criminal courts

               

---  And if that evolution doesn't happen quickly and in due course, the call for justice for Chanel Lewis will quickly become revolutionary.....   

                                        

In April 2019 in Queens County, in the CIty and State of New York,  the arch of white criminal justice and the arc of racial justice in the history of the United States are completely out of alignment  ---  that is a major structural flaw  ---  and that is a dangerous situation

More radical groups have suddenly taken up the cause of Chanel Lewis.....   

It won't be long before this becomes a "NO JUSTICE --  NO PEACE" thing  ---  this time I think that they will be right.....

A typical report on the retrial and sentencing of Chanel Lewis by Queens Judge Michael Aloise recently appeared on the internet  (See "With Hints of the Central Park Five, Activists Charge That Disabled Black Man Possibly Railroaded Into Murder Charge" by Angela Helm,  4/23/19,  The Root/ Crime/  Chanel Lewis   [https://www.theroot.com/with-hints-of-the-central-park-five-activists-charge-t-1834249273]).

Here is only a little bit of what Ms. Helm had to say about it:   "....  There was an uproar in the Queens County Criminal courtroom after the judge rendered Lewis’ sentence, as some believe that the 22-year-old developmentally disabled Brooklyn man did not receive a fair trial in the high profile case....   Since Lewis’ conviction April 1—after five hours of jury deliberations in a retrial—an activist named Mo Glover started a Color of Change petition, “Chanel Lewis Deserves a Fair Trial,” alleging that Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown and the judge presiding over the case ignored critical evidence of juror misconduct and condoned racial profiling...."

That seems to put the crosshairs right on the key culprits in the railroading of Chanel Lewis  ---  the engineer was in the DA's Office and the conductor was the man in charge of the trial, Queens County NYS Supreme Court Justice Michael Aloise.  Make no mistake, Ms Helm also mentions the cops and the very vituperative Vetranos.

Let's see what happens sooner  ---  JUSTICE  ---  or  ---  a significant BREACH OF THE PEACE with much more brio than was seen at the courthouse when the sentence was announced by Judge Aloise.....

Serious charges of "juror misconduct" leveled at multiple jurors in the Chanel Lewis retrial

At least three jurors allegedly acted in an imperious and improper manner to ram through their prejudiced views and conclusions regarding Chanel Lewis and his  "GUILT" on all charges

The boldness and overbearing attitude of at least three offending jurors suggests that they felt confident and well-placed to control the outcome of the verdict, as well as insulated from any negative fallout from their unlawful activity

As one veteran Brooklyn GOP observer might say,  "The Question Begs"  ---  Did New York State Court personnel in Queens assist Queens County prosecutors by  "seeding" the jury pool with a bunch of specially chosen "hanging" jurors immediately in advance of the retrial of Chanel Lewis

In the past few days,  multiple media outlets have reported on (an) affidavit(s) claiming that several improper acts by several jurors seriously tainted jury deliberations in the Chanel Lewis retrial;  and at least one counter affidavit submitted by the Queens DA's office.

Special attention needs to be given to two articles in particular  (See "Vetrano trial juror affidavits detail allegations of misconduct and counterclaims" by David Brand, 4/18/19, The Queens Daily Eagle   [https://queenseagle.com/all/-vetrano-lewis-affidavits-juror-misconduct-];  and   " 'My Mind Is Made Up': Affidavit Details Alleged Juror Misconduct In Chanel Lewis Trial" by Jen Chung, 4/19/19,  Gothamist/ News   [http://gothamist.com/2019/04/19/chanel_lewis_juror_misconduct.php]).

At least one post-trial submission indicates that at one juror certainly is still actively cooperating with the Queens DA's office.

Don't expect much from any hearing on these matters by Queens County NYS Supreme Court Justice Michael Aloise.  He is a pro-prosecution hack; and is a "Cracker Jack Jurist" only to the extent that he obtained his credentials as a jurist as prizes in boxes of Cracker Jack(s).

Journalist documents >>> "Sandbagging" <<< and >>> "Trial By Ambush" <<< at Chanel Lewis retrial by prosecutors, the trial judge and the OCME's twisty-turny testifier Dr. Margaret M. Prial

“Queens DA makes a mockery of due process in Chanel Lewis trial”                                 

                 ---Ted Hamm in  “The Indypendent”

 
 A senior reporter and now a college don at a small but esteemed Brooklyn institution of higher learning  >>> bells the cat <<<  about the “[re]trial by ambush” of Chanel Lewis 

“Mid-trial disclosure of significant scientific evidence is trial-by-ambush and makes a mockery of a defendant’s right to a fair trial....  What is the defense supposed to do when sandbagged in this manner?” 

