You might remember the "owl possession" a page or two back right?
http://www.themistsofavalon.net/t4256p240-theater-of-parallel-universe#86509
Strange coincidence....my Daddy was from Nome.... where that picture of the Eyes and the movie the Fourth kind was based.
Well even stranger....I suppose if you are REALLY rich...you can get away with anything....even murder they say?
The Owl Defense of Mr. Peterson....TWO women ...both fell down a star case....one in 1985, the other in 2001.
Personal life
Murder trial
Kathleen's death
Suspicion surrounding Elizabeth Ratliff's death
Appeal
Now....the OWL defense:
Owl theory
In late 2009, Peterson's attorneys raised a new theory of Kathleen Peterson's death, that she had been attacked by an owl outside and had fallen after rushing inside and had been knocked unconscious after hitting her head on the first tread of the stairs. The owl theory was raised after Durham attorney T. Lawrence Pollard, who was not involved in the case at the time, approached the police suggesting the possibility that an owl was responsible after reading the SBI evidence list and finding a "feather" listed. Although Pollard never spoke of the theory to anyone else, the Durham Herald-Sun newspaper published an article ridiculing Pollard and discrediting his theory. The media picked up the story, repeating the Herald-Sun article, which was later criticized as inaccurate. Peterson's attorneys later determined that the SBI crime lab report listed a microscopic owl feather and a wooden sliver from a tree limb entangled in a clump of hair that had been pulled out by the roots found clutched in Kathleen's left hand. A re-examination of the hair in September 2008 found two more microscopic owl feathers.[citation needed] Advocates allege the existence of other evidence supports the theory, namely that the scalp wounds were tri-lobed and paired consistent with marks left by talons, the feathers are similar to those found on the feet of owls, cedar needles were found on her hands and body indicating she had fallen over outside shortly before entering the house, that Kathleen's blood had splattered up the staircase rather than down, that Kathleen's footprints in her own blood indicated that she was already bleeding before she reached the foot of the stairs and that two drops of Kathleen's blood were found outside the house on the front walkway along with a finger smear on the front door consistent with her pushing the door shut. The advocates for the owl attack hypothesis also note that owl attacks on people are common in the area, with one victim stating that the impact was similar to being hit in the head with a baseball bat.[4] According to attorney T. Lawrence Pollard, had a jury been presented with this evidence it would have "materially affected their deliberation and therefore would have materially affected their ultimate verdict." Prosecutors have ridiculed the claim and Dr. Deborah Radisch, who conducted Kathleen Peterson's autopsy, says it is unlikely that an owl or any other bird could have made wounds as deep as those on Kathleen's scalp. However Dr. Radisch's opinion was challenged by other experts in three affidavits filed in 2010. Dr. Alan van Norman wrote "The multiple wounds present suggest to me that an owl and Ms. Peterson somehow became entangled. Perhaps the owl got tangled in her hair or perhaps she grabbed the owl's foot."[12]
Freaky eh?
Dr. Patrick T. Redig, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Minnesota wrote
"In my professional opinion, the hypothesized attack to the face and back of the head resulting in the various punctures and lacerations visible in the autopsy photographs is entirely within the behavioral repertoire of large owls".[12]
Kate P. Davis, executive director of Raptors of the Rockies, located in western Montana, wrote
"The lacerations on Mrs. Peterson's scalp look very much like those made by a raptor's talons, especially if she had forcibly torn the bird from the back of her head," she wrote. "That would explain the feathers found in her hand and the many hairs pulled out by the root ball, broken or cut. The size and configuration of the lacerations could certainly indicate the feet of a Barred Owl." She noted that owls can kill species much larger than themselves and that it is not uncommon for them to attack people.[12]
No motion for a new trial was filed on this point in 2009.
Now...in In October 2002, acting as administrator of Kathleen's estate, Caitlin filed a wrongful death claim against Michael. In June 2006, he voluntarily filed for bankruptcy. Two weeks later Caitlin filed an objection to the bankruptcy. On February 1, 2007, Caitlin and Michael settled the wrongful death claim for $25 million, pending acceptance by the courts involved; finalization of the settlement by the court was announced on February 1, 2008.
Whoa!!!!!!!! That's a whole lot of money! And he's out on bond pending trial once again...scheduled sometime around 2014.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Peterson_%28author%29
The Owl Theory interview:
http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/3406043/#/vid3406043
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/12/novelist-michael-peterson-convicted-of-wifes-murder-is-released-from-prison-and-will-get-new-trial/
http://www.themistsofavalon.net/t4256p240-theater-of-parallel-universe#86509
Strange coincidence....my Daddy was from Nome.... where that picture of the Eyes and the movie the Fourth kind was based.
