Were Elizabeth Johnson's 6th Amendment rights violated when Jesus Salame, a San Antonio police detective, interviewed her in jail w/out her permission?/03/04 court hearing decision - Salame MUST testity.

Posted: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 2:54 pm | Updated: 4:57 pm, Tue Feb 15, 2011.

Attorney for 'Baby Gabriel's' mom will seek to have case dismissed By Mike Sakal, Tribune East Valley Tribune

In less than two weeks, an attorney representing the Tempe mother of missing "Baby Gabriel" Johnson will argue before a Maricopa County Superior Court judge and prosecutors to drop the charges against her and dismiss the case.

Elizabeth Johnson, who told authorities she gave her son away, has also said that she killed him.

On March 1, Attorney Daniel Raynak plans to pick up where Johnson's former attorney Nicholas Alcock left off in contending that her Sixth Amendment rights were violated when Jesus Salame, a San Antonio police detective, interviewed her in jail without her legal counsel present.

For more than a year, Johnson, 24, has remained incarcerated in the Maricopa County Estrella Jail on a $1.1 million cash bond on charges of kidnapping, child abuse, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference in connection to Gabriel's disappearance in San Antonio on Dec. 26, 2009.

In mid-December of that year, Johnson drove to San Antonio with Gabriel while she was in the midst of a custody battle with Logan McQueary of Gilbert, her estranged boyfriend and father of Gabriel. After arriving in San Antonio, she stayed at a Homegate Inn and Suites motel. On Dec. 27, Johnson told McQueary via text message and a cell phone telephone call that she killed Gabriel, stuffed his body in a diaper bag and threw him in a dumpster. Then, three days later on Dec. 30 when Johnson was arrested in Miami Beach, Fla., she told authorities that she gave Gabriel to a couple at the motel a day after she met them at a park, according to court documents.

Tammi Peters Smith of Scottsdale, who once was interested in adopting the boy, is charged with forgery and conspiracy to commit custodial interference in connection to the case. Johnson claims that Smith arranged for her to give Gabriel to a couple she didn't know at a park in San Antonio. On Monday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Paul McMurdie denied Smith's motion to have her case heard before a new grand jury.

Johnson's grandfather, Robert Johnson of Scottsdale, said Elizabeth calls him almost every day, and she is optimistic that the case against her will be dismissed.

"That's no surprise," he said. "Personally, I would like to see that happen, but I think the judge is going to have a helluva hard time dismissing the case on a technicality when they don't know where the baby is. If Elizabeth's constitutional rights were violated, does that override the fact that they still don't know where the baby is?"

He added, "Elizabeth always said that Tammi orchestrated the whole thing and she would be the best one to talk to. I did not believe or understand this in the beginning, but Tammi's in trouble, too - and I think she knows where the baby is."

If alive, Gabriel would be 21 months old.

Raynak is waiting to hear whether a judge in Texas will authorize an out-of-state subpoena for Salame to appear as a key witness so the case can be dismissed, contending that he tainted the case. But Raynak told the Tribune on Tuesday he is willing to go to a Texas courtroom to argue his point.

Raynak also said that Salame has declined to be interviewed, and is unwilling to come to Arizona to testify unless subpoened.

"We'll see," Raynak said. "So far, he (Salame) hasn't been too cooperative. "I think what he did was outrageous and something the court should look at closely."

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/cop_shop/article_b7d1ace8-394d-11e0-91d6-001cc4c002e0.html

On March 1, Attorney Daniel Raynak plans to pick up where Johnson's former attorney Nicholas Alcock left off in contending that her Sixth Amendment rights were violated when Jesus Salame, a San Antonio police detective, interviewed her in jail without her legal counsel present.

What the heck? When did she get a new lawyer? And why?

Personally, I don't give a flying ### about Elizabeth's rights being violated. What is more important is where is Baby Gabriel? Is he alive? This so called "mother" IMO had no rights the minute that she "lost" Baby G.
Only in this country would her rights be more important than the rights of her son. I love America, do not get me wrong. I just want the truth about this beautiful child.

PHOENIX - An attorney representing Elizabeth Johnson is expected to request the case against the mother of missing baby Gabriel Johnson be dismissed.

Gabriel Johnson was last seen in the Valley the day after Christmas in 2009, and reportedly taken to San Antonio where he disappeared.

ABC15 spoke with Elizabeth's grandfather, Bob Johnson about the potential move.

"I think that they've got to seek a dismissal, I think a judge is going to have a hard time dismissing the case on a technicality," said Johnson during a phone interview.

The technicality he's referring to is an allegation that Elizabeth's Sixth Amendment rights were violated when a San Antonio Police Department detective questioned Elizabeth while she was in a Maricopa County jail without her attorney present.

Since December of 2009 Elizabeth has refused to tell investigators where they could find Gabriel.

When asked if he thought Gabriel was still alive, Bob Johnson answered, "Yes, yes I do, he'll turn up."

