Visit with Mechele

Hi to all! I just returned from a two week stay in Olympia. We flew to Alaska for three days and had a very positive, much needed visit with Mechele. She wanted me to express her gratitude to all of you who continue to support her and follow her story. She also wanted me to thank all of you who have been so generous with your letters, books, and checks. This ordeal has been both a financial as well as emotional draining experience. Our thanks to all of you who have helped ease our burdens. As you may know, the appeal is in the final stages. We are awaiting oral arguments, which we are told will take place sometime in September or October. Mechele and I discussed at great length how we no longer trust the media to portray our side of this case. Therefore, we are taking some measures tell our side of the story ourselves. We do not want the media to be allowed to run rampant with lies, untruths and misrepresentations of the facts as they have done in the past. This time we will go public, but on our terms. We also feel that we should begin a "Free Mechele" campaign. We would like to kick this off with a letter writing campaign to the three judges who comprise the appeal court, as well as letters to the prosecution. I am hoping to have this aspect complete and ready to put into action within the next two weeks. I would really appreciate any suggestions, comments or ideas that any of you may have to make this a successful project. We really need the support of residents of Alaska, as these judges work for you, the taxpayers of the state. If anyone is uncomfortable replying directly on this blog, please feel free to email me direct at msylady@yahoo.com. Your imput will be greatly appreciated. Believe me, your support and concern has made a big impact on Mechele and our family. We can make a difference! We can add to the attorneys appeal to "Bring Mechele Home!" I look forward to hearing from each and every one of you!

Sincerely,
Sandy (Mechele's mom)

Appeal Update

So, the appellate process is very different than a trial. It is very slow and requires tremendous patience and calm. One thing I’ve learned is that deadlines are not really deadlines. Meaning, if something is due on a certain day, and you’re not done, you can always get a brand new deadline. I wish college and graduate school were like that. Many deadlines have come and pass and we have just now received the State’s response to our appellate points. These are points that question whether any of Judge Volland’s decisions strayed from the rules of the game. We are confident we have found examples that are pretty clear cut. But, we wait.

Now it is our turn to answer the State. Then comes oral arguments and the last part is the three-judge decision. This can take some time. We have patience and hope. There are some very strong appellate points.

With this process, the focus shifts specifically to the trial and nothing else. Any new evidence we have does not come in at this point. Any new witness or affidavit is not important here. The appellate process is strictly about the trial and errors of law within.

So, if you have followed what I’ve previously written, you can see why I can’t really comment on Judge Volland’s statements during the trial and sentencing. He is obviously a good man, but his sentencing speech was pretty interesting. I will state that he stated he had “a clear conscience” about his sentencing twice. The first time, it was for the people in the courtroom. I wonder if the second time was for him.

There is one last item I would like to touch on now. When I received the State’s response to our appeal, I noticed it was brought to us by Mr. Richard A. Svobodny. Mr. Svobodny is the Acting Attorney General for the State of Alaska. Mr. Svobodny also wrote an internal email to congratulate his colleges on October 22, 2007 after Mechele’s conviction. He states, “Exotic dancers across Alaska are shivering with fear with the conviction of Mechele Linehan.” This does shed some light on what this whole trial was all about. Notice he doesn’t say “Murderers across Alaska are shivering with fear…”
Hmmm.

Thank You All For Your Support

Hey All,

First off… Thanks for everyone’s support and encouragement. This post touches on the character issue and my gratitude to you all. The following post will deal with the appeal. Mechele especially appreciates all the support. She is in a very hard place. For those who know and love her, it touches us as well.

That is the point, of course…“those who know and love her”. There are so many who know Mechele and realize the “narrative” that the prosecution used was incongruent with who she is. Remember, we, as a legal team, decided to not make “character an issue” and never brought it up. Therefore we never had anyone, but me, testify for her. And I didn’t testify to her character. I mainly testified to rebut some of the State’s irrefutable smears. This part of our legal strategy assumed a Jury adherence to the specific instruction by the Judge to not take character into their assessment of guilt based on the evidence presented. The burden of proof lied with the State and not Mechele. She was innocent until proved guilty. This didn’t happen, per the jurors themselves, by their own words.

The evidence that was presented is another story. The forced circumstance to meet the prosecution’s narrative is something I would love to get into. That is really the “meat” of the issue. I, unfortunately, can’t. I have audio, documents, and affidavits that are quite damaging to the State’s narrative. Why not post them? When, by the grace of God, a new trial comes, our legal team will deliver. I have been “advised” that now is not the time. Roger Wilco.

The several dozen letters that were sent to the Judge for character support for sentencing purposes were dismissed by the Judge. He stated we were all “charmed” by Mechele. Dang... what a bunch of suckers we are. I would love to get into more of Judge Volland’s sentencing soliloquy. The “charmed” comment was one of many very strange proclamations by Judge Volland. I can’t get into that as I will explain in the “Appeal” post.

The truth of the matter is I am not a dupe or ignorant. I have heard Mechele’s history of events that transpired in the spring of 1996 when we first met. Funny thing is, it has never changed. Not once. The other thing is that her statements have always been consistent with me and the police. There is no contradiction. The issue here is that everyone who testified against Mechele had their inconsistent statements read back to them. Brett Riddell and Miss Aspiotis had their testimony shredded by Mr. Fitzgerald. It was interesting to watch Mr. Riddell contradict an audio interview he gave to the police. It was also enlightening to listen to Miss Aspiotis’s confusion when she was read her previous statements to police that contradicted her current testimony.

