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Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
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Initial Suspect In Etan Patz Case Breaks Silence On Pedro Hernandez Arrest [EXCLUSIVE]
NEW YORK (PIX11)— Jose Ramos is known in New York as the man responsible for the death of Etan Patz, this according to a jury in a 2004 civil suit. In Pennsylvania, he goes by inmate number, AJ-0496.
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- Join date : 2010-01-21
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
Pedro Hernandez court date postponed to Oct. 1
NEW YORK -- Prosecutors and a defense lawyer for the man charged in a notorious 1979 child disappearance made it clear Wednesday they are still investigating and assessing the case, postponing a court date for three months to keep gathering information.
Pedro Hernandez had been due in court Monday as doctors evaluate his mental fitness for trial in the murder case surrounding Etan Patz, one of the first missing children whose picture ever appeared on a milk carton. But the Manhattan district attorney's office said Wednesday that both sides had agreed to put off Hernandez's appearance to Oct. 1 "to allow all parties to proceed with their investigations in a measured and fair manner."
Hernandez's lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, declined to comment.
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NEW YORK -- Prosecutors and a defense lawyer for the man charged in a notorious 1979 child disappearance made it clear Wednesday they are still investigating and assessing the case, postponing a court date for three months to keep gathering information.
Pedro Hernandez had been due in court Monday as doctors evaluate his mental fitness for trial in the murder case surrounding Etan Patz, one of the first missing children whose picture ever appeared on a milk carton. But the Manhattan district attorney's office said Wednesday that both sides had agreed to put off Hernandez's appearance to Oct. 1 "to allow all parties to proceed with their investigations in a measured and fair manner."
Hernandez's lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, declined to comment.
Read more at:
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lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
For Patz Suspect, a Life Filled With Tumult and Family Mistrust
By ANNE BARNARD, ALISON LEIGH COWAN and KIA GREGORY
Published: June 10, 2012
In retrospect, some details in Pedro Hernandez’s life seem ominous.
His sister Norma remembers him saying repeatedly as a child that if he had a son, he would “lock him in the basement.” Perhaps, she speculated, he was upset by the noise and chaos of their large family. And a relative by marriage said that one of Mr. Hernandez’s sisters disliked having him near her children.
Some people in the family considered Mr. Hernandez strange and untrustworthy, the relative said. “Nice one day and the next second you change — that was him.”
Mr. Hernandez swerved last month from anonymity to the center of the 33-year-old mystery of Etan Patz, who was 6 years old in 1979 when he left his building in SoHo for a school bus stop two blocks away and vanished. Mr. Hernandez told the police that he strangled Etan that morning, moments after luring the boy into the basement of a nearby bodega where he worked with his brother-in-law, and then put the body in the trash. He has been charged with second-degree murder.
Public records and interviews with Mr. Hernandez’s relatives and neighbors reveal signs of turbulence along his journey through two troubled marriages and a dozen addresses. What the signs point to is unclear. To the police, Mr. Hernandez is a killer who spent much of his confession describing frequent childhood beatings. His lawyer and his wife say he is a man with a history of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, hallucinations and delusions who confessed to a crime he did not commit.
Until now, Mr. Hernandez’s troubles were known mainly to his family. Relatives said his ex-wife and his current wife had obtained protection orders against him. He barely interacted with the son and daughter from his first marriage, rebuffing his daughter’s overtures, they said.
And when family members learned of Mr. Hernandez’s confession, said the relative by marriage, who requested anonymity because of the delicate nature of the subject, the family was alarmed by this odd detail: While living with his sister’s family near the bodega where they had found him work, Mr. Hernandez told the police, he had detested his young nephew.
The nephew, Sammy Santana, was 3.
Norma Hernandez said she had heard her nephews, years later, gossip about Mr. Hernandez’s saying that he could see “the devil” in Sammy’s face. Mr. Santana, now a New York City sanitation worker, said he had heard the stories. But he added, “If I could remember when I was 3, I’d be a mental genius.”
Mr. Santana declined to speak further before talking to investigators canvassing the sprawling extended family. Many relatives declined to comment.
Soon after Etan disappeared, Mr. Hernandez moved to Camden, N.J. According to an anonymous tip to investigators last month, Mr. Hernandez told members of a prayer group in the early 1980s that he had killed a boy in New York. Under questioning, Mr. Hernandez told the police that the boy was Etan. His arrest raised questions of whether a man could murder a child at 18 and then live for decades without committing other known crimes.
With no physical evidence linking him to the crime — the police were examining children’s clothes found at his house on Wednesday — Mr. Hernandez’s life story could be an important courtroom narrative if the case goes to trial.
Growing Up on a Farm
In the 1960s, on a farm in Yabucoa, in eastern Puerto Rico, Mr. Hernandez’s seven sisters slept in one room. He and four brothers shared another, the oldest swaying in a hammock. They had no electricity or running water. Their father, Esteban, grew yams and bananas, but villagers mainly recalled him as a great horseman and an excellent maker of pitorro, the local moonshine.
“Even when he was drunk, the horse couldn’t make him fall,” one villager, Bienvenido Gómez-Ortiz, 65, said.
But Estben was disabled, when, in a drunken altercation, a cousin cut him so deeply with a machete that he needed 125 stitches. (Some relatives say the cousin meant only to slap at him with the flat of the blade.)
Relatives in Yabucoa, stunned by news reports of Pedro Hernandez’s confession, agreed that when he was an adult his face looked like his father’s, but that while Esteban was rough and gregarious, Pedro was shy.
The children had to milk cows and fetch river water before school and pray the rosary every night, Gregorio Delgado-Hernández, 71, a cousin, said, leaving no “time to play.”
Around 1973, an uncle helped bring the family to Camden, an industrial town beginning a long decline. Esteban Hernandez and his wife, Agripina, worked custodial jobs and would often sit on the porch of their three-story, white-brick house on State Street. On Sundays, Mr. Hernandez sold candles at Holy Name, a Roman Catholic church, and greeted parishioners hospitably, said Delia Lugo, then a bookkeeper there. She recalled the large family crossing the bridge to St. Anthony’s of Padua for charismatic prayer circles, a growing Catholic movement of ecstatic worship and speaking in tongues.
Mr. Hernandez, a small man, remained feisty, the in-law said. “It was his way or nobody,” he said, even “if you were 300 pounds.”
But Norma Hernandez is adamant that her father never beat Pedro, who she said attracted little attention, besides some teasing for being the only left-handed sibling.
Pedro completed Pyne Poynt Middle School in 1975. At Woodrow Wilson High School, he earned mainly C’s and D’s, with one A, in arts and crafts, his transcript shows.
He dropped out in September 1978, his senior year, and for the first of many times, turned to one of his more successful sisters. He made his way to SoHo to live with his sister Luz and work with her husband at the bodega.
Etan disappeared on May 25, 1979. According to the police, Mr. Hernandez said he spotted Etan that day and lured him to the shop basement, promising him a soda; choked him; and put the body in the trash. Asked why, a law enforcement official said, “He kept saying, ‘I don’t know.’ ”
Mr. Hernandez, 51, said he did not molest Etan — sexual motivation is behind most murders of children by strangers. Experts have suggested explanations — sexual motives he is ashamed to reveal; irrational aggression from nascent, untreated schizophrenia — but they are speculative.
At the time of Etan’s disappearance, the police recorded Mr. Hernandez’s existence as a bodega employee but do not seem to have interviewed him. He moved back to Camden, where, his sister Norma said, he was “not the same,” always running to the bathroom with a nervous stomach.
She got him a job at Bonnell Dress Company, where she worked. Wendy Dickstein, whose family owned the factory in Mount Laurel, N.J., which is now defunct, said he was a diligent worker, running heavy machinery that rolled out fabric for cutting. His bosses were surprised, she said, that after a roller injured his hand, he left for treatment and they never heard from him again.
Around this time, in 1981, the police say, Mr. Hernandez started alluding to a mysterious crime. They say he returned to St. Anthony’s, one of his childhood churches, and told worshipers that he had killed a boy in New York.
Tomas Rivera, a prayer leader, said Mr. Hernandez confessed to more than a dozen people at a prayer circle. Norma Hernandez said he told Mr. Rivera and two others after a service he attended with relatives. But strange confessions were not unusual, Mr. Rivera’s son, David, said.
For many reasons — protectiveness, fear, uncertainty — relatives lived for years with the rumor, they said. On his deathbed two decades later, Esteban Hernandez said he believed his son was responsible for a hit-and-run accident involving a child.
“I hope Pedro repents for that little kid he did wrong,” Ms. Hernandez, then their father’s caretaker, recalled his saying.
Pedro Hernandez remained connected — shakily at times — to his family. In the early 1980s, he lived with the sister who the in-law said worried about him around her children. The in-law said he did not appear confused or delusional, just moody. He was always neat and clean, his fingernails well kept, but, the in-law said, “he was very controlling.”
That seems to have been a cause of contention during his brief marriage to Daisy Rivera, whom he wed in 1983 under family pressure after she became pregnant. Ms. Rivera took out at least one protection order against him and later divorced him, the in-law said. Efforts to reach Ms. Rivera for comment were unsuccessful.
Soon after, at the wedding of a brother, Mr. Hernandez met Rosemary Vargas, a sister of the bride. They married in 1988 and had a daughter, Becky.
Peggy Niedzwiadek said that when she worked with Ms. Vargas in 1987 at an insurance firm, her colleague seemed “very much in love,” but that she had described a relationship Ms. Niedzwiadek found troubling: Mr. Hernandez would allow her to wear only long skirts and dresses and micromanaged her grocery shopping.
Ms. Niedzwiadek said that when she asked Ms. Vargas why she did not just put on pants, she replied: “He’d be very upset with me. I just won’t do it.”
“I think she was totally controlled by him,” Ms. Niedzwiadek added.
‘Like Living With Nobody’
In 1991, a New Jersey woman had a car accident. Rosemary Hernandez was her claims adjuster. Ms. Hernandez used the woman’s credit to go on a cruise, buy an expensive car and secure credit cards over the course of a year, according to records the woman compiled after creditors threatened her with arrest over unfamiliar debts.
“It took a big chunk out of my life emotionally, financially,” the woman said. “It was a nonviolent crime, but you are violated.”
The woman discovered the charade, assembled evidence and persuaded the police to charge Ms. Hernandez with fraud. Soon after, in 1993, the woman received a jarring phone call from Pedro Hernandez.
“I felt threatened,” the woman, who requested anonymity to avoid further entanglement with Mr. Hernandez, said recently, adding that she reported the threat to prosecutors, who never charged him. She said he “kept screaming” and saying “it was my fault that his wife lost her job, and now she did not have a car.”
The charges against Ms. Hernandez were dismissed after a pretrial intervention program, and by 1995 she had obtained a license to sell insurance, a step up from previous jobs. But Mr. Hernandez had stopped working, collecting disability benefits for what the police said was a back injury from construction work. The couple were sued by landlords, declared bankruptcy and lost a house they had briefly owned.
Around 2008, Mr. Hernandez moved in with his sister Norma. She said that his wife had filed a protection order against him and that he was not allowed near her, though she took him back.
It was “like living with nobody,” Norma Hernandez recalled. Her brother spoke little, she said, leaving his room only to smoke Newports on the porch.
That was how neighbors in Maple Shade, N.J., saw him, too, until recently. In April, the authorities dug up a SoHo basement searching for Etan’s remains. Mr. Hernandez called his sister Luz out of the blue to discuss it, a relative told The Star-Ledger of Newark. Soon after, the police received their tip.
On Wednesday, Rosemary Hernandez and Becky, her daughter, sat at their picnic table as the authorities carted away belongings.
Among them, the police said, was the latest surprise: clothing of a 1970s vintage, seeming to be in a 6-year-old boy’s size. And a child’s toy. Could these be Etan's?
Nate Schweber contributed reporting from New Jersey, Dennis M. Rivera-Pichardo from Yabucoa, P.R., and Alain Delaquérière from New York.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
By ANNE BARNARD, ALISON LEIGH COWAN and KIA GREGORY
Published: June 10, 2012
In retrospect, some details in Pedro Hernandez’s life seem ominous.
His sister Norma remembers him saying repeatedly as a child that if he had a son, he would “lock him in the basement.” Perhaps, she speculated, he was upset by the noise and chaos of their large family. And a relative by marriage said that one of Mr. Hernandez’s sisters disliked having him near her children.
Some people in the family considered Mr. Hernandez strange and untrustworthy, the relative said. “Nice one day and the next second you change — that was him.”
Mr. Hernandez swerved last month from anonymity to the center of the 33-year-old mystery of Etan Patz, who was 6 years old in 1979 when he left his building in SoHo for a school bus stop two blocks away and vanished. Mr. Hernandez told the police that he strangled Etan that morning, moments after luring the boy into the basement of a nearby bodega where he worked with his brother-in-law, and then put the body in the trash. He has been charged with second-degree murder.
Public records and interviews with Mr. Hernandez’s relatives and neighbors reveal signs of turbulence along his journey through two troubled marriages and a dozen addresses. What the signs point to is unclear. To the police, Mr. Hernandez is a killer who spent much of his confession describing frequent childhood beatings. His lawyer and his wife say he is a man with a history of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, hallucinations and delusions who confessed to a crime he did not commit.
Until now, Mr. Hernandez’s troubles were known mainly to his family. Relatives said his ex-wife and his current wife had obtained protection orders against him. He barely interacted with the son and daughter from his first marriage, rebuffing his daughter’s overtures, they said.