I recently received a handwritten letter from a woman who is currently behind bars and claims to have knowledge in the case.

The inmate says Elizabeth told her that she (Elizabeth) killed the baby.

Bob Johnson isn't buying it.

"That's bull, no, no, not true," he said.

The inmate wrote that she wants to testify in the case. ABC15 asked police about the inmate's story and if she was indeed interviewed by detectives as she claims, and officers could not verify the information contained in the letter.

Bob Johnson believes others are trying to get involved in the high profile case. He said he talks to Elizabeth four or five times a week.

"She expects the case to be dismissed," said Bob Johnson. "They've done a good job keeping Elizabeth in jail, but they haven't done much of a job finding that baby."

The next hearing involving Elizabeth Johnson is set for March 1.

http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_phoenix_metro/central_phoenix/elizabeth-johnson%27s-attorney-expected-to-request-case-be-dismissed-

Elizabeth Johnson's attorney, "She's not a monster"

Posted: 11:08 PM
Last Updated: 2 hours and 49 minutes ago

* By: Christopher Sign By: Christopher Sign



PHOENIX - The attorney representing Elizabeth Johnson, the mother of missing 'Baby Gabriel', is firing back at what is being said about his client.

"She wants the truth to come out," said Daniel Raynak while sitting in his central Phoenix office. "She's not a monster, she's a young woman who cares deeply about her child."

Raynak agreed to sit down with me for an interview to answer questions about the case of missing Baby Gabriel and what he called, his frustrations about news stories about his client.

"She's not the person being portrayed in the media, I think she's a young person who has a lot of positive and good qualities. I think she's just very scared," said Raynak.

Johnson's son, Gabriel, vanished in San Antonio, Texas shortly after Christmas in 2009.

Since his disappearance, Johnson has refused to say where her son is.

I asked Raynak why his client won't say where the boy is and he replied, "She has tried to help authorities and point them in the right direction, she's been very cooperative in that regard."

As we've previously reported, detectives disagree and say Johnson has not been forthcoming with information on Gabriel's whereabouts.

When asked if she's been forthcoming with Raynak, he answered, "Yes, I have no problems with Elizabeth, she's very concerned about her case and she's very involved in her case."

Raynak would not talk about any details surrounding what Johnson has said to him regarding Gabriel's whereabouts or what she says happened.

"I don't discuss what I discuss with my clients," said Raynak.

Previously there had been reports Johnson was being held in isolation and under suicide watch, but Raynak told me that's not the case, at least anymore, and Johnson is in constant contact with his office.

"She's certainly able to communicate with us and call us on a regular basis which she does," said Raynak.

While he wouldn't discuss what he and his client have talked about, he told me he thinks the boy is alive.

"She (Elizabeth) tells me Gabriel is alive and I have no reason to doubt her," said Raynak.

Raynak told me he plans to request the case against Johnson be dismissed, alleging her rights were violated when a San Antonio police officer questioned her without an attorney present.

"I think what the detective did was outrageous and I think that once we're able to show that to the judge we're hoping that he does dismiss the case," said Raynak.

Raynak is now trying to depose the detective involved and says he will ask for the dismissal following a deposition.

If it were dismissed, Johnson would be released from jail within 24 hours of the ruling, however, Raynak is planning for a trial.

"She (Elizabeth) wants to go to trial, and again, she wants the truth to come out."

At the end of my interview I asked Raynak if he believes we will see Gabriel again, he responded saying, "That's my hope and that's everyone elses hope as well."

A court hearing involving the case is scheduled for early next month and Raynak said his client will be in the courtroom.

http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_phoenix_metro/central_phoenix/elizabeth-johnson%27s-attorney-believes-missing-%22baby-gabriel%22-is-alive

By Michelle Mondo
mmondo@express-news.net
Updated 02:30 a.m., Thursday, March 3, 2011

A Friday morning hearing to decide whether Arizona attorneys defending the mother of missing baby Gabriel Johnson can obtain testimony from a San Antonio police detective will be the latest act in a legal drama that began here the day after Christmas 2009, when the boy was last seen.

The 8-month-old's disappearance in San Antonio garnered nationwide attention as “the Baby Gabriel case” and drew intense media scrutiny, especially in his Phoenix-area hometown of Tempe.

The boy's mother, Elizabeth Johnson, 24, has been in Maricopa County Jail in Phoenix since January 2010, held on more than $1 million bail on charges of kidnapping, custodial interference and child abuse in the case being investigated by the Tempe Police Department.

A homicide investigation was opened in San Antonio one month later so police could search a local landfill. But while Johnson has at times said she killed her son, his body has not been found and police here have never called her a homicide suspect.

But SAPD Detective Jesse Salame interviewed Johnson in May at the Arizona jail in connection with the SAPD homicide investigation, and her defense attorneys cried foul in October. In a motion to dismiss the Arizona charges against her, they contended Salame violated Johnson's right to an attorney and destroyed her attorney-client relationship.

