Daily Archives: October 15, 2012

Just When Does Stalking Become Stalking?

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Morgan seems to be asking why?

I sat and read a law, not my favorite pastime, but sometimes you have to in order to feel like you really know it.  When I came across the “It’s really a felony stalking case” note in my timeline, I showed it to Steve.  He did the math, and said eighty- five days… unbelievable!

So, from the Colorado Revised Statutes I have this to present and the bolding is added by me, to just the parts I thought were important.  But by all means read the whole thing if you are in Colorado:

 

CRS 

A stalker may also develop jealousy and animosity for persons who are in relationships with the victim, including family members, employers and co-workers, and friends, perceiving them as obstacles or as threats to the stalker’s own “relationship” with the victim;

(e) Because stalking involves highly inappropriate intensity, persistence, and possessiveness, it entails great unpredictability and creates great stress and fear for the victim;

(f) Stalking involves severe intrusions on the victim’s personal privacy and autonomy, with an immediate and long-lasting impact on quality of life as well as risks to security and safety of the victim and persons close to the victim, even in the absence of express threats of physical harm.

(2) The general assembly hereby recognizes the seriousness posed by stalking and adopts the provisions of this part 6 with the goal of encouraging and authorizing effective intervention before stalking can escalate into behavior that has even more serious consequences.

A person commits stalking if directly, or indirectly through another person, the person knowingly:

(a) Makes a credible threat to another person and, in connection with the threat, repeatedly follows, approaches, contacts, or places under surveillance that person, a member of that person’s immediate family, or someone with whom that person has or has had a continuing relationship; or

(b) Makes a credible threat to another person and, in connection with the threat, repeatedly makes any form of communication with that person, a member of that person’s immediate family, or someone with whom that person has or has had a continuing relationship, regardless of whether a conversation ensues; or

(c) Repeatedly follows, approaches, contacts, places under surveillance, or makes any form of communication with another person, a member of that person’s immediate family, or someone with whom that person has or has had a continuing relationship in a manner that would cause a reasonable person to suffer serious emotional distress and does cause that person, a member of that person’s immediate family, or someone with whom that person has or has had a continuing relationship to suffer serious emotional distress. For purposes of this paragraph (c), a victim need not show that he or she received professional treatment or counseling to show that he or she suffered serious emotional distress.

(2) For the purposes of this part 6:

(a) Conduct “in connection with” a credible threat means acts that further, advance, promote, or have a continuity of purpose, and may occur before, during, or after the credible threat.

(b) “Credible threat” means a threat, physical action, or repeated conduct that would cause a reasonable person to be in fear for the person’s safety or the safety of his or her immediate family or of someone with whom the person has or has had a continuing relationship. The threat need not be directly expressed if the totality of the conduct would cause a reasonable person such fear.

(c) “Immediate family” includes the person’s spouse and the person’s parent, grandparent, sibling, or child.

(d) “Repeated” or “repeatedly” means on more than one occasion.

 

I read it three times now and I don’t see one word about waiting 1 day, let alone 85 days, if you do please let me know.  In fact on the contrary I see words like “seriousness” and “effective intervention” and then the real zinger, “escalate into behavior that has even more serious consequences”.  Morgan’s death was certainly an even more serious consequence.  How much more serious could it have been?  If the general assembly of the State of Colorado can see the connection between stalking and serious consequence, how come the Garfield Sheriff’s department can’t.  It was a “mystery” the day she was killed and it never changed.  A mystery? After 121 days of stalking?  Read it as I might I just don’t see those words in there.  I just don’t think what was allowed to happen to Morgan was what the General Assembly had in mind when they drafted this law.  So if they did not, then who did?

October 26, 2011 – Day 86 of Morgan’s Stalking

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I miss you rocks on a camping trip

In case the good news slipped under the radar, on the 56th day of the stalking, Morgan’s case was confirmed to be a felony stalking case.  It was 56 days, and it was finally a felony stalking case.  Fifty-six days!  I have read the Colorado Revised Statutes twice, and I don’t see any time restriction, law enforcement does not even have to wait one day.  The US Department of Justice says, “Stalking is a pattern of repeated and unwanted attention, harassment, contact, or any other course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear.

Morgan felt fear from day two.  Steve and I felt fear as well – fear for our daughter’s safety, fear of the unknown.  All of our lives were turned upside down…this had been 56 days of REPEATED harassment, unwanted surveillance, tresspass, and attacks.  The stress we were all under was unbelievable.  I have posted – just when does stalking become stalking?  Today to answer this question, again, it is a pattern of repeated and unwanted attention, harassment, contact, or any other course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear.  I would also further like to point out – this is why I believe anti-stalking laws have to become stricter.  It’s one thing to have anti-stalking laws on the books, but it’s another to have those laws enforced, because if locally they are not taken seriously, stalking can become lethal.

At 11:59 pm a rock hit Morgan’s window, and startled her from bed.  Earlier today Steve went outside with a new BB gun, and using plastic bullets to try to approximate the noise Morgan had been hearing on her windows up till tonight.  This was much louder and more upsetting for Morgan.

