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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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'Rockefeller' Jury Won't Hear of Calif. Case

Mystery man is person of interest in couple's disappearance

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(AP) – Prosecutors in the kidnapping trial of the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller have agreed not to tell the jury that he is a "person of interest" in the 1985 disappearance of a California couple. But they want the jury to hear the dramatic 911 call and subsequent statements made by a social worker who saw the mystery man take his 7-year-old daughter. The judge did not immediately rule.

Defense attorneys for the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller are seen. Prosecutors have asked the judge to allow the jury to hear dramatic 911 calls in the trial.
Defense attorneys for the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller are seen. Prosecutors have asked the judge to allow the jury to hear dramatic 911 calls in the trial.   (AP Photo/George Rizer, Pool)
In this 2008 file photo, Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, who calls himself Clark Rockefeller, arrives for a hearing at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.
In this 2008 file photo, Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, who calls himself Clark Rockefeller, arrives for a hearing at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.   (AP Photo/Ted Fitzgerald, Pool, File)
The jury in his kidnapping case won't hear that he's a person of interest in the 1985 disappearance of a California couple.
The jury in his kidnapping case won't hear that he's a person of interest in the 1985 disappearance of a California couple.   (AP Photo/ Essdras Suarez, Pool)
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Petem011
May 27, 09 3:13 PM CDT
It is a shame that juries can never hear the whole truth about a defendant's misdeeds. They commit one crime somewhere and then when they commit the next crime, the jury in that case not not allowed information about the first crime. No wonder so many criminals are running loose. Reply
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NutsInNY
May 27, 09 4:58 PM CDT
It cuts both ways, innocent folks are also convicted for the same reason... I sat on a jury where a young guy was accused of gun possession because a handgun was thrown out the passenger side, where he was sitting, of a car driven by another guy. We weren't allowed to hear that the driver, several years older than the accused, had been busted twice before for gun possession. When the kid's lawyer told us that info after our verdict was read to the court, it made us even more comfortable with our theory that the older guy had passed the gun to the younger guy to throw out the window when the cops were tailing them. (And, lordy, ya shoulda seen the amazed, appreciative look on that kid's face when the verdict was read -- he thought he was screwed for sure.)
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TerrifiedCitizen
May 27, 09 4:54 PM CDT
Must be an interesting group of jurors that never read the news... or, perhaps it's the first landmark case to allow the constitutional right to a jury by actual peers. Reply
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