The motion also alleges he went ahead with the interview against the opposition of a deputy county attorney there. Arizona authorities have not spoken publicly about the case.

The Friday hearing before state District Judge Philip Kazen is to determine if Salame must appear in Arizona to answer questions under oath by Johnson's current attorneys. The lawyers who filed the motion since have withdrawn from the case.

In a recent e-mailed statement made before the out-of-state subpoena request was filed, Police Chief William McManus called the allegations against Salame unsubstantiated. He said the detective had received one request to appear in Arizona, but it had not been served properly.

McManus said Salame was “a good detective and passionate about what he does.”

Johnson's current defense attorney, Daniel Raynak, said he will be in court Friday hoping to get one step closer to questioning the detective. Raynak said Salame's jailhouse interview with Johnson was illegal.

“There was no question she had counsel and she had invoked her right (to counsel), and both were violated,” Raynak said.

But separate investigations by two police agencies make allegations of constitutional rights violations much more complicated, said Gerald Reamey, a law professor at St. Mary's University.

“It's very much premature to say what (Salame) did there was illegal,” Reamey said of the interview, because it was in connection with a separate offense being investigated. Johnson was not under arrest in the San Antonio case, and the fact that she had invoked her right to counsel only applied to the Arizona case — whether she needed to be told her Miranda rights again is a decision for a judge, Reamey said.

Raynak said the cases are linked because the homicide case arose from the kidnapping case and they should be treated as such.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Baby-Gabriel-hearing-set-Friday-1039158.php#ixzz1FcxjtMlY

By James King, Mon., Mar. 7 2011 @ 2:42PM Comments (2)

Elizabeth Johnson apparently is an Everlast fan. She's also a little nuts.
​The goal of Elizabeth Johnson, mother of missing baby Gabriel Johnson, apparently is to make the boy's father, Logan McQueary, as miserable as possible -- a plan that now includes sending him "poetry" that quotes lyrics from a musician nobody's cared about since 1998.

In a bizarre "poem" Johnson sent to her baby-daddy, McQueary, she quotes musician Everlast's 1998 hit "What it's Like," as well as more ramblings from a woman who once told her baby's father she had thrown the boy's "little blue body" into a dumpster in San Antonio, Texas.

The illustrated "poem" Johnson calls "The Universal Mother," first uncovered by KPHO, shows a drawing of a pregnant woman surrounded by bizarre quotes like the lyrics from the Everlast song.

"Maybe one day you might know what it's like to walk the blues. They call her a sinner, they call her a killer, and they call her a whore. Maybe one day you really will know what it's like to be alone," she writes, kind of quoting the depressing 1998 hit (see the actual lyrics here).

She goes on to write "but whenever did the self-righteous know the sentiment of pity," a quote to which she credits to Mark Twain (it should be noted, we couldn't find that quote attributed to Twain, or anyone else, for that matter).

Johnson concludes her "poem" with the word "hypocrites."

Johnson's been charged with kidnapping in the disappearance of her then-1-year-old son, Gabriel, who was last seen when Johnson claims to have given the baby to an unidentified couple she met at a park in San Antonio in December 2009. That was only after she told the baby's father that she'd killed the boy and put him in a dumpster.

Johnson's trial is scheduled to begin May 9. See the image of the "poem" at the KPHO Web site.

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2011/03/baby_gabriel_mom_elizabeth_joh.php

By James King, Tue., Mar. 8 2011 @ 4:25PM

​Elizabeth Johnson, the kinda-hot/borderline-nuts-o mother of missing baby Gabriel Johnson, was supposed to be in court this morning to attend a hearing regarding the kidnapping charges she faces stemming from her son's disappearance in December of 2009.

Johnson, apparently, didn't feel like it.

For at least the second time in less than a year, Johnson's flat-out refused to show up for court.

Last March, Johnson, who's charged with abuse and kidnapping in the December 2009 disappearance of the baby, refused to attend a hearing for motions, including the designation of counsel, which cannot be ruled on without the defendant in court.

Court spokeswoman Karen Arra told New Times at the time that Johnson opted to stay in jail rather than attend the hearing. The next week, however, Johnson didn't have that option.

Judge Timothy Ryan rescheduled the hearing, and gave the Maricopa County sheriff's deputies responsible for transporting Johnson carte blanche when it came to making sure her butt was in the courtroom -- and it was.

According to Arra, Judge Ryan told deputies to use "any means necessary" to get Johnson to court -- and that's apparently the case yet again.

Johnson has a court date scheduled for next month -- and she's going to be there...whether she likes it or not.

The judge now hearing the case, Judge Paul McMurdie, has now ordered that if Johnson refuses to go to court, sheriff's deputies have the green light to physically remove her from her cell in Joe Arpaio's gulag and bring her to court.

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2011/03/elizabeth_johnson_baby_gabriel.php

Good Lord. She needs a visit to the torture chambers. Where is her little baby? What did she do to him?