DOJ Inquiry

[Anonymous]

Has anybody seen the movie "Driftwood"?  I saw it last night and it sounded like survivor's worst nightmare.  Here is the synopsis:

synopsisA 16 year-old troublemaker is sent against his will to Driftwood, a Florida hellhole run by a sadistic man, where troubled teens either toe the line or die.

I wonder if it was written by a Seed Survivor.  Anyone know?

[Ursus]

I found a bunch of old local articles dealing with James Lee Crummel's 2004 trial for the Jamey Trotter case.

The first two deal with a typical wrench thrown in the works of justice, namely the existence of yet another serial killer operating in the area around the same time.

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North County Times
Inmate says he lied about 'freeway killer' connection to local murder case
By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer | Posted: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 12:00 am

RIVERSIDE -- A friend of notorious "freeway killer" William Bonin testified Monday that he lied when he told defense investigators that Bonin was responsible for the 1979 death of a teenage boy whose bones were found on Ortega Highway more than a decade ago.

Defense attorneys for James Lee Crummel, 60, contend Bonin killed Jamey Trotter, a 13-year-old Costa Mesa boy whose remains where found in January 1990, a few miles west of Lake Elsinore.

Crummel was the person who led authorities to the bones, which he said he found while hiking in the area. It wasn't until November 1996 that coroner's officials determined that the remains where those of Trotter.

Investigators reopened the case and Crummel was later arrested and charged with the teen's murder. Crummel is a convicted, serial child molester whose 1967 conviction in the murder of a 9-year-old Arizona boy was later overturned by an appellate court judge who ruled his defense was ineffective.

Crummel has since been convicted for molesting children in both Orange and San Bernardino counties and was sentenced to life in prison. Along with charging Crummel with Trotter's murder, prosecutors also allege the boy was killed during a sexual assault, meaning he could get the death penalty if convicted.

Crummel's trial is expected to begin Monday.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Dennis McConaghy is expected to rule today whether that jury will hear testimony that Bonin -- who was executed in 1996 for the deaths of 14 young men and boys -- killed Trotter.

Key to that are the statements of James Munro, 42, who is serving a life sentence for taking part in Bonin's last killing in June 1980. Although Bonin was convicted of 14 murders, often dumping strangled bodies near Southern California freeways, authorities believe he may have killed as many as 45 people.

Mary Ann Galante, the lead defense attorney for Crummel, said outside the courtroom Monday that there is strong evidence that, over the last 22 years, Munro has told five people that Bonin killed Jamey Trotter.

She said that there are "many, many similarities" between Trotter's murder and those committed by Bonin.

Galante added that Munro has given "very significant details" about Trotter and the murder, including that Trotter had a chipped front tooth, something she says was never in a newspaper or visible to Munro in any photos of Trotter.

On the witness stand, however, Munro went back on statements he previously made about Bonin killing Trotter, saying he lied and made up details about the victim and the murder.

Munro -- handcuffed and shackled, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit -- first tried to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination after taking the witness stand. McConaghy told him he didn't have that right, ordering him to answer the questions.

Defense attorney Richard Myers then asked Munro if he was interviewed in state prison by a defense investigator. After conferring with his court-appointed attorney, Richard Renner, Munro said: "I ain't testifying, your honor."

McConaghy ordered him to answer and asked him why he couldn't. After saying he wasn't sure, Munro was again told to answer and he did. Munro, after a lengthy pause, admitted knowing Bonin.

Myers grilled him about statements he made in January during a tape recorded-interview in prison with defense investigator Gilbert Brisco.

When asked whether Bonin told him he killed Trotter or gave Munro a detailed description of the boy, Munro answered by saying he told Brisco those things, "but it was a lie."

"Bonin never mentioned (Trotter's death) whatsoever," Munro said.

Myers played the interview tape and then again questioned Munro about the statements he made to the investigator.