                --- Former Prosecutor,                                                     and now a top tier advocate                                        for the improperly convicted

Hamm also gives some detailed dirt about the OCME’s Margaret Prial,  who testified at both the trial and retrial of Chanel Lewis,  but had some very new material in her presentation for the prosecution at the second trial of the diminutive young black man from Brooklyn

This is what the journalism professor in the County of Kings chose to make his lead in a recent article about a terrible miscarriage of justice in the County of Queens:   “At the outset of day four (Thursday, March 21) of the retrial of Chanel Lewis for the murder of Karina Vetrano, Queens prosecutor Brad Leventhal walked over to the defense table with paperwork in his hand….   ‘We just got a new report from the medical examiner about Lewis’ hand injury,’ Leventhal informed Lewis’ team. As they read through the material, Lewis’ lawyers were visibly concerned….   Leventhal then told Judge Michael Aloise that they had just received the new findings. Aloise advised the defense that since there was no motion to include the evidence, there was nothing for him to rule on at that point. But on day six (Tuesday, March 26), Aloise, a strident ally of the prosecution, determined that Leventhal could indeed use the material. And the next day, Dr. Margaret Prial of the Office of Chief Medical Examiner of New York City took the stand….”   (See  ““Queens DA makes a mockery of due process in Chanel Lewis trial”  by Ted Hamm,  4/11/19,  The Indypendent   [https://indypendent.org/2019/04/queens-da-makes-a-mockery-of-due-process-in-chanel-lewis-trial-2/]).  

Journalist and Professor Hamm continued with this:   "....   After Dr. Prial provided a graphic description of Vetrano’s brutal death by strangulation, jurors went to lunch. When they came back, they learned details of a report that Prial had not presented when she testified at the November mistrial. Based on blood cultures taken from the hand injury that brought Lewis to SUNY-Downstate Medical Center the day after Vetrano’s murder, Prial now argued that the bacteria in the cultures came from a mouth and anus, and from brackish water. In one of his two confessions, Lewis said that he had wiped off his bloody hand in a puddle at the murder scene....   Prial’s updated findings made only a minor splash. But they formed a dramatic part of Leventhal’s marathon closing statement on Monday, April 1. The already-high volume prosecutor shouted that the bacteria proved that after killing Vetrano, Lewis probed her cavities and that 'he had his way with her!'..." 

--  Former Prosecutor and now a top tier advocate for the improperly convicted says:  “Mid-trial disclosure of significant scientific evidence is trial-by-ambush and makes a mockery of a defendant’s right to a fair trial....  What is the defense supposed to do when sandbagged in this manner?”  

-- Other defense advocate quoted as saying the prosecution violated the Criminal Procedure Law of New York State during the retrial of Chanel Lewis

Professor Hamm's article included statements from several top defendants' advocates indicating that the late disclosure of the additional material from a new report by OCME  Medical Examiner Margaret Prial was very prejudicial to the rights of the accused and was a direct violation of the Criminal Procedure law of the State of New York. And that Dr. Prial's new [changed] testimony might well have led to the conviction of Chanel Lewis.

Ted Hamm's piece also contained some key pieces of negative history involving  Dr. Prial's shifting testimony in other cases.

The saga of the retrial of Chanel Lewis should not END without special mention of the NY Times' coverage of the case by Jan Ransom

The title of Ms. Ransom's most recent article about this case, "Mystery of Karina Vetrano’s Death Ends With Murder Conviction" does not bespeak the very pithy content of her reporting about the summations and the "guilty" verdict handed down by the retrial jury in the Chanel Lewis case  ---  it is probably not  >>> HER <<<  choice for a title,  that being the province of some NY Times headline editor

In some ways, her lead paragraph says it all  ---  "A Brooklyn man was found guilty late Monday of murdering a woman while she jogged in a Queens park, ending a two-week trial that had raised questions about coerced confessions, racial profiling and police practices...."  (See  "Mystery of Karina Vetrano’s Death Ends With Murder Conviction"  by Jan Ransom,  4/1/19,  NY Times/ New York   [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/nyregion/karina-vetrano-trial-verdict.html]).

