The evidence is quite telling when summarized as on Page 8, its no wonder that the defence is so keen to have any mention of the 'prior acts' suppressed.

In the "white papers" the defense was arguing that he changed earlier sweat lodges to make them safer, so you'd think they'd be happy to see all this stuff come out. But the changes that were made show clearly that the sweat lodges were designed specifically to push people to their limit. Photos from 2008 show people curled up in the mud in the fetal position, so for 2009 they added canvases for people to collapse in the fetal position.

The defense is also trying to get information from past events included which the prosecution trying to block. They want to wheel out some "witnesses" to praise Ray for helping them deal with their childhood sexual abuse issues.

It's also telling that the defense is (effectively) arguing that people should have just ignored Ray's orders to stay in, or "deal with her later". He charged them 10 grand for his expertise, but now it's the victims' fault for believing his assurances that they were safe?

There is apparently, an audio tape of the entire 'Spiritual Warrior, 2009' event, including the preliminary briefings made to staff, prior to the start of the event.
Prosecutors are petitioning the court to get this tape handed over and entered into evidence, James Arthur Ray's defence team is resisting this---wonder why?:


[apps.supremecourt.az.gov]

Stoic,

I find the entire question of who did what with the audio / video recordings interesting.

1. Michael Barber was interviewed by Detective Diskin.
2. Michael Barber told Detective Diskin he audio recorded James Arthur Ray’s pre sweat lodge briefing.
3. Detective Diskin asked Michael Barber to send him a copy of the audio.
4. Michael Barber agreed to do so.

Simple right? Instead Michael Barber then sent Detective Diskin a message stating he “accidentally” recorded over it, after he gave the “ONLY” copy to Josh Fredrickson. Which makes absolutely NO sense.

I’m a photographer / videographer and I keep backups of EVERYTHING, sometimes I keep backups of my important backups … I’m talking terabytes of data here.

So what do you think the odds are that Michael Barber, an award winning photographer / videographer would accidentally erase ALL the video he took at the sweat lodge? We’re talking historically important data here, let alone the only proof of what James actually said to participants prior to the sweat lodge.

No reasonable person (let alone a professional photographer) would erase anything like that … unless they were told to do so … and were stupid enough to comply. I can’t help wondering if he was one of the few vendors who got paid?

I’m curious as to WHY Michael Barber gave Josh Fredrickson the audio / video files AFTER detectives issued a search warrant at James Ray Enterprises.

When you consider the fact that James Arthur Ray was facing jail and the search of James Ray Enterprises made the international news, you have to agree it sort’a kind’a paints Michael Barber in a bad light. At best he was really stupid (or scared), at worst he’s part of a conspiracy to obstruct justice.

The big question is why Josh Fredrickson would accept a 350 gig hard drive filled with sweat lodge audio and video, and NOT turn it over to the police? If James Arthur Ray is as innocent and pure as Josh and a sea of lawyers state … and nothing bad transpired at the sweat lodge … the audio / video files will verify his innocence. Obviously the information contained on these files must be pretty damning, or James Arthur Ray would have posted them on YouTube by now, for all to see.

So who has the files … if in fact they still exist? Three guesses … not Josh I’ll bet … and surely not James Arthur Ray’s lawyers.

Jeannika



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/2010 01:28AM by Jeannika.

From memory, the first actions of James Arthur Ray, on the same night in the aftermath of the lethal sweat-tent, was to call his lawyer and then to send a round robin text message to his staff to secure/destroy (which is unclear) all documentation relating to Spiritual Warrior.

A master copy of the tape, even after Michael Barber's extraordinary action of erasing his only copy, was held on a hard drive in Josh Friedrickson's care.

My personal guess is that loyal Josh, knowing or rather thinking that he knew what side his bread was buttered on, followed the direction of his paymaster and has either destroyed or secured the master digital copy.

Either way, he has indicated that he places loyalty to James Arthur Ray and his business interests at a higher value than justice for the three human lives lost and a truthful accounting of the real determining factors behind those deaths.

I would hazard a guess that the master copy is not destroyed at all but is residing in a safety deposit box somewhere along with the other ill-gotten proceeds of the business--- that James Arthur Ray claims are gone.
My reasoning is that both JAR and Josh expected these three deaths to be but a blip in the smooth progression of JAR International to complete domination of the new age success scene.

Ray was, after all, still shilling for his next Spiritual Warrior events during the weeks that followed the sweat-tent disaster.

They truly thought that a quick spin job on how those dead people welcomed their release from the mortal coil and were enjoying their freedom 'on the other side' would lead to 'business as usual' within a few days.
They had, after all, previously gotten away scot-free with the death of Colleen on a Harmonic Wealth course. No reason then to assume that they wouldn't get away with these deaths, particularly for someone so egoically out of control and in love with himself as a 'master of the universe and all he surveyed' as JAR.