These people didn’t know Mechele per their own admission. Well what about Mechele’s sister? She is a piece of work. Her police interview in 1996, which she sought after, was completely different than her testimony that she gave at the Carlin trial and to the Grand Jury. Folks, this was to the point that she would have been destroyed by our attorneys and other witnesses. In case you didn’t know, Melissa didn’t testify in Mechele’s trial to save Mechele. She did it to save herself from humiliation and her skeletons in her closet.

Bottom line: I know Mechele as do her friends and family. We are appalled by the abuse of ethics from the prosecution and their disingenuous use of their power. I will give an email from the acting Attorney General of the State of Alaska that sums up our disgust in the next post. But, for now, thanks to the hundreds of people who have offered support and hope.

God Bless You

"Hope Note"

Here is a quick post on the “Hope Note” fallacy. This note was written by John Carlin III, and he told Mechele to write on it to throw Mr. Kent Leppink off of Mechele’s trail. This was because he was stalking her at the time, as is demonstrated by the discovery and evidence. Mr. Carlin and Mr. Leppink were both spotted in Hope after the letter was written and before the murder, at different times. This was testified to in the trial.

But here is the rub: In an email dated 4/27/1996, Mechele tells John Carlin III to tell Mr. Leppink the she “flew to barrow i will be back when ever”. She then goes on to tell Mr. Carlin that “if you see him tell him bret got hurt and i went to take care of the girls”. Bret is Bret Riddell, who, again, in the trial contradicted his previous statements. Mr. Riddell deserves an entire post all to himself, but I digress. Mechele was not in Alaska at the time she wrote this, and when she returned, Mr. Leppink had been murdered.

On 4/28/1996, Mechele, while still away from Alaska, writes to Mr. Carlin, “WELL, I HAVE TO SAY I AM WONDERING WHAT DID HE SAY WHEN YOU SAID I WAS 2 ½ HOURS AWAY”. Mr. Riddell testified that the flight to Barrow to Anchorage was 2.5 hours total transit time. So what does this say about the “Hope Note”? She was covering her tracks on the email? OK… but it is this very same email where she casually mentions that you can buy a citizenship is the Seychelles for ten million dollars.

So, what is it? This criminal mastermind was using the “Hope Note” to lure Mr. Leppink to his death and covering her tracks in an email with the statement to tell Mr. Leppink that she was in Barrow? Then what about the Seychelles reference? You can’t have both, although both references were used by the prosecution. In fact, both references were cited by some of the jurors. Apparently they didn’t pay too much attention to the evidence. I challenge anyone on the jury or on the prosecution team to answer this conundrum.

I am not holding my breath. This is the same jury where one member expressed that she was “surprised” that they took Mechele to prison after their verdict (head slap here).

Dateline, This Friday

From Sandy:

Just got a call from our friends at "Dateline." Mechele's show will be re-aired with updates this friday. Have gotten several emails and calls and wanted everyone to know..

Updates Soon

Thanks to everyone for all your comments and support and all the books sent to Mechele. A special thanks goes out to the lovely individual who sent her a whole box of books a couple months ago. She got them, but without any documentation, so she did not know who to send a thank you to.

Mechele's mom is in town, staying with her family, so she is hoping to get us some updates soon. As far as I know, we are still just waiting on a court date for the appeal, which could be pushed back as far as the fall.

Thanks everyone!

Television Journalism

So, here we go again. Tonight is Oxygen’s turn via their program “Snapped”, produced by Jupiter Entertainment. I think I have a pretty good understanding about how these cheesy tabloid shows operate now. My first introduction was with “48 Hours Mystery”, and with certain producers who didn’t put a huge value on honesty and integrity. This made me quite jaded towards television “journalism”. Check out the previous three posts to follow my thoughts. “Not for Nothing”, but here is a take on contemporary tabloid journalism.
These productions that are broadcast, concerning my wife, are intended to produce ratings. The narrative that the prosecution pushed is awesome. Sex, lies, and videotape. Give me more. I’ll watch that. That is the bottom line. Give me a “True Hollywood Story”, and I am entertained. That was why the stolen picture of Mechele raised no concerns to the State or the CBS producers. They both get what they want. The prosecution gets to reinforce their “stripper” depiction and CBS gets to show some skin.
It is interesting to me, again, that Mechele’s previous occupation was so important to the prosecution and media narrative. The prosecution’s strategy was evident in retrospect when a juror commented how Mechele's past “profession” indicated that she was “manipulative”. A “profession” that lasted 1.5 years. As for the media, we know that sex sells. Shoot, the Alaska Daily News even referred to the case as the “Stripper Saga”. But you know what was missing? No mention or references to the fact that the men involved in this particular story were strip club “regulars”.
A “regular” refers to a patron, or client, of a strip club who comes in on a regular basis. I don’t know about you, but to me this is far more depraved then actually stripping. The stripper is making money and her clients know the score the minute they walk into the door. They are providing a service for the clients that the clients demand. However, if you go to a club all the time to pay for lap dancea, I would argue that it is you that has a problem, and not the dancer.
That is, of course, unless you feel men are helpless, mindless testicles running around with no control over their behavior. If you believe that is the case, I think you underestimate men and even “degrade” them. However, that was the prosecution’s narrative. They would have you believe Mechele was a 22 year-old “puppeteer” with magical control over men who were mindless servants. In other words, a fictional character. Maybe even from a movie?
Unfortunately, nuance exists. Please read my previous post that entails communication with the Jupiter Entertainment producers to get a feel for how nuance is ignored in favor of ratings. I redacted all names.

Thank you all for your support.
You give me and my daughter hope.


Colin Linehan