James Lewerke, the Indiana teen accused of slashing 7 of his classmates with a machete, will have his case remain in adult court.
Attorneys representing Lewerke motioned to have his case moved back to juvenile court after a judge ruled that he will be tried as an adult back in May. Previously, Lewerke has pleaded not guilty, and his attorneys will be using an insanity defense.
As I mentioned before, I think he actually was insane at the time of the attack, and I think in this case he actually does need psychiatric help.
However, I think he should be tried as an adult because of the viciousness of his attack and if he were to be tried as a juvenile he might be released before any treatment could be completed.
Once again I’m late to the party, but hey I run three websites, so sue me.
Anyway, it appears that Esmie Tseng is still updating her LiveJournal through a friend of hers on the outside. Here is a copy of her friends only entry dated 9/2/05…
Hey, Kids— Missing you all lots. If you could, Lex, pass this on to the rest of the BVN masses…
How much drama am I missing out on? If at all possible, fill me in a little…
The basics are here. Food is great—the JDC is sure to keep our appetites filled to the top.
A substitute for love? Humans are simple creatures…am I wrong?
Walls are so bare. No color here, and you know I love those colors…
The staff is pretty cool. Like mommies and daddies. I’m at a sleep over. I get my own room.
The nice thing is that there is such a variety of people. I can hear and feel the heart and soul, and I just want to grab each one for a typical philosophical discussion.
Court is September 13, 2005. There are so many weird and basic restrictions here. Toilet paper, lights, individual voice are all so oppressed…
I have never been one to complain but it’s almost as though we’re considered less human in the bland walls of the JDC. Humans need to feel to accomplish any of their potential, and if taking that away/limiting that right is called justice, then…? I don’t understand how one can ever assert that what we call punishment is as productive as society has so strongly established.
Do we become better people after a sentence? How many of us truly learn from our mistakes? Can we really justify assigning the same punishment to two different offenders, so easily and obviously different in history, mindset, loves, habits, intelligence, physique, hindsight, reasoning, Etc.?
I just don’t understand how society has so easily dumped on its own. All of which are so unique and deserving of any opportunity in such a vast world into such a blue and basic bucket? It seems redemption is an aspect impossible to achieve, no matter which end of the spectrum of extremity that the crime is on. We all have such varying degrees of motive and passion and such, but it just seems that diversity has been ignored.
I hope I’m blind and only have seen some of this world’s existence. I hope.
<3 Esmie
This does not sound like someone who either stabbed their mom to death or someone who is incarcerated. Not that I’m a professional or anything, but this seems very sociopathic to me.
To refresh your memories, Eric Schorling bragged to people that he was going to stab his ex-girlfriend, Nicole Lambert. He then stabbed Nicole in the back in the halls of Romeo High School, barely missing her heart. He then bragged to people afterward that he stabbed Nicole.
He had made a plea to serve six months, but then nullified that plea by escaping from Macomb County Juvenile Justice Center and telling people that he was going to finish the job he started. So not only is he a psychopath, he’s also a dumbass.
Anyway, the article states that they could use fellow escapee Ronnie Lewis Gabrail’s testimony, but probably won’t…
“If you’ve got a quarterback that can throw long and connect on the very first play, why would you take 15 plays on handoffs and short runs and risk making mistakes on the field to gain the same yards?” Kaplan explained by way of analogy. “The case was very strong already, without Ronnie Gabrail, and using him might add risk.”
And here’s the testimony he could provide…
Prior to and during the brief escape, Gabrail has said Schorling told him he’d get back to Romeo and “finish off the bitch” or “finish what I started” — a sort of indirect admission that he had stabbed Lambert before. But Kaplan said the evidence value of that statement is minimal for the stabbing trial since Schorling also made incriminating statements to other Romeo High School students.
And some people actually think Schorling needs “help” and not jail. The only help he needs is help getting into the prison van for a long, long stay courtesy of the State of Michigan.
The original school shooter, Brenda Spencer of the infamous “I don’t like Mondays” shooting, was denied parole for the fourth time since being sentenced to 25 to life back in 1980. For those of you who may not be old enough to remember…
Spencer opened fire with a .22-caliber rifle on Cleveland Elementary School, across the street from her San Carlos home, in January 1979. The principal and a custodian were killed, and eight students and an officer were wounded.