A little later in her piece, Ms. Ransom says that,  "....  Mr. Lewis’s first trial, five months ago, ended with a hung jury. Some jurors then were swayed by defense arguments that Mr. Lewis’s confession was coerced and that the DNA evidence was contaminated....   But after only five hours of deliberation on Monday, at his second trial, a different jury found Mr. Lewis guilty of first-degree murder and other charges for the strangling of Ms. Vetrano...." 

JAN RANSOM ENCAPSULATED KEY ELEMENTS OF THE TRIAL VERY WELL

For the prosecution there was this:   "....   With each witness, prosecutors sought to show that the DNA evidence had not been tainted and that Mr. Lewis had not been pressured into confessing to a crime he did not commit, as the defense argued....   The lead prosecutor, Brad A. Leventhal, said it was '376 billion times more probable it’s his DNA under her fingernails' than somebody else’s. Mr. Leventhal said the argument from defense lawyers that Mr. Lewis gave a false confession 'makes no sense.'...   Mr. Leventhal said evidence from cellphones placed Mr. Lewis in the area of the park at the time of the murder. He also stressed that Mr. Lewis’s cellphone contained downloaded images of the crime scene and internet searches about 'second chances.'..."

And for the defense, this:  "....  Mr. Lewis’s lawyers had sought to poke holes in the prosecution’s case, suggesting that the investigation into Karina Vetrano’s murder was 'sloppy.'  Investigators and the medical examiner, they said, had not checked for DNA evidence at the crime scene or on other parts of Ms. Vetrano’s body — aside from her neck and nails....   'This is tunnel vision clouding judgment,' said Robert Moeller, one of Mr. Lewis’s lawyers. 'You see things that could have been done were not done.'...   Mr. Moeller told jurors that reasonable doubt exists. He said there was no video of Mr. Lewis entering or leaving the park and no fingerprints or hair, or 'the kind of DNA that will tell you what happened.' He argued that Mr. Lewis’s DNA could have ended up on Ms. Vetrano through transference if they touched the same surface at some point....   He also argued that Mr. Lewis’s statements to investigators were inconsistent with evidence at the crime scene. He told the police she drowned in a puddle, for instance, yet autopsy results show she was strangled."

One thing is clear about the Chanel Lewis retrial --- Justice Michael Aloise acted like he was Judge Roy Bean

From the beginning to the end, this most overturned trial judge in Queens County ran roughshod over Chanel Lewis' defense team during the retrial  ---  the last thing being his forcing the jury to work over a day and a half on their first day of deliberation  ---  leading some jurors (about 3 of them) initially leaning towards "not guilty" to switch to "guilty" shortly after they had dinner late

Some Legal Aid attorneys have even suggested that some of Judge Aloise' actions were unprecedented

Maybe, it's all because Judge Aloise' daughter, Nicole Aloise, is an ADA in Queens County  ---  and  ---  there was a feeling around the courthouse that the Queens DA's Office and everybody that has an interest in continuing most of the old Queens DA's ways and means of "getting things done" needed a "win" in the Chanel Lewis retrial very badly.  [For example, can you even whisper the name "Gregory Lasak" and not get an old-fashioned thrill in your loins ???] 

All of this is still percolating.....

FLASH UPDATE: CHANEL LEWIS FOUND GUILTY AFTER RETRIAL

What more needs to be said, right now.....


....  Well, I'm sure I'll think of something  ---  soon enough.....

Judge Michael Aloise just keeps doing one outrageous thing after another.....

During the defense summation, the trial judge, NYS Supreme Court Justice Michael Aloise, stood on the bench next his chair and mugged at the jury

I think some of the jurors had enough of this trial already  ---  first ADA Brad Leventhal ranted at them during a large part of his summation  ---  then, Judge Aloise scowled at them during part of the defense summation 

Is it any wonder that one of the first notes out of the jury room during early deliberations at the retrial was that the retrial jury says it is deadlocked already.....

The day started as expected with Judge Aloise summarily dismissing the defense application for additional evidentiary hearings in light of last week's "anonymous letter."

However, this judge's  hank-panky really got off the ground during one part of defendant counsel Robert Moeller's summation.  It's interesting that Mr. Moeller focused on the failure of investigators and OCME technicians to do a complete battery of "elimination DNA testing"  ---  meaning that there had to be almost  tons [ and that would be 29166666666666664 picograms per U.S. ton] of unidentified DNA at the crime scene and even on Karina Vetrano's body.

Sorry to be so brief, but that's all my BSIs with eyes and ears in the courtroom had for me.

Let's see if this retrial jury has the balls to dump this stinkin' case a second time.