11 dead/ALL ID'd at Anthony Sowell's Ohio home (CONVICTED)

[cw618]

Yes, lets not forget Gina Dejesus, Amanda Berry & Ashley Summers

Gina Dejesus, is my nephews wife's cuz

Amanda Berry, is my niece friend
i meet Gina, typical teenager good kid, i never met Amanda

thank you for not forgetting

[cw618]

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/12/final_victim_found_on_imperial.html

Final victim found at Anthony Sowell's home laid to rest
By Joe Guillen, The Plain Dealer
December 11, 2009, 11:34AM

 Ohio -- Diane Turner, the 11th and final Imperial Avenue victim identified, was remembered today at her
funeral in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood.

She didn't bother nobody," said friend and co-worker Cortez Freeman, 54, who said Turner helped him repair homes.
 "She was a good person."

Turner would have turned 39 last month. She was last seen in September.

The Rev. Rodney Maiden, of Providence Baptist Church, said Turner and the other victims should not be blamed for
their deaths.
Let's not run their life through the mud," he said. "They did not deserve this."

Many of the women found at suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell's home on Imperial Avenue battled drug addiction
 at various points in their lives. Court records show Sowell often tried to lure women into his home by offering
them drugs or alcohol.
Sowell remains in jail, awaiting trial on 11 counts of aggravated murder, rape charges and related charges.
He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Turner is survived by her parents, four children and two brothers

[cw618]

some updates for sowell case
his new judge, doesnt put up with legal eagle bs

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/12/anthony_sowells_house_is_guard.html

Anthony Sowell's house is guarded 24 hours a day; fence going up soon
By Donna J. Miller, Plain Dealer reporter
December 14, 2009, 7:21AM

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Anthony Sowell's former home on Imperial Avenue is being guarded by a Cleveland
police officer 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"We have an obligation to protect that crime scene until the court case is finished," Safety Director
 Martin Flask said this morning.

"The house in such a high-profile case could attract voyeurs, trespassers, looters and arsonists."

A fence will soon be erected around the house "to supplement the officer being there," Flask said.

Cuyahoga County sheriff's deputies will also pitch in to cover some of the shifts, so the Cleveland
patrol officer will be available for regular duties.

Flask said, based on information he received from Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court officials,
hearings will begin in three or four months.

more links
http://www.cleveland.com/schultz/index.ssf/2009/12/three_women_who_can_ask_the_ri.html

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/12/panel_can_define_success_for_c.html

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/12/increased_numbers_of_women_see.html

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/12/cuyahoga_county_cant_afford_tr.html

this judges rep is well known, for not putting up with, legal eagle bs, if its in her power by the law
you will do the max, even the first offender of misdemeanors
Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold to take over Anthony Sowell case
By Plain Dealer staff
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/12/judge_shirley_strickland_saffo.html
December 11, 2009, 1:51PM

one other thing, ive heard that some folks can scoop the trial day to day
im thinking that would impede, the proceeding's, a big no no
why mess up, and have the trial held up, because you want $,fame whatever
its just hearsay but...  when face is lost its lost, im hoping it goes,
a.evidence
b.juror sees it for what it is
c.they come to a unam guilty vote
d. not a fN circus

[Lovinlife]

FBI still probing Cleveland suspect’s Okinawa activities

By Travis J. Tritten, Stars and Stripes

Pacific edition, Thursday, December 17, 2009
The FBI said Tuesday that it is too early to know whether any cold cases at U.S. military facilities on Okinawa are linked to alleged serial killer and former Marine Anthony Sowell.

The 50-year-old convicted sex offender is charged with 11 counts of murder and a string of other charges in an 85-count indictment that includes rape, assault and abuse of a corpse after police in Ohio found the decomposing bodies of 11 women at his Cleveland home in October.

The FBI is searching for any unsolved crimes that might be connected to Sowell’s Marine Corps service over two decades ago, including a stint on Okinawa, said Special Agent Scott Wilson, spokesman for the FBI Cleveland office.

