Since that time the family through their attorney have desperately tried to get cooperation from county officials to actually investigate the matter and to change the cause of death.   County Coroner Dr. John Wukie declared the death a suicide within hours of the death and to this day has refused to change that ruling.  One must ask – how do you declare a death anything without actually viewing the body or at the least conducting an autopsy?  This case is rife with judicial failures and is one that I feel needs to be brought to a much wider public audience.  There is power in numbers and utilizing those numbers for a demand for justice or in the least — that Sandusky County officials do what they are being paid to do by the citizens of their county — INVESTIGATE this case properly.

The Limberios’ were forced to employ the assistance of noted forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht who exhumed Jake’s body and conducted an autopsy.  His findings were that  there is “incontrovertible forensic scientific proof” that someone else shot Jacob Limberios.  Dr. Wecht also stated the the tissue sample had no gunpowder residue in it thus affirming his assertions that Jake could not have shot himself.  Someone else did.  The deputies on the scene also failed to collect all evidence; namely the bullet that was and is still lodged in the ceiling of the crime scene.  They also did not swab the witnesses for gunpowder residue.

“What 10th-grade kid in America wouldn’t say, ‘Let’s see if (the bullet lodged in the ceiling) matches up with the gun?’” Wecht said. “Even a 6-year old boy would say, ‘Let’s see if there were fingerprints left on the gun.’”

“These are basic things,” he said. “There’s nothing special about what I’m saying.”

Wecht also kept tissue samples for the Lucas County Coroner’s office.  The Sandusky Register determined that Sandusky County NEVER sent the tissue samples to Lucas County.  After this information was made known to Dr. Wuchie and his office, he recently decided that they wanted to exhume Jake’s body to perform an autopsy.  Why not examine the tissue samples provided to his office by Dr. Wecht?  Why put the family through the heartache of a second exhumation when he has tissue samples available to review without the need for an exhumation?  Attorney McGookey filed a  Motion for a Preliminary Injunction to block a second exhumation of Jake.

The Limberios’ family are essentially having to BEG Attorney General Mike DeWine to step in as special prosecutor in this matter so that their son’s death is investigated properly — as it should have been done from day one.  They have filed a motion to remove Dean Henry from the case and appoint a special prosecutor because Dean Henry, County Prosecutor is not only the prosecutor on the case at hand, but also represents Dr. Wuchie and others in a civil action filed by the Limberios family.  Conflict of interest, anyone?

Ansted and Dewey appointed Henry prosecutor Feb. 5, in an unusual court order both signed without having an assigned case.

Ansted had earlier recused herself from becoming involved in the Limberios investigation, citing a conflict of interest, but she has refused to offer an explanation how that conflict no longer applied in naming Henry to serve as both special prosecutor and defense counsel regarding the killing of 19-year-old Jacob Limberios.

Legal scholars and practicing attorneys have suggested Henry’s dual roles — as prosecutor and defense counsel — presents an obvious conflict of interest that hampers his ability to conduct a competent criminal investigation properly.

The family sent an open letter to Dr. Wuchie and others asking critical questions regarding the investigation which have yet to be answered.

So, what can you do about it? Demand action.  Sign the change.org petition and share with your friends and family.  Email or telephone Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and tell him to do the right thing by stepping in.  This family deserves answers.

On Friday Hancock County Judge Ronald Wilson rejected the subpoena requests and  cited no legal case from anywhere in the country to support the argument that the three West Virginia juveniles could be compelled to testify but stated in his 4-page ruling that Ohio and West Virginia law differ in their comparisons of a juvenile delinquency proceeding and a criminal trial.

“The proceeding in Ohio is not a criminal action — it is not a criminal prosecution — and it is not a criminal proceeding.”

Wilson added that there is no law his court follows which gives him the right to honor the Ohio request for the subpoenas.  How does this not create a legal conundrum because Mr. Madison’s client has a constitutional right that is being denied him?

Madison said that the victim’s testimony was central to his client’s case and would involve her recollection of her actions before and after the incident, including what she told hospital staff, her friends and a text messages she sent to one of the accused boys after the incident.