And when family members learned of Mr. Hernandez’s confession, said the relative by marriage, who requested anonymity because of the delicate nature of the subject, the family was alarmed by this odd detail: While living with his sister’s family near the bodega where they had found him work, Mr. Hernandez told the police, he had detested his young nephew.
The nephew, Sammy Santana, was 3.
Norma Hernandez said she had heard her nephews, years later, gossip about Mr. Hernandez’s saying that he could see “the devil” in Sammy’s face. Mr. Santana, now a New York City sanitation worker, said he had heard the stories. But he added, “If I could remember when I was 3, I’d be a mental genius.”
Mr. Santana declined to speak further before talking to investigators canvassing the sprawling extended family. Many relatives declined to comment.
Soon after Etan disappeared, Mr. Hernandez moved to Camden, N.J. According to an anonymous tip to investigators last month, Mr. Hernandez told members of a prayer group in the early 1980s that he had killed a boy in New York. Under questioning, Mr. Hernandez told the police that the boy was Etan. His arrest raised questions of whether a man could murder a child at 18 and then live for decades without committing other known crimes.
With no physical evidence linking him to the crime — the police were examining children’s clothes found at his house on Wednesday — Mr. Hernandez’s life story could be an important courtroom narrative if the case goes to trial.
Growing Up on a Farm
In the 1960s, on a farm in Yabucoa, in eastern Puerto Rico, Mr. Hernandez’s seven sisters slept in one room. He and four brothers shared another, the oldest swaying in a hammock. They had no electricity or running water. Their father, Esteban, grew yams and bananas, but villagers mainly recalled him as a great horseman and an excellent maker of pitorro, the local moonshine.
“Even when he was drunk, the horse couldn’t make him fall,” one villager, Bienvenido Gómez-Ortiz, 65, said.
But Estben was disabled, when, in a drunken altercation, a cousin cut him so deeply with a machete that he needed 125 stitches. (Some relatives say the cousin meant only to slap at him with the flat of the blade.)
Relatives in Yabucoa, stunned by news reports of Pedro Hernandez’s confession, agreed that when he was an adult his face looked like his father’s, but that while Esteban was rough and gregarious, Pedro was shy.
The children had to milk cows and fetch river water before school and pray the rosary every night, Gregorio Delgado-Hernández, 71, a cousin, said, leaving no “time to play.”
Around 1973, an uncle helped bring the family to Camden, an industrial town beginning a long decline. Esteban Hernandez and his wife, Agripina, worked custodial jobs and would often sit on the porch of their three-story, white-brick house on State Street. On Sundays, Mr. Hernandez sold candles at Holy Name, a Roman Catholic church, and greeted parishioners hospitably, said Delia Lugo, then a bookkeeper there. She recalled the large family crossing the bridge to St. Anthony’s of Padua for charismatic prayer circles, a growing Catholic movement of ecstatic worship and speaking in tongues.
Mr. Hernandez, a small man, remained feisty, the in-law said. “It was his way or nobody,” he said, even “if you were 300 pounds.”
But Norma Hernandez is adamant that her father never beat Pedro, who she said attracted little attention, besides some teasing for being the only left-handed sibling.
Pedro completed Pyne Poynt Middle School in 1975. At Woodrow Wilson High School, he earned mainly C’s and D’s, with one A, in arts and crafts, his transcript shows.
He dropped out in September 1978, his senior year, and for the first of many times, turned to one of his more successful sisters. He made his way to SoHo to live with his sister Luz and work with her husband at the bodega.
Etan disappeared on May 25, 1979. According to the police, Mr. Hernandez said he spotted Etan that day and lured him to the shop basement, promising him a soda; choked him; and put the body in the trash. Asked why, a law enforcement official said, “He kept saying, ‘I don’t know.’ ”
Mr. Hernandez, 51, said he did not molest Etan — sexual motivation is behind most murders of children by strangers. Experts have suggested explanations — sexual motives he is ashamed to reveal; irrational aggression from nascent, untreated schizophrenia — but they are speculative.
At the time of Etan’s disappearance, the police recorded Mr. Hernandez’s existence as a bodega employee but do not seem to have interviewed him. He moved back to Camden, where, his sister Norma said, he was “not the same,” always running to the bathroom with a nervous stomach.
She got him a job at Bonnell Dress Company, where she worked. Wendy Dickstein, whose family owned the factory in Mount Laurel, N.J., which is now defunct, said he was a diligent worker, running heavy machinery that rolled out fabric for cutting. His bosses were surprised, she said, that after a roller injured his hand, he left for treatment and they never heard from him again.
Around this time, in 1981, the police say, Mr. Hernandez started alluding to a mysterious crime. They say he returned to St. Anthony’s, one of his childhood churches, and told worshipers that he had killed a boy in New York.
Tomas Rivera, a prayer leader, said Mr. Hernandez confessed to more than a dozen people at a prayer circle. Norma Hernandez said he told Mr. Rivera and two others after a service he attended with relatives. But strange confessions were not unusual, Mr. Rivera’s son, David, said.
For many reasons — protectiveness, fear, uncertainty — relatives lived for years with the rumor, they said. On his deathbed two decades later, Esteban Hernandez said he believed his son was responsible for a hit-and-run accident involving a child.
“I hope Pedro repents for that little kid he did wrong,” Ms. Hernandez, then their father’s caretaker, recalled his saying.
Pedro Hernandez remained connected — shakily at times — to his family. In the early 1980s, he lived with the sister who the in-law said worried about him around her children. The in-law said he did not appear confused or delusional, just moody. He was always neat and clean, his fingernails well kept, but, the in-law said, “he was very controlling.”
That seems to have been a cause of contention during his brief marriage to Daisy Rivera, whom he wed in 1983 under family pressure after she became pregnant. Ms. Rivera took out at least one protection order against him and later divorced him, the in-law said. Efforts to reach Ms. Rivera for comment were unsuccessful.
Soon after, at the wedding of a brother, Mr. Hernandez met Rosemary Vargas, a sister of the bride. They married in 1988 and had a daughter, Becky.
Peggy Niedzwiadek said that when she worked with Ms. Vargas in 1987 at an insurance firm, her colleague seemed “very much in love,” but that she had described a relationship Ms. Niedzwiadek found troubling: Mr. Hernandez would allow her to wear only long skirts and dresses and micromanaged her grocery shopping.
Ms. Niedzwiadek said that when she asked Ms. Vargas why she did not just put on pants, she replied: “He’d be very upset with me. I just won’t do it.”
“I think she was totally controlled by him,” Ms. Niedzwiadek added.
‘Like Living With Nobody’
In 1991, a New Jersey woman had a car accident. Rosemary Hernandez was her claims adjuster. Ms. Hernandez used the woman’s credit to go on a cruise, buy an expensive car and secure credit cards over the course of a year, according to records the woman compiled after creditors threatened her with arrest over unfamiliar debts.
“It took a big chunk out of my life emotionally, financially,” the woman said. “It was a nonviolent crime, but you are violated.”
The woman discovered the charade, assembled evidence and persuaded the police to charge Ms. Hernandez with fraud. Soon after, in 1993, the woman received a jarring phone call from Pedro Hernandez.
“I felt threatened,” the woman, who requested anonymity to avoid further entanglement with Mr. Hernandez, said recently, adding that she reported the threat to prosecutors, who never charged him. She said he “kept screaming” and saying “it was my fault that his wife lost her job, and now she did not have a car.”
The charges against Ms. Hernandez were dismissed after a pretrial intervention program, and by 1995 she had obtained a license to sell insurance, a step up from previous jobs. But Mr. Hernandez had stopped working, collecting disability benefits for what the police said was a back injury from construction work. The couple were sued by landlords, declared bankruptcy and lost a house they had briefly owned.
Around 2008, Mr. Hernandez moved in with his sister Norma. She said that his wife had filed a protection order against him and that he was not allowed near her, though she took him back.
It was “like living with nobody,” Norma Hernandez recalled. Her brother spoke little, she said, leaving his room only to smoke Newports on the porch.
That was how neighbors in Maple Shade, N.J., saw him, too, until recently. In April, the authorities dug up a SoHo basement searching for Etan’s remains. Mr. Hernandez called his sister Luz out of the blue to discuss it, a relative told The Star-Ledger of Newark. Soon after, the police received their tip.
On Wednesday, Rosemary Hernandez and Becky, her daughter, sat at their picnic table as the authorities carted away belongings.
Among them, the police said, was the latest surprise: clothing of a 1970s vintage, seeming to be in a 6-year-old boy’s size. And a child’s toy. Could these be Etan's?
Nate Schweber contributed reporting from New Jersey, Dennis M. Rivera-Pichardo from Yabucoa, P.R., and Alain Delaquérière from New York.
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lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Etan Patz case: NYPD look for more evidence at former grocery store
Published: Wednesday, August 08, 2012, 6:00 PM Updated: Wednesday, August 08, 2012, 7:25 PM
By The Associated Press
New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne confirmed investigators searched the retail space in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood, where the alleged abductor of Etan Patz once worked.
Browne characterized the search as routine, but wouldn't discuss what was being sought or if it was found. The effort, he said, "wasn't based on any new information."
Pedro Hernandez has been charged in the slaying of Patz, one of the first missing children whose picture ever appeared on a milk carton. He remains held without bail in a psychiatric hospital jail ward.
Hernandez was a teenage stock clerk at the convenience store — now an eyeglass shop — when Etan disappeared on his way to school on May 25, 1979, a date that would later be commemorated as National Missing Children's Day. A judge in 2001 declared the boy dead, but his body has never been found.
Hernandez's sister has said she heard secondhand that he told a church prayer group in the 1980s that he killed a child in New York City. But Hernandez, now 51, wasn't eyed as a suspect in Etan's disappearance until last month, when a tipster contacted police.
Police say Hernandez, of Maple Shade, N.J., told investigators he lured the boy into the shop with the promise of a soda. He allegedly said he led the child to the basement, choked him and left his body in a bag of trash about a block away.
The court case has been put on hold while as doctors evaluate Hernandez's mental fitness for trial and investigators seek more evidence beyond his alleged confession.
His attorney has described Hernandez as bipolar and schizophrenic, with a history of hallucinations.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
video at above link.
By The Associated Press
New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne confirmed investigators searched the retail space in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood, where the alleged abductor of Etan Patz once worked.
Browne characterized the search as routine, but wouldn't discuss what was being sought or if it was found. The effort, he said, "wasn't based on any new information."
Pedro Hernandez has been charged in the slaying of Patz, one of the first missing children whose picture ever appeared on a milk carton. He remains held without bail in a psychiatric hospital jail ward.
Hernandez was a teenage stock clerk at the convenience store — now an eyeglass shop — when Etan disappeared on his way to school on May 25, 1979, a date that would later be commemorated as National Missing Children's Day. A judge in 2001 declared the boy dead, but his body has never been found.
Hernandez's sister has said she heard secondhand that he told a church prayer group in the 1980s that he killed a child in New York City. But Hernandez, now 51, wasn't eyed as a suspect in Etan's disappearance until last month, when a tipster contacted police.
Police say Hernandez, of Maple Shade, N.J., told investigators he lured the boy into the shop with the promise of a soda. He allegedly said he led the child to the basement, choked him and left his body in a bag of trash about a block away.
The court case has been put on hold while as doctors evaluate Hernandez's mental fitness for trial and investigators seek more evidence beyond his alleged confession.
His attorney has described Hernandez as bipolar and schizophrenic, with a history of hallucinations.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
video at above link.
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
Another mention today on this at CNN: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Police resume search of basement in Etan Patz case
By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 10:01 PM EDT, Fri August 10, 2012
New York (CNN) -- The New York Police Department searched a Manhattan basement Wednesday for at least the second time since July as part of its ongoing investigation into the 1979 disappearance of Etan Patz, the 6-year-old who vanished on his way to school.
Investigators at the site of a former bodega in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood removed at least five large paper bags and used tools, including a shovel, from the basement. They also searched it last month.
Police dug up parts of another basement in April.
Who is Pedro Hernandez?
(CORRECTION
An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported the number of times that authorities have searched the basement of a former bodega while investigating the disappearance of Etan Patz. They have searched that basement at least twice.)
Hernandez allegedly confessed to the murder, telling authorities that he had lured Etan to the basement of a corner store where he once worked and allegedly strangled the boy.
Hernandez has been undergoing psychiatric evaluation and was arraigned on second-degree murder charges via video feed from his bed at Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital.
After Etan disappeared, investigators tried what was then a novel technique to try to find him: They put his face on thousands of milk cartons, a technique that would become more common in the next few years.
Relatives and authorities also put the images of missing children on billboards and fliers distributed by mail.
Opinion: Missing children, perception vs. reality
Those more assertive efforts eventually led to the AMBER alert system, which broadcasts news about missing children on TV, radio, the Internet, mobile phones and highway signs, and also puts the information on lottery tickets.
Police resume search of basement in Etan Patz case
By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 10:01 PM EDT, Fri August 10, 2012
New York (CNN) -- The New York Police Department searched a Manhattan basement Wednesday for at least the second time since July as part of its ongoing investigation into the 1979 disappearance of Etan Patz, the 6-year-old who vanished on his way to school.
Investigators at the site of a former bodega in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood removed at least five large paper bags and used tools, including a shovel, from the basement. They also searched it last month.