Spencer told a reporter during the SWAT standoff that she fired three dozen shots at the school because she “didn’t like Mondays,” adding the shooting “livens up the day.”
Yes, that it is what the Boomtown Rats song is about.
According to Snopes, this is why she’s been turned down before…
She has been up for parole three times and has been turned down each time, the last in 2001. At her first parole hearing she expressed doubt that any of the victims were hit by bullets from her rifle and contended they might have been shot by police. She also claimed to have been under the influence of alcohol and hallucinogenic drugs at the time of the shootings and asserted prosecutors and her attorney had conspired to fabricate test evidence showing she had no drugs in her system. By her third parole hearing she was admitting guilt and expressing remorse but was still contending she had been drunk and high on marijuana laced with PCP the day of her deadly rampage. She also claimed something new, that she had been beaten and sexually abused by her father, an avowal conspicuously absent from previous records.
She’s changed her story so many times, I can see why she’s been repeatedly denied parole. And isn’t it ironic that she was denied parole on a Monday? I guess she really doesn’t like them now.
The four former players of the Donna High School football team that were indicted for felony sexual assault and indecency with a child appeared before a judge today and were formally arraigned…
Derick Anthony Castillo, 18; Jacob Leal, 17; Manuel Josue Rivera, 19; and Raynardo Jaime Magallanes, 19, appeared separately with their attorneys before 332nd state District Judge Mario Ramirez. All pleaded not guilty to accusations they sexually assaulted five teenage boys under the age of 17 during four separate incidents from Aug. 7, 2004, to Feb. 15, 2005. They were indicted on the charges Sept. 8 and each now faces an Oct. 11 pre-trial hearing date.
The charges stem from a hazing incident where the four are accused of assaulting freshmen ages 14 and 15 by slapping around their genitals and trying to insert their latex-gloved fingers into their asses. I can’t wait to hear the defense.
Members of the McGill University Redmen football team, including indefinitely suspended member James Poston and 20 team veterans, have sent a formal letter of apology to the unnamed victim of the “Dr. Broom” hazing ritual…
“It was never mine or the team’s intention to humiliate or ostracize any member of our team brotherhood,” the letter from Mr. Poston says. “The long-standing ritual is designed to be a team bonding experience which all members of the team underwent, it is not designed to be a hazing ritual driving new team members away.
There’s a long-standing ritual of anally probing someone with a broomstick? How is that designed to be a team bonding experience? I guess along the lines of “We all share this horrible shame and let’s never speak of it again.” kind of bonding experience.
They say it’s not designed to be hazing. Right. And Jack the Ripper’s knife was designed to cut the crust off of bread. The letter continues…
“However, we fully [accept] that the emotional and psychological stress it induces may not be the best way to forge relationships with new team members.”
No real news out of McGill University in Canada. Just that the administration is saying that no further disciplinary action will be taken until their internal investigation is completed. What I found interesting was this quote from team captain Matt Connell…
The captain of the McGill Redmen, quarterback Matt Connell, called the player’s allegation a “complete lie,” although he did say rookies were taken to the squash courts.
Connell told the Montreal Gazette he feels it’s unfair to scapegoat one player.
“(The initiation) was a team event, 98 per cent of the team was there and everyone was partaking. What we’ve been reading in the media has been one-sided, allegations from one individual, guarantee we’ve learned a hard lesson and have paid a big enough price already.”
Connell said the headlines have taken a toll on the team.
“Personally, I’ve been one of the people targeted and I haven’t been able to make one class this week,” he said.
“I’ve been dealing with the press non-stop. It’s been difficult, but at least with football, it’s a few hours to clear our minds.”
Saying that the rookies were taken to the squash court and nothing happened is kind of like Jeffrey Dahmer saying “I lured those men back to my house, but I have no idea how they ended up in my fridge.”
And the allegations may be from one individual, but how many more over the years have been too afraid to come forward. I mean, we’ve already heard previously how the victim was even warned about “Dr. Broom”. And boo freakin’ hoo that you haven’t been able to make it to class. The poor rookie has dropped out of McGill because of what your team allegedly did.
You know, I wonder if Mr. Connell had to endure any probing from Dr. Broom when he was a rookie.
It seems that forced sodomy disguised as boys being boys isn’t limited to American high schools.
