Jump to content

Type keyword(s) to search

Cold Justice Back!


Recommended Posts

Wow, that's surprising: it's not like sex crimes get that much of a shake in the CJ system first time through. I imagine it will be a serious challenge to bring charges when they're cold. Maybe this will be an incentive to do better by victims!

  • Love 2
Link to comment

Wasn't sure where to post this, but watched an episode of On the Case with Paula Zahn that featured a Johnny Bonds case. Pretty interesting. It was new, so it should be reaired at some point this week on the ID channel. It's called "Unmistakable Truth." Love me some Johnny Bonds!

Edited by Cgal99
  • Love 2
Link to comment

I saw an episode of Paula Zahn late last night that Kelly was the second DA. The first one was just out for convictions and didn't care much how he got them, then the Innocence Project took an interest and got a new trial for the man. When Kelly came in, she reviewed and re-interviewed all the witnesses, and said there wasn't any evidence that the guy was guilty, she got the charges dismissed. I liked that she was more interested in seeing the crime solved than in getting a conviction.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

Yeah, the air time was too close and the community too small to get an adequate jury pool in this particular case. But I think this is just a fluke. Usually it takes a year or two to get a murder trial to be heard and the communities are a bit larger for jury selection. I'm really surprised they didn't just move jurisdiction, it isn't that hard to move one county over to hear a trial.

Link to comment

There are a couple of other cases where they are also complaining about airdates and trial dates. I don't remember the exact shows/cities, but it's starting to become a problem. I think Kelly would hate to see someone get off due to her show airing before the trial, as in the case I linked to with the mistrial.

Link to comment

That's too bad. I guess they need to either arrest and air the show close together (giving time between the arrest and trial date) or wait until the trial is over, which could take years. Since the show is in it's third season, hopefully they can go with the first option. They were still building the show and scrounging for cases in the first few seasons. There is a way to get around publicity of cases. There has always been high-profile cases with lots of media attention. They just move them to other jurisdictions. Hopefully TNT has a little money to help the prosecutors do that, if they need to.

Edited by Galloway Cave
  • Love 1
Link to comment

Also, it doesn't help with local newspapers and TV stations will yell "Hey, guess what? Cold Justice folks are investigating case XYZ!" That's what happened in Chattanooga recently. A man was arrested for the murder of his wife based on what they did on the show. He was tried and convicted, pretty quickly.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

Oh, I'm super bummed that the last ep (of the season) is this week. Nooooo!

 

I think TNT said this is just a mid-season break.  I'm fairly certain that the voiceover at the end of this week's ep said new episodes return April 10.  Did I dream that?

Link to comment

I think TNT said this is just a mid-season break.  I'm fairly certain that the voiceover at the end of this week's ep said new episodes return April 10.  Did I dream that?

 

No, you didn't! New episodes return on April 10th.

  • Love 3
Link to comment

Is this because of stupid college basketball playoffs? I've noticed a lot of my favorite shows making a return around that time.

Yes cooks that's the reason why this show and Rizzoli and Isles are taking a break.

  • Love 2
Link to comment
(edited)

Small wonder Kelly had such a great record, and that she never met a circumstantial case she didn't love.

 

I came across this when 48 Hours on ID re-aired the Temple case "The Guessing Game" with an update tacked on the end :

 

In July 20115, a judge recommended that David Temple should get a new trial.  The judge accused prosecutor Kelly Siegler of withholding evidence before, during and after the trial.  In all, 36 counts of prosecutorial misconduct were cited by the judge.

 

I hope Kelly Siegler gets served some of that cold justice.

Edited by walnutqueen
  • Love 2
Link to comment
(edited)

Sigh. I hope it turns out that the exculpatory evidence was withheld by some eager underling, like the time on L&O Mothership where Laila Robbins's character torpedoed the Andrew Dillard* case, and letting Jack get prosecuted for it. 

 

*It's very sad I remember the name of the defendant in the show, but not the name of the LR's character. It's also pretty sad I'm depending on another Dick Wolf show to give me hope for a current Dick Wolf show.

 

Sigh.

Edited by attica
  • Love 2
Link to comment
(edited)

I'm wondering if this now puts all of the Cold Justice cases in jeopardy.  I know Kelly's not the lawyer of record in all of those cases, but the cities and towns certainly brought Yolanda and Kelly in for the show and for their expertise in their fields.  We see both prosecution and defense attorneys bring in footage from 48 Hours, Dateline, and the like to bolster their arguments.  I can see defense attorneys who are arguing cases of any defendants saying, "This case was featured on Cold Justice. My client has been charged with X crime, and the police department used the expertise of a woman who is now being investigated for multiple claims of prosecutorial misconduct."

 

At this point, I'm wondering if Kelly will have to be replaced whether there is truth to the allegations or not.  The fact that all of her cases are being investigated is not ever going to go away and seems to put a serious dent in her credibility.

Edited by Ohmo
  • Love 1
Link to comment

Sigh. I hope it turns out that the exculpatory evidence was withheld by some eager underling, like the time on L&O Mothership where Laila Robbins's character torpedoed the Andrew Dillard* case, and letting Jack get prosecuted for it. .

 

"Siegler testified in the habeas hearing that potential exculpatory evidence didn't need to be disclosed if prosecutors "did not believe it was true," according to the findings.

 

Gist also wrote that Siegler influenced post-trial maneuvers by telling police and officials within the DA's Office not to disclose public records if they were requested. The findings also state that Siegler continued to pull strings even after leaving the DA's Office in 2008, after 21 years, by getting an alleged witness who approached DeGuerin after the trial to change his story.