Police dug up parts of another basement in April.
Who is Pedro Hernandez?
(CORRECTION
An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported the number of times that authorities have searched the basement of a former bodega while investigating the disappearance of Etan Patz. They have searched that basement at least twice.)
Hernandez allegedly confessed to the murder, telling authorities that he had lured Etan to the basement of a corner store where he once worked and allegedly strangled the boy.
Hernandez has been undergoing psychiatric evaluation and was arraigned on second-degree murder charges via video feed from his bed at Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital.
After Etan disappeared, investigators tried what was then a novel technique to try to find him: They put his face on thousands of milk cartons, a technique that would become more common in the next few years.
Relatives and authorities also put the images of missing children on billboards and fliers distributed by mail.
Opinion: Missing children, perception vs. reality
Those more assertive efforts eventually led to the AMBER alert system, which broadcasts news about missing children on TV, radio, the Internet, mobile phones and highway signs, and also puts the information on lottery tickets.
samgoodwin- Join date : 2011-02-10
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
Former top suspect in Etan Patz's 1979 disappearance to be freed from prison
Published October 28, 2012
NEW YORK – While prosecutors weigh what to do about a suspect who surprisingly surfaced this spring in the landmark 1979 disappearance case of Etan Patz, the man who was the prime suspect for years is about to go free after more than two decades in prison for molesting other children.
These two threads in the tangled story are set to cross next month, a twist that evokes decades of uncertainties and loose ends in the search for what happened to the sandy-haired 6-year-old last seen walking to his Manhattan school bus stop.
The new suspect, Pedro Hernandez, has been charged with Etan's murder after police said he emerged as a suspect and confessed this spring. But there's no public indication that authorities have found anything beyond his admission to implicate him, and his lawyer has said Hernandez is mentally ill.
The Pennsylvania inmate, Jose Ramos, was declared responsible for Etan's death in a civil court, but the Manhattan district attorney's office has said there wasn't enough evidence to charge him criminally. After serving 25 years on child molestation convictions in Pennsylvania, he's set to be freed Nov. 7, about a week before prosecutors are due to indicate whether they believe there's evidence enough to keep going after Hernandez.
It stands to be a coincidence fraught with anguish for Etan's parents, who brought a successful wrongful death lawsuit against Ramos, and for the former federal prosecutor who went to lengths to pursue him. At the same time, it offers a glimmer of vindication for Ramos, who has denied involvement in the boy's disappearance, though authorities have said he made incriminating remarks about it.
In a letter last month to The Associated Press, Ramos said he was declining interviews while in prison but will be available to speak after his release.
Etan's disappearance made national news and raised awareness about children's safety, turning him into a symbol for the issue in a now-familiar response: He was among the first vanished youngsters ever pictured on a milk carton. The day of his disappearance, May 25, is now National Missing Children's Day.
After years of investigation as far afield as Israel, an arrest was finally made on the eve of this year's anniversary. Hernandez, who worked at a convenience store near Etan's home when the boy disappeared, wasn't a suspect until a tipster contacted police this spring after the case, long quiet, returned to the headlines when officials dug up a neighborhood basement looking for clues. After his arrest, the New York Police Department announced that Hernandez had admitted strangling the boy and leaving his body in a trash bag.
There has been no signal that an extensive probe in the months since has turned up further evidence against him. Hernandez's attorney, Harvey Fishbein, raised further doubts about the case, saying Hernandez is schizophrenic and bipolar and has heard voices.
During the decades when Hernandez wasn't on investigators' radar, they explored many other leads and possible suspects, including Ramos.
The 69-year-old came under suspicion early on because he had a relationship with Etan's former baby sitter, but investigators didn't find anything solid. In the early 1980s, Ramos was arrested, though not convicted, on charges he tried to lure children to a drainage pipe where he was living. Photos of young, blond boys were found in his backpack.
Ramos then traveled the country by bus, attending gatherings of the Rainbow Family of Living Light, a loose collection of peace activists who come together around the country. He was accused of luring three boys into his bus and assaulting them at two of the group's gatherings in Pennsylvania in the mid-1980s.
"He had thousands of dollars in `Star Wars' toys on his bus. He had videotapes, and he had all kinds of materials he used to lure children inside," Barry Adams, a longtime Rainbow member, recalled this week from his Montana home. "It was a horrendous circumstance from A to Z."
Ramos' record got the attention of Stuart GraBois, a Manhattan federal prosecutor assigned to help the investigation into Etan's disappearance.
GraBois interviewed Ramos and became convinced he had assaulted and killed Etan -- so convinced that GraBois helped Pennsylvania authorities get one of their convictions against Ramos. He was ultimately sentenced to a maximum of 27 years in the two cases, but got credit for time served and is being released.
Over the years, Ramos has made a series of ambiguous admissions and denials about Etan. Two jailhouse snitches claim he confessed to them, and GraBois said Ramos gave him a "90 percent confession." But during sworn questioning in 2003, Ramos said he'd never encountered the vanished boy.
"I have nothing to hide," he said, according to a transcript.
Etan's parents, too, zeroed in on Ramos, pursuing him in a 2001 wrongful death lawsuit. After Ramos refused to answer some questions, a judge ruled him responsible for the boy's death. But there wasn't enough evidence to make a criminal case.
A DA's office spokeswoman and Hernandez' lawyer declined to comment on Ramos' release, as did the now-retired GraBois. The Patzes' lawyer didn't respond to phone messages; the parents have asked to be left alone.
There's no time limit for bringing charges in a murder case, so prosecutors could charge Ramos -- or someone else -- in future if they decide not to pursue Hernandez. But from a practical standpoint, the fact that Hernandez was charged could be grist for any other suspect's defense.
Read more: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Published October 28, 2012
NEW YORK – While prosecutors weigh what to do about a suspect who surprisingly surfaced this spring in the landmark 1979 disappearance case of Etan Patz, the man who was the prime suspect for years is about to go free after more than two decades in prison for molesting other children.
These two threads in the tangled story are set to cross next month, a twist that evokes decades of uncertainties and loose ends in the search for what happened to the sandy-haired 6-year-old last seen walking to his Manhattan school bus stop.
The new suspect, Pedro Hernandez, has been charged with Etan's murder after police said he emerged as a suspect and confessed this spring. But there's no public indication that authorities have found anything beyond his admission to implicate him, and his lawyer has said Hernandez is mentally ill.
The Pennsylvania inmate, Jose Ramos, was declared responsible for Etan's death in a civil court, but the Manhattan district attorney's office has said there wasn't enough evidence to charge him criminally. After serving 25 years on child molestation convictions in Pennsylvania, he's set to be freed Nov. 7, about a week before prosecutors are due to indicate whether they believe there's evidence enough to keep going after Hernandez.
It stands to be a coincidence fraught with anguish for Etan's parents, who brought a successful wrongful death lawsuit against Ramos, and for the former federal prosecutor who went to lengths to pursue him. At the same time, it offers a glimmer of vindication for Ramos, who has denied involvement in the boy's disappearance, though authorities have said he made incriminating remarks about it.
In a letter last month to The Associated Press, Ramos said he was declining interviews while in prison but will be available to speak after his release.
Etan's disappearance made national news and raised awareness about children's safety, turning him into a symbol for the issue in a now-familiar response: He was among the first vanished youngsters ever pictured on a milk carton. The day of his disappearance, May 25, is now National Missing Children's Day.
After years of investigation as far afield as Israel, an arrest was finally made on the eve of this year's anniversary. Hernandez, who worked at a convenience store near Etan's home when the boy disappeared, wasn't a suspect until a tipster contacted police this spring after the case, long quiet, returned to the headlines when officials dug up a neighborhood basement looking for clues. After his arrest, the New York Police Department announced that Hernandez had admitted strangling the boy and leaving his body in a trash bag.
There has been no signal that an extensive probe in the months since has turned up further evidence against him. Hernandez's attorney, Harvey Fishbein, raised further doubts about the case, saying Hernandez is schizophrenic and bipolar and has heard voices.
During the decades when Hernandez wasn't on investigators' radar, they explored many other leads and possible suspects, including Ramos.
The 69-year-old came under suspicion early on because he had a relationship with Etan's former baby sitter, but investigators didn't find anything solid. In the early 1980s, Ramos was arrested, though not convicted, on charges he tried to lure children to a drainage pipe where he was living. Photos of young, blond boys were found in his backpack.
Ramos then traveled the country by bus, attending gatherings of the Rainbow Family of Living Light, a loose collection of peace activists who come together around the country. He was accused of luring three boys into his bus and assaulting them at two of the group's gatherings in Pennsylvania in the mid-1980s.
"He had thousands of dollars in `Star Wars' toys on his bus. He had videotapes, and he had all kinds of materials he used to lure children inside," Barry Adams, a longtime Rainbow member, recalled this week from his Montana home. "It was a horrendous circumstance from A to Z."
Ramos' record got the attention of Stuart GraBois, a Manhattan federal prosecutor assigned to help the investigation into Etan's disappearance.
GraBois interviewed Ramos and became convinced he had assaulted and killed Etan -- so convinced that GraBois helped Pennsylvania authorities get one of their convictions against Ramos. He was ultimately sentenced to a maximum of 27 years in the two cases, but got credit for time served and is being released.
Over the years, Ramos has made a series of ambiguous admissions and denials about Etan. Two jailhouse snitches claim he confessed to them, and GraBois said Ramos gave him a "90 percent confession." But during sworn questioning in 2003, Ramos said he'd never encountered the vanished boy.
"I have nothing to hide," he said, according to a transcript.
Etan's parents, too, zeroed in on Ramos, pursuing him in a 2001 wrongful death lawsuit. After Ramos refused to answer some questions, a judge ruled him responsible for the boy's death. But there wasn't enough evidence to make a criminal case.
A DA's office spokeswoman and Hernandez' lawyer declined to comment on Ramos' release, as did the now-retired GraBois. The Patzes' lawyer didn't respond to phone messages; the parents have asked to be left alone.
There's no time limit for bringing charges in a murder case, so prosecutors could charge Ramos -- or someone else -- in future if they decide not to pursue Hernandez. But from a practical standpoint, the fact that Hernandez was charged could be grist for any other suspect's defense.
Read more: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
Thanks for this update Lisette. I am so confused on this case! I feel for Etan's parents so much!
raine1953- Administration
- Join date : 2010-01-21
Former suspect in Etan Patz case, Jose Ramos, to be freed Nov. 7th
Former suspect in Etan Patz case to be freed
By COLLEEN LONG and JENNIFER PELTZ | Associated Press – 3 hrs ago
NEW YORK (AP) — While prosecutors weigh what to do about a suspect who surprisingly surfaced this spring in the landmark 1979 disappearance case of Etan Patz, the man who was the prime suspect for years is about to go free after more than two decades in prison for molesting other children.
These two threads in the tangled story are set to cross next month, a twist that evokes decades of uncertainties and loose ends in the search for what happened to the sandy-haired 6-year-old last seen walking to his Manhattan school bus stop.
The new suspect, Pedro Hernandez, has been charged with Etan's murder after police said he emerged as a suspect and confessed this spring. But there's no public indication that authorities have found anything beyond his admission to implicate him, and his lawyer has said Hernandez is mentally ill.
The Pennsylvania inmate, Jose Ramos, was declared responsible for Etan's death in a civil court, but the Manhattan district attorney's office has said there wasn't enough evidence to charge him criminally. After serving 25 years on child molestation convictions in Pennsylvania, he's set to be freed Nov. 7, about a week before prosecutors are due to indicate whether they believe there's evidence enough to keep going after Hernandez.
It stands to be a coincidence fraught with anguish for Etan's parents, who brought a successful wrongful death lawsuit against Ramos, and for the former federal prosecutor who went to lengths to pursue him. At the same time, it offers a glimmer of vindication for Ramos, who has denied involvement in the boy's disappearance, though authorities have said he made incriminating remarks about it.
In a letter last month to The Associated Press, Ramos said he was declining interviews while in prison but will be available to speak after his release.
Etan's disappearance made national news and raised awareness about children's safety, turning him into a symbol for the issue in a now-familiar response: He was among the first vanished youngsters ever pictured on a milk carton. The day of his disappearance, May 25, is now National Missing Children's Day.
After years of investigation as far afield as Israel, an arrest was finally made on the eve of this year's anniversary. Hernandez, who worked at a convenience store near Etan's home when the boy disappeared, wasn't a suspect until a tipster contacted police this spring after the case, long quiet, returned to the headlines when officials dug up a neighborhood basement looking for clues. After his arrest, the New York Police Department announced that Hernandez had admitted strangling the boy and leaving his body in a trash bag.
There has been no signal that an extensive probe in the months since has turned up further evidence against him. Hernandez's attorney, Harvey Fishbein, raised further doubts about the case, saying Hernandez is schizophrenic and bipolar and has heard voices.
During the decades when Hernandez wasn't on investigators' radar, they explored many other leads and possible suspects, including Ramos.
The 69-year-old came under suspicion early on because he had a relationship with Etan's former baby sitter, but investigators didn't find anything solid. In the early 1980s, Ramos was arrested, though not convicted, on charges he tried to lure children to a drainage pipe where he was living. Photos of young, blond boys were found in his backpack.
Ramos then traveled the country by bus, attending gatherings of the Rainbow Family of Living Light, a loose collection of peace activists who come together around the country. He was accused of luring three boys into his bus and assaulting them at two of the group's gatherings in Pennsylvania in the mid-1980s.