On the tape, Munro is heard giving Brisco details such as Trotter having a chipped front tooth. He also described Bonin's preferred method of finding victims, killing them and getting rid of their bodies.

During questioning by Supervising Deputy District Attorney William Mitchell, Munro again testified that he lied, made up the details, or called on things he remembered seeing in newspaper articles.

Defense attorney Myers asked Munro to give a reason why he lied to the defense investigator.

"Payback to Bonin for ruining my life," Munro said. "I was blaming him for everything I could; for the hatred I have for that man."

Munro said he was forced to plead guilty for the murder that has sent him to prison for life.

The prosecutor asked Munro if anyone promised to help him get paroled from prison. Munro paused and stared at the defense table.

Saying, "She did," Munro testified that Galante, Crummel's attorney, made such a promise.

He explained that Galante "held my hand" and said she'd represent him free of charge if he'd help get their client, Crummel, out of his charge of murdering Trotter.

Outside the courtroom, Galante said it was Munro who asked the defense attorneys if they would help him get paroled.

"I told him we were unable, by law, to do that and specifically said I can't make any promises," Galante said. "I absolutely did not say (what Munro claims)."

Brisco, the defense attorney who interviewed Munro, is expected to testify this morning, followed by a ruling from McConaghy about the admissibility at Crummel's trial of the defense contention of Bonin's involvement in Trotter's murder.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.

Posted in Local on Tuesday, March 30, 2004 12:00 am Updated: 11:38 pm.


© Copyright 2009, North County Times - Californian, Escondido, CA

[Ursus]

North County Times
Jury won't hear 'Freeway Killer' defense in local murder case
By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer | Posted: Tuesday, April 6, 2004 12:00 am

RIVERSIDE -- A Superior Court judge ruled Monday that attorneys defending a man accused of killing an Orange County boy and dumping his bones near Ortega Highway will not be permitted to tell jurors they believe the boy was killed by so-called "Freeway Killer" William Bonin.

"We had a very strong argument as far as Bonin," defense attorney Mary Ann Galante said after the judge's ruling. "Our argument is that this was a decision for a jury to make."

Deputy District Attorney Bill Mitchell, however, said outside the courtroom at the county Hall of Justice that the defense is "grasping at straws in this case."

Defense attorneys tried to convince Judge Dennis McConaghy that Bonin -- not their client, James Lee Crummel -- killed James "Jamey" Trotter, a 13-year-old Costa Mesa boy who disappeared in 1979.

In January 1990, Crummel, now 60, called authorities to report finding bones while hiking along the Ortega Highway. It took six years before forensic specialists determined the bones were those of Trotter.

Authorities found that Crummel had a 1967 conviction overturned for the murder of a 9-year-old Arizona boy. An appellate court judge had ruled Crummel's defense attorneys were ineffective.

When Trotter disappeared, Crummel lived near the boy's residence.

Crummel ultimately was arrested and charged with Trotter's murder, along with a special circumstance that the slaying happened during the commission of a lewd act with a child. Since his arrest, Crummel has been tried and convicted in two other counties for child molestation and sentenced to life in prison.

If convicted of murdering Trotter, Crummel faces the death penalty.

Crummel's attorneys had produced evidence they contend proved Bonin killed Trotter during his spree of Southern California killings in 1979 and 1980. The spree resulted in convictions for 14 murders and his execution in 1996.

James Munro, who pleaded guilty to taking part in one of Bonin's killings, told a defense investigator that Bonin had told him, by name and physical description, he killed Trotter. Munro recanted that on the witness stand last week, telling the judge he had made it up.

Galante said Monday that Munro "knows too much" and that the judge didn't address the issue of Munro's telling the same details to a cellmate and a newspaper reporter years before he told the defense investigator.

When first discussing his ruling Monday, McConaghy called this "an interesting case, with more twists and curves than Lombard Street (in San Francisco)."