“My client has a constitutional right to confront his accuser,” Madison said. “He has to have the right to call witnesses on his behalf.”

With regard to the text messages that Jane Doe allegedly sent -  it has been discovered through social media that her phone went missing for a few days.  Translation: She did not have possession of her cell phone.  I have many questions.  Questions that started me on this journey for the truth back in August.  Here are a few that come to mind with the news of denying the subpoenas.

• What date did the text message allegedly sent from Jane Doe take place?
• Is it possible that Trent Mays may have sent the text himself?
• How would anyone be able to prove that this occurred since it is rumored that no phone records/ping info or social media was subpoenaed?
• What is it that was told to hospital staff and could this information  implicate others?

I agree with Mr. Madison.  Both defendants have the right to confront their accuser as well as call witnesses on their behalf and if it is true that other witnesses are going to invoke their Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves to avoid prosecution – how will this affect the entire trial?

I was sued for defamation of character for allowing the exchange of ideas and opinions on this blog.  My anonymous commenters lives were changed as well.  I am sure many of them are hesitant about ever voicing an opinion online for fear of becoming a legal target again because in their town you aren’t supposed to talk about it.  I was hospitalized for a week while trying to defend myself from accusations of defamation and trying to make sure that my John Does weren’t hung out to dry.  I’m okay with that.  It was worth every second of it to stand tall and fight for what I believed in.

And then my life changed when people who I thought were my friends jumped on the “Alex is attacking our town” bandwagon and used our friendship as a weapon in their attempts to wipe their own slate clean.  My writing about Steubenville has never been an attack on the town as a whole.  There are some wonderful people there, and I still have friends and supporters there.  I wrote about this case because I was providing information that the media was not.  ANYONE looking for the information could have found it.  I lived in Steubenville and think I have insight into what it is like there.  I have no grudge against an entire town.  I have no grudge against individuals – even the mother of my former best friend who wished AIDS on me and hoped that I died a slow death.  I feel sorry for her that a woman her age has is capable of this much hate and I am embarrassed that Connie’s mother has brought her own family shame because of her behavior.

This is someone’s mother.

Indeed, lives have changed and will continue to change.  Life is change.  Embrace it.

When Deanna did not come home that night her mother became worried and called Pataskala Police to report her missing.  She had received a phone call from Deanna that disturbed her.  She said Deanna had told her that she didn’t feel right and was feeling dizzy.  Deanna was due to deliver her child soon.   Deanna’s car was found in Delaware County when someone called the sheriff’s office to report that a car with Colorado license plates was parked in the grass near the tree line along the road.  Deanna’s body was found in the backseat.  A coroner’s report determined that she had died of a heroin overdose and her death was ruled suspicious.  Deanna’s family was adamant that she was not a known heroin user and maintained all along that she had met with foul play.

The autopsy revealed that Ballman had a puncture mark on her left thigh and possibly had heroin in her purse.

She also had morphine and codeine in her blood system at the time of her death and had morphine, monoacetylmorphine, codeine, acetylocodine and diacetylmorphine in her urine.

Ballman also had a 1/4 inch contusion on her left elbow.

According to 10TV.com, police officers responded to Dr. Salim’s  home 11 times in recent years.  Some of the incidents involved disagreements with women – two of the women claimed to have allegedly met on Craigslist.  It is alleged that he placed ads on Craigslist for “models”.

A Grove City woman had also reported her meeting with Ali Salim.  She thought she was going there for a “good paying modeling job” and when she arrived he wanted to paint organs of the anatomical system on her and take pictures.  Her uncle was with her and called police when Salim wouldn’t pay her.  You can hear the phone call on the video.

Salim was indicted on two counts each of murder (one for Deanna and one for her unborn child) and tampering with evidence, as well as single counts of rape, assault, kidnapping, corrupting another with drugs and abuse of a corpse.

“Her demeanor, the way she would speak about the children, sometimes I would hear her talk down to kids. It seemed odd to me.”