"He had thousands of dollars in 'Star Wars' toys on his bus. He had videotapes, and he had all kinds of materials he used to lure children inside," Barry Adams, a longtime Rainbow member, recalled this week from his Montana home. "It was a horrendous circumstance from A to Z."
Ramos' record got the attention of Stuart GraBois, a Manhattan federal prosecutor assigned to help the investigation into Etan's disappearance.
GraBois interviewed Ramos and became convinced he had assaulted and killed Etan — so convinced that GraBois helped Pennsylvania authorities get one of their convictions against Ramos. He was ultimately sentenced to a maximum of 27 years in the two cases, but got credit for time served and is being released.
Over the years, Ramos has made a series of ambiguous admissions and denials about Etan. Two jailhouse snitches claim he confessed to them, and GraBois said Ramos gave him a "90 percent confession." But during sworn questioning in 2003, Ramos said he'd never encountered the vanished boy.
"I have nothing to hide," he said, according to a transcript.
Etan's parents, too, zeroed in on Ramos, pursuing him in a 2001 wrongful death lawsuit. After Ramos refused to answer some questions, a judge ruled him responsible for the boy's death. But there wasn't enough evidence to make a criminal case.
A DA's office spokeswoman and Hernandez' lawyer declined to comment on Ramos' release, as did the now-retired GraBois. The Patzes' lawyer didn't respond to phone messages; the parents have asked to be left alone.
There's no time limit for bringing charges in a murder case, so prosecutors could charge Ramos — or someone else — in future if they decide not to pursue Hernandez. But from a practical standpoint, the fact that Hernandez was charged could be grist for any other suspect's defense.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
By COLLEEN LONG and JENNIFER PELTZ | Associated Press – 3 hrs ago
NEW YORK (AP) — While prosecutors weigh what to do about a suspect who surprisingly surfaced this spring in the landmark 1979 disappearance case of Etan Patz, the man who was the prime suspect for years is about to go free after more than two decades in prison for molesting other children.
These two threads in the tangled story are set to cross next month, a twist that evokes decades of uncertainties and loose ends in the search for what happened to the sandy-haired 6-year-old last seen walking to his Manhattan school bus stop.
The new suspect, Pedro Hernandez, has been charged with Etan's murder after police said he emerged as a suspect and confessed this spring. But there's no public indication that authorities have found anything beyond his admission to implicate him, and his lawyer has said Hernandez is mentally ill.
The Pennsylvania inmate, Jose Ramos, was declared responsible for Etan's death in a civil court, but the Manhattan district attorney's office has said there wasn't enough evidence to charge him criminally. After serving 25 years on child molestation convictions in Pennsylvania, he's set to be freed Nov. 7, about a week before prosecutors are due to indicate whether they believe there's evidence enough to keep going after Hernandez.
It stands to be a coincidence fraught with anguish for Etan's parents, who brought a successful wrongful death lawsuit against Ramos, and for the former federal prosecutor who went to lengths to pursue him. At the same time, it offers a glimmer of vindication for Ramos, who has denied involvement in the boy's disappearance, though authorities have said he made incriminating remarks about it.
In a letter last month to The Associated Press, Ramos said he was declining interviews while in prison but will be available to speak after his release.
Etan's disappearance made national news and raised awareness about children's safety, turning him into a symbol for the issue in a now-familiar response: He was among the first vanished youngsters ever pictured on a milk carton. The day of his disappearance, May 25, is now National Missing Children's Day.
After years of investigation as far afield as Israel, an arrest was finally made on the eve of this year's anniversary. Hernandez, who worked at a convenience store near Etan's home when the boy disappeared, wasn't a suspect until a tipster contacted police this spring after the case, long quiet, returned to the headlines when officials dug up a neighborhood basement looking for clues. After his arrest, the New York Police Department announced that Hernandez had admitted strangling the boy and leaving his body in a trash bag.
There has been no signal that an extensive probe in the months since has turned up further evidence against him. Hernandez's attorney, Harvey Fishbein, raised further doubts about the case, saying Hernandez is schizophrenic and bipolar and has heard voices.
During the decades when Hernandez wasn't on investigators' radar, they explored many other leads and possible suspects, including Ramos.
The 69-year-old came under suspicion early on because he had a relationship with Etan's former baby sitter, but investigators didn't find anything solid. In the early 1980s, Ramos was arrested, though not convicted, on charges he tried to lure children to a drainage pipe where he was living. Photos of young, blond boys were found in his backpack.
Ramos then traveled the country by bus, attending gatherings of the Rainbow Family of Living Light, a loose collection of peace activists who come together around the country. He was accused of luring three boys into his bus and assaulting them at two of the group's gatherings in Pennsylvania in the mid-1980s.
"He had thousands of dollars in 'Star Wars' toys on his bus. He had videotapes, and he had all kinds of materials he used to lure children inside," Barry Adams, a longtime Rainbow member, recalled this week from his Montana home. "It was a horrendous circumstance from A to Z."
Ramos' record got the attention of Stuart GraBois, a Manhattan federal prosecutor assigned to help the investigation into Etan's disappearance.
GraBois interviewed Ramos and became convinced he had assaulted and killed Etan — so convinced that GraBois helped Pennsylvania authorities get one of their convictions against Ramos. He was ultimately sentenced to a maximum of 27 years in the two cases, but got credit for time served and is being released.
Over the years, Ramos has made a series of ambiguous admissions and denials about Etan. Two jailhouse snitches claim he confessed to them, and GraBois said Ramos gave him a "90 percent confession." But during sworn questioning in 2003, Ramos said he'd never encountered the vanished boy.
"I have nothing to hide," he said, according to a transcript.
Etan's parents, too, zeroed in on Ramos, pursuing him in a 2001 wrongful death lawsuit. After Ramos refused to answer some questions, a judge ruled him responsible for the boy's death. But there wasn't enough evidence to make a criminal case.
A DA's office spokeswoman and Hernandez' lawyer declined to comment on Ramos' release, as did the now-retired GraBois. The Patzes' lawyer didn't respond to phone messages; the parents have asked to be left alone.
There's no time limit for bringing charges in a murder case, so prosecutors could charge Ramos — or someone else — in future if they decide not to pursue Hernandez. But from a practical standpoint, the fact that Hernandez was charged could be grist for any other suspect's defense.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
Former Etan Patz suspect freed in Pa., held again
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM | Associated Press – 3 hrs ago
A former suspect in the 1979 disappearance of a New York City boy walked out of a northeastern Pennsylvania prison Wednesday morning after more than a quarter-century behind bars and was promptly arrested by state police, accused of a Megan's Law violation.
Jose Antonio Ramos lied to police about where he planned to live after his release, supplying the Bronx address of a cousin who hadn't lived there in decades, according to arrest papers.
"When he walked out of the main gate, he was taken into custody by troopers," Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Richard Krawetz said.
Ramos, 69, was arraigned on a felony charge of failure to register as a sex offender. A magistrate set bail at $75,000, and Ramos was sent to the Luzerne County jail.
He had long been suspected in the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz, who vanished May 25, 1979, after leaving his Manhattan home to go to a bus stop two blocks away. Ramos had been dating the boy's baby sitter.
Etan's disappearance prompted a massive international search and spawned a movement to publicize cases of missing children. His photo was among the first put on milk cartons, and his case turned May 25 into National Missing Children's Day.
His parents never moved or changed their phone number, in case he returned. In 2001, they obtained a court order officially declaring him dead.
Ramos had previously declined a jailhouse interview with The Associated Press, citing civil ligation against the prison.
"After Nov. 7, 2012, I will be available to meet with you and any other members of the media at a secure location in Manhattan for an interview. Please let me know if it's convenient for you," he wrote.
Ramos entered the Pennsylvania prison system on March 27, 1987, and served all of his 27-year sentence for molesting two other boys. He was released from the prison in Dallas on Wednesday morning after being given credit for the time he'd spent in county jail prior to his conviction.
A few weeks before his release, Ramos' counselor and a prison records specialist had him fill out the required Megan's Law registration form, according to court documents.
But when New York City police checked out the address he provided, they found no one living there who knew Ramos. And when police tracked down the cousin whose name Ramos had listed, she told them she hadn't had any contact with him in 35 years and did not plan to allow him to live with her.
"Family members were frightened of Ramos when he would visit," a police affidavit said.
While Pennsylvania Department of Corrections staff make sure that departing inmates fill out the registration forms completely and provide additional assistance to sex offenders who can't read and write, it's the responsibility of the inmate to provide accurate and truthful information, department spokeswoman Susan Bensinger said.
"There is only so much we can do to encourage the inmate to fill out the form correctly," she said. "As far as being accurate, that's up to the offender."
But defense lawyers who represent sex offenders in Megan's Law cases said they suspect Ramos was set up to fail. They said long-term inmates often don't know where they will live and mark down a long-ago address because that's the one they know.
Prison staff "would have had every opportunity prior to his exit to say, 'Hey, did you know that Great Aunt Sadie doesn't live there?'" said Elisabeth K. H. Pasqualini, an attorney in Millersburg, Pa. "This could have all been prevented.
To be convicted of violating Pennsylvania's Megan's Law, Ramos must be found to have knowingly misled state police. Court documents say prison staff warned him he'd be committing a felony if he didn't follow the requirements of the law.
Earlier this year, a new suspect named Pedro Hernandez was charged with Etan's murder after police said he confessed. Hernandez's lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, has said Hernandez, of Maple Shade, N.J., is mentally ill, and authorities have not cited any additional evidence to implicate him beyond his own admission.
Ramos was declared responsible for Etan's death in a civil court in 2004, but the Manhattan district attorney's office has said there wasn't enough evidence to charge him criminally. Ramos has denied any involvement in Etan's disappearance.
Prosecutors are expected this month to announce whether they believe there's enough evidence to continue pursuing a case against Hernandez, who worked at a convenience store near Etan's home when the boy disappeared and told police he strangled the boy and stuffed his body in a trash bag.
The Manhattan district attorney's office had no comment Wednesday. Etan's parents have asked to be left alone and did not respond to messages. An attorney for Hernandez, the current suspect, declined to comment.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM | Associated Press – 3 hrs ago
A former suspect in the 1979 disappearance of a New York City boy walked out of a northeastern Pennsylvania prison Wednesday morning after more than a quarter-century behind bars and was promptly arrested by state police, accused of a Megan's Law violation.
Jose Antonio Ramos lied to police about where he planned to live after his release, supplying the Bronx address of a cousin who hadn't lived there in decades, according to arrest papers.
"When he walked out of the main gate, he was taken into custody by troopers," Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Richard Krawetz said.
Ramos, 69, was arraigned on a felony charge of failure to register as a sex offender. A magistrate set bail at $75,000, and Ramos was sent to the Luzerne County jail.
He had long been suspected in the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz, who vanished May 25, 1979, after leaving his Manhattan home to go to a bus stop two blocks away. Ramos had been dating the boy's baby sitter.
Etan's disappearance prompted a massive international search and spawned a movement to publicize cases of missing children. His photo was among the first put on milk cartons, and his case turned May 25 into National Missing Children's Day.
His parents never moved or changed their phone number, in case he returned. In 2001, they obtained a court order officially declaring him dead.
Ramos had previously declined a jailhouse interview with The Associated Press, citing civil ligation against the prison.
"After Nov. 7, 2012, I will be available to meet with you and any other members of the media at a secure location in Manhattan for an interview. Please let me know if it's convenient for you," he wrote.
Ramos entered the Pennsylvania prison system on March 27, 1987, and served all of his 27-year sentence for molesting two other boys. He was released from the prison in Dallas on Wednesday morning after being given credit for the time he'd spent in county jail prior to his conviction.
A few weeks before his release, Ramos' counselor and a prison records specialist had him fill out the required Megan's Law registration form, according to court documents.
But when New York City police checked out the address he provided, they found no one living there who knew Ramos. And when police tracked down the cousin whose name Ramos had listed, she told them she hadn't had any contact with him in 35 years and did not plan to allow him to live with her.
"Family members were frightened of Ramos when he would visit," a police affidavit said.
While Pennsylvania Department of Corrections staff make sure that departing inmates fill out the registration forms completely and provide additional assistance to sex offenders who can't read and write, it's the responsibility of the inmate to provide accurate and truthful information, department spokeswoman Susan Bensinger said.
"There is only so much we can do to encourage the inmate to fill out the form correctly," she said. "As far as being accurate, that's up to the offender."
But defense lawyers who represent sex offenders in Megan's Law cases said they suspect Ramos was set up to fail. They said long-term inmates often don't know where they will live and mark down a long-ago address because that's the one they know.
Prison staff "would have had every opportunity prior to his exit to say, 'Hey, did you know that Great Aunt Sadie doesn't live there?'" said Elisabeth K. H. Pasqualini, an attorney in Millersburg, Pa. "This could have all been prevented.
To be convicted of violating Pennsylvania's Megan's Law, Ramos must be found to have knowingly misled state police. Court documents say prison staff warned him he'd be committing a felony if he didn't follow the requirements of the law.
Earlier this year, a new suspect named Pedro Hernandez was charged with Etan's murder after police said he confessed. Hernandez's lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, has said Hernandez, of Maple Shade, N.J., is mentally ill, and authorities have not cited any additional evidence to implicate him beyond his own admission.
Ramos was declared responsible for Etan's death in a civil court in 2004, but the Manhattan district attorney's office has said there wasn't enough evidence to charge him criminally. Ramos has denied any involvement in Etan's disappearance.