The judge said that during the five days he was off since testimony was last presented, he had this case on his mind. McConaghy said, as recently as Monday morning, he was "leaning toward" allowing the Bonin defense to be heard by jurors. After hearing final arguments by attorneys Monday, however, the judge ruled against the defense.

"There is substantial evidence that Bonin didn't make these statements (to Munro)," he said.

The prosecutor then asked McConaghy to admonish the defense attorneys, and the judge agreed, that they can't mention the name Bonin to jurors or say anything about serial killers operating in the area at the time Trotter disappeared.

Galante said that, while disappointed with the judge's ruling, she believes there is strong evidence in Crummel's defense.

The 10-man, two-woman jury was scheduled to hear opening statements and witness the first day of prosecution evidence Monday, but that has been delayed a week after the defense submitted new motions that McConaghy must rule on before that can happen.

Outside the Hall of Justice, the prosecutor said he was frustrated with the defense tactic.

"I think they saw their third-party motion (regarding Bonin) go up in flames and are looking for other avenues," Mitchell said.

He said he was prepared to start presenting his case Monday as scheduled, having flown witnesses in from all over the country. One person was still en route from out of state, Mitchell said.

"Now, he'll need to be turned around in Dallas" since he won't need to be here until next week, Mitchell said.

One of the defense motions involves dental X-rays received from Trotter's dentist and used to help identify the remains, Mitchell said. The defense has taken issue with the X-rays being copies and not originals, he said.

"Their expert is apparently saying he wants to see the originals, that the copies aren't good enough," Mitchell said.

The prosecution contends the copies are fine and there is no need to obtain originals.

"I've never seen the original X-rays," Mitchell said, adding that the prosecution has other evidence identifying the remains as being Trotter's.

McConaghy will rule this week on the defense motions before jurors return next week to hear opening arguments.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.

Posted in Local on Tuesday, April 6, 2004 12:00 am Updated: 10:39 pm.


© Copyright 2009, North County Times - Californian, Escondido, CA

[Ursus]

NOW comes the more pertinent nitty-gritty...

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North County Times
Testimony begins in case of murdered boy
By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer | Posted: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 12:00 am

RIVERSIDE -- James Lee Crummel showed no signs of having hiked in dense brush the day he called authorities to report finding human remains -- the bones of a Costa Mesa boy he is charged with killing, according to testimony on the first day of his trial Monday.

Crummel, 60, alerted Riverside County sheriff's deputies to the remains several hundred yards off Ortega Highway on Jan. 28, 1990 -- the day after his 46th birthday. Six years later, in 1996, the bones were identified as those of James "Jamey" Trotter, a 13-year-old boy who disappeared 25 years ago Thursday.

In his opening statement Monday, Deputy District Attorney Bill Mitchell told the 10-man, two-woman jury in the Hall of Justice courtroom of Judge Dennis McConaghy that it may never be known why Crummel chose to show authorities the whereabouts of the remains.

Mitchell speculated it could have been "a guilty conscience or just that law enforcement wouldn't be able to connect it to him." The prosecutor then told jurors that, whatever Crummel's reason, "he didn't just happen to stumble upon the remains while hiking that day."

Sheriff's Sgt. Mark Lohman testified that he was on patrol from the Lake Elsinore sheriff's station when he and another deputy responded to Crummel's call about the remains, meeting him at a store on Ortega Highway.

Because it was dusk, or nearing dusk that January day, it was too dark to go look at the bones so Crummel gave them his contact information and was told detectives would arrange to meet him again the next day, Lohman said. The bones were found in an area where a wildland fire had previously burned, Lohman testified.

As the two deputies drove back to Lake Elsinore after meeting with Crummel, Lohman said, he mentioned to the other deputy that Crummel "did not look like he had been hiking in a burned-out area." Lohman told jurors that Crummel did not appear disheveled from a hike, smell like he'd been near a previous blaze or have any soot on him.