Well even stranger....I suppose if you are REALLY rich...you can get away with anything....even murder they say?
The Owl Defense of Mr. Peterson....TWO women ...both fell down a star case....one in 1985, the other in 2001.
Personal life
Michael "Mike" Peterson was the son of Eugen Iver Peterson and Eleanor Bartolino. He graduated from Duke University with a bachelor's degree in political science. He attended classes at the law school of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At Duke he was the president of Sigma Nu fraternity and the editor of The Chronicle. After leaving Duke, Peterson took a civilian job with the U.S. Department of Defense where he was assigned to research arguments supporting increased military involvement in Vietnam.
In 1965, Peterson married Patricia Sue Peterson who taught elementary school on the Rhein-Main Air Base in Gräfenhausen, Germany. They had two children, Clayton and Todd. In 1968, he voluntarily enlisted in the Marines and served in Vietnam. He was discharged four years later after a car accident left him with a permanent disability. He received an honorable discharge with a permanent medical disability and retired with the rank of captain in 1971. During a mayoral campaign, Peterson had claimed he won a Silver Star, a Bronze Star With Valor and two Purple Hearts. He had all the medals, but said he did not have the documentation for them. The writer had claimed he had received one Purple Heart after being hit by shrapnel when another soldier stepped on a land mine, and the other when he was shot. Peterson later admitted his war injury was not the result of the shrapnel wound in Vietnam, but was the result of a vehicle accident in Japan, where he was stationed after the war as a military policeman.[2] The News & Observer said records did not contain any mention of the second Purple Heart Peterson had said he received.
Michael and Patricia lived in Germany for some time, where they befriended Elizabeth and George Ratliff and their two children, Margaret and Martha. After George's death in the Invasion of Grenada, the Peterson and Ratliff families became very close. When Elizabeth Ratliff died in 1985, her two children became Michael's wards. Michael and Patricia divorced in 1987, Clayton and Todd went to live with their mother, and Margaret and Martha stayed with Michael who then moved to Durham, North Carolina. Peterson wrote three successful books, The Immortal Dragon, A Time of War, A Bitter Peace and Charlie Two Shoes and the Marines of Love Company. He also worked as a newspaper columnist for the Durham Herald-Sun where his columns became known for their criticism of police and the Durham County District Attorney James Hardin Jr., who was later to prosecute Peterson for Kathleen's murder.
In 1989, Michael moved in with Kathleen Atwater, a successful Nortel business executive. They married in 1997 and Kathleen's daughter Caitlin also joined the extended Peterson family.
Murder trial
Kathleen's death
On December 9, 2001, Michael called the emergency line to report that he had just found Kathleen unconscious and suspected that she had fallen down "15 or 20 stairs." Peterson later maintained that Kathleen must have fallen down the stairs after consuming alcohol and valium. Toxicology results showed that his wife's blood alcohol content was 0.07 percent. The autopsy report concluded that the 48 year old victim sustained a matrix of severe injuries, including a fracture of the thyroid neck cartilage and seven lacerations to the top and back of her head consistent with blows from a blunt object and had died from blood loss one and a half to two hours after sustaining the injuries. Kathleen's sister, Candace Zamperini, and daughter Caitlin had both initially maintained Michael's innocence and publicly supported him alongside his children but Zamperini reconsidered upon finding out about Peterson's bisexuality as did Caitlin after reading her mother's autopsy report and both subsequently broke off from the rest of the family. Although a forensic expert testified that the blood spatter evidence was consistent with an accidental fall down the stairs, police investigators concluded that the injuries sustained were inconsistent with such an accident. As Michael Peterson was the only person at the residence at the time of Kathleen's death, he was the prime suspect, and was soon charged with her murder. He pleaded not guilty.
The Durham coroner concluded that Kathleen had died due to lacerations of the scalp caused by a homicidal assault. There were in total seven lacerations to the top and back of her head caused, according to the coroner, by repeated blows with a weapon similar to a fireplace poker.
The trial drew media attention, as the details of Michael's life emerged. The Durham County DA, James Hardin Jr and prosecutors (among them future District Attorney Mike Nifong[4]) attacked Peterson's credibility, focusing on his alleged misreporting of his military service[5] and what they described as a gay life he led and kept secret. The prosecution contended that the Petersons' marriage was far from happy, suggesting that Kathleen had discovered Michael's alleged secret gay life and wanted to end their marriage. Despite this scenario being discredited by police investigators, it was the only motive for Kathleen's alleged murder offered by the prosecution at trial.
