~Lauren Key~
UPDATED: for accuracy; Brown arrested Nov. 16th
I just received notice that opening statements in Cameron Brown's retrial for the alleged murder of his daughter, Lauren Key are set to begin Monday, July 27th, 2009 in Judge Pastor's courtroom, 107.
Cameron Brown, a former baggage handler at LAX who liked to surf and hike, took his four-year-old daughter up to Inspiration Point in Rancho Palos Verdes on November 8th, 2000. Somehow, Lauren ends up at the bottom of this 120-foot cliff.
BRIEF TIMELINE:
November 16th, 2003: Brown is arrested.
August 14th, 2004: Grand Jury returns an indictment for murder charges and special circumstances of lying in wait.
June 15th, 2006: First trial begins.
August 15th, 2006: Jury hangs, mistrial declared. Every single juror agrees with guilt but cannot agree on the charge. 2 jurors for first degree murder; 8 jurors for second degree murder; 2 jurors for manslaughter.
July 27th, 2009: Opening statements in retrial are slated to begin.
During the first trial, Brown was represented by high profile attorney, Mark Geragos. For the retrial, his associate Pat Harris, will take the lead. After the mistrial, the defense was granted a change in venue. The case was moved from the Torrance courthouse to Judge Pastor's courtroom 107, right across the hall from Judge Fidler on the 9th floor of the Criminal Justice Center. Craig Hum is the prosecutor for both trials.
I don't know if I will be able to follow all of this case due to responsibilities at home, but I hope to drop in from time to time. It's my understanding that Dale Falicon, criminalist from the LA County Sheriff's Crime Lab will be one of the prosecution witnesses. I got to meet Dale on my tour of the Crime Lab in April, who along with Bob Keil showed us the Firearms Department. (They were both great!) I believe that Stephan "Steve" Schliebe, (a senior criminalist I also met at the crime lab) is on the witness list.
My attendance will depend on a couple of new developments at home. Sprocket kitty has been diagnosed with hyperthyroid syndrome and will need to see the radiation specialist vet in West Los Angeles on Wednesday. And, we are still trying to get the White Whale Work Truck sea worthy. It's been one delay after another. That's a whale of a story, future entry for the sewing blog.
Correction: Dale Falicon is a deputy specialist, meaning he is "sworn" personnel who, before working in the crime lab worked in various other departments in uniform with firearm. If I'm remembering correctly from his testimony, Dale has been in law enforcement and/or criminal investigations for over 20 years.
Bob Kyle is actually Bob Keil, a senior criminalist, civilian and scientist.
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9 comments:
Crimes against kids=the worst of human kind.
This one will be hard to sit through. Cameron Brown killed her to avoid making child support payments?
Great guy. He will do well in prison.
Such a pretty little girl. It truly is hard to understand how a parent could do this to their own child.
Jurors couldn't decide on a charge.
Unbelieveable.
Dear Sprocket, I just wanted to comment about your kitty news - radiation therapy is only one of the ways to treat hyperthyroidism in cats. My kitty was diagnosed with it 7 years ago and my vet suggested three options: surgery, radiation or a once a day pill. I chose pills even though I knew my kitty would not allow me to give them to her by hand. Instead I crush them up in her food, first I trained her to ignore the pill taste by putting it in tuna-juice (her fave), then slowly mixed the tuna juice with her regular food until I could omit the tuna juice altogether. Took about 2 weeks. She
has been stable ever since. She's lost weight over the years (she had gotten very fat due to the
hyperthyroidism before she was diagnosed) but she's fine and amazingly healthy for an old cat. (She just turned 19)
Just wanted to suggest this to you, once cat lover to another.
Medication for feline hyperthyroid is a lifetime treatment.
There have been significant advances in radiation therapy for this illness in recent years. Radiation therapy has a greater than 95% success rate. Check out
http://www.avmi.net/
to understand that although there are other options (surgery, medication) this option is the one with the best success rate with no further intervention. That's right, after the radiation, the thyroid goes back to performing normally and no medication is needed.
We won't know until they do an imaging scan of his thyroid, how long he will have to stay in the hospital. However, they do have web-cams in the kitty's "rooms" so I'll be able to see him if I can't go visit him.
That poor cat has more than its share......my Lucifer is 13 1/2 and beyond feline HIV and arthritic front paws, he has never had issues (that could be treated). And he hates Vet visits anyway.
Betsy I wanted to tell you (and your readers) that the new Cialis commercials use P Spector's "Be My Baby", I wrote them to say they are PAYING the convicted murderer's future legal appeals by doing so(as the wife stated, they are otherwise "tapped out"). Very poor PR on their part, and lets hope they change "their tune" (or cut out these incessant erectile-disfunction ads altogether, we would not miss them!). Will let you know the response, if any.
Wes J.
Jesdamala...
Agree with the above poster, but unfortunately, Spector, the convict, left a legacy and a volume of music that would seem to be appropriate for many commercials today. Even TV shows, as such as Cold Case, which I do not know if ever used his music, so many, many of today's shows, use music of the times to set the stage so to speak.
Back on track, ???????? What has taken this so long?????? Meaning the case if a child "maybe" pushed off a cliff? I cannot testify to guilt/innocence, but almost a decade?
I have spend the last 20 years, since the minute my first child was born, keeping them alive, watching their steps, can remember going to a hike with a huge cliff below and freaking out, and keeping them back, faithfully doing all I could do to keep them safe, in all regards even through their teen years, and now into their college years. I am totally
sickened by the thought a father would sacrifice their child for any reason. I am not familiar with the case, other than the headlines, which I remember, but hope somehow, somewhere, there is
an answer for what happened to this beautifil child.
Would love to hear from legal people who can say just why this jury was not able to figure this out.
From my understanding, the jurors in the first Brown trial had several options, and that can make coming to a decision more difficult. The options were:
First Degree
Second Degree
Manslaughter (unknown degree)
to choose from. Every juror agreed Brown was guilty, they just could not agree on the specific charge.
2 jurors voted first degree murder
8 jurors voted second degree murder
2 jurors voted for of manslaughter.
It's a sad situation that it's taken three years to bring this case to retrial. Understand that I don't know how much of this trial I can attend. I may only be able to attend opening statements.
I saw Dale Falicon in an episode of A&E's Cold Case Files. It concerned the 1957 murder of 2 El Segundo police officers. The suspect was found through the AFIS fingerprint database in 2002, 45 years after the crime.
David From TN
Sprocket, I didn't see your post here before writing you on the sewing blog saying I hoped that you were going to cover something else! All the best on this, and your projects at home. And hope that Sprockie the cat is soon fine. Christine
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