Retired sheriff's Sgt. Larry Nielsen testified after Lohman and was the homicide investigator assigned to meet with Crummel the day after he reported finding the bones.

Nielsen told the jury that the area to which Crummel led him and two other detectives was very densely covered with trees and underbrush.

The three detectives all wore suits that day that became "very dirty" from the brush, Nielsen said. They were so dirty, he added, that after that day the Sheriff's Department issued coveralls to detectives to prevent that from happening at another crime scene.

The retired homicide investigator also said that Crummel had "no difficulty" finding precisely where the remains were, adding that it was not a straight trek from the highway.

"He seemed to go right for the location," Nielsen testified.

The court day ended before Mitchell was finished questioning Nielsen and also before the former deputy could be cross-examined by defense attorney Mary Ann Galante.

In her opening statement, Galante told jurors the prosecution's case against Crummel is based on a series of assumptions and her client's past criminal history.

"The evidence will show Mr. Crummel has a very, very bad past," she told the jury. "At the end of this, you're not gonna like Mr. Crummel."

However, she said, although Crummel has a bad criminal history, the prosecution's case against him can't be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Mitchell called Crummel a "serial child molester" during his statement to the jury, and recounted for them a number of previous convictions, dating back to the early 1960s, for sexually abusing young boys.

"The defendant is a predator who enjoyed molesting children his entire life," Mitchell said. He added that Crummel "learned over the years not to leave a witness."

Crummel is charged with committing the murder during lewd acts with a child, meaning if he is convicted as charged he faces the death penalty.

Trotter's mother and a close childhood friend also testified Monday.

The mother, Barbara Brogli, told jurors she and Jamey were temporarily living in a hotel while between apartments in April 1979. When her son left for school the morning he disappeared, the last thing she recalls him saying to her were, "I love you. I'll see you tonight."

Keith Johnson, who was 13 when Trotter disappeared, told jurors he and Jamey were best friends. Johnson said he and Trotter had planned to ditch school that day, heading instead to a pizza parlor and play video games -- but he never saw his friend again.

Galante asked Johnson a number of questions about Trotter's behavior, such as drinking and smoking marijuana. Johnson admitted the two boys smoked marijuana once or twice a day.

"We were doing what we thought we should be doing … living around Newport Beach … at that time," he said.

The trial is scheduled to resume today and is expected to continue until early June.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.

Posted in Local on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 12:00 am Updated: 10:36 pm.


© Copyright 2009, North County Times - Californian, Escondido, CA

[Ursus]

North County Times
Crummel convicted in teen's death
By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer | Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2004 12:00 am

RIVERSIDE -- A convicted, serial child molester was found guilty Tuesday of murdering a 13-year-old Orange County boy whose remains were found in 1990 in a remote area off Ortega Highway.

James Lee Crummel, 60, now faces the death penalty for the murder of James "Jamey" Trotter, who disappeared from his Costa Mesa neighborhood more than 25 years ago. Jurors determined Crummel not only committed first-degree murder, but also found that the murder happened as Crummel committed lewd acts with a child, a finding that allows for the death penalty.

Crummel called authorities in January 1990 to report finding human remains several hundred yards off Ortega Highway, just west of Lake Elsinore. It wasn't until 1996, however, that those remains were identified as Trotter's.

It took jurors at the Riverside County Hall of Justice about three days of deliberations before they told Superior Court Judge Dennis McConaghy on Tuesday they had reached a verdict.

"This is just the first step in the process," Supervising Deputy District Attorney Bill Mitchell said after the guilty verdict was announced. "It's just one of two to go to get the justice this guy deserves for killing Jamey."

Those jurors will hear more testimony and see more evidence presented by both sides beginning Monday morning as part of "the penalty phase," which is expected to take about a week. After that, jurors will decide whether Crummel should be put to death or sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"I think the jury will be convinced he deserves the death penalty for his actions," Mitchell said.

Mary Ann Galante, one of Crummel's two defense attorneys in the Riverside County case, said Tuesday that she will be calling three mental health officials who will testify that Crummel has brain damage.