I sent the detective an email about the incident, which had been caught on the video cameras in the driveway.  He said he is interested to see it next time he is at our house.  I didn’t tell him about the rock incident, as it had to wait until he got back anyway.

Today is October 15, 2012 – And yesterday’s blog was such a perfect example of what I mean about protocol, and laws changing in stalking that I could not pass it up.  Yesterday on the blog, I posted a film clip of a stalker in the driveway.  A strange man doing something nefarious, and I say this because who else would be out in our driveway at 11:30 pm at night crouched behind my car in the driving rain?  And how often would evidence like this be available in a stalking case?

Our sheriff, Lou Vallario has gone on TV and said they were out at our house over 50 times and never saw any sign of a stalker.  His detectives saw this video clip on my computer (and it was very clearly a picture of a male popping up from behind the LR3 into a standing position and running across the driveway to the bushes for cover as our new neighbor Matt drives up the street), and if that is not a sign of a stalker then just what is?  The stalkers don’t come to the front door, and politely request a sign in sheet saying they were there, not our stalker anyway.  Our stalker actually did whatever it took to not be caught in the act – is this a shock to anyone?  In this particular clip we caught him because a neighbor happened to drive up the street while he was hiding behind my car.  If he comes toward the house between the truck and the car then the alarm goes off, the stalker knows this.  He had one way to go – no other way, and he took it.

Lucky for the stalker, Matt did not see him.  Or would that have mattered?  Say Matt saw him and told the detectives he had seen a man leaving our driveway, and hiding in our bushes, would they have arrested someone?  NO!  Would they have gone and questioned someone?  NO!  Based on past reactions to far greater evidence, there would have been no response at all.  Just like there was on October 19th when Morgan was followed home in her car.  Morgan was frightened and frustrated.  She was beginning to lose all faith in the sheriff department’s ability to protect her, or catch her stalker at this time.  And looking back wasn’t she 100% right?  They never caught her stalker, and they were not able to protect her.  They managed a very pathetic murder scene investigation, which they instantly saw as absolutely unrelated to her ongoing stalking.  100 pages of gross incompetence reports later and what crime, there was no crime here, no stalking, no murder…who really believes that?

Interestingly enough the volunteered votes to convict so far on the blog, if those chiming in were on a jury, and had to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the prime suspect Keenan, is, so far, 100% guilty – based only on the blog to date.  And trust me you have not seen the really damning stuff yet.  100% guilt and the sheriffs department has closed the stalking investigation, and the pathologist carried through on his threat, and changed Morgan’s death from natural causes to a suicide, after nine months with no new evidence.  Steve and I were dismayed when the sheriffs indicated that they were 100% certain Keenan was the stalker, because we were far more convinced that Keenan was acting as part of a gang and there were others involved.  We believed there were at least one other, and maybe two other participants at the time.  Now we believe there were at least four participants in total and perhaps as many as five.  And the sheriffs department has dropped the case, felony stalking one day – next day, no stalking, and what changed?  NOTHING!  We believed in the system and what happened – so far there has been no justice for Morgan – people responsible are still out on the streets to go do this again to someone else’s daughter and until changes are made this will just repeat itself over and over again.

Oh, Morgan died, was killed, or committed suicide, that has changed.  But does any of that mean she was not stalked? I think not, not at all.  Steve and I spent over four hours this weekend listening to interpretations of the crime that could lead to a correct manner of death as suicide.  Steve and I said nothing, just listened, and not one person thought this was even a POTENTIAL suicide.  Not one.  And what if it were a suicide?  What if the fear of her stalker drove her to that, how come nobody even wants to mention that as a possibility.  Steve and I are 100% certain it was not a suicide for many reasons that will be shared with you over the next few weeks.  Then you too can decide for yourself.  Just remember, anyone who still votes for suicide will have to answer the question if it could have been caused by her stalker.  And we have not even raised the reason for her death that medical minds thought was most likely, before we found the massive dose of amitriptyline, and before we later found the components of a date rape cocktail.  So answer me this, because I’m her mom, and I don’t get a vote:

  • 100% felony stalking case (plus)
  • Substantial reality of fright from her stalking being a small component in her untimely death (plus)
  • 100% massive dose of Amitriptyline listed as insignificant (plus)
  • 100% evidence of a date rape cocktail of 6 drugs in her system (plus)
  • Ample evidence of a struggle in her room (plus)
  • The PJ’s she wore to bed completely gone from her room (plus)
  • All of her valuable jewelry missing from her room (plus)
  • A suspicious substance splattered on her chest under black light (plus)
  • Wounds on the top and bottom of her right hand (plus)
  • Three nails torn off her right hand (equals)
  • ZERO INVESTIGATION, NONE, NADA.

What if your daughter was murdered and no one cared? What would you do?  Could this possibly get any more pathetic? Of course it can, it is Garfield County isn’t it?