Prosecutors are expected this month to announce whether they believe there's enough evidence to continue pursuing a case against Hernandez, who worked at a convenience store near Etan's home when the boy disappeared and told police he strangled the boy and stuffed his body in a trash bag.
The Manhattan district attorney's office had no comment Wednesday. Etan's parents have asked to be left alone and did not respond to messages. An attorney for Hernandez, the current suspect, declined to comment.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Jose Antonio Ramos, Former Etan Patz Murder Suspect, Immediately Arrested After Pa. Prison Release
-- A former suspect in the 1979 disappearance of a New York City boy walked out of a northeastern Pennsylvania prison Wednesday morning after more than a quarter-century behind bars and was promptly arrested by state police, accused of a Megan's Law violation.
Jose Antonio Ramos lied to police about where he planned to live after his release, supplying the Bronx address of a cousin who hadn't lived there in decades, according to arrest papers.
"When he walked out of the main gate, he was taken into custody by troopers," Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Richard Krawetz said.
Ramos, 69, was arraigned on a felony charge of failure to register as a sex offender. A magistrate set bail at $75,000, and Ramos was sent to the Luzerne County jail.
He had long been suspected in the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz, who vanished May 25, 1979, after leaving his Manhattan home to go to a bus stop two blocks away. Ramos had been dating the boy's baby sitter.
Etan's disappearance prompted a massive international search and spawned a movement to publicize cases of missing children. His photo was among the first put on milk cartons, and his case turned May 25 into National Missing Children's Day.
His parents never moved or changed their phone number, in case he returned. In 2001, they obtained a court order officially declaring him dead.
Ramos had previously declined a jailhouse interview with The Associated Press, citing civil ligation against the prison.
"After Nov. 7, 2012, I will be available to meet with you and any other members of the media at a secure location in Manhattan for an interview. Please let me know if it's convenient for you," he wrote.
Ramos entered the Pennsylvania prison system on March 27, 1987, and served all of his 27-year sentence for molesting two other boys. He was released from the prison in Dallas on Wednesday morning after being given credit for the time he'd spent in county jail prior to his conviction.
A few weeks before his release, Ramos' counselor and a prison records specialist had him fill out the required Megan's Law registration form, according to court documents.
But when New York City police checked out the address he provided, they found no one living there who knew Ramos. And when police tracked down the cousin whose name Ramos had listed, she told them she hadn't had any contact with him in 35 years and did not plan to allow him to live with her.
"Family members were frightened of Ramos when he would visit," a police affidavit said.
While Pennsylvania Department of Corrections staff make sure that departing inmates fill out the registration forms completely and provide additional assistance to sex offenders who can't read and write, it's the responsibility of the inmate to provide accurate and truthful information, department spokeswoman Susan Bensinger said.
"There is only so much we can do to encourage the inmate to fill out the form correctly," she said. "As far as being accurate, that's up to the offender."
But defense lawyers who represent sex offenders in Megan's Law cases said they suspect Ramos was set up to fail. They said long-term inmates often don't know where they will live and mark down a long-ago address because that's the one they know.
Prison staff "would have had every opportunity prior to his exit to say, `Hey, did you know that Great Aunt Sadie doesn't live there?'" said Elisabeth K. H. Pasqualini, an attorney in Millersburg, Pa. "This could have all been prevented.
To be convicted of violating Pennsylvania's Megan's Law, Ramos must be found to have knowingly misled state police. Court documents say prison staff warned him he'd be committing a felony if he didn't follow the requirements of the law.
Earlier this year, a new suspect named Pedro Hernandez was charged with Etan's murder after police said he confessed. Hernandez's lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, has said Hernandez, of Maple Shade, N.J., is mentally ill, and authorities have not cited any additional evidence to implicate him beyond his own admission.
Ramos was declared responsible for Etan's death in a civil court in 2004, but the Manhattan district attorney's office has said there wasn't enough evidence to charge him criminally. Ramos has denied any involvement in Etan's disappearance.
Prosecutors are expected this month to announce whether they believe there's enough evidence to continue pursuing a case against Hernandez, who worked at a convenience store near Etan's home when the boy disappeared and told police he strangled the boy and stuffed his body in a trash bag.
The Manhattan district attorney's office had no comment Wednesday. Etan's parents have asked to be left alone and did not respond to messages. An attorney for Hernandez, the current suspect, declined to comment.
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Inmate Jose A. Ramos is shown in this May 28, 2010 file photo provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
Jose Antonio Ramos lied to police about where he planned to live after his release, supplying the Bronx address of a cousin who hadn't lived there in decades, according to arrest papers.
"When he walked out of the main gate, he was taken into custody by troopers," Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Richard Krawetz said.
Ramos, 69, was arraigned on a felony charge of failure to register as a sex offender. A magistrate set bail at $75,000, and Ramos was sent to the Luzerne County jail.
He had long been suspected in the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz, who vanished May 25, 1979, after leaving his Manhattan home to go to a bus stop two blocks away. Ramos had been dating the boy's baby sitter.
Etan's disappearance prompted a massive international search and spawned a movement to publicize cases of missing children. His photo was among the first put on milk cartons, and his case turned May 25 into National Missing Children's Day.
His parents never moved or changed their phone number, in case he returned. In 2001, they obtained a court order officially declaring him dead.
Ramos had previously declined a jailhouse interview with The Associated Press, citing civil ligation against the prison.
"After Nov. 7, 2012, I will be available to meet with you and any other members of the media at a secure location in Manhattan for an interview. Please let me know if it's convenient for you," he wrote.
Ramos entered the Pennsylvania prison system on March 27, 1987, and served all of his 27-year sentence for molesting two other boys. He was released from the prison in Dallas on Wednesday morning after being given credit for the time he'd spent in county jail prior to his conviction.
A few weeks before his release, Ramos' counselor and a prison records specialist had him fill out the required Megan's Law registration form, according to court documents.
But when New York City police checked out the address he provided, they found no one living there who knew Ramos. And when police tracked down the cousin whose name Ramos had listed, she told them she hadn't had any contact with him in 35 years and did not plan to allow him to live with her.
"Family members were frightened of Ramos when he would visit," a police affidavit said.
While Pennsylvania Department of Corrections staff make sure that departing inmates fill out the registration forms completely and provide additional assistance to sex offenders who can't read and write, it's the responsibility of the inmate to provide accurate and truthful information, department spokeswoman Susan Bensinger said.
"There is only so much we can do to encourage the inmate to fill out the form correctly," she said. "As far as being accurate, that's up to the offender."
But defense lawyers who represent sex offenders in Megan's Law cases said they suspect Ramos was set up to fail. They said long-term inmates often don't know where they will live and mark down a long-ago address because that's the one they know.
Prison staff "would have had every opportunity prior to his exit to say, `Hey, did you know that Great Aunt Sadie doesn't live there?'" said Elisabeth K. H. Pasqualini, an attorney in Millersburg, Pa. "This could have all been prevented.
To be convicted of violating Pennsylvania's Megan's Law, Ramos must be found to have knowingly misled state police. Court documents say prison staff warned him he'd be committing a felony if he didn't follow the requirements of the law.
Earlier this year, a new suspect named Pedro Hernandez was charged with Etan's murder after police said he confessed. Hernandez's lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, has said Hernandez, of Maple Shade, N.J., is mentally ill, and authorities have not cited any additional evidence to implicate him beyond his own admission.
Ramos was declared responsible for Etan's death in a civil court in 2004, but the Manhattan district attorney's office has said there wasn't enough evidence to charge him criminally. Ramos has denied any involvement in Etan's disappearance.
Prosecutors are expected this month to announce whether they believe there's enough evidence to continue pursuing a case against Hernandez, who worked at a convenience store near Etan's home when the boy disappeared and told police he strangled the boy and stuffed his body in a trash bag.
The Manhattan district attorney's office had no comment Wednesday. Etan's parents have asked to be left alone and did not respond to messages. An attorney for Hernandez, the current suspect, declined to comment.
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Inmate Jose A. Ramos is shown in this May 28, 2010 file photo provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
raine1953- Administration
- Join date : 2010-01-21
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
Grand jury indicts Etan Patz’s alleged killer
By Graham Winch
updated 4:02 PM EST, Wed November 14, 2012
Pedro Hernandez faces murder, kidnapping charges
6-year-old went missing in 1979 walking to bus stop
A grand jury on Wednesday indicted Pedro Hernandez on two counts of second-degree murder for the 1979 death of Etan Patz. Hernandez is also facing one count of kidnapping in the first degree.
Patz disappeared May 25, 1979, from his Soho neighborhood in New York City. The 6-year-old was walking to the bus stop by himself for the first time. The search for Patz was extensive, and he became the first child whose picture was featured on milk cartons in hopes someone would have seen him, recognize his picture and alert authorities. The family has kept the same phone number since 1979, just in case the child calls home.
Earlier this year, Hernandez confessed to murdering Patz. He told police that he choked the boy after luring him into the basement of a Manhattan grocery store.
Harvey Fishbein, the attorney representing Hernandez, says his client will appear in court Thursday where he will likely be arraigned.
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By Graham Winch
updated 4:02 PM EST, Wed November 14, 2012
Pedro Hernandez faces murder, kidnapping charges
6-year-old went missing in 1979 walking to bus stop
A grand jury on Wednesday indicted Pedro Hernandez on two counts of second-degree murder for the 1979 death of Etan Patz. Hernandez is also facing one count of kidnapping in the first degree.
Patz disappeared May 25, 1979, from his Soho neighborhood in New York City. The 6-year-old was walking to the bus stop by himself for the first time. The search for Patz was extensive, and he became the first child whose picture was featured on milk cartons in hopes someone would have seen him, recognize his picture and alert authorities. The family has kept the same phone number since 1979, just in case the child calls home.
Earlier this year, Hernandez confessed to murdering Patz. He told police that he choked the boy after luring him into the basement of a Manhattan grocery store.
Harvey Fishbein, the attorney representing Hernandez, says his client will appear in court Thursday where he will likely be arraigned.
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Etan Patz Suspect Indicted on Murder, Kidnapping Charges
A grand jury has indicted a former New York City bodega clerk on charges he lured 6-year-old Etan Patz into a basement and killed him 33 years ago.
Pedro Hernandez is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping, the Manhattan District Attorney's office said Wednesday. He was set to appear in court Thursday.
Hernandez, who has a history of mental illness, was arrested last spring, 33 years after Patz disappeared off a SoHo street in a tragic case that mystified New York City for decades.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at the time that police focused on Hernandez, who now lives in Maple Shade, N.J., after the Missing Persons Squad received a tip from someone who remembered Hernandez speaking of having killed a child.
According to the criminal complaint, Hernandez told police he lured the boy into a bodega where he worked, where he took him to the basement, strangled him and placed him inside a plastic bag.
Hernandez's attorney, Harvey Fishbein, said the trial would not solve the mystery of what happened to Patz.
He said Hernandez, who has taken medication for schizophrenia for years, has recently been diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder, which includes hallucinations. Fishbein cited both court-ordered and private psychiatric evaluations and said the entire case is based on statements made by his mentally ill client.
"The statements alleged by the people are not supported by any evidence whatsoever despite extraordinary investigative efforts by the police, back then and now," Fishbein said.
A spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney said the grand jury found sufficient evidence to charge Hernandez and that the office believes the case should go to trial.
"This indictment is the outcome of a lengthy and deliberative process, involving months of factual investigation and legal analysis," said Erin Duggan.
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Pedro Hernandez is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping, the Manhattan District Attorney's office said Wednesday. He was set to appear in court Thursday.
Hernandez, who has a history of mental illness, was arrested last spring, 33 years after Patz disappeared off a SoHo street in a tragic case that mystified New York City for decades.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at the time that police focused on Hernandez, who now lives in Maple Shade, N.J., after the Missing Persons Squad received a tip from someone who remembered Hernandez speaking of having killed a child.
According to the criminal complaint, Hernandez told police he lured the boy into a bodega where he worked, where he took him to the basement, strangled him and placed him inside a plastic bag.
Hernandez's attorney, Harvey Fishbein, said the trial would not solve the mystery of what happened to Patz.
He said Hernandez, who has taken medication for schizophrenia for years, has recently been diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder, which includes hallucinations. Fishbein cited both court-ordered and private psychiatric evaluations and said the entire case is based on statements made by his mentally ill client.
"The statements alleged by the people are not supported by any evidence whatsoever despite extraordinary investigative efforts by the police, back then and now," Fishbein said.
A spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney said the grand jury found sufficient evidence to charge Hernandez and that the office believes the case should go to trial.
"This indictment is the outcome of a lengthy and deliberative process, involving months of factual investigation and legal analysis," said Erin Duggan.
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raine1953- Administration
- Join date : 2010-01-21
Grand jury minutes for Patz murder suspect Pedro Hernandez will not be released early
The grand jury minutes for the indictment of Etan Patz murder suspect Pedro Hernandez will not be handed over early to his defense team, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Maxwell Wiley ruled today.
Defense Attorney Harvey Fishbein asked the court to release the normally sealed minutes of the closed-door proceeding to show that prosecutors presented insufficient evidence.
Fishbein claims the DA's case is based almost entirely on the confession of a man suffering from serious mental illness.
"The judge didn't feel there was a benefit to disclosing grand jury minutes," said Fishbein. The attorney added that he will still seek a dismissal at an April 17th court date.
Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and murder charges stemming from Patz's disappearance more than 30 years ago in 1979.
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Defense Attorney Harvey Fishbein asked the court to release the normally sealed minutes of the closed-door proceeding to show that prosecutors presented insufficient evidence.
Fishbein claims the DA's case is based almost entirely on the confession of a man suffering from serious mental illness.
"The judge didn't feel there was a benefit to disclosing grand jury minutes," said Fishbein. The attorney added that he will still seek a dismissal at an April 17th court date.
Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and murder charges stemming from Patz's disappearance more than 30 years ago in 1979.
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raine1953- Administration
- Join date : 2010-01-21
Judge Refuses To Throw Out Etan Patz '79 Murder Case
May 15, 2013
A man charged with murder decades after one of the nation's most infamous child disappearances can be brought to trial, a judge ruled Wednesday, turning down the man's claim that the case was too thin to proceed.
In a case that hinges on a disputed confession, the judge said there was enough evidence to sustain the charges against Pedro Hernandez of Maple Shade, N.J. He is accused of killing 6-year-old Etan Patz, last seen walking to his Manhattan school bus stop in 1979.
The ruling propels the case toward a trial that would likely revolve around whether Hernandez' confession amounts to a mentally ill man's imaginings, as his defense claims.
"We're prepared to move forward to trial and show the people of New York that Pedro Hernandez had nothing to do with whatever happened to Etan Patz in 1979," defense lawyer Harvey Fishbein said after court.
Etan's disappearance, which helped impel a movement to publicize the cases of missing children, vexed investigators through decades of fizzled leads and inconclusive findings.
Authorities say they have finally found the culprit in Hernandez, who confessed after his arrest last year and had made incriminating remarks years before. But his lawyer has said that Hernandez is schizophrenic and bipolar, and that his admission was false, peppered with questionable claims and made after almost seven hours of police questioning.
"No evidence or witnesses have been found corroborating any of the few facts" in Hernandez's confession, Fishbein wrote last month in papers arguing that the case should be dismissed.
The Manhattan district attorney's office has said there's enough proof to sustain the case, Hernandez willingly talked with investigators and prosecutors don't believe his confession was the product of psychiatric problems. Under New York law, a person can be convicted based only on a confession, if there's additional evidence that a crime was committed.
Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley said in a written ruling that the evidence against Hernandez was "legally sufficient to support the charges."
The judge ordered a hearing on whether Hernandez' statements can be used at trial. Such hearings are fairly common.
Hernandez, 52, sat stock-still during a brief court appearance, as his wife and daughter and a friend watched from the audience. The women hugged tearfully in the courtroom hallway afterward and declined to speak with reporters. Prosecutors had no immediate comment.
Etan vanished on May 25, 1979; the anniversary later was named National Missing Children's Day in his memory. He became one of the first vanished children pictured on a milk carton.
Hernandez, 52, was arrested last May after police got a tip that he'd told people years before that he had killed a child in New York City.
Hernandez then told authorities he'd seen Etan at the bus stop, offered the boy a soda to entice him to a corner store where Hernandez worked and choked the boy in the basement. Hernandez said he tossed Etan's book bag behind a basement freezer, put his limp body in a box and left it with some trash about a block away.
Hernandez is due back in court July 31.
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A man charged with murder decades after one of the nation's most infamous child disappearances can be brought to trial, a judge ruled Wednesday, turning down the man's claim that the case was too thin to proceed.
In a case that hinges on a disputed confession, the judge said there was enough evidence to sustain the charges against Pedro Hernandez of Maple Shade, N.J. He is accused of killing 6-year-old Etan Patz, last seen walking to his Manhattan school bus stop in 1979.
The ruling propels the case toward a trial that would likely revolve around whether Hernandez' confession amounts to a mentally ill man's imaginings, as his defense claims.
"We're prepared to move forward to trial and show the people of New York that Pedro Hernandez had nothing to do with whatever happened to Etan Patz in 1979," defense lawyer Harvey Fishbein said after court.
Etan's disappearance, which helped impel a movement to publicize the cases of missing children, vexed investigators through decades of fizzled leads and inconclusive findings.
Authorities say they have finally found the culprit in Hernandez, who confessed after his arrest last year and had made incriminating remarks years before. But his lawyer has said that Hernandez is schizophrenic and bipolar, and that his admission was false, peppered with questionable claims and made after almost seven hours of police questioning.
"No evidence or witnesses have been found corroborating any of the few facts" in Hernandez's confession, Fishbein wrote last month in papers arguing that the case should be dismissed.
The Manhattan district attorney's office has said there's enough proof to sustain the case, Hernandez willingly talked with investigators and prosecutors don't believe his confession was the product of psychiatric problems. Under New York law, a person can be convicted based only on a confession, if there's additional evidence that a crime was committed.
Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley said in a written ruling that the evidence against Hernandez was "legally sufficient to support the charges."
The judge ordered a hearing on whether Hernandez' statements can be used at trial. Such hearings are fairly common.
Hernandez, 52, sat stock-still during a brief court appearance, as his wife and daughter and a friend watched from the audience. The women hugged tearfully in the courtroom hallway afterward and declined to speak with reporters. Prosecutors had no immediate comment.
Etan vanished on May 25, 1979; the anniversary later was named National Missing Children's Day in his memory. He became one of the first vanished children pictured on a milk carton.
Hernandez, 52, was arrested last May after police got a tip that he'd told people years before that he had killed a child in New York City.
Hernandez then told authorities he'd seen Etan at the bus stop, offered the boy a soda to entice him to a corner store where Hernandez worked and choked the boy in the basement. Hernandez said he tossed Etan's book bag behind a basement freezer, put his limp body in a box and left it with some trash about a block away.
Hernandez is due back in court July 31.
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NiteSpinR- Tech Support Admin
- Join date : 2009-05-30
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
The judge in the murder trial of Etan Patz today refused to release the man (Pedro) accused of killing the six-year-old after the prosecution reminded him of the brutal crime he confessed to.
Wish we had more judges like that one!
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Wish we had more judges like that one!
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samgoodwin- Join date : 2011-02-10
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
All..I..can..think..about..is..what..Ethan...suffered..and..his..family...too.
damned..long..
Whoever..does..this..to..ANY..child..Deserves..the..chair!!
damned..long..
Whoever..does..this..to..ANY..child..Deserves..the..chair!!
Pedro Hernandez On Trial For The Murder Of Etan Patz, Reported Missing May 25, 1979
Feb 2, 2015
Six-year-old Etan Patz was supposed to be right outside riding his Big Wheel, but his mom, Julie, didn't see him on the street. She raced down the block, frantic, panic rising. Then he rounded the corner, and relief flooded over her. She scolded him for giving her a fright.
It was the next day, May 25, 1979, that Etan would vanish.
He was on his way to school, a dollar in hand, headed first to the corner store before the bus stop. It was the first time the sandy-haired boy was allowed to walk the short trip alone.
Julie Patz testified Monday at the murder trial of former store clerk Pedro Hernandez, accused of killing her son. She said she walked Etan down the stairs of their Manhattan loft that day and told him not to dally after school.
"That was the last time I saw him. I watched him walk one block away," 72-year-old Patz said. "I turned around and went back upstairs, and that was the last time."
Etan's best friend at the time, Chelsea Altman, testified that she had saved him a seat on the bus, but he didn't get on.
Etan's disappearance captivated the nation, and it ushered in a new era of child protectiveness and a series of reforms that changed how law enforcement handles missing children. His body has never been found.
Hernandez was a teenage shop worker in 1979 when police jotted down his name among those of many people they met during their feverish search.
But it wasn't until 2012 that Hernandez, 54, of Maple Shade, New Jersey, emerged as a suspect. The apparent breakthrough in the case was based on a tip and a videotaped confession that prosecutors say was foreshadowed by remarks he made to friends and relatives in the 1980s.
On Monday, Julie Patz recounted her time living in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood when her children were little. It was a very different place from the swank stretch of boutiques and eateries constantly crammed with tourists. It was gritty. Industrial. Some buildings had no power, others had no plumbing. But the artists and other creative types banded together to form a collective, she said.
The corner store was a safe zone for neighborhood children, a place parents told their kids to go in case of emergency. The owner, a relative of the suspect, was well known. And Etan was trusting, his mother said.
"Totally nonjudgmental about people," she said. "Everyone that he met once was his friend and was a nice person."
But while Etan craved independence and was eager to become a grown-up, Patz said, "at the same time, he was very fearful of being lost or left alone by himself."
Patz, practiced at telling her story to lawmakers, talk-show hosts and other families of missing children, was conversational and charming, but she cried when talking about how she felt in the hours after she learned Etan hadn't been at school.
"I don't remember a thing about that night and the next day, quite honestly," she said. She recalls only having "very rubbery legs," an upset stomach and difficulty walking, thinking and talking.
His defense hinges on convincing jurors that the confession is false, along with suggesting that the real killer may be a convicted Pennsylvania child molester who was a prime suspect for years.
Etan became one of the first missing children featured on milk cartons. His parents helped advocate for legislation that created a nationwide law enforcement framework to address such cases, and the anniversary of his disappearance became National Missing Children's Day.
The trial is expected to last up to three months.
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Six-year-old Etan Patz was supposed to be right outside riding his Big Wheel, but his mom, Julie, didn't see him on the street. She raced down the block, frantic, panic rising. Then he rounded the corner, and relief flooded over her. She scolded him for giving her a fright.
It was the next day, May 25, 1979, that Etan would vanish.
He was on his way to school, a dollar in hand, headed first to the corner store before the bus stop. It was the first time the sandy-haired boy was allowed to walk the short trip alone.
Julie Patz testified Monday at the murder trial of former store clerk Pedro Hernandez, accused of killing her son. She said she walked Etan down the stairs of their Manhattan loft that day and told him not to dally after school.
"That was the last time I saw him. I watched him walk one block away," 72-year-old Patz said. "I turned around and went back upstairs, and that was the last time."
Etan's best friend at the time, Chelsea Altman, testified that she had saved him a seat on the bus, but he didn't get on.
Etan's disappearance captivated the nation, and it ushered in a new era of child protectiveness and a series of reforms that changed how law enforcement handles missing children. His body has never been found.
Hernandez was a teenage shop worker in 1979 when police jotted down his name among those of many people they met during their feverish search.
But it wasn't until 2012 that Hernandez, 54, of Maple Shade, New Jersey, emerged as a suspect. The apparent breakthrough in the case was based on a tip and a videotaped confession that prosecutors say was foreshadowed by remarks he made to friends and relatives in the 1980s.
On Monday, Julie Patz recounted her time living in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood when her children were little. It was a very different place from the swank stretch of boutiques and eateries constantly crammed with tourists. It was gritty. Industrial. Some buildings had no power, others had no plumbing. But the artists and other creative types banded together to form a collective, she said.
The corner store was a safe zone for neighborhood children, a place parents told their kids to go in case of emergency. The owner, a relative of the suspect, was well known. And Etan was trusting, his mother said.
"Totally nonjudgmental about people," she said. "Everyone that he met once was his friend and was a nice person."
But while Etan craved independence and was eager to become a grown-up, Patz said, "at the same time, he was very fearful of being lost or left alone by himself."
Patz, practiced at telling her story to lawmakers, talk-show hosts and other families of missing children, was conversational and charming, but she cried when talking about how she felt in the hours after she learned Etan hadn't been at school.
"I don't remember a thing about that night and the next day, quite honestly," she said. She recalls only having "very rubbery legs," an upset stomach and difficulty walking, thinking and talking.
His defense hinges on convincing jurors that the confession is false, along with suggesting that the real killer may be a convicted Pennsylvania child molester who was a prime suspect for years.
Etan became one of the first missing children featured on milk cartons. His parents helped advocate for legislation that created a nationwide law enforcement framework to address such cases, and the anniversary of his disappearance became National Missing Children's Day.
The trial is expected to last up to three months.
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NiteSpinR- Tech Support Admin
- Join date : 2009-05-30
Jury in Patz Murder Trial Views Taped Confession
FEB. 10, 2015
The confession was not a surprise to jurors: Pedro Hernandez had told several people through the years that he had killed a child in New York City, and five of those people had testified earlier in Mr. Hernandez’s murder trial.
But none of those witnesses held the power of Mr. Hernandez’s own words, as jurors on Tuesday watched him tell a prosecutor how he came to strangle Etan Patz.
“I grabbed him by the neck and I started choking,” Mr. Hernandez said in the confession, recorded on video on May 24, 2012. “I was nervous. My legs were jumping. I wanted to let go but I couldn’t.”
Some jurors scribbled notes as the tape rolled; others leaned forward and stared at the television monitor, studying his face. One looked back and forth from Mr. Hernandez, seated at the defense table, to the screen.
The confession was first played in State Supreme Court in Manhattan during a suppression hearing last September and forms the heart of the case against Mr. Hernandez. His lawyers have argued his statements are false, a fiction concocted by a man with a low I.Q. and a history of mental illness.
Because there is no scientific evidence in the case — Etan’s body and small tote bag were never found — the people’s case depends on the jury believing the confessions are true and uncoerced. The defense plans to introduce evidence that Mr. Hernandez has a history of mental illness, including hallucinations, and has a personality disorder that makes it hard for him to distinguish fantasy from reality.
The videotape introduced in evidence on Tuesday chronicles a three-hour overnight interview between Mr. Hernandez and a senior Manhattan prosecutor, Armand Durastanti.