Now it seems Canadian Colleges have been doing it for years. It turns out that McGill University in Montreal has a nasty little “tradition” known as “Dr. Broom”.
An 18-year-old player states that he was assaulted by veteran players of the McGill Redmen football team. Rather than give you a breakdown of the situation, I’ll just repost quotes from this article from The Globe and Mail…
On Aug. 27, the last day of training camp, he said all the newcomers were told they had to go to the campus dining hall. Veterans announced they’d be subjected to their “examination” that night.
Toward the end of the meal, he said, one of the veterans entered the room clutching a broom. “The veterans were shouting ‘broom, broom, broom,’” he recalled. Meanwhile, two rookies were singled out to simulate oral sex on one another in their boxer shorts, he said.
After being ordered to take off their shirts, he said, everyone was ordered outside, told to hold hands, and sing as they skipped down to the gym.
“They [the veterans] were taunting us, saying, ‘Look at the fairies. Look at the gays,’” the rookie recalled.
He added that all the rookies were ordered toward the campus’s darkened squash courts and told to hold a penny on the wall with their nose.
“They said, “Drop the penny, and it’s another inch with Dr. Broom,’” the teenager recalled. “Then one by one, they took us out of the room. I was taken out to another room.”
In the second squash court, six football veterans were present while another group was in the stands, pelting him with large exercise balls and jeering. The rookie was told to take off his pants. Three times, he said he refused. Finally, he was threatened.
“One of them said, ‘Do it or we’ll do it for you.’ I said ‘No, I wasn’t raised that way.’ They said it doesn’t matter.”
The rookie said he relented, dropping his pants but keeping on his boxer shorts. He said he was put on his hands and knees and told to bite down on a dog chew toy made of rope. Then they began counting down as they held a broom handle.
“They were poking me on either side of my buttocks cheeks,” he said. “Then, they made contact with my rectum with it. They were kind of pushing back and forth and applying pressure.”
He was not penetrated with the broomstick, but it did hurt, he said.
Could that whole ritual be any more homoerotic? Actually, I take that back because these “rituals” are an insult to homosexuals. But seriously, what is with athlete’s obsession to humiliate their younger teammates with these prison rape fantasy rituals?
And of course, the team captain is denying such allegations…
The captain of the McGill Redmen football team has said although rookies were taken to the squash courts, the allegation is a “complete lie.”
“We would never do anything like that, ever — no alcohol, no one was completely naked, no one ever complained until now,” said Matt Connell.
“Anal probing of any sort happened to absolutely nobody,” Connell told CBC Radio in Montreal on Thursday.
And what did the school do?
Redmen coach Chuck McMann suspended five players for one game and one player indefinitely for breaking team rules.
Do schools actually expel anybody anymore?
At the time that the article was printed no charges had been filed yet.
I got an e-mail today from the webmaster whose site I got the quotes from for both Birthdays in Hell entries which can be found here and here. Here is the e-mail in most of its entirety…
Hello Trench,
My name is Chris and i’m the owner of (URL of mutant website). I received a note that you posted some text of my homepage:
You didn’t ask for my permission to post whats on my website. I am copyrighted so therefore you must delete what youve taken from my website.
Please put this stuff you copy off
Thank you
Chris
First off, I wonder which mutant sent him a note. Like I need to ask. WMD.
Just some other news about Esmie Tseng. Probably nothing new to those that are closer to the case but new to me…
Investigators said the teen’s 55-year-old mother, Shu Yi Zhang, was fatally stabbed after a lengthy argument between the mother and daughter.
Zhang called her husband after the attack and asked him to come home, but she was dead by the time emergency workers arrived, officials said.
And…
Prosecutors said Tseng’s alleged violent behavior is out of character for her, but classmates said Tseng, a high school junior, had been using drugs and was sent her home early for some strange behavior.
I did know that she was allegedly sent home, but this is the first I’ve heard about any alleged drug use.
I also found another support forum for Esmie Tseng at Kids in Court.
Now, while I’m personally reserving judgment on the situation because not enough information has been released, the people at KIC annoy me to no end because they believe that no minor should be tried as an adult.
I’m sorry, but if you can’t do adult time you shouldn’t do adult crime. 16 years old is old enough to know that killing people is wrong and against the law.