“We are looking at that time when he was overseas,” Wilson said. “We want to make sure there aren’t any violent crimes linked to him.”

But so far, the FBI has just started the investigation as part of a broader look into Sowell’s past and has not yet sifted through any potentially connected cases in Japan, he said.

Sowell, who served in the Marine Corps from 1978 to 1985, was stationed at Camp Butler for a year starting in January 1984. After the one-year tour he transferred to Camp Pendleton, Calif., where he was discharged, UPI reported.

Investigation of his service on Okinawa will first require coordination between the FBI overseas, the U.S. military and the Japanese government, Wilson said.

The Marine Corps on Okinawa said it could not comment Tuesday because the issue includes areas outside its command and directed questions to its headquarters in Washington.

Meanwhile, Wilson said the FBI is relying on a national database of unsolved crimes to find possible links to Sowell in the areas he lived within the United States.

While in the Marine Corps, he was also stationed at Parris Island, S.C.; Camp Lejeune, N.C.; and Cherry Point, N.C., UPI reported.

Sowell, who has pleaded not guilty for reasons of insanity to the current charges, was convicted of attempted rape in Ohio in 1989 and sent to prison for 15 years, the wire service said.

Just before Halloween, Cleveland police searched his home and found the bodies of the women, who authorities believe were lured into the home and killed.

The residence became a grim dig site in November as police uncovered evidence in the case.

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66702

============================================
I'm not sure how this article can be written tomorrow ???????? but oh well.

[cw618]

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/attorneys_for_murder_suspect_a.html

Attorneys for murder suspect Anthony Sowell withdraw insanity plea
By Pat Galbincea
January 06, 2010, 9:05PM


CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Attorneys for Anthony Sowell, who is accused of murdering 11 women at or
near his Imperial Avenue home in Cleveland, withdrew his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity Wednesday.

John Parker, one of Sowell's two attorneys, said the plea was changed to not guilty after
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold asked in a pretrial hearing if
 the defendant could be sent to a clinic for psychiatric evaluation.

"That wasn't appropriate at this time," Parker said, "because we don't have all the information
 needed for anyone to do a proper evaluation. We still don't have any of our client's background records
 -- military, medical or prison."

Once 'that information is obtained, Parker said, "we could change that plea back to not guilty
 by reason of insanity if we have good cause to do so."

Parker said the original plea was prematurely entered by a court-appointed attorney on Dec. 3 when
Sowell was charged with the rape of two women who were not homicide victims.

Pinkey Carr, an assistant county prosecutor, said the defense also waived a speedy trial until
July 31. The trial remains scheduled for June 2, and the next pretrial hearing is Jan. 27.

Sowell, 50, has been indicted on 85 charges including murder, rape, assault and corpse abuse
over a period of years. The remains of 11 bodies were found in his home and on his Imperial Avenue
 property starting in late October.

[cw618]

a link to sowell court info
http://cpdocket.cp.cuyahogacounty.us/p_CR_Docket.aspx

[Nut44x4]

Thanks CW 

[cw618]

Sowell Expose, an interesting read

His story begins with a quiet, wiry boy in a fatherless household of nine children.
It was a childhood marked by violence, two of the now-grown children said.
Those two women say Sowell witnessed an adult tie and beat them with a cord -
 the same weapon the killer used to bind and strangle at least seven of his victims.
main link to the other links, in case they dont work, and all the latest sowell news
and updates, will be at the main link too

http://www.cleveland.com/anthony-sowell/
----------------------------------------------
Metro - cleveland.com
Breaking local news for Cleveland and Northeast OhioAnthony Sowell, Real Time News »
 