Had they, as expected, gotten away with these three deaths also swept under the carpet, then the recruits that JAR was shilling for in the following weeks would also have been exposed to the delights of the Spiritual Warrior 2010 event--for which they needed both the master plan for the event and previous briefings of the Dream Team in order to ensure that things went as planned.
Daniel Pfankuch's hospitalisation in 2006? had not significantly altered the running order of events comprising Spiritual Warrior but indeed had motivated JAR to look for ways to give Pfankuch's 'spiritual' experience to even more participants.

I think that JAR put a lot of analytical thought into the refining and improvement of his methods over the years. That would have meant studying past events and plotting a newer, better strategy---army generals as well as business owners put a great deal of emphasis on strategic planning--for which you need proper documentation of those past events in order to subject them to study and eventual improvement.
I seriously doubt that the latest master copy of JAR's brainchild, Spiritual Warrior, the foundation of his bu$ine$$, has been destroyed.

At the end of the day, human beings are all still that, just human, and hate to let go of the end products in which they have invested so much of themselves.
I think this applies as much to so-called 'saints' as it does to so-called 'demons'---being human I do judge and both JAR and Josh belong in the latter category, IMO.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/2010 02:15AM by Stoic.

I suspect (and hope) more light will be cast on this matter during the trial. Megan Fredrickson's immunity interview finished up with her being confronted with the message she had left on an answering machine of one of the staff ordering the destruction of all files relating to the event "before the investigators find them". (That staff member turned the recording over to police.) And of course the investigators walked in with a search warrant just as Josh F was transfering and deleting masses of files.

And Ray had a lot of his work either videoed or taped, narcissistic windbag that he is. His waivers always include giving JRI the right to tape or film whatever they want and include it in their advertising material.

You have a great turn of phrase, Yakaru.

The narcissistic windbag is still selling the secrets of his suck-sess to all comers, despite being a penniless bankrupt shortly to face (February 2011) three manslaughter charges for negligently killing his customers.

Thanks, Stoic!

To add a few more points onto your and Jeannika's comments:

Yes, Ray and some of his staff seemed initially to think the deaths were just a minor blip. There is something highly disturbing about the way they went straight into cover up mode. Megan Fredrickson managed to completely avoid the investigators by hiding in a gift shop on the property. She had all the records of participants which the medics needed. It is thanks to her that one of the victims was admitted as Jane Doe, just like Colleen Conaway was two months earlier. This delayed the time before the person's family could be contacted. I understand that the victim regained consciousness briefly during this period before slipping permanently into a coma. So it seems likely that Ms Fredrickson's evasion of her responsibilities cost a family a last chance to communicate with a loved one.

(Prosecutors have also noted that she was sprinkling water on Ray during the sweat lodge.)

The suggestion that Ray was holding IV drips for medics seems highly questionable. Numerous witnesses recall him standing around gazing at the havoc he had wrought and then saying "I'm going to have a shower" while three participants were receiving CPR. It is a matter of record that he was in his cabin in his undies eating a late lunch when the police arrived.

Josh Fredrickson stated that he told Ray to leave the scene and take a shower. The idea of mousy little Josh F ordering big steroid bloated Death Ray about is probably the least credible statement anyone has made in this entire case.

Interestingly, there is credible information that Ray fled to Toronto (without his passport) after he was briefly held by police that night, and only returned after it was clear that no arrest was imminent.

Hi Jeannika,
You and me both! I was wondering the same thing about those audio tapes that Barber made (that you so eloquently put into words). Douglas Sundling (who will also be testifying at Ray's trial) has a pretty good scenario of the 2009 "Sweat Lodge" and it seems that Mr. Michael Barber was sitting right beside Ray or very close to him in the 2009 "Sweat Lodge " event.. I have a feeling that they are as "thick as thieves" and, yes, I believe he is definately shielding Ray.
Here is Sundling's site.. I know a lot of people are upset that he is testifying in the trial as an expert (as he is not a Native American and he holds sweat lodges)..He, however, was quite critical of most of Ray's actions.
[bogus-sweatlodge.com]

The latest update from Yavapai - the prosecution is arguing against the claim by ray's legal team that a tape of the meeting immediately prior to the sweat lodge should not be admitted to evidence. The defense argued that the tape is private material and therefore protected under the fifth amendment and other laws.

The prosecution has simply quoted the waiver that JRI forced participants to sign in order to do the group.

“…grant JRI and its affiliated companies…the unrestricted right to fix Participant’s image, participation and/or performance, as it appears in the event, in whole or in part, by any means or method; and to use Participant’s name, voice, image and/or likeness as it appears in the event, by any means, in any form, content or medium… and in order to advertise, promote or market JRI and its events.”

That doesn't sound "quintessentially private" to me nor, can I imagine, it will to the court. I have no doubt there will be many more incidents where Ray's previous efforts at feathering his own nest will finish up demolishing his own defense.

Of course courtrooms are unpredictable, but I'd say, if that tape is admitted, Ray is well and truly sunk. (And if it's admitted and it turns out Josh Fredrickson has destroyed it, I would bet on there being more people charged.)

[apps.supremecourt.az.gov]

(h/t WonderingWhy)