In that situation, Daniel Glasscock gave DeGuerin a sworn statement that he overheard another man implicate himself in the murder. Glasscock passed a polygraph administered by the DA's Office and also gave the same story to a DA's investigator.

But Siegler "asked" a Harris County Sheriff's deputy — who was involved with the trial investigation — to contact Glassock and another witness "before they could be contacted by the Special Prosecutor [in the habeas investigation] or current members of the District Attorney's Office. The Deputy did so and afterwards, their stories were significantly different than the original version," according to the finding.

"In substance, Glasscock repudiated the most important details to the extent that his future credibility as a witness is significantly impaired," Gist wrote."

 

Sounds like the judge found Kelly's own dirty fingerprints all over this case, attica.  :-(

  • Love 1
Link to comment

I wonder if Dick Wolf will shop it around to another network. It had decent ratings, after all. And if Kelly's past travails are still objectionable, it's not like they couldn't find another person to fill that slot.

 

Still hoping.

Link to comment

Actually, I think they played too fast and loose with accusations, innuendo and naming names.  Kelly likes to focus in on her personal agenda, whether it holds water or not.  She, Who MUST BE RIght.

 

Sorry for the weirdness; my g's and h's just will not work!

  • Love 3
Link to comment

Cold Justice has been cancelled, according to Reality Blurred.

http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/

There is no mention of Sigler's legal troubles or the lawsuits filed against the show and its producers - just that the new head of TNT was making changes.

I'll miss the show, but it has really been tainted by all of the behind-the-scenes stuff.

I was thinking that these shows were untenable due to the possibility that the people they accused of crimes (who might be innocent) suing the production company and the EP's of the shows. I wish they would announce officially that they've been canceled. Maybe I should remove them from my season pass anyway.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

i have been wondering if Yolanda's decreasing presence on the show had anything to do with her hearing about all this.... I had picked up a different vibe between her and Kelly during the last episodes and was deeply puzzled how to account for it.  Or perhaps other factors, but I'm not really buying the "I needed family time" story, that's a disgraced politician's line.

 

As much as I enjoyed the show, I had also begun to question whether it was actually viable over the long haul.  They seemed to solve fewer and fewer cases and left so many with a spotlight shining on someone who might well be innocent or at least not guilty, and that seemed wrong.  I think they were victimized by their own initial success and overreached in search of cases to work, not really thinking about what would happen if they were unable to solve them.  Maybe I'm reading into things, but I imagined that Yolanda might be uncomfortable - she certainly seemed so - with the lack of closure on so many cases, and with Kelly's disdain for DNA and other physical evidence.  So, sorry to see them go, but also a little relieved.  

  • Love 4
Link to comment

I was thinking that these shows were untenable due to the possibility that the people they accused of crimes (who might be innocent) suing the production company and the EP's of the shows. I wish they would announce officially that they've been canceled. Maybe I should remove them from my season pass anyway.

Gotta think that their lawyers assured them that they wouldn't get sued if they did the show. And yes, the show has resulted in some Not Guilty verdicts and they didn't get sued afterwards. 

Link to comment

As a former Kelly fan, the revelation about the Temple prosecution was disturbing.  Kelly did herself a disservice by doing that interview, I think it was on 48 Hours.  She was not credible.  I wonder if she knows it.  No doubt, her colleagues know.  I have no further interest in watching her involvement in any case or tv show.  She was not forthright and what she admits to is inexcusable..  She needs help, imo.  This kind of thing is so unfortunate.  Sometimes power corrupts.  

  • Love 3
Link to comment

I think the show I watched today (a rerun from June) was 20/20 but might have been 48 Hours, and I totally agree.  Kelly came off so poorly that I was left wondering why she ever agreed to it at all.  She was snappy, defensive, and edgy, and sadly that all came off as untruthful.  She was adamant about deGuerin getting everything he was "entitled to," when he was entitled to it, but had to admit that she alone was the judge on both issues (what & when).  It was crystal clear that she kept things concealed, buried at the best, excluded perhaps.  She is so confident that the higher court will justify her actions, I have to wonder if Texas really is just different.  We once got a principal from Texas at our middle school in rural California, and she was certain that she could force teachers to cut their hair to her preferred length, wear only clothes she approved, support all her policies, etc., only to come up against the fact that what floats in Texas could be shot down in California.  

I'm left wondering if someone is now digging into her other cases to see if there are other irregularities.  It seems tragic, to say the least, that her career is in danger of crumbling to dust.  

I enjoyed Cold Justice so much until this story broke!  Have to say, I'm a little heartbroken.  And I'm still wondering if Yolanda's diminishing participation after the first couple of seasons was because of this story starting to come out.  

  • Love 3
Link to comment

The Texas Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for David Temple. They agreed that the prosecutor of his case, Kelly Sigler, deliberately withheld potentially exculpatory evidence during the discovery period.  There hasn't been any news about what this means for Sigler's future as an attorney.

  • Love 3
Link to comment
On 12/10/2016 at 11:46 PM, Mrs. P. said:

The Texas Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for David Temple. They agreed that the prosecutor of his case, Kelly Sigler, deliberately withheld potentially exculpatory evidence during the discovery period.  There hasn't been any news about what this means for Sigler's future as an attorney.

I've been trying to find out what Kelly is doing.  No doubt she is livid about the outcome.  So, does that mean that her perfect 100% guilty conviction record is altered?

  The only thing that I can find is a link that the show was cancelled.  

  • Love 1
Link to comment
×
×
  • Create New...