Click to view attachmentThe Elsa Newman Case—A Brief Introduction—Part I



Did this mother’s devotion to her children and her attempt to protect them from sexual abuse actually play a role in her being sentenced to prison?

I think so…

Elsa Newman. Please remember this name. She is in prison. She is in prison, and her children are in the hands of a man whom physicians and psychiatrists have told her is a pedophile, her former husband, and the father of the children. In addition, the two boys themselves have made disclosures of virtually unspeakable abuse they endured at their father’s hands.

Well…of course you don’t believe me! Or at least I suspect you doubt. I’ve met doubt at every turn:
“How can I help a wommon who is in prison, when I believe her to be innocent?” When I posted this question to a popular question site on the web, one of the answers I got was this: “Stop thinking with your d***,” and yes…that is a precise quote, except this rather rude responder used the word instead of the asterisks. The primary problem with the answer is that I am a nearly-seventy-year-old retired seventh-grade teacher—a woman, and I lack the particular aspect of human anatomy that I was accused of thinking with.

So you see, I do deal with doubt, and deal with it in a variety of forms.

After all…Elsa was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder—plus a bunch of other stuff—was she not? The American justice system doesn’t make that kind of mistakes, does it?

Yes…it does…and frequently. I have read that as many as one in every seven people in prison is innocent. I suspect that is a bit high, but it certainly seems to me to be within the realm of possibility. If you are dubious, google the words “Innocence Project,” and read about the people who have been found innocent through DNA testing--while they were on death row.

Elsa is not on death row. She is in prison for supposed “conspiracy”. There is a serious problem with this “conspiracy” concept, however: no conspiracy ever existed.

While Elsa was out of town, attending her niece’s wedding, a family friend, Margery Landry, broke into the house of Elsa’s estranged husband, planning, she says, to look for evidence of child pornography. She is the godmother of Elsa’s children and she believed—with Elsa, as well as with a variety of medical and psychiatric professionals (and me, many years later)—that the boys were being sexually abused by their father. Landry carried with her a gun, “just in case.”

When Landry reached the master bedroom she found Elsa’s ex-husband in bed, naked from the waist down, and beside him was one of Elsa’s children, a five-year-old boy, completely naked. Beside the bed was a pair of little shoes and socks. At that point, Landry completely lost control. She moved to the bed and tried to pull the two of them apart. She struggled with the father, and as they struggled, the gun went off twice, striking him in the leg.

After some further struggle, Landry fled. The father was finally able to reach a phone and call 9-1-1. In that call, he apparently stated that his wife had sent someone to kill him. Thus the call itself was to become a major part of the prosecution case against Elsa. There was one serious problem with the nature of that call, however: if, indeed, Elsa had sent someone to kill the man (which she clearly had not)—there was no earthly way he could have known that.

Landry was arrested the following morning, outside her home.

Shortly thereafter, Elsa Newman was also arrested and charged with—among other things—conspiracy and attempted murder.

Landry pled guilty.

I'll continue tomorrow, if that is acceptable. Meanwhile, if anyone wants to write to me, feel free. My real email address that I use is.

Have a good one, everybody. And thanks to anyone who reads this.

Aine O'Brocken--writing for Elsa Newman

Edited to remove email address.

That's a tough one. Do you have any transcripts of court testimony?
I'm not doubting you, I know full well what a joke the criminal justice system in this country is. The single most corrupt enterprise we have.

There was a similar case in Oklahoma under a judge named Barbra Swinton.

But, I need to know why Margery Landry "broke into" the house with a gun.
All she had to do is file a complaint with the FBI and they would have investigated.
If she was looking for evidence of pedo why didn't she have a camera? Why didn't she run out and report what she saw instead of endangering herself and the child?

There's a lot of questions that need to be answered here.

Thanx for bringing it to our attention.

Let me make a list of answers--probably the only way I can keep this short.

1. I have no transcripts. I am trying to figure out how to get them. I think the cost is pretty awful, isn't it?

2. There are similar cases literally all over this country. Researchers believe there are literally thousands of women and children in the same or similar positions.

3. I suspected corruption/inefficiency or whatever in the courts long before this case came to my attention. It's a debating society that meets in the courtroom with either one or thirteen judges, depending on the case. The best debater--or debate team--wins.

4. Margery Landry broke into the house because Elsa Newman had been unable to persuade any authorities to investigate--or they would investigate in the presence of the perp--and the children were so terrified they would deny abuse they had previously disclosed. There is a long record of reports that I won't bother you with here, although I have some in hand. The FBI, I believe, has been notified--and has done nothing that I know of. Landry apparently believed she would find evidence when she broke into the house. She had two bullets in the gun. There was a whole box of bullets in her...fanny pack...or was it her jacket? Anger sometimes makes people stupid. I think that was what happened.

NOTE: Landry is the children's godmother. Unable to have children of her own, she lavished her love for kids on these two boys. Maybe that was part of why she made such a mess of the whole thing.

