For those interested in the minutiae of the legal procedural wrangling, this article gives a good account of the various arguments in play over the latest (second) mistrial motion, which has been denied:

[www.prescottenews.com]

The defence tried for a third mistrial motion yesterday..........denied.

An interesting snippet emerged from Debbie Mercer's testimony, (she was an Angel Valley helper, along with her husband Ted) when she described returning from making the first 911 call.
She had to run to her own house to make the call as there were no phones at the site. After running back from her house in order to continue helping the victims, she saw James Ray at the site using a cell-phone to make a call of his own--but not calling 911.
So who was he calling, since he did not bother to call for help for his customers----his lawyers? his moneymen to hide the stash?

The court heard that the first emergency responders arrived at the scene a full hour after the first report in the sweat tent that some people had stopped breathing.

From the Death Ray trial, another witness on the stand:

Mercer became emotional as she told jurors how she and her mother found three people unconscious in the sweat lodge — two women and one man — and asked Ray whether they could lift up the coverings to get them out. "It would be sacrilegious, but if you have to, you can," she quoted Ray as saying.

What Mercer saw brought her and the three of the victims' family members in the audience to tears: A man believed to be Shore and a woman believed to be Brown were holding hands, their faces blue, eyes closed and weren't breathing, Mercer said. The third participant was lying on her back, Mercer said.

Mercer said she also saw participants in levels of emotional and physical distress in 2008 during and after a sweat lodge ceremony Ray led at the same retreat center he rented for his October 2009 event, the Angel Valley Retreat Center.

The judge overseeing the trial has ruled that evidence can be presented in a limiting fashion. Prosecutors are trying to convince the jury that Ray had developed a pattern of recklessness and ignored signs of danger.


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

What a joke! "Sacrilegious"? Is he serious? I wonder what native americans think? It is "sacrilegious" to them, I imagine, that Death Ray took their sacred swweat lodges and turned it into some bizarre commercial "Warrior's Retreat" final initiation.

In relation to JRays self image, sure it would be sacrilige to disrupt one of his beloved games of playing chess with other people's bodies, hearts and lives.

But human beings are not here to be mere toys for bored adult children.

Quote

Talmud, Sanhedrin 37a states:

"For this reason was man created alone, alone, to teach thee that whosoever destroys a single soul..scripture imputes (guilt) to him as though he had destroyed a complete world; and whosoever preserves a single soul..scripture ascribes(merit)..to him as though he had preserved a complete world.'

Footnotes

1. Genesis 1:24-26

Others have condensed this to say that to save one human life is to save a whole world.

And for those of us who are atheist, this principle still applies. Any person who dies is tied into a network of family, friendships, neighbors. And even a person who seemingly dies alone will still affect those who must clear up his or her belongings and arrange burial.

We are not alone. We are part of a world and if we are harmed by a bad leader, a world of others will be collaterally harmed as well.

And no--this is not victim mentality. It is an awareness that we are all interconnected with each other, something a self involved entrepreneur like Jay Ray failed to take to heart.

End rant for this morning.

If the Examiner is correct in what they say Matt James testified to ...that James Ray was never initiated in Huna. Matt James purjured himself. I was there and saw James Ray be intiated and witnnessed him in at at least 4-trainings that were between 8-10 days. Not surprising though as Matt continues to behave and act as a cult leader, excusing it as part of the Hawaiian culture.. and yes he does have the people at the seminars busy from at least 8 am -9 or 10 pm. and with homework to do on top of that.
Also Matt insinuates that anyone in the huna group level four that if they want to continue to be in his group and get "kumu" status that they should not be talking to the ones who were smart enough to leave his cult.
I predict we will see Matt James on trial next.

The trial is currently in recess until May 26th. There have already been six (or was that seven?) mistrial motions --denied-- put forward by the defence.