Anthony Sowell: Who is the man accused of the Imperial Avenue murders?
By Tony Brown, The Plain Dealer
January 24, 2010, 5:00AM

this link has more links, to the story
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/anthony_sowell_who_is_the_man.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The road to Imperial Avenue: Introduction
By Tony Brown, The Plain Dealer
January 24, 2010, 5:00AM

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/sowell_intro.html

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The road to Imperial Avenue: Part I
By Tony Brown, The Plain Dealer
January 24, 2010, 4:59AM

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/post_192.html

-------------------------------------------------------------------
The road to Imperial Avenue: Part II
By Tony Brown, The Plain Dealer
January 24, 2010, 4:58AM

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/sowell_part_ii.html

-----------------------------------------------------------------
The road to Imperial Avenue: Part III
By Tony Brown, The Plain Dealer
January 24, 2010, 4:57AM

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/sowell_part_iii.html

----------------------------------------------------------------
The road to Imperial Avenue: Part IV
By Tony Brown, The Plain Dealer
January 24, 2010, 4:56AM

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/sowell_part_iv.html

-----------------------------------------------------------------
The road to Imperial Avenue: Part V
By Tony Brown, The Plain Dealer
January 24, 2010, 4:55AM

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/sowell_part_v.html

---------------------------------------------------------------------
The road to Imperial Avenue: Part VI
By Tony Brown, The Plain Dealer
January 24, 2010, 4:54AM

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/sowell_part_vi.html

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Contributors to The Plain Dealer's Anthony Sowell package
By Mike Tobin, The Plain Dealer
January 24, 2010, 4:50AM

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/contributors_to_sowell_package.html

------------------------------------------------------------------
Letters from accused killer Anthony Sowell for sale online; authorities say it's legal
By Mark Puente, The Plain Dealer
January 22, 2010, 2:04AM

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/anthony_sowell_letters_for_sal.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[cw618]

Those two women say Sowell witnessed an adult tie and beat them with a cord -
 the same weapon the killer used to bind and strangle at least seven of his victims

so a learned behaviour is how you become a serial killer

[Nut44x4]

I disagree. Millions of people have witnessed horrible acts against others and have not gone on to 'become' a serial killer.

[cw618]

I disagree with that implication, from the story too, i think
serial killers are born not created, they have looked in to their
histories, and i think most lived a semi normal life
their like S.O. something is broke in the gray matter area

[cw618]

Judge denies request by Anthony Sowell's lawyer to move trial, throw out death penalty option

June 2 trial date.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/anthony_sowell_asks_a_judge_to.html

video
http://videos.cleveland.com/plain-dealer/2010/01/anthony_sowell_pre-trial_heari.html

<table style="border:0px; padding:0px;"><tr><td><font style="font-size:13px; font-family:Verdana; font-weight:bold; font-color:#293546">Anthony Sowell pre-trial hearing</font></td></tr><tr><td><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tribeca.vidavee.com/advance/trh/embedAsset.js?width=470.0&height=265.0&wmode=transparent&skin=v3AdvInt_cleveland.swf&dockey=4355BF30EB90C2747E2BF3787634AF83&"></script></td></tr></table>

[cw618]

sorry about last code, if this dosent work someone here is going to have to give
me instructions on how to embed a video here, seems this is the only site i have probs with

Anthony Sowell pre-trial hearing

[Nut44x4]

Murder suspect Anthony Sowell tells East Cleveland police he knew missing woman (Mary Cox)

February 18, 2010, 3:58AM
EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Detectives talked to serial-killing suspect Anthony Sowell in jail for only a few minutes Friday.

But they got what they wanted -- confirmation that Sowell knew a woman who has been missing from the city since 1989.

Sowell denied knowing anything about the disappearance of Mary Cox, who was a bartender at the old McCall's Lounge on Euclid Avenue less than a half-mile from where he lived at the time. He lived in East Cleveland from 1985 to 1990.
Police began reinvestigating several cold cases -- three killings and Cox's disappearance -- after Cleveland police discovered the bodies of 11 women at Sowell's Imperial Avenue home late last year.

