Thursday, October 11, 2012

Gerhart Becker Dept 30 V, and Brief Notes on Lois Goodman

October 10th, 2012
On Wednesday, there was a pretrial hearing in the Gerhard Becker case in Dept. 30 that I was unable to attend.  It's been quite busy with Mr. Sprocket's business and I've had to help out.

One of Mr. Sprocket's specialties is engineering, maintaining and repairing refrigeration systems on commercial fishing boats. He was down at the San Pedro Harbor since last Friday, working almost 24/7 on a couple of "squid" boats.  These boats have 55 ton holds that need to keep their catch at a certain temperature.  To keep the work going (and get the boats back on the water as soon as possible) I helped out by picking up parts and delivering them to the harbor.

At the last court date in September, the preliminary hearing was supposed to start on October 10th with an assigned courtroom.  I heard through the grapevine that the prelim would be delayed again for another 30 days  Many thanks to Elizabeth Martinez of the court's Public Information Office who obtained the next court date for me.  Next pretrial hearing (and potential preliminary hearing) is November 13th, at 8:30 AM in Dept. 30. It's expected a courtroom will be assigned on that date.

Lois Goodman
Because I've been helping Mr. Sprocket, I have not had the time to write up my extensive notes on the Goodman October 3rd hearing in Dept 122 at the Van Nuys Courthouse. As you may have heard on the news, Goodman's attorney, Alison Triessl told the press that her client passed a lie detector test.  I believe she has also said she passed the information onto the district attorney's office.

While I was waiting on boat parts, one of the supply houses had a TV on in their lobby.  Alison Triessl, Goodman's daughter Allison Rogers, and a man whose name I missed hearing, were in studio on Anderson Cooper's show, Anderson Live on Tuesday, talking about how Goodman passed a lie detector test given by a former FBI agent.  I believe Triessl also stated the test was re verified by another former FBI agent.  Triessl told Cooper that her client was asked by police to take a lie detector test but Goodman was advised by different counsel at the time not to take it.

Goodman is out on a $500,000.00 bond, confined to her home with ankle monitoring and limited travel.  I'm wondering if Goodman's travel restrictions were more lenient, would she have been in studio with her counsel.

When I do find the time to write up my notes on this hearing (probably over the weekend) I will share my thoughts on why I prefer the accuracy of truth wizards over lie detector machines.

The next pretrial hearing is scheduled for November 8th, where a pretrial hearing date may be set.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

One must always remember, the reason 'lie detector' results are not admissible in court is that they are less 'lie detectors' as they are 'belief detectors.' If a person believes Martians are beamed gamma rays into their heads, then they will pass a lie detector test. And before I would believe she passed a test that 'proves her innocence' as her attorney has said to the media, I'd want to see what questions she was asked.

Maddie said...

Thank you, again, for your excellent reporting! I must say -- I think that both you and Mr. Sprocket would make for fascinating dinner companions.

Anonymous said...

If 'lie detector' results are not admissible in court then why do the police administer them?

Sprocket said...

I'm not positive, but I believe because the tests are not 100% accurate, 100% of the time is why they are not allowed as evidence in a court of law.

From my perspective, police use them to eliminate or focus an investigation. Contrary to the much publicized line "everyone reacts differently," I don't necessarily believe that to be true. There is behavior that people exhibit, that can be observed through the stress test of a lie detector test, that can give you clues as to where to direct your case.

In addition to that, there is scientific evidence regarding micro expressions, word choice selection as well as observed body language that can be strong spotlights on deception, lies.

Check out the "Eyes For Lies" blog and discover how you can learn to spot deception from others in your own life.

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