"She would have been infuriated by learning that her husband, who she truly loved was bi-sexual and having an extramarital relationship - not with another woman - but a man, which would have been humiliating and embarrassing to her. We believe that once she learned this information that an argument ensued and a homicide occurred" —Assistant District Attorney, Freda Black
The defense argued that Kathleen knew about and accepted Michael's bisexuality and that the marriage was very happy, a position supported by Michael and Kathleen's children and numerous friends and associates. The prosecution maintained a poker missing from the house was the weapon used, and showed jurors a replica claiming they could not find Peterson's. The missing poker actually had been found in the garage but forensic tests revealed that it could not have been the murder weapon. A juror contacted after the trial said the jury had dismissed a poker or anything like it thus making the poker irrelevant. The defense disputed this finding as Kathleen's skull had not been fractured by the blows nor was the brain damaged. When asked by the defense why, in the 250 recorded beating deaths in North Carolina in the past decade, was there not one single incident involving multiple blows to the head which did not include these injuries, the coroner stated she did not research criminal cases so could not comment.
Suspicion surrounding Elizabeth Ratliff's death
Elizabeth Ratliff, who died in Germany in 1985, was also found at the foot of her staircase with injuries to the head. The death was investigated by both the German police and U.S. military police. An autopsy at the time of her death concluded she had died from an intra-cerebral haemorrhage secondary to the blood coagulation disorder Von Willebrand's disease, based on blood in her cerebrospinal fluid and reports that she had been suffering severe, persistent headaches in the weeks leading up to her death. The coroner determined that the haemorrhage resulted in immediate death followed by Ratliff falling down the stairs after collapsing. Ratliff and her daughters had gone to the Petersons' home the previous night to have dinner with them and Peterson had driven them home and helped Ratliff put the children to bed. The children's nanny discovered the body when she arrived the next morning. Peterson was the last person to see her alive. The state of rigor indicated that Ratliff had died late in the morning. There was no evidence that Peterson had returned to Ratliffs house after dropping her off the previous night while evidence does support that he was still in bed with his wife around the time of death.[2]
Before Peterson's trial, the Durham court ordered the exhumation of Elizabeth's embalmed body for a second autopsy in April 2003. The defense requested an independent autopsy by a forensic pathologist in Texas, pointing out that the state has no shortage of qualified professionals in this field. Over the defense’s objection, the autopsy was conducted by the same Durham medical examiner who had performed Kathleen Peterson's first autopsy who later reported that Ratliff had also been murdered. This necessitated that the body be transported under guard from Texas at great expense.
The prosecution declined to accuse Peterson of Elizabeth's death but introduced the death into the trial as an incident giving Peterson the idea of how to "fake" Kathleen's accident. Despite police reports that there was very little blood at the scene of Ratliff's death, the nanny, who was the first to discover Ratliff's body in 1985, took the stand at Peterson's trial and testified that there was a large amount of blood at the scene. Another witness testified spending much of the day cleaning blood stains off of the wall. Despite the implication that Peterson had also murdered Elizabeth Ratliff, her daughters stood by him: "The DA is trying to say that our dad killed our birth mother and our mother. But where are we sitting? We're sitting behind our dad."
The admissibility of the Ratliff evidence in court was one of the grounds for the subsequent appeal against his conviction, lodged by Peterson's lawyers in 2005.
Verdict
On October 10, 2003, after one of the longest trials in North Carolina history, a Durham County jury found Michael Peterson guilty of the murder of Kathleen Peterson and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Denial of parole requires premeditation, despite the jury accepting the murder was a "spur of the moment" crime they also found it was premeditated. As one juror explained it, premeditated meant not only planning hours or days ahead but could also mean planning in the seconds before committing a spur of the moment crime.
Peterson was housed at the Nash Correctional Institution near Rocky Mount, until released on December 16, 2011.
Appeal
Peterson's appeal was filed by his defense counsel Thomas Maher, now serving as his court-appointed attorney, and was argued before the North Carolina Court of Appeals on April 18, 2006. On September 19, 2006 the Court of Appeals rejected Peterson's arguments that he did not get a fair trial because of repeated judicial mistakes.[8] The appeals ruling said the evidence was fairly admitted. The judges did find defects in a search warrant but said they had no ill effect on the defense.[9] Because the Court of Appeals' ruling was not unanimous, under North Carolina law Peterson had right to appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court, which accepted the case. Oral argument was heard on September 10, 2007. On November 9, 2007 the Court announced that it affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeals. Absent a reconsideration of the ruling or the raising of a federal issue, Peterson had exhausted his appeal of the verdict.