Investigators in California and North Carolina, where Sowell was stationed while in the Marines in the 1980s, also looked at unsolved killings.

Detectives showed Sowell pictures of four women -- who were killed or vanished when he lived in the city.

Three of the women were killed in the city in 1988 or 1989. The fourth was Cox.

Sowell said he knew Cox from her work in the Lounge, Chief Ralph Spotts said.

"He said he didn't know anything about her disappearance," Spotts said.

Sowell also offered that he didn't have anything to do with any other crimes committed in the suburb, Spotts said.

Now East Cleveland detectives are looking for people who frequented McCall's in 1989 or who knew Cox.

They are also trying to track down the former owners of the Lounge. McCall's is now known as McCall's Motor Inn.

Sowell is facing charges that he killed 11 women whose bodies were found more than four months ago at his home on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland. He is also charged with assaulting or raping several other women.
Sowell told detectives he did not know the other women, Carmella Prater, Mary Thomas or Rosalind Garner.

Garner, 36 was found strangled in her home on Hayden Avenue in May 1988. The bodies of Prater and Thomas were found in early 1989 a month apart. Cox was reported missing at the end of May.

Sowell was arrested in July 1989 after a pregnant woman accused him of luring her from McCall's Lounge and raping her on the third floor of his home on Page Avenue in East Cleveland.

Sowell later pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted rape in that case and served 15 years in prison before being released in 2005.

Prater, 27, who had also lived on Page Avenue, and Thomas, also 27, were both found nearly naked on the same street, one with numerous abandoned buildings.

Prater was beaten. Thomas had been strangled with a red ribbon.

At least one other woman Sowell is charged with killing, Tonia Carmichael, also had lived on Page Avenue.

Carmichael's family has said she was a friend of Prater's before she was killed more than 20 years ago.

Spotts said the city has been speaking with retired detectives who worked the original homicide cases to fill in any gaps. Sowell was not linked to those cases at the time. But there was not much of a record of Cox's disappearance to work with.

Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller III said that his office has preserved evidence from the cold cases and is doing lab work to see if DNA profiles can be obtained for comparison to Sowell.

Sowell's attorneys said they are livid that East Cleveland detectives were allowed to visit their client without their permission or presence.

Rufus Sims said that he will file a motion today with Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold and has asked the jail warden to bar any law enforcement from having contact with Sowell without his lawyers present.

Spotts said his detectives did not interrogate Sowell and since they were not inquiring about any of the cases he is charged in currently, it was up to Sowell to decide if he wanted his lawyers there.

But Sims said what the detectives did was unethical.

He said Sowell is vulnerable because he has little human contact.

"The only reason that they wanted to speak to Anthony Sowell is to try and charge him with additional crimes," Sims said. "They didn't want to speak to him about the weather or if he thought the Browns might make it to the Super Bowl."

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/02/sowell_tells_east_cleveland_po.html

[Nut44x4]

Man charged in 11 deaths indicted on new charges, prosecutor says
February 25, 2010 3:33 p.m. EST

An Ohio man already charged with murder in the deaths of 11 women has been indicted on new charges of kidnapping, attempted murder and felonious assault, a prosecutor announced Thursday.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said that a grand jury indicted Anthony Sowell on those charges in connection with the alleged assault of a 42-year-old woman.

No further details were released.

Sowell was already facing 85 charges -- including murder, rape and kidnapping -- following the discovery of 11 sets of human remains at his Cleveland, Ohio, home in October and November.

He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in December. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Sowell is a registered sex offender who served 15 years in prison before being released in 2005.

Mason told CNN that the new charges are separate from those brought last year. "It's a whole new case," he said, adding that he expects these charges to be tried separately from the 85.

The new charges are related to an incident that allegedly occurred on April 21, 2009, Mason said.

Sowell and a woman, now 43, were "drinking and partying in the afternoon," the prosecutor said. "Later he attacked her, choked her, beat her a little bit."

