So the State of Maryland filed its response to Adnan’s motion to reopen, which, by way of reminder, he was directed to do by the higher court, the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland. I’d say when the higher court literally says “yeah go file that motion” instead of dismissing the issue at question outright, the ball is already in our court.

Post-state’s response, it’s still in our court. I won’t get into details why, after all Colin already wrote quite well about it and we’ll be discussing it in tomorrow’s Episode 12 of Undisclosed, but suffice it to say the brief is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Thanks to the Swan of Avon for that.

No substance, just posturing. I assume they needed the extension because they realized they’re kind of screwed because there is literally no case precedent supporting them and the best option they have is just delaying, delaying, delaying justice.

But justice delayed is justice denied. Which is what the State has been doing in this case for the past 16 years. It will catch up, in fact it is catching up to them. But they’re making it clear they aren’t going down without a fight. They’ve circled the wagons, and as much as I was hoping they’d be human enough to feel like crap, as they should, for putting away an innocent kid for life, they did what we can all expect “The Man” to do.

I did expect it, especially considering the weirdness we’ve been hit with on getting the investigation done. For example, we initially were aiming to hire a MD private investigator who is former law enforcement, because it just kind of makes sense. So we reached out to a couple different folks, and both took a couple of days and got back to us and said, sorry no we can’t take this case. I guess a case in which one of their own probably did some shady stuff was too close to comfort, have to protect the brotherhood. Realizing the closeness of this bunch, which is also apparent in how vigorously the State is defending Urick, we decided better safe than sorry and got a PI from outside the state.

Then the lab that we sent that brandy bottle I found a few months back in Leakin Park said sorry we can’t do the testing because we work with MD State’s attorney and it would be a conflict of interest. Which may be their policy, but a weird policy indeed. After all, we aren’t asking for an opinion. Just a straight up test and result. Neutral scientific results can now, apparently, pose conflicts of interest. Anyway, band of brothers all the way.

Having said all this, I expect the State to fight the entire way. They’ll keep spending tax payers money on the inevitable, Adnan’s exoneration. Here’s a reminder to them: we have much more to fight for than they do. For them, it’s time and money and reputation. For us, it’s Adnan’s life. We won’t get tired of this fight because we can’t.

LOVE FINDS A WAY

I had the pleasure to speak to Adnan’s ex-wife today for a while. We had spoken years ago when they first got married, but haven’t connected in a long time.

As someone who thinks prying in personal matters is uncouth, I never asked either of them too much about their relationship. I’ll be writing about it all eventually, and have our conversation recorded so may release bits of it here and there. Today I learned so much I didn’t know about Adnan. I always thought he was a great person, after my conversation with her I’m feeling rather humbled. He’s got a heart of gold in ways I never imagined.

And, according to his wife, who I’ll call “K”, she still loves him and would marry him again when he gets home. I can’t wait to tell their story and share everything she has to say about him one day.

THE DYNASTY CONTINUES

Bob did a masterful job, as an investigator himself, in talking about Debbie’s interview (which was conducted weeks after Adnan was arrested) in his most recent episode of Serial Dynasty. He pointed out the leading questions, the tactics, and the oddity of some of their questioning. Especially with the hotel questions.

In case you didn’t hear the episode (but you really should) Bob notes that the police ask Debbie a couple of times whether she knew if Adnan and Hae visited any local hotel or motel to hook up. This is after she’s told them that they hooked up at parks and parking lots. But they don’t follow up with questions about parks and parking lots. They want to know about hotels and motels.

Why?

Bob thinks it may be because they got a tip about a hotel, they have some information that is throwing a wrench in their narrative. I have another theory.

And that’s this: the cops have been around enough to know that Hae wasn’t put in a car trunk after being killed and then buried a few hours later. They know lividity*, they understand it. And they realized that she had to have been fully face down after being killed when lividity fixed, which can’t be in a car. But it can be in a hotel or motel. That, coupled with a receipt showing she had visited a local hotel after school back in November of 1998, probably made them wonder if the “something” she had to do was stop at a hotel/motel.

The question then is this: stop to meet who?

*Bob addresses some of the Reddit drama on lividity and the crime scene pictures in this episode as well, but I’m not going to spend time refuting an anonymous random internet stranger’s interpretation of a picture when we have every expert, from the medical examiner who was at the crime scene, to those who’ve looked at it recently, say the same thing: lividity was fully anterior, but she was found on her side. In a couple of weeks Bob will be interviewing Jim Clemente, who I had the pleasure of speaking to at length. They’ll be discussing the crime scene pictures as well, and that will be yet another expert who will confirm what we know. That Hae was killed and left face down flat somewhere for around 10 hours before being left in Leakin Park. Yay for experts.

I also don’t need to address it because Bob ripped the sickos on Reddit many new holes. The week is starting off great.