She said she believes the jury will have "some lingering doubt" about their guilty verdict, which she hopes will lead them to keep Crummel off death row.

Galante said she was "disappointed" by Tuesday's verdict and called the prosecution's case against her client "weak" and "very circumstantial."

The circumstantial case, Galante said, was based primarily on the remains being found by Crummel, the fact that Crummel had lived in the same area as the missing boy, and Crummel's criminal history.

"This wasn't a 'slam dunk' case for the government by any means," she said.

Mitchell disagrees. He said the evidence, even being circumstantial, was "overwhelming" and that jurors obviously saw that. The prosecutor said there were just too many "coincidences" involved for Crummel not to have been the killer.

Among those, he cited, were the remote area Jamey's remains were found, which is very similar to areas were Crummel's previous victims were taken.

Crummel's previous victims date back to 1961, when he took two boys, ages 13 and 11, into a remote wooded area in Missouri, tied them to a tree and sexually assaulted them, Mitchell said. He was later convicted in that case, and released from prison in 1967.

The same year he was released, he kidnapped a 9-year-old boy and took him to the desert in Arizona where the boy died, Mitchell said. Crummel served a short prison term in that case, but was released when an appellate court overturned the conviction.

In August 1967, Crummel abducted a 14-year-old boy, tied him up and left him for dead in a remote area of Wisconsin, Mitchell said. The boy survived and Crummel was given a life term, but released in 1972.

"This case circumstantially suggests that Jamey was picked up by Mr. Crummel, like he has done so many times before, and then taken to a remote location where he was molested and then killed," Mitchell said.

"The probability of (Crummel) just happening to find those bones in that spot is just astronomical," Mitchell said.

Between the time of Crummel's arrest and being brought to Riverside County to stand trial for the murder of Jamey Trotter, Crummel was tried and convicted in two other counties for child molestation and sentenced to life in prison.

Mitchell said it was "regretful" that Jamey's remains were unable to be identified sooner, saying that it could have saved other boys victimized by Crummel from going through what they did.

"This (murder conviction) should have happened a long time ago," Mitchell said.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.

Posted in Local on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 12:00 am Updated: 11:24 pm.


© Copyright 2009, North County Times - Californian, Escondido, CA

[Ursus]

North County Times
Jury recommends death for molester in Orange County slaying
By: North County Times - | Posted: Tuesday, June 8, 2004 12:00 am

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) - A jury recommended the death penalty Monday for a child molester convicted in the slaying 25 years ago of an Orange County teenager.

The jury in Riverside County deliberated for two days before voting to recommend the death penalty for James Lee Crummel.

Superior Court Judge Dennis McConaghy can either accept the jurors recommendation or impose a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole at a July 9 sentencing hearing.

The same jury convicted Crummel of first-degree murder with special circumstances last month of James "Jamie" Trotter, 13, who vanished on his way to catch a school bus in 1979.

Crummel is serving a 60-years-to-life sentence for molesting another Orange County boy, and was convicted of abusing children in Missouri and Wisconsin in the 1960s.

Prosecutors charged that Crummel, 60, murdered the Costa Mesa boy in April 1979 and then claimed to find his bones near Ortega Highway in 1990. Six years later the bones were identified as Trotter's. The following year, authorities arrested Crummel on suspicion of murder.

Crummel lived on the same Costa Mesa street where Trotter's family lived and photographs found in his home showed he had visited Cleveland National Forest in the 1970s, near where Trotter's bones were found, prosecutors said.

Defense attorney Mary Ann Galante argued that the case was based on assumption and that Crummel was singled out because of his criminal past.

Superior Court Judge Dennis McConaghy rejected an attempt by the defense to argue that the murder might be tied to notorious "Freeway Killer" William Bonin, who was executed in 1996 after being convicted of killing 14 boys in 1979 and 1980.