On November 12, 2008, J. Burkhardt Beale and Jason Anthony, Richmond, Va. attorneys, who were now representing Peterson, filed a motion for a new trial in Durham County court on three grounds: that the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence about a tire iron; that the prosecution used an expert witness whose qualifications are disputed, and that one juror based his judgment on racial factors. On March 10, 2009 Peterson's motion was denied by the Durham County Superior Court.
Now....the OWL defense:
Owl theory
In late 2009, Peterson's attorneys raised a new theory of Kathleen Peterson's death, that she had been attacked by an owl outside and had fallen after rushing inside and had been knocked unconscious after hitting her head on the first tread of the stairs. The owl theory was raised after Durham attorney T. Lawrence Pollard, who was not involved in the case at the time, approached the police suggesting the possibility that an owl was responsible after reading the SBI evidence list and finding a "feather" listed. Although Pollard never spoke of the theory to anyone else, the Durham Herald-Sun newspaper published an article ridiculing Pollard and discrediting his theory. The media picked up the story, repeating the Herald-Sun article, which was later criticized as inaccurate. Peterson's attorneys later determined that the SBI crime lab report listed a microscopic owl feather and a wooden sliver from a tree limb entangled in a clump of hair that had been pulled out by the roots found clutched in Kathleen's left hand. A re-examination of the hair in September 2008 found two more microscopic owl feathers.[citation needed] Advocates allege the existence of other evidence supports the theory, namely that the scalp wounds were tri-lobed and paired consistent with marks left by talons, the feathers are similar to those found on the feet of owls, cedar needles were found on her hands and body indicating she had fallen over outside shortly before entering the house, that Kathleen's blood had splattered up the staircase rather than down, that Kathleen's footprints in her own blood indicated that she was already bleeding before she reached the foot of the stairs and that two drops of Kathleen's blood were found outside the house on the front walkway along with a finger smear on the front door consistent with her pushing the door shut. The advocates for the owl attack hypothesis also note that owl attacks on people are common in the area, with one victim stating that the impact was similar to being hit in the head with a baseball bat.[4] According to attorney T. Lawrence Pollard, had a jury been presented with this evidence it would have "materially affected their deliberation and therefore would have materially affected their ultimate verdict." Prosecutors have ridiculed the claim and Dr. Deborah Radisch, who conducted Kathleen Peterson's autopsy, says it is unlikely that an owl or any other bird could have made wounds as deep as those on Kathleen's scalp. However Dr. Radisch's opinion was challenged by other experts in three affidavits filed in 2010. Dr. Alan van Norman wrote "The multiple wounds present suggest to me that an owl and Ms. Peterson somehow became entangled. Perhaps the owl got tangled in her hair or perhaps she grabbed the owl's foot."[12]
Freaky eh?
"In my professional opinion, the hypothesized attack to the face and back of the head resulting in the various punctures and lacerations visible in the autopsy photographs is entirely within the behavioral repertoire of large owls".[12]
Kate P. Davis, executive director of Raptors of the Rockies, located in western Montana, wrote
"The lacerations on Mrs. Peterson's scalp look very much like those made by a raptor's talons, especially if she had forcibly torn the bird from the back of her head," she wrote. "That would explain the feathers found in her hand and the many hairs pulled out by the root ball, broken or cut. The size and configuration of the lacerations could certainly indicate the feet of a Barred Owl." She noted that owls can kill species much larger than themselves and that it is not uncommon for them to attack people.[12]
No motion for a new trial was filed on this point in 2009.
Now...in In October 2002, acting as administrator of Kathleen's estate, Caitlin filed a wrongful death claim against Michael. In June 2006, he voluntarily filed for bankruptcy. Two weeks later Caitlin filed an objection to the bankruptcy. On February 1, 2007, Caitlin and Michael settled the wrongful death claim for $25 million, pending acceptance by the courts involved; finalization of the settlement by the court was announced on February 1, 2008.
Whoa!!!!!!!! That's a whole lot of money! And he's out on bond pending trial once again...scheduled sometime around 2014.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Peterson_%28author%29
The Owl Theory interview:
http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/3406043/#/vid3406043
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/12/novelist-michael-peterson-convicted-of-wifes-murder-is-released-from-prison-and-will-get-new-trial/
Now there's a thought eh?