"She was able to escape through some creative thinking," he said, explaining that the woman, whom he would not identify, pretended she was on the phone with a daughter. Sowell then allowed her to leave, Mason said.

Sowell's defense attorneys did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

The woman came to authorities as the bodies in Sowell's house were being discovered and authorities later corroborated her statement, Mason said.

The prosecutor also said that his cold case unit is reviewing unsolved murders that occurred during the time Sowell lived in Cleveland and East Cleveland. Mason said the group is about two-thirds of the way through 75 cases.

He said evidence is not scheduled to be presented until June for the case involving the 85 charges.

In addition to the charges related to the deaths of the 11 women whose remains were found at his home, Sowell is also charged with assaulting three other women and raping two of them, authorities said. Most of the women whose remains were found were strangled by ligature -- which could include a string, cord or wire -- and at least one was strangled by hand, officials said. Seven still had ligatures wrapped around their necks. A skull is all that remains of one victim. It was found wrapped in a paper bag and stuffed into a bucket in the home's basement.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/25/cleveland.bodies/?hpt=Sbin

[Nut44x4]

I feel so bad for this woman's family 

Family of missing woman who knew Anthony Sowell pleads for tips in case

March 03, 2010, 12:10PM



Robert Cox and his family have weathered more than 20 years of "waiting, wondering, hoping and praying" since his sister Mary left their East Cleveland home to walk to the store.

The 28-year-old mother never returned.

"We knew that was unusual for her," Cox said today. "She never would have stayed away from her son for a 24-hour period."

The disappearance of Mary Cox, a bartender at a popular  McCall's lounge on Euclid, got little attention beyond a routine police report when her family went to police in 1989.

Now police are looking into whether the case could be linked to suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell, who lived nearby and frequented the bar where Cox worked.

Two months after Cox was last seen, Anthony Sowell was arrested after a woman accused him of luring her from the lounge where Cox worked to his nearby home. The woman, who was pregnant, said he beat and raped her but she escaped.

At the time, no connection was made.

Sowell later pleaded to attempted rape in that case. A second woman accused him of rape before that conviction but the case was never prosecuted.

But now, East Cleveland police -- who interviewed the suspected serial killer and rapist last month -- have comfirmation for Sowell that he knew Cox.

And her family strongly believes there is a connection.

"It just seems too coincidental," Robert Cox said. "I don't want to accuse Anthony ... I just hope he can find it in his heart to tell us. It would sure help my family and a lot of others who loved her."

East Cleveland police had also been looking into the deaths of three other women in the city during the same time frame.

While they haven't ruled out Sowell, Chief Ralph Spotts said police have new information and evidence in those cases that could lead to other possible suspects.

Sowell is charged in the murders of 11 women found decomposing at his Imperial Avenue home last year. He is also charged with attacking or raping several other women who later escaped from his home.

Spotts admitted that the department dropped the ball 20 years ago in the Cox case.

"Had that connection been made back then we would have investigated differently," he said.

Spotts and the Cox family asked the public, once again, to come forward if they knew Cox at the time or frequented the lounge on Euclid Avenue located in McCall's motel.

"We're sure that someone can recognize her picture from being in that bar," Spotts said. "And we can try to connect a few dots together."
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/03/family_of_missing_woman_who_kn.html

[Lovinlife]

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/02/investigators_looking_for_link.html

Investigators looking for links to Anthony Sowell in 61 unsolved killings
By Mark Puente, The Plain Dealer
February 26, 2010, 6:30AM

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The unsolved killings of 61 women in Cleveland and East Cleveland are being examined to see if there is a link to accused serial killer Anthony Sowell, prosecutors said Thursday.

The Cuyahoga County prosecutor's cold case unit has identified 61 killings on the East Side between 1979 and 2007 where women were sexually assaulted, Assistant Prosecutor Rick Bell said. Sowell is a registered sex offender.