© Copyright 2009, North County Times - Californian, Escondido, CA

[Ursus]

North County Times
Killer of boy whose bones were near Ortega Highway gets death sentence
By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer | Posted: Saturday, July 10, 2004 12:00 am


James Lee Crummel, right, confers with defense attorney Richard Myers in court Monday morning.
David Carlson

RIVERSIDE -- They all knew it was coming -- that James Lee Crummel would be sent to death row -- but the victim's family still sat in the front row of the courtroom Friday, holding hands and waiting to finally hear the judge make it official.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Dennis McConaghy did just that, ordering that the 60-year-old serial child molester be transported to San Quentin's death row.

Crummel was convicted in May of killing 13-year-old Jamey Trotter, whose bones were found in a desolate area off the Ortega Highway west of Lake Elsinore in 1990. It took six more years for authorities to identify the remains as those of the missing teen.

Jamey disappeared in April 1979 from a Costa Mesa neighborhood, where he and his mother were staying in a motel while waiting to move into their new Huntington Beach home.

On Friday, Barbara Trotter Brogli said she is relieved that her son's killer will die in prison.

"I feel good that he'll never roam free again to hurt anyone else," she said after the sentencing. "I am totally convinced he killed Jamey."

One of Jamey's two older brothers, Jeffrey Trotter, is now 41 years old and said Friday that even though it's now been 25 years since the disappearance, "it's like it happened yesterday" because of memories dredged up during the court proceedings.

Jeffrey Trotter spoke at the hearing before the sentencing, saying that Crummel saw Jamey as nothing more than a toy.

"You are as guilty and as deserving of death as anyone could be," he said to Crummel.

Jeffrey Trotter said he is relying on his faith in God to help him get to a point where he can feel forgiveness for the man who killed his younger brother.

After the hearing, Trotter said he believes he will get there someday. Motioning to his chin, he said his anger is "all up here right now. I need time to push it down. How soon I'll get there, I don't know."

Much like when the jury sentenced him to death last month, Crummel stared straight ahead and showed no emotion at Friday's hearing. Crummel was convicted of first-degree murder and a special circumstance that the killing happened while he committed lewd acts on a child.

One of his attorneys, Mary Ann Galante, draped her arm across the back of Crummel's chair Friday and softly patted his back as the judge read the death sentence into the court record.

Galante said afterward that Crummel's only statement to her was to thank her and tell her that he knew she did the best she could.

Supervising Deputy District Attorney Bill Mitchell had harsh words for the man whose case he has been working on since 1996.

"The world would have been a better place without him," Mitchell said outside the courthouse. "He is what everyone considers evil and vile."

Crummel has convictions for crimes involving children dating back 43 years, when, as a 17-year-old in the U.S. Army, he abducted two boys, ages 13 and 11, tied them to a tree in the woods of Missouri and sexually assaulted them.

After serving a prison sentence for that, Crummel kidnapped a 9-year-old boy in 1967, taking him to the desert in Arizona, where the boy died. It wasn't until 1983 that Crummel was convicted for the boy's murder, and he served a short prison term before being released when an appellate court overturned the conviction.

Crummel has also been convicted of child molestations in both San Bernardino and Orange counties -- the latter resulting in a life sentence.

Mitchell said Friday that he also believes Crummel is responsible for the death of a young boy who disappeared from the Big Bear area. Authorities there investigated Crummel for that in 1995, but could not find enough evidence to charge him, the prosecutor said.

"The worst punishment possible is what Crummel deserves" for his years of crimes, ending with Jamey's murder, Mitchell said.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.

Posted in Local on Saturday, July 10, 2004 12:00 am Updated: 10:43 pm.


© Copyright 2009, North County Times - Californian, Escondido, CA

[Ursus]

(WARNING) Bad stuff Happens to good people "James Trotter"

• "cut down version":
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhG1Q7pV_T4

• full version:
  http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video ... 7696432621