During the interview, Mr. Hernandez, a 54-year-old former factory worker, confessed that he throttled Etan, who was 6, in the basement of a SoHo bodega on May 25, 1979, the same day the boy disappeared.
Mr. Hernandez worked at the bodega in May 1979 as a stock clerk; he said he lured the boy downstairs through cellar doors in the sidewalk with the promise of a soda.
After sealed hearings, Justice Maxwell Wiley ordered that several minutes of the videos be redacted before the tapes were played to the jury. During those parts, Mr. Hernandez talked about personal matters not relevant to the charges, the judge said.
The police arrested Mr. Hernandez on May 23, 2012, after one of his brothers-in-law told detectives that there had long been rumors he had talked to family members and friends in the early 1980s about killing a child.
After more than six hours of interrogation by three detectives, Mr. Hernandez broke down and confessed. The police turned on a video camera only at the end of the interview.
Twelve hours later, he gave the longer confession to Mr. Durastanti. In that interview, Mr. Hernandez said several times he did not know why he murdered Etan, claiming that “something just took over me and I just choked him.”
“It was like something took over me when I was going to the basement,” he said. “I felt something took over my body.”
Mr. Hernandez also strenuously denied he molested the child before the murder. “I never touched him anywhere in a private place or nothing,” he said. He also claimed the boy was still alive when he put him in a plastic bag, then in a cardboard box, and left him in an alley a block and a half from the bodega, which was at West Broadway and Prince Street.
Mr. Hernandez showed little emotion as he spoke about killing the boy and even calmly demonstrated how he put his hands around the child’s neck. He started to weep only when he recalled the beatings he received from his father during his own childhood.
Mr. Hernandez’s lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, suggested his client’s statement contained several details about the crime that did not match with the recollections of other witnesses.
For instance, Mr. Hernandez said Etan had no hat, but the boy’s mother testified he was wearing an Eastern Airlines cap when he left his apartment the day he disappeared.
Mr. Hernandez also described the bag the boy was carrying as black, Mr. Fishbein said as he cross-examined Detective Anthony Curtin, who was present during Mr. Hernandez’s confession.
Other witnesses have described Etan’s bag as a small, open tote bag of dark blue canvas with lines of white circus elephants printed on it. His mother, Julie Patz, testified the bag was full of toy cars, a lunch and a cardboard tube of pencils.
Mr. Hernandez told the prosecutor he had thrown Etan’s bag over the top of a large freezer in the bodega basement. “When Mr. Hernandez describes throwing it over the top, would you feel it’s fair to say that things would have come out of this book bag?” Mr. Fishbein asked.
Nothing of Etan’s was found when the police searched the basement shortly after he disappeared.
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The confession was not a surprise to jurors: Pedro Hernandez had told several people through the years that he had killed a child in New York City, and five of those people had testified earlier in Mr. Hernandez’s murder trial.
But none of those witnesses held the power of Mr. Hernandez’s own words, as jurors on Tuesday watched him tell a prosecutor how he came to strangle Etan Patz.
“I grabbed him by the neck and I started choking,” Mr. Hernandez said in the confession, recorded on video on May 24, 2012. “I was nervous. My legs were jumping. I wanted to let go but I couldn’t.”
Some jurors scribbled notes as the tape rolled; others leaned forward and stared at the television monitor, studying his face. One looked back and forth from Mr. Hernandez, seated at the defense table, to the screen.
The confession was first played in State Supreme Court in Manhattan during a suppression hearing last September and forms the heart of the case against Mr. Hernandez. His lawyers have argued his statements are false, a fiction concocted by a man with a low I.Q. and a history of mental illness.
Because there is no scientific evidence in the case — Etan’s body and small tote bag were never found — the people’s case depends on the jury believing the confessions are true and uncoerced. The defense plans to introduce evidence that Mr. Hernandez has a history of mental illness, including hallucinations, and has a personality disorder that makes it hard for him to distinguish fantasy from reality.
The videotape introduced in evidence on Tuesday chronicles a three-hour overnight interview between Mr. Hernandez and a senior Manhattan prosecutor, Armand Durastanti.
During the interview, Mr. Hernandez, a 54-year-old former factory worker, confessed that he throttled Etan, who was 6, in the basement of a SoHo bodega on May 25, 1979, the same day the boy disappeared.
Mr. Hernandez worked at the bodega in May 1979 as a stock clerk; he said he lured the boy downstairs through cellar doors in the sidewalk with the promise of a soda.
After sealed hearings, Justice Maxwell Wiley ordered that several minutes of the videos be redacted before the tapes were played to the jury. During those parts, Mr. Hernandez talked about personal matters not relevant to the charges, the judge said.
The police arrested Mr. Hernandez on May 23, 2012, after one of his brothers-in-law told detectives that there had long been rumors he had talked to family members and friends in the early 1980s about killing a child.
After more than six hours of interrogation by three detectives, Mr. Hernandez broke down and confessed. The police turned on a video camera only at the end of the interview.
Twelve hours later, he gave the longer confession to Mr. Durastanti. In that interview, Mr. Hernandez said several times he did not know why he murdered Etan, claiming that “something just took over me and I just choked him.”
“It was like something took over me when I was going to the basement,” he said. “I felt something took over my body.”
Mr. Hernandez also strenuously denied he molested the child before the murder. “I never touched him anywhere in a private place or nothing,” he said. He also claimed the boy was still alive when he put him in a plastic bag, then in a cardboard box, and left him in an alley a block and a half from the bodega, which was at West Broadway and Prince Street.
Mr. Hernandez showed little emotion as he spoke about killing the boy and even calmly demonstrated how he put his hands around the child’s neck. He started to weep only when he recalled the beatings he received from his father during his own childhood.
Mr. Hernandez’s lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, suggested his client’s statement contained several details about the crime that did not match with the recollections of other witnesses.
For instance, Mr. Hernandez said Etan had no hat, but the boy’s mother testified he was wearing an Eastern Airlines cap when he left his apartment the day he disappeared.
Mr. Hernandez also described the bag the boy was carrying as black, Mr. Fishbein said as he cross-examined Detective Anthony Curtin, who was present during Mr. Hernandez’s confession.
Other witnesses have described Etan’s bag as a small, open tote bag of dark blue canvas with lines of white circus elephants printed on it. His mother, Julie Patz, testified the bag was full of toy cars, a lunch and a cardboard tube of pencils.
Mr. Hernandez told the prosecutor he had thrown Etan’s bag over the top of a large freezer in the bodega basement. “When Mr. Hernandez describes throwing it over the top, would you feel it’s fair to say that things would have come out of this book bag?” Mr. Fishbein asked.
Nothing of Etan’s was found when the police searched the basement shortly after he disappeared.
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- Join date : 2009-05-30
Jury in Etan Patz Murder Trial Deadlocked Again, Ordered to Keep Deliberating
5/5/15
A judge has ordered the 12-person jury in the Etan Patz murder trial back to the deliberation room after the jurors, deliberating for their fifteenth day, sent him a note for the second time saying they could not agree on whether 54-year-old Pedro Hernandez killed the 6-year-old child in 1979.
The jury of five men and women said Tuesday they were unable to reach a unanimous decision in the SoHo case, which helped galvanize the national missing-children's movement, after re-hearing trial summations last week. Hernandez faces both murder and kidnapping charges.
The second deadlocked note comes less than a week after jurors told state Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley they were hung and were ordered to keep trying to reach a unanimous verdict. It also follows about nine hours of deliberations with only one note -- the longest stretch of time they've weighed the case without reaching out to the court more than a few times.
The defense moved for an immediate mistrial, as it did the first time the jurors said they were deadlocked, and again Wiley ordered the jurors to continue deliberating.
Wiley said he wanted jurors to "at least give it one more try."
"I don't detect any rancor among jurors," Wiley said.
The jurors appeared weary as the judge issued his decision, and resumed discussions Tuesday afternoon. The panel has labored over their deliberations for more than two weeks, asking for reviews of exhibits and hours of testimony from key witnesses.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzi-Orbon said she would prefer a second trial, which would be prosecutors' option should the judge call a mistrial, to a "verdict for verdict's sake." After the jury was deadlocked last week, she had said her office was confident they would reach a verdict.
Jurors heard from 56 witnesses -- just nine of those for the defense -- during the 10-week trial, but a key issue has been statements from the alleged killer himself.
Hernandez confessed to the crime in 2012 in a case that has confounded law enforcement for decades. Etan's body was never found, nor was any trace of clothing or his belongings. The defense said the admissions were the fictional ravings of a mentally ill man with a low IQ.
Hernandez was a teenage stock clerk in the neighborhood at the time Etan disappeared but had never been considered a suspect. His name appears in law enforcement paperwork only one time during their lengthy probe. The Maple Shade, New Jersey, man made the stunning admissions after police received a tip from a relative that he may have been involved in the case.
"I grabbed him by the neck and started choking him," Hernandez told authorities. "I was nervous. My legs were jumping. I wanted to let go, but I just couldn't let go. I felt like something just took over me."
Defense attorney Harvey Fishbein said during closing arguments that Hernandez was "the only witness against himself."
"The stories he told over the years, including in 2012, and since, are the only evidence. Yet he is inconsistent and unreliable," Fishbein told jurors. "We did not hear, nor can they prove, that he's a child killer, that he murdered a child — because there's no evidence to support it."
The trial began in late January, and jurors heard from dozens of witnesses. Members of a prayer circle testified that Hernandez made tearful admissions during a retreat in the summer of 1979 that matched some of what he told authorities on video 33 years later: He gave a child a soda, took him to the store basement and choked him. One said Hernandez also admitted abusing the boy. When talking to police, Hernandez denied molesting Etan.
In closing arguments for the prosecution, Illuzi-Orbon said Hernandez lured Patz to the basement of the shop because he saw the boy had a dollar. He then choked the child to shut him up after whatever happened in the cellar, she said, and added that the motive was sexual.
Illuzzi-Orbon also argued that Hernandez's first confession -- the one to the prayer group shortly after Patz disappeared -- was the most accurate. He was confessing to God, and he was trying to unburned himself, the prosecutor said.
Neighbors and former acquaintances testified about other admissions from Hernandez.
Mark Pike, Hernandez's former neighbor in Camden, New Jersey, testified that during a 1980 front-porch chat, Hernandez described how a boy in New York threw a ball at him, and "he lost it" and strangled the child.
"I just said, 'Why?'" Pike recalled. Hernandez gave no answer, he said.
About two years later, Hernandez told 16-year-old girlfriend Daisy Rivera he wanted to come clean about "something terrible" — he had strangled a "gringo muchacho," or white guy, who offended him while in New York.
The defense suggested that another man, a convicted pedophile in jail in Pennsylvania, is the real killer. It called to the stand a former federal prosecutor and FBI agent who worked on the probe into Jose Ramos for years. A former jailhouse informant involved in the investigation testified that Ramos admitted molesting the boy while the men were roommates in prison. Jeffrey Rothschild said Ramos recounted in horrifying detail how he molested Etan and many other boys.
In closing arguments, the defense honed in on Ramos.
"We did find out why Etan disappeared — but it was not because of Pedro Hernandez," Fishbein said. "It was because of Jose Ramos."
Etan's photo was one of the first on milk cartons. The day he went missing, May 25, was later named National Missing Children's Day.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
A judge has ordered the 12-person jury in the Etan Patz murder trial back to the deliberation room after the jurors, deliberating for their fifteenth day, sent him a note for the second time saying they could not agree on whether 54-year-old Pedro Hernandez killed the 6-year-old child in 1979.
The jury of five men and women said Tuesday they were unable to reach a unanimous decision in the SoHo case, which helped galvanize the national missing-children's movement, after re-hearing trial summations last week. Hernandez faces both murder and kidnapping charges.
The second deadlocked note comes less than a week after jurors told state Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley they were hung and were ordered to keep trying to reach a unanimous verdict. It also follows about nine hours of deliberations with only one note -- the longest stretch of time they've weighed the case without reaching out to the court more than a few times.
The defense moved for an immediate mistrial, as it did the first time the jurors said they were deadlocked, and again Wiley ordered the jurors to continue deliberating.
Wiley said he wanted jurors to "at least give it one more try."
"I don't detect any rancor among jurors," Wiley said.
The jurors appeared weary as the judge issued his decision, and resumed discussions Tuesday afternoon. The panel has labored over their deliberations for more than two weeks, asking for reviews of exhibits and hours of testimony from key witnesses.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzi-Orbon said she would prefer a second trial, which would be prosecutors' option should the judge call a mistrial, to a "verdict for verdict's sake." After the jury was deadlocked last week, she had said her office was confident they would reach a verdict.
Jurors heard from 56 witnesses -- just nine of those for the defense -- during the 10-week trial, but a key issue has been statements from the alleged killer himself.
Hernandez confessed to the crime in 2012 in a case that has confounded law enforcement for decades. Etan's body was never found, nor was any trace of clothing or his belongings. The defense said the admissions were the fictional ravings of a mentally ill man with a low IQ.
Hernandez was a teenage stock clerk in the neighborhood at the time Etan disappeared but had never been considered a suspect. His name appears in law enforcement paperwork only one time during their lengthy probe. The Maple Shade, New Jersey, man made the stunning admissions after police received a tip from a relative that he may have been involved in the case.
