Coercing witnesses, victims, or suspects to change or flip their story is a technique used by authorities to make a case against their chosen suspect. With a mistrial, the retrial will show witnesses with different testimony from their original sworn statements.

The coercion can include blackmail, repeatedly contacting persons and telling them the police side, or police and prosecutor can spend an inordinate amount of time with a victim to implant the desired information and reinforce that new information.

In the Making a Murderer documentary, the interaction between Jodi and Steven Avery showed a couple that was happy with each other. They are seen discussing marriage. Steven is very supportive of Jodi’s new found sobriety and tells her how proud he is. She attended the trial and continued to rely on the hospitality of Steven’s parents.

We also see in the documentary, pressure that was placed on Stachowski to flip for the State of Wisconsin. On 16 February, 2006, Calumet County Investigator Mark Wiegert interviewed Jodi without the presence of her attorney at the Manitowoc County Jail. He showed her photographs of the remains of Teresa Halbach. Wiegert harangued Jodi over her relationship with Steven. Stachowski told jailors that she didn’t want to talk with the investigators anymore.

On 27 February, the State began its assault on Brendan Dassey. Special Prosecutor Ken Kratz unleashed his dogs of war, Mark Wiegert and Tom Fassbender, on Brendan. Jodi Stachowski could wait.

Jodi was interviewed by Natisha Lance for the HLN Nancy Grace show with a publication date of 13 Jan, 2016.

In the interview, Stachowski claimed she never loved Avery, she was afraid of him, and she believed he murdered Teresa Halbach. She claimed that she requested the documentary producers remove all traces of her from the Netflix Documentary.

During the interview Stachowski stated that Avery had pulled her out of their home by her hair and left bruises on her face. Lance noted that the police report did not make statements that would back up Stachowski’s extreme version of the event. Avery was arrested and ordered to attend anger management classes. Brendan Dassey told interrogators that Steven was angry with Jodi because of her drinking.

Stachowski said it was her fear that made act as if she loved him. But, even while he was in jail awaiting trial, she continued her professions of love when talking to him on the telephone.

In August, 2005, Stachowski had started a jail sentence of seven months for fifth offense operating while intoxicated (OWI). That would put the end of her sentence in February, 2006.

Jodi was released from jail on 14 November, 2005, six days after Steven’s arrest. Steven’s mother Delores picked her up from the Manitowoc County Jail. Jodi commented on the mess investigators had left in her and Steven’s bedroom. She said she left her purse on the bed but couldn’t find it. This was not her first release from jail from the August 2005 incarceration.

Jodi visited Steven in jail and continued to talk with him on the telephone. Then, she was forbidden to make contact with Avery by her probation officer. Eventually, she started drinking was returned to jail for that probation violation. Stachowski finally informed the Avery family that she would break off her relationship because of law enforcement hassling her.

During the Lance interview, Stachowski complained about receiving letters from Avery telling her to give money to his mother or he would report her for drinking and driving. Stachowski neglected to tell Lance that she owed about $500.00 to Delores Avery for collect phone calls made by Stachowski from jail.

Stachowski also said she was on the prosecution witness list for the Avery trial, but was not called to testify. Stachowski did not mention that she testified for the prosecution during the Dassey trial. She hadn’t been flipped in time for the Steven Avery trial. But, she was ripe for the Dassey trial.

Someone on the prosecution side noticed that Brendan’s confessions did not match the layout of the Avery bedroom. He could not have seen the victim from the living room. The prosecution team believed they needed to show that Steven Avery rearranged his bedroom after the bloody mess detailed in the Dassey confessions. Apparently, there were no divot marks in the carpet to show furniture had been moved. Maybe the divots disappeared along with the other evidence that would have confirmed the Dassey confessions.

On 18 April, 2007, during the Dassey trial, Special Prosecutor Ken Kratz questioned Jodi. He specifically where she was on October, 31, 2005, and why. She responded that she was in the Manitowoc County Jail for fifth offense drunk driving. Kratz then established that Stachowski twice spoke with Steven Avery via telephone on 31 October, 2005, the date that the State claims the victim was murdered. Kratz did not ask whether she heard anything suspicious.

Then, Kratz asked Stachowski when she had to report to jail for her fifth offense OWI. Stachowski believed it was in August (2005). He then asked how long she was scheduled to be in jail. Her response that it was for seven months.

As seen above, she was released from jail in November, 2005. She was also released prior to November and rearrested which is why she was in jail in November, 2006.

Court records show an arrest warrant served on Stachowski on 30 October, 2005, the day before the State claimed that Avery murdered Teresa Halbach. This was at Stachowski’s Avery Road residence and was for nonpayment of fines from the OWI as detailed in Manitowoc County Case Number 2004CT000431.

Kratz guided Stachowski through describing the layout of the bedroom prior to her reporting to jail in August. And, then asking her to compare a layout, Exhibit No. 75 developed after Avery’s arrest, to the layout “before you went into jail.” Kratz was referring to the August date. There was no mention her arrest on 30 October, 2005. Stachowski testified that the layout was different in August.

That presumably made the confessions valid since the State claimed that Avery rearranged the bedroom after the murder. But, Kratz neglected to ask about the arrangement on 30 October or earlier in October. He didn’t ask; she didn’t tell.

Unfortunately, Brendan’s lead defense attorney only asked Stachowski to verify that the August layout was different from the November, 2005 layout.

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by Brian McCorkle