Thirty of the 61 killings occurred within a 2½-mile radius of Sowell's former home on Page Avenue in East Cleveland or his later home on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland. Police found the bodies of 11 women at that home last year, and authorities have been working since then to make sure they have found all of Sowell's victims.

Sowell has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Investigators will try to match DNA evidence found on the 61 victims to Sowell or other suspects, Bell said.

"Were not saying Sowell committed them," Bell said. "We're reviewing evidence to see if there is DNA evidence to find a perpetrator."

Fourteen other unsolved killings occurred while Sowell was in prison for attempted rape between 1990 and 2005, Bell said. Investigators are searching for DNA samples to test in those cases, too.

Days after police discovered the bodies on Imperial Avenue, East Cleveland detectives began re-investigating three killings that took place near Page Avenue between 1988 and 1989, when Sowell lived there.

Prosecutors also indicted Sowell Wednesday for attempted murder and kidnapping for an April 2009 attack at his Imperial Avenue home. The 43-year-old victim reported the attack seven months later, after Cleveland police started unearthing the bodies on Sowell's property.

(snipped)

[Lovinlife]

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/03/judge_timothy_mcginty_admits_s.html

Judge Timothy McGinty admits sharing Sowell report; defense unsure of next move
By Mark Puente, The Plain Dealer
March 17, 2010, 6:11PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio --
A Plain Dealer reporter avoided a contempt-of-court jail stay Wednesday after Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Timothy J. McGinty stepped forward to disclose that he was the source who provided the reporter with a psychiatric evaluation of accused serial killer Anthony Sowell.

After McGinty came forward, Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold ended her quest to compel reporter Gabriel Baird to reveal his source. Saffold had sent deputies to the newspaper on Tuesday to arrest Baird after he did not show up for a hastily scheduled hearing.

McGinty declined to comment Wednesday afternoon.

Baird reported in a Nov. 6 story that Sowell's psychiatric evaluation concluded that he was unlikely to assault women after he served 15 years in prison for attempted rape. The evaluation - done after Sowell's release to determine whether Sowell should be classified a sexual predator -- contained information about Sowell's childhood and his years in prison. The evaluation has nothing to do with the current charges against Sowell


Saffold initially said Wednesday that McGinty, who preceded her as the judge in the Sowell case, might have been within his rights to release the report to the paper. McGinty provided the report for a reason other than to disclose Sowell's psychiatric medical background, Saffold said. She did not elaborate.

Sowell's attorneys, John Parker and Rufus Sims, asked to question McGinty, but the judge was away from the Justice Center attending a funeral.

Parker argued that McGinty's revealing of the documents impugned the integrity of every judge and will make it more difficult to find an impartial jury for Sowell's trial. He is accused of killing 11 women whose bodies were found at his house and in his yard last fall.

Parker requested that Saffold conduct a full investigation.

"We think it affects our client's right to a fair trial," Parker said. "We need to find out exactly from Judge McGinty what happened."

Sowell's lawyers also wanted to know if Baird had more than one source for the information. Newspaper lawyer Lou Colombo told Saffold that there was just one source and that Baird viewed the documents and didn't copy them.

Saffold said that she had needed to determine who revealed the information to make sure it wasn't a member of her staff. Baird did not plan to reveal his source to Saffold, and the newspaper maintains that the information is protected from disclosure under Ohio's Shield Law, which says reporters do not have to reveal sources.

Saffold said Wednesday she considers the matter closed.

Assistant County Prosecutor Richard Bombik said defense attorneys could file a complaint with the bar association to investigate whether McGinty broke any rules by releasing the documents.

Sims said later Wednesday in an interview that members of the defense team are not sure what they will do next. Going to the bar association, he said, might get vengeance against McGinty but won't help his client get a fair trial.

Sowell's lawyers questioned how McGinty even got the report. The judge shared the report with the newspaper before he was assigned the case.