"I grabbed him by the neck and started choking him," Hernandez told authorities. "I was nervous. My legs were jumping. I wanted to let go, but I just couldn't let go. I felt like something just took over me."
Defense attorney Harvey Fishbein said during closing arguments that Hernandez was "the only witness against himself."
"The stories he told over the years, including in 2012, and since, are the only evidence. Yet he is inconsistent and unreliable," Fishbein told jurors. "We did not hear, nor can they prove, that he's a child killer, that he murdered a child — because there's no evidence to support it."
The trial began in late January, and jurors heard from dozens of witnesses. Members of a prayer circle testified that Hernandez made tearful admissions during a retreat in the summer of 1979 that matched some of what he told authorities on video 33 years later: He gave a child a soda, took him to the store basement and choked him. One said Hernandez also admitted abusing the boy. When talking to police, Hernandez denied molesting Etan.
In closing arguments for the prosecution, Illuzi-Orbon said Hernandez lured Patz to the basement of the shop because he saw the boy had a dollar. He then choked the child to shut him up after whatever happened in the cellar, she said, and added that the motive was sexual.
Illuzzi-Orbon also argued that Hernandez's first confession -- the one to the prayer group shortly after Patz disappeared -- was the most accurate. He was confessing to God, and he was trying to unburned himself, the prosecutor said.
Neighbors and former acquaintances testified about other admissions from Hernandez.
Mark Pike, Hernandez's former neighbor in Camden, New Jersey, testified that during a 1980 front-porch chat, Hernandez described how a boy in New York threw a ball at him, and "he lost it" and strangled the child.
"I just said, 'Why?'" Pike recalled. Hernandez gave no answer, he said.
About two years later, Hernandez told 16-year-old girlfriend Daisy Rivera he wanted to come clean about "something terrible" — he had strangled a "gringo muchacho," or white guy, who offended him while in New York.
The defense suggested that another man, a convicted pedophile in jail in Pennsylvania, is the real killer. It called to the stand a former federal prosecutor and FBI agent who worked on the probe into Jose Ramos for years. A former jailhouse informant involved in the investigation testified that Ramos admitted molesting the boy while the men were roommates in prison. Jeffrey Rothschild said Ramos recounted in horrifying detail how he molested Etan and many other boys.
In closing arguments, the defense honed in on Ramos.
"We did find out why Etan disappeared — but it was not because of Pedro Hernandez," Fishbein said. "It was because of Jose Ramos."
Etan's photo was one of the first on milk cartons. The day he went missing, May 25, was later named National Missing Children's Day.
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- Join date : 2009-05-30
Mistrial Declared in Etan Patz Murder Case After Jury Deadlocks for a Third Time
May 9, 2015
A judge declared a mistrial in the Etan Patz murder case after the 12-person jury, deliberating for an 18th day, sent him a note for the third time saying they could not agree on whether 54-year-old Pedro Hernandez killed the 6-year-old child in 1979.
The jury of five men and seven women said Friday they were unable to reach a unanimous decision in the SoHo case, which has haunted New York City for decades, after re-hearing closing arguments from both sides last week.
Eleven of the jurors believed he was guilty; one held out against a conviction, the panel revealed. The lone holdout, Adam Sirois, told reporters he couldn't overcome reasonable doubt; he said he felt mental issues were at play, citing Hernandez's "bizarre" confession, and said he had concerns about the police tactics through which that confession was attained.
Twice before, on Tuesday and April 29, the jurors told state Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley they could not agree to convict or acquit Hernandez of murder and kidnapping charges. Both times, Maxwell told them to keep trying to reach a verdict.
The defense moved for an immediate mistrial Friday, as it did the first two times the jurors said they were deadlocked. This time, Wiley granted the motion.
He dismissed the jurors, thanking them for their service. Etan Patz's father, Stanley Patz, and other relatives of the little boy sat silently as the jury left the courtroom.
Hernandez was a teenage stock clerk in the neighborhood at the time Patz disappeared but had never been considered a suspect. His name appears in law enforcement paperwork only one time during their lengthy probe.
Speaking to the media after the mistrial was granted, Stanley Patz said after listening to the months of testimony and debating the merits of various witnesses, his family is convinced Hernandez "is guilty of the crimes to which he has confessed beyond any reasonable doubt."
"The family of Etan Patz has waited 36 years for a resolution as to what happened to our sweet little boy in 1979," the father said. "Let me make very clear that we are frustrated and very disappointed that the jury has been unable to come to decision. Our long ordeal is not over."
Stanley Patz said Hernandez told police elements about his son's disappearance that nobody else knew.
"When he was 18 years old, he did something terrible," he said of Hernandez. "Maybe he's a good man now. He should pay for it."
The judge delayed formally announcing the mistrial until the Patz family could make their way into court. Hernandez appeared visibly relieved as he waited for the decision. Nearby, his wife and daughter bowed their heads in prayer. One of his lawyers, Harvey Fishbein, said the defense was disappointed by the mistrial, as it had been hoping for an acquittal, but that they will be ready if prosecutors re-try the case.
The Manhattan district attorney's office asked for a new trial date, though it wasn't immediately clear if prosecutors intended to bring the case against Hernandez again. There is no timetable on an open murder indictment and Hernandez will remain in custody until it is closed, the judge said.
The jurors labored over their deliberations for more than two weeks and 115 hours, asking for reviews of exhibits and hours of testimony from key witnesses in what became the longest New York City criminal trial deliberations in decades. They discussed the case for about two dozen hours alone over the past week while sending only two minor notes -- the longest stretch of time the group had weighed the evidence without sending more correspondence to the court.
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said the challenges in the Patz case were "exacerbated by the passage of time," but he said he firmly believes "there is clear and corroborated evidence of the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." Vance thanked the jury for their service over the last several months and the Patz family for their "courage and determination" over the last few decades.
Etan Patz disappeared 36 years ago this month.
Jurors heard from 56 witnesses -- just 9 of those for the defense -- during the 10-week trial, but a key issue has been statements from the alleged killer himself.
Hernandez confessed to the crime in 2012 in a case that galvanized the missing-children's movement and confounded law enforcement for decades. Patz's body was never found, nor was any trace of clothing or his belongings. No physical evidence tied Hernandez to the case. The defense said the admissions were the fictional ravings of a mentally ill man with a low IQ.
The Maple Shade, New Jersey, man made the stunning admissions after police received a tip from a relative that he may have been involved in the case.
"I grabbed him by the neck and started choking him," Hernandez told authorities. "I was nervous. My legs were jumping. I wanted to let go, but I just couldn't let go. I felt like something just took over me."
The trial began in late January, and jurors heard from members of a prayer circle that Hernandez made tearful admissions during a retreat in the summer of 1979 that matched some of what he told authorities on video 33 years later. The prayer group members testified Hernandez said he gave a child a soda, took him to the store basement and choked him. One said Hernandez also admitted abusing the boy. When talking to police, Hernandez denied molesting Patz.
In closing arguments for the prosecution, Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said Hernandez lured Patz to the basement of the shop because he saw the boy had a dollar. He then choked the child to shut him up after whatever happened in the cellar, she said, and added that the motive was sexual.
Illuzzi-Orbon also argued that Hernandez's first confession -- the one to the prayer group shortly after Patz disappeared -- was the most accurate. He was confessing to God, and he was trying to unburden himself, the prosecutor said.
Neighbors and former acquaintances testified about other admissions from Hernandez.
Fishbein said during closing arguments for the defense that Hernandez was "the only witness against himself." He pointed to longtime suspect Jose Ramos, a convicted pedophile who admitted to a federal prosecutor that he had been with Patz the day the boy vanished.
A former jailhouse informant who was working with them gave a stomach-turning account of conversations he had with Ramos that included details on molesting Patz. Manhattan prosecutors never felt there was enough evidence to charge him with the crime.
In closing arguments, the defense honed in on Ramos.
"We did find out why Etan disappeared — but it was not because of Pedro Hernandez," Fishbein said. "It was because of Jose Ramos."
Patz's photo was one of the first on milk cartons. The day he went missing, May 25, was later named National Missing Children's Day.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
A judge declared a mistrial in the Etan Patz murder case after the 12-person jury, deliberating for an 18th day, sent him a note for the third time saying they could not agree on whether 54-year-old Pedro Hernandez killed the 6-year-old child in 1979.
The jury of five men and seven women said Friday they were unable to reach a unanimous decision in the SoHo case, which has haunted New York City for decades, after re-hearing closing arguments from both sides last week.
Eleven of the jurors believed he was guilty; one held out against a conviction, the panel revealed. The lone holdout, Adam Sirois, told reporters he couldn't overcome reasonable doubt; he said he felt mental issues were at play, citing Hernandez's "bizarre" confession, and said he had concerns about the police tactics through which that confession was attained.
Twice before, on Tuesday and April 29, the jurors told state Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley they could not agree to convict or acquit Hernandez of murder and kidnapping charges. Both times, Maxwell told them to keep trying to reach a verdict.
The defense moved for an immediate mistrial Friday, as it did the first two times the jurors said they were deadlocked. This time, Wiley granted the motion.
He dismissed the jurors, thanking them for their service. Etan Patz's father, Stanley Patz, and other relatives of the little boy sat silently as the jury left the courtroom.
Hernandez was a teenage stock clerk in the neighborhood at the time Patz disappeared but had never been considered a suspect. His name appears in law enforcement paperwork only one time during their lengthy probe.
Speaking to the media after the mistrial was granted, Stanley Patz said after listening to the months of testimony and debating the merits of various witnesses, his family is convinced Hernandez "is guilty of the crimes to which he has confessed beyond any reasonable doubt."
"The family of Etan Patz has waited 36 years for a resolution as to what happened to our sweet little boy in 1979," the father said. "Let me make very clear that we are frustrated and very disappointed that the jury has been unable to come to decision. Our long ordeal is not over."
Stanley Patz said Hernandez told police elements about his son's disappearance that nobody else knew.
"When he was 18 years old, he did something terrible," he said of Hernandez. "Maybe he's a good man now. He should pay for it."
The judge delayed formally announcing the mistrial until the Patz family could make their way into court. Hernandez appeared visibly relieved as he waited for the decision. Nearby, his wife and daughter bowed their heads in prayer. One of his lawyers, Harvey Fishbein, said the defense was disappointed by the mistrial, as it had been hoping for an acquittal, but that they will be ready if prosecutors re-try the case.
The Manhattan district attorney's office asked for a new trial date, though it wasn't immediately clear if prosecutors intended to bring the case against Hernandez again. There is no timetable on an open murder indictment and Hernandez will remain in custody until it is closed, the judge said.
The jurors labored over their deliberations for more than two weeks and 115 hours, asking for reviews of exhibits and hours of testimony from key witnesses in what became the longest New York City criminal trial deliberations in decades. They discussed the case for about two dozen hours alone over the past week while sending only two minor notes -- the longest stretch of time the group had weighed the evidence without sending more correspondence to the court.
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said the challenges in the Patz case were "exacerbated by the passage of time," but he said he firmly believes "there is clear and corroborated evidence of the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." Vance thanked the jury for their service over the last several months and the Patz family for their "courage and determination" over the last few decades.
Etan Patz disappeared 36 years ago this month.
Jurors heard from 56 witnesses -- just 9 of those for the defense -- during the 10-week trial, but a key issue has been statements from the alleged killer himself.
Hernandez confessed to the crime in 2012 in a case that galvanized the missing-children's movement and confounded law enforcement for decades. Patz's body was never found, nor was any trace of clothing or his belongings. No physical evidence tied Hernandez to the case. The defense said the admissions were the fictional ravings of a mentally ill man with a low IQ.
The Maple Shade, New Jersey, man made the stunning admissions after police received a tip from a relative that he may have been involved in the case.
"I grabbed him by the neck and started choking him," Hernandez told authorities. "I was nervous. My legs were jumping. I wanted to let go, but I just couldn't let go. I felt like something just took over me."
The trial began in late January, and jurors heard from members of a prayer circle that Hernandez made tearful admissions during a retreat in the summer of 1979 that matched some of what he told authorities on video 33 years later. The prayer group members testified Hernandez said he gave a child a soda, took him to the store basement and choked him. One said Hernandez also admitted abusing the boy. When talking to police, Hernandez denied molesting Patz.
In closing arguments for the prosecution, Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said Hernandez lured Patz to the basement of the shop because he saw the boy had a dollar. He then choked the child to shut him up after whatever happened in the cellar, she said, and added that the motive was sexual.
Illuzzi-Orbon also argued that Hernandez's first confession -- the one to the prayer group shortly after Patz disappeared -- was the most accurate. He was confessing to God, and he was trying to unburden himself, the prosecutor said.
Neighbors and former acquaintances testified about other admissions from Hernandez.
Fishbein said during closing arguments for the defense that Hernandez was "the only witness against himself." He pointed to longtime suspect Jose Ramos, a convicted pedophile who admitted to a federal prosecutor that he had been with Patz the day the boy vanished.
A former jailhouse informant who was working with them gave a stomach-turning account of conversations he had with Ramos that included details on molesting Patz. Manhattan prosecutors never felt there was enough evidence to charge him with the crime.
In closing arguments, the defense honed in on Ramos.
"We did find out why Etan disappeared — but it was not because of Pedro Hernandez," Fishbein said. "It was because of Jose Ramos."
Patz's photo was one of the first on milk cartons. The day he went missing, May 25, was later named National Missing Children's Day.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
NiteSpinR- Tech Support Admin
- Join date : 2009-05-30
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