The various alternative excuses/responsible causes have been exhaustively aired by the defence and are summarised here by Omikse:

[saltydroid.info]

'…rat poison, ant poison, weed killers, veggie diets, tainted water, tainted fruits, tainted vegetables, tainted soil, tainted rocks, wood with nails, wood without nails, pressure treated wood, wood sealer, poor construction practices, no building permit, no building inspection, CO2, poor ventilation, organophosphates, the victims failure to exercise their ‘free will’, Ted Mercer’s running of the lodge,'

and shown to be bullshit by a very smart and patient medic witness, Dr Dixon.

'the victims failure to exercise their ‘free will’

was rubbished by both Debbie Mercer and her daughter Sara, witnesses who, while tending to the unconscious and dying participants, realised that unconscious and dying people are in no state at all to exercise free will and get up and leave a deadly sweat-tent.


'Ted Mercer’s running of the lodge,'

......is a bit of a masterstroke, as it reveals that when JAR was first questioned at the scene (he was in his shorts, in his cabin, eating a late lunch while the death and destruction he left behind him was being dealt with by his remaining paying customers who were still, luckily, able to breathe) he claimed that it was Ted Mercer, the casual, hired-for-the-day fire-tenderer who was running the sweat-tent, not the self-proclaimed Alpha and Omega, god-of-all-he-surveyed, James Arthur Ray.

Yakaru supplied the link (on the Droid's site) to the evidence statement of Sergeant Frank Barbaro, the policeman who first interviewed DeathRay at the scene and first heard the remarkable news that, despite DeathRay banking the profits, Ted Mercer--the man hired for the day to burn some logs-- was the real person who was responsible for the running of the DeathTent:

[www.tragedyinsedona.com]

DeathRay's teaching was all about taking responsibility for one's own life, actions and behaviour.
Shame he doesn't demonstrate those qualities himself.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2011 05:07PM by Stoic.

Something that the defence has consistently argued against is having multiple participants testifying to what they saw and heard in the 2009 sweat tent---this is because such 'repetitious' testimony of the same occurrences from several sources is regarded as 'cumulative'---reasoning that I don't fully follow, not being fully conversant with US legal nuance.

The defence is anyway keen now to get the trial over with quickly, having exhausted their various defence strategies.

This document is the state's answer to the defence motion regarding the exclusion of multiple prosecution witnesses on the grounds that this is 'cumulative.' What is interesting is the brief summary contained in it (page 2) of the evidence of these participants---that the defence would prefer the jury not to hear:

[apps.supremecourt.az.gov]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2011 06:27AM by Stoic.

Some Daily Courier reports on the last few days proceedings:

'Sweat lodge trial: State's expert '99 percent' certain heatstroke caused deaths'

[www.dcourier.com]


'Sweat lodge trial: Ray told detective someone else was in charge of ceremony'

[www.dcourier.com]


'Sweat lodge trial has broad audience outside the courtroom'

[www.dcourier.com]

A straight lift from the comments on the robot's site:

[saltydroid.info]

'Yakaru said:
Judge disallows testimony from Dr David Kent – the participant from 2008 who could’ve testified about medical dangers. The state screwed up there – they didn’t realize he was a doctor and should have named him earlier.'


[apps.supremecourt.az.gov]

Thanks for keeping this thread up to date, Stoic.

From what I recall, the state didn't realize Dr Kent was a doctor because it wasn't noted anywhere in JAR'S records and apparently an email from him either never arrived or somehow remained unnoticed by the state. Obviously part of the defense's strategy has been to try and bury the prosecutors under as much paperwork as possible and wait for them to make a mistake, as also happened with the Brady violation (where the state didn't forward a completely insignificant email to the defense, which the defense absurdly claimed had exculpatory information).

It would certainly have been yet another few nails in the defense's coffin to have expert testimony about the medical condition of participants after the 2008 fake sweat lodge, and probably opened the door for a whole lot more damning testimony. I might be proven wrong, but ever since the testimony of Dr Dickson the other week, I think one of the main pillars of the defense has been blown to bits.

There is some excellent coverage here.

[celestial-reflections.blogspot.com]

Incase anyone following the trial hasn't found this blog yet, it contains detailed coverage of every single day so far, and some very astute analysis as well.