McGinty was initially assigned the Sowell case on Dec. 3. McGinty recused himself eight days later, saying his own "public policy reform efforts" might lead to a conflict in hearing the high-profile trial.

McGinty declined at the time to elaborate on the conflict, but Plain Dealer Editor Susan Goldberg said the judge had sent e-mails to the newspaper expressing his views on the case. The e-mails were sent before McGinty received the case.

Numerous Plain Dealer reporters attended the hearing to show support for Baird. Before it started, Saffold's bailiff told two Plain Dealer photographers that the judge would not grant permission for them to take pictures or video in the courtroom. But she allowed three television stations to document the hearing.

The Plain Dealer photographers did not abide by the order and Saffold later said there would be no sanctions for using the material.

Saffold criticized The Plain Dealer during the hearing for a story published Wednesday detailing some of her controversial moments on the bench.

"It was a smut-and-smear story directed at this court," Saffold said. "Probably and obviously, it was intended to intimidate this court so that the court cannot proceed in a judicial manner."

She said that many of the episodes mentioned in the story were written by reporter James Ewinger and that he nearly attacked her during an endorsement meeting in 2000 with editorial writers and reporters.

Ewinger attended the hearing as a spectator.

"I was almost physically attacked by Mr. Ewinger, and Brent Larkin had to separate us," Saffold said. "I remained seated as he advanced toward me."

Larkin, the paper's former editorial page director, scoffed at Saffold's claim.

"That is 100 percent untrue," Larkin said. "Jim was aggressive in his questions. There was nothing even remotely close to a physical altercation."

[Lovinlife]

  And to think that we elect these fools. 

Interesting comments at link
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/03/judge_timothy_mcginty_admits_s.html

Posted by unplugged
March 17, 2010, 6:29PM
PLEASE! Let's just forget about the 11 rotting bodies at his house of horrors and just focus on all this courtroom spin-drama and see if he can be set free on a technicality! PATHETIC!

[cw618]

Anthony Sowell, Crime, News, Real Time News »
Plain Dealer sparks ethical debate by unmasking anonymous Cleveland.com poster
By Henry J. Gomez, The Plain Dealer
March 26, 2010, 7:00AM

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- By unmasking an anonymous poster at its companion Web site, The Plain Dealer finds itself in an ethical quandary, stirring a debate that balances the public's need to know against the privacy concerns of online participants.
On one side are experts who believe the newspaper has violated a trust by exploring and revealing information about a critic. On the other are those, including Plain Dealer Editor Susan Goldberg, who believe that information is too important not to see the light of day.

Until this week, "lawmiss" was known only as one of thousands who, often known only by nicknames, share views on news blogs and stories reported at cleveland.com.

But after investigating a comment directed at the relative of a Plain Dealer reporter, editors learned that lawmiss had the same e-mail address as Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold. A closer look revealed that the user had offered opinions on three of Saffold's cases, including the capital murder trial of accused serial killer Anthony Sowell.

When confronted with the newspaper's findings Wednesday, the judge denied responsibility for the posts. Her daughter, Sydney Saffold, came forward later to accept responsibility for posting "quite a few, more than five" of more than 80 lawmiss comments.

Goldberg, who has written about the pros and cons of anonymous comments, said the issues raised by lawmiss' comments outweigh any breach of trust that comes from exposing the poster.

Goldberg noted that comments made were not about "trifling" matters. The posts related directly to two death-penalty cases involving Saffold as judge -- Sowell's and the 2008 murder trial of former Cleveland firefighter Terrance Hough Jr. -- as well as a recent vehicular homicide case.

"You can argue we should not have uncovered lawmiss' identity," Goldberg said in an interview, "and maybe we shouldn't have. But once we did, I don't know how you can pretend you don't know that information. How can you put that genie back in the bottle?