This comment was left on WTOV9.com’s site regarding Debra Copeland.

http://www.wtov9.com/news/news/students-family-student-releases-video-alleged-abu/nWMwt/#/comment/p1/c527715/

Deb Lemire is the organizer of V-Day Akron and   coordinated the flash mob to coincide with One Billion Rising, a global activist movement that brings attention to violence against women and girls.  I have seen a lot of not so nice comments by some  individuals in Steubenville who are claiming that outsiders have ruined the reputation of their town.  I think it is awesome that outsiders continue to come to their town to bring attention to violence against women and girls.  These people are making a difference.   Perhaps those who are complaining could learn something from the “outsiders”.

Read more here.

Third Wintery Weather Rally

(Thankful good people like Prinnie were willing to share the truth, hard as it was to hear).

Tying my hood a little tighter, as the wind sneaks through to my ears, shuffling my boots to dig deeper into the patch of snow and ice so I don’t slide off the curb where I’m standing to give myself a few extra inches of height…..looking at the crowd of speakers..at the Guy Fawkes masks, wondering which one is which…do the social media admins even come to these local protests? I am not as computer savvy as I’d like to be. I don’t tweet, I don’t even own a cell phone…refuse to be that assessable…always did hate phones. But, have been following these young Anon’s that have put up Facebook pages on her behalf. Most of them are probably not much older than she.

Been spending parts of days off of work going from one Facebook page to another, reading article after article, post after post, (I even found twitter on my iPad), searching, waiting, hoping that more will have the morals, values and character to do the right thing, to stand up and state, “I was there, this is what happened , this is what I did, and I am very very sorry”. But, the teens who attended these rape crew parties obviously have parents whose parenting skills are as rusty as the skeletal remains of the steel mills that lie dead on the shores of the Ohio.

So many involved and only two taking the fall for all. The posts from these deviants along with my intuition tells me there are other rapists who have been kept safe from the same fate.

Just one from the very large crowd of the apathetic ‘I didn’t help her’ guilty came forward to apologize to this young victim. Not only does no one else step up to apologize to the innocent students for the shame they brought upon their school, but many big fish in this small pond of a town are going to extreme measures to discredit the very people who are here for this little girl. Instead of honest, lets fix this mess and salvage our reputation, there is damage control. For many it is easier for this dying town to make excuses for and divert attention from the football team, involved students, coaches and school board members than to confront, acknowledge and amend. I am frustrated at the lack of empathy.

I am angry that the very citizens of this town did not call forth this rally to stand up for this victim and to state loud and clear, ‘Rape In My Town Is Unacceptable!’

But they didn’t, so here I stand with these strangers who did; old, tired and growing colder. Beating my gloved hands together to try for a little friction heat. I read the protest signs, lend my ear to the voices, smile at these vocal youth who are all heart, giving the only thing I can offer this young girl – my presence and support.

I stand in the middle of a group. Surrounded by local police who are keeping their crumbling city safe from this little old lady so bundled up she can barely move. A kind person passes out hand warmers and blue ribbons. This rally is young, old, man, woman, boy, girl, victim, survivor, neighbors of Ohio Valley near and far. We are masked and unmasked. We are a presence sharing our hope that she hears our voices saying, “we are so sorry sweetie, we are doing what we can to drown out their apathy , hoping our presence will bring enough attention to this case that as hard as they might try to stop it, you have a fair chance for justice”.

I tie my Steeler black and gold scarf a little tighter around my neck, carefully step off the icy curb to make my way across the river to home ….a little lighter in heart because these people braving this weather, speaking from their heart…. are something that is right in this world.

While waiting for the mail to make its way to West Virginia, the kids are going to need to eat.  I spoke with Rob at Fox’s Den Pizza in Weirton and he has agreed to take phone donations towards a gift card for pizza for the weekend.  You can call (304) 723-3697 and ask for him.  He will take your cc info towards  gift certificate donation.

A very special thank you to everyone who has helped and to Kathi Eastham, owner of Fox’s Den for helping these families out!!