5. Men who abuse children are often quite charismatic. Elsa's ex-husband actually made a better witness than did the people who testified on Elsa's behalf. That is how sociopaths and pedophiles do what they do, isn't it? By being charming and getting people to believe them?

6. Landry actually endangered two children by her actions. It was Elsa's younger son in bed naked with the father. The older son--8 or 9, I think--heard the noise and entered the room.

Reference for my statement that there are thousands of similar cases: The Hostage Child, by Leora Rosen and Michelle Etlin.

Sorry I made your response post more than once--or I think I did. I'm still getting this whole thing figured out.

I hope things go well for you folks. There are a tremendous amount of people in the corrections system that do not belong there. A majority of those held are non violent, drug related offenders.

Here's the Ramona McDonald/Barbra Swinton story. If you're collecting the info you might find it interesting.

LINK

This link is to the wayback machine.
LINK

My old message board was the first place (along with the cop board, domelights) to expose this story. We were shut down by court order because we refused to remove the posts.

There does seem to be a pattern to poor judicial decisions regarding child custody.

Ah...thanks for your good wishes. And since I'm a little, old lady, I'll indulge myself and say this: How can I help loving a guy who refers to himself as the official resident asshole of the RRMB!?! And in addition, a guy who got his message board shut down for trying to expose injustice! Thanks for the links.

LOL--writingforelsanewman

The Elsa Newman Case—A Brief Introduction—Part II

Elsa Newman awaited trial. She waited with a great deal of what she now calls very naïve hope and trust. She knew she was innocent. As an attorney, she believed firmly in the American justice system. She knew her innocence would be proven and knew she would be released.

Instead, Elsa was tried and convicted of a crime she had known nothing about. Among the important witnesses was a man named Friedman, who had been Elsa’s attorney during divorce proceedings. (And this was not abuse of attorney-client privilege because…?) She was sentenced to prison. Her sons were handed over to the custody of a man against whom they had disclosed sexual and other abuses.

Upon Elsa’s appeal, Maryland’s highest court vacated the conviction, saying in their opinion that there was no evidence connecting her to any aspect of the crime. Doug Gansler, who is now Attorney General of Maryland, when he heard of the high court’s decision, stated, “They just released the woman who wanted to kill her kids.”

Elsa Newman was rearrested, recharged and retried. This time with the added element of a death-penalty possibility. I can’t help wondering if that was some kind of perverted punishment for her having won the appeal. The prosecution had to make do without Friedman’s testimony the second time, since the high court had ruled it inadmissible evidence. So the prosecution turned to Friedman’s secretary—whose word also should have fallen within the realm of privileged information—and managed to patch together a flimsy case. Fortunately for the prosecution, although unfortunately for Elsa and her sons, Katherine Winfree, the prosecuting attorney, is an excellent debater—so good that she won the debate, with virtually no evidence.

Landry has said repeatedly that she committed the crimes entirely on her own. She has said repeatedly that Elsa didn’t even know she (Landry) was planning to break into the home. She has repeatedly refused a reduction in her own sentence in exchange for testifying against Elsa. She has gone so far as to say, “I wish I could blame this on someone else. It ruined my life. But the blame is entirely mine.”

Elsa likewise asserts that there was no conspiracy, that she had no idea about Landry’s plans, that she had, in fact, told her to “keep away from” the children’s father. Elsa also refused a reduction in sentence--if she would appear sorry for the crime. Elsa refused to lie, even though it cost her added years in prison and added time away from her children. She says she could not be “sorry” for a crime that she did not commit, a crime that, in fact, did not even exist, since there was no conspiracy.

Elsa remains in prison. There was never a hearing on the suspicions of abuse because the criminal proceedings interrupted the divorce proceedings. Thus Elsa technically, as I understand it, retains a shared custody of the boys. Nevertheless, her sons remain in the physical custody of the man I believe is constantly abusing them to this day. It is one of the facts of life in dealing with sexual abusers—they do not change.

So here is where it all stands: Elsa is in prison. Her sons are in a virtual prison of abuse. And me? I write…and write…and write, everywhere I can think of to write, in the desperate hope of somehow find help for this mother and her sons.

You do know Cap ain't the official resident asshole, I am. He's a poser.

OK...but let's not tell him. A guy with that high an opinion of himself might be really upset if we disillusion him, don't you think?



I still love the idea of an official resident asshole, though! Whoever takes the name will have my support.

Can I be the official resident little old lady in tennis shoes? Or do we have to have a vote?

Aine--writingforelsanewman

Don't make me drag Tim Allen out of the woodwork to confirm my assholiness.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=E...G=Google+Search


Part I
http://pugbubbe.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/e...is-name-please/

Part II
http://pugbubbe.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/hello-world/

Sorry kiddo but its in my genes. My father won Asshole of the month so many times at the local tavern that they just automatically made him asshole of the year. I don't know how many years he held the title, but I am my father's child. In more ways than I care to admit to.

My mother's favorite words to say to me, "You're just like your father!" Well, that and that I was a stubborn Johnny Bull (Englishman for the younger folk).

How come that wouldn't be "assUNholiness"?