"What if it ever came to light that someone using the e-mail of a sitting judge made comments on a public Web site about cases she was hearing, and we did not disclose it? These are capital crimes and life-and-death issues for these defendants. I think not to disclose this would be a violation of our mission and damaging to our credibility as a news organization."

Goldberg said she learned of Saffold's connection to the cleveland.com posts Monday and, after consulting with other editors and the company's lawyers, decided to reveal the judge's ties.

The newspaper traced the identity of lawmiss after someone using that moniker left a comment about the mental state of a relative of reporter Jim Ewinger. The comment was removed for violating cleveland.com's community rules, which do not allow personal attacks.

Users are required to register with a valid e-mail address before posting at cleveland.com. Upon learning of the Ewinger issue Monday, an online editor looked up lawmiss' e-mail address, which like all others, is accessible through software used to post stories to the Web site.

Monitoring e-mail addresses is not a common practice, Goldberg said. But the information has been accessed before by online editors, who have banned people for violating the community rules or the site's user agreement. Both were written by Advance Internet, a separate entity run by The Plain Dealer's parent company.

How the newspaper obtained the information troubles Bob Steele, a journalism ethicist with the Poynter Institute and DePauw University. Steele questioned whether editors were justified in exploring lawmiss' identity as there was "no immediate, profound danger to someone" and "no clear suspicion of judicial misconduct" at the time the investigation began.

"It does raise the question of the wisdom and fairness of the newspaper using the registration system of the Web site for reporting purposes," Steele said in a telephone interview.

The newspaper's decisions could have a chilling effect on conversation at cleveland.com, said Rebecca Jeschke of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online privacy rights group.

"I would think twice before participating in a message board where I had to give my e-mail address knowing that management could access it at any time," Jeschke said. "It seems appropriate in this case, but ... it's hard not to imagine scenarios where it's abused."

John Hassell, vice president of content at Advance Internet, said company officials are taking steps to block reporters and editors from seeing e-mail addresses in the future.

"We take privacy very seriously and believe our users should feel confident that private information shared with us will not be made public," said Hassell in a statement.

Other news organizations already hide such information from their editorial staff, said Steve Yelvington, a strategist for Morris Digital Works, the online division of Morris Communications. The company runs 13 daily newspapers in Florida, Georgia, Texas and other states.

"We are careful to firewall our business records from our journalists," Yelvington said.

In The Plain Dealer's case, "there's a legitimate question about what your user community expects of you," he added. "There's potential for people to feel their trust has been violated."

Those are concerns Goldberg said she shares. In a May 2009 column that appeared in the newspaper, she encouraged "freewheeling conversation" on blogs and stories at cleveland.com. She also wrote that she was not in favor of requiring posters to use their real names because she feared that, given the culture of the Internet, doing so would stifle online conversation.

Some people agree with Goldberg's decision.

"Ordinarily, if you encourage anonymity, it should remain that way," said Lewis Katz, a Case Western Reserve University law professor. "But if a person is abusing the process, and the person's identity is available, I don't see why [the newspaper] should not identify the person."

The Saffold connection made the identity even more relevant to the public, Katz added.

"I think it is part of the people's right to know," he said, echoing Goldberg. "It raises the possibilities of improper comments by [Judge Saffold] or someone affiliated with her certainly using her e-mail address making these comments. And I think that reflects on the judge."

Though he disagrees with the newspaper's methods in discovering lawmiss' identity, Steele, the journalism ethics expert, said he also understands the reason for reporting it.

"Should The Plain Dealer be shining light on this? I say yes," Steele said. "I don't think The Plain Dealer could walk away from the puzzle with so many pieces turned face up right now."

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/03/plain_dealer_sparks_ethical_de.html

link to all sowell articles
http://www.cleveland.com/anthony-sowell/

docket links
http://cpdocket.cp.cuyahogacounty.us/p_PickSearch.aspx
http://cpdocket.cp.cuyahogacounty.us/TOS.aspx