• The Incident - At 3:44pm the police got a call of a possible assault that took place a few blocks from the high school.. A 7 year-old girl named Esther claimed she'd been grabbed just as she was almost home from school and taken to an isolated spot by the Winnabago River where she was assaulted then thrown into the river.

• Identification / Truck - The girl's initial description doesn't match Jason at all In the middle of her interview they send her to be examined then to show here their suspect. The chief of police drives the girl past Jason's home 3 times (so she can get a good look at his truck) - at which time she says that looks like the truck and also identifies a young man in the yard as being the perpetrator. It turned out that had been Jason's younger brother, who looked nothing like Jason. A few days after the arrest, she is shown a mugshot book in which a double exposed picture of Jason had been inserted - the picture was completely different than the others and stood out.

• And then it Changes...... The girl states during trial that she is certain it was Jason - because she seen him on television and "they" said he was the bad man, she also states that the "chief and Susan" showed her who this man was. She also claims that she didn't remember the description of the what the man was wearing until she was shown pictures of the clothes taken into evidence. She states again that the suspect's truck had brown Wisconsin license plate and no tailgate (Jason's had blue Iowa plates with a tailgate).

Incident

Timeline

        Links:

• Esther's Page

Identification

• The Police Officers Within moments of arriving at the scene the officers learned that the girl reported a brown truck. Since Jason's truck was brown, he became the one and only suspect from that moment on.. After taking her home so she could change clothes, they took her and father back to the police station where they recorded the first of two interviews. Even though her further description of the truck was clearly not Jason's, he continued to be the only suspect. Her certainty that the man's truck had brown Wisconsin license plates, no tailgate and had little seats in the back (Jason's did not), didn't stop the officers from proceeding (and by this point that included the chief of police and the prosecutor who would end up prosecuting the case).. They had the girl go to the hospital for an examination then out to dinner with her parents. When she got back to the station they took her out on drive by the house where Jason lived with his parents, at which point they state she said that truck looked like the one. Jason's brother happens to be out in the yard on the first of their three trips around the block, and she states that looks like him. (they look nothing alike) They then take her back to the station where she makes the second video recorded interview.

1. The Arrest and Search Warrants - By 8pm, one officer, the chief and county prosecutor has filled out the warrant applications - and taking the first recording to the magistrate even before the second interview was completed. The information given by the officer, is not even factual. Jason is pulled from his sleep and arrested at 11:15 that night.

Shameless Lying Police

        Links:

• Officer index

• Frank Stearns

• Linkenmeyer

• Warrants

Stearns

2. The Interrogation - By midnight, this same officer has started questioning Jason. he begin by only audio taping for a half hour or so, then takes him to another room where they begin video taping. Before the end of that first video tape, very tired and confused, Jason does start trying to guess what the officer wants him to confess too - simply using the cues that the officers drops. But by the end of the hour and 22 minutes on that tape it is very clear the officer has lost his patience (and officer who has reprimands in his file for his anger) . Then that tape abruptly ends, it is claimed that it ran out and they couldn't find another one for approximately 20 minutes to a half hour while the interrogation goes on.. There is no time stamp on these videos. Amazingly, one is found and put in the recorder at the exact time the officer is sitting down to tell Jason that now the need write this up and have him sign it and they.'ll be done. When Jason is reluctant to write it himself, the officer does it for him, leaving his notes of what Jason needs to confess to just off camera.

Coerced Confession

2 - Confession: The interrogation by officer Frank Sterns, who is clearly aware of Jason's disability, yet proceeds anyway. It consists of two video tapes - but the crucial 40 minutes is conveniently missing. The officers claim they ran out of VHS tapes and it takes them that long to locate another one. The first tape shows clearly leading remarks from Sterns - and Jason eventually trying to guess what the officer wants him to say. After nearly two hours of this, with Jason not guessing correctly, the officers becomes clearly frustrated and the tape ends. The second begins exactly at the point where the officer begins writing out a confession for Jason to sign. Jason claimed that (during the time between the two tapes) he was told he had no choice but to sign this statement if he wanted to go home. He claimed that the officer had um-holstered his gun and laid it on the table and also told him exactly what he had to say. The officer also left his notes out for Jason to refer to for the confession (notes can be seen in 2nd tape). The "confession" doesn't even match the reported incident.

• Public defender, Patrick Byrnes - This delightful man is assigned Jason's case and immediately moves for a trial by judge that following week at the arraignment and never arranges for Jason to have a competency test. In fact, up until this point no one has questioned this after being made aware of Jason's handicap from the very beginning, besides the obvious signs of it. It was documented the year before that Jason was at the emotional maturity level of a twelve year old. There was simply no way that Jason understood at that time what he was up against or anything that his lawyer would have advised him on. Throughout the few months before the trial, no investigation was ever done - even after he stumble over discrepancy after another during the depositions. and during the "trial" itself that lasts all of two days. On the third day the prosecution rests - and immediately after so does the defense. No witnesses called, no mention of the time factor or the fact that Jason had the best alibi an accused could want, no closing argument or even a comment.

• Prosecutor, Gregg Rosenbladt

Puppy and Master

    Links:

• Public defender

• Prosecutor

• Judge John Mackey finds Jason guilty of the charges, reasoning that discrepancies in the girls testimony are overshadowed by the evidence, even though none was presented. The lab results showed no sperm was present, the sweep of the truck failed to turn up any prints or hair of the girl, the medical exam showed no injuries or anything to back up an assault or attempted murder. Those charges are all dependent on the ever-changing testimony of the 7 year old girl. After Jason's arrest they used the double exposure photo that the sheriffs had taken and inserted in amongst the police station mug shots with completely different backgrounds. The judge uses her identification in court, the "confession" and the fact that her red tweety-bird backpack was found at the scene as overwhelming evidence.

• Within a few weeks after the sentencing to mandatory life without parole, it comes to light that the judge was sexually abused as a child. He denies ever receiving counseling and states he still has bitter feelings He admits in a deposition taken before the post-conviction relief hearing that following April, that he should have recused himself. And in fact, he does recuse himself of that hearing. But during the course of that hearing , Judge Mackey is seen by several witnesses and the newly hired appellate attorney, coming out of the new judge's chambers. They both refuse to be questioned or answer to what was taking place.

Bias Judge

Judge John Mackey

Links:

Judge Mackey

Judge Schechtman

• The appellate attorney, Dean Stowers - After Jason was convicted, his parents hired a young lawyer from Des Moines who spent the remainder of Jason's appeal over the next decade pursuing the judge who tried the case in hopes of setting a precedent. He does succeed in getting the conviction overturned several years later, but that is quickly upheld later. He takes this course right through to the habeas corpus, then tells Jason's parents that there's nothing else that he can do after that.

Bad Luck Part Two

Link:

Dean Stowers

The Blitz

Links:

Newspapers

• The Mother - And finally this brings me to the cause of all this, without question, Jason's mother is 100% to blame for the outcome of Jason's life.

Mommy, Dearest

Carol Mann

Link:

Carol Mann