Twenty for Twenty-Ten
We learned quite a bit over the course of 2009. Among the highlights: MPD Officer Diane Durham’s end-of-shift statement that contradicted the Trouple’s story on where they discovered Robert; the fact that all three of the housemates either left their places of employment voluntarily or not; a change in judges for the trial, and lastly – that both the US Attorney’s office and the MPD are actively pursuing murder charge(s).
As we look ahead to 2010 and close in on the four month mark until Judge Lynn Leibovitz gavels in the May trial, we are still trying to wrap up some loose ends and find a few more missing puzzle pieces that may help illuminate the events surrounding Robert’s murder and the activities of the defendants and those in their orbit during the subsequent months and years.
In no particular order, our Top Twenty list of case elements we hope to clarify as we move closer to trial:
1. What were the circumstances of roommate Sarah Morgan’s absence on the night of the murder?
2. What did Morgan know ahead of August 2, 2006 and when did she learn that Robert was to spend the night?
3. Were Tom and John, her two gay friends that she allegedly spent the evening with, fully interviewed by investigators to corroborate her story?
4. When did Victor Zaborsky arrive home after his business trip, and when was he supposed to arrive?
5. Did Michael Price’s alibi that placed him far away from Swann Street on the night of the murder fully check out?
6. What role if any did the MPD’s Gay & Liaison office play in furthering (or hindering) the investigation?
7. How will Judge Brook Hedges rule as far as the statute of limitations on Kathy Wone’s $20 million wrongful death civil suit?
8. Will we learn the identity of the “florist” who may have been at Cosi on the morning after the murder and overheard the conversation of the defendants?
9. What was the exact timing and order of arrival and departure of the first responders (police and EMTs) to 1509 Swann that evening?
10. What procedures were performed by EMT’s and GWU Hospital’s emergency team?
11. Who’s blood traces were found on Dylan Ward’s comforter?
12. How is the fund raising going for the housemates legal defense?
13. What leads are the AUSA and MPD chasing in their efforts to bring murder charges?
14. What efforts if any is Zaborsky’s defense team trying to separate him from his co-defendants?
15. After the burglary of 1509 Swann Street, why were the charges against Michael Price and Phelps Collins dropped?
16. Will telephone call and Internet email records shed light on conversations between Joe Price, Dylan Ward, Victor Zaborsky, Robert Wone, Sarah Morgan and Michael Price for the time preceding Robert’s arrival and subsequent murder?
17. Will the missing videotape footage of the interrogations of the defendant’s the night of the murder surface, and will other video evidence not yet revealed be found?
18. Will the R Street condo owned by Joe Price or the Miami Shores property be sold to support the trouple’s legal defense?
19. What will we learn from Robert’s autopsy and toxicology reports?
20. Will the trial actually start on May 10, 2010?
Now your turn. What are we missing?
–posted by Michael, Craig, David and Doug
Will all of this be on the test? I hope!
I would add for extra-credit: Why did Joe pick November 2007 for his charm offensive to Kathy?
Are Dylan’s parents and siblings still behind him both financially and emotionally?
How did the Price family dynamics of the 1970s and 1980s shape the making of Culuket and Michael?
Is there police & prosecutorial misconduct & incompetence evident in the investigation?
Here’s an example in the affidavit where you can see the government putting lies into Medical Examiner’s mouth (parentheses): “According to Dr. Goslinoski…unless otherwise incapacitated (e.g., by being injected with some kind of incapacitating or paralytic drug), Mr. Wone would have reacted instinctively to protect himself and/or fend of his attacker.”
We know this is not always true: “The presence or absence of defensive wounds on the victim may indicate the relationship of the victim to the attacker. Lack of defensive wounds may indicate that the attack was sudden giving the victim no time to put up any resistance or that the victim knew and trusted the attacker before the offense took place*”
This outrageous intentionally misleading allegation in the affidavit did not pass the smell test for me, especially when no drugs have been found!
“Come to Jesus,” indeed! It makes me question the intentions & the competence of all the “black magic” going on with the case from the MPD, ME & USADA. It’s clear to me there has been coordination by these departments, not based on facts, to “nail those guys” How can anybody trust these incompetent, prejudiced bigots?
*http://ezinearticles.com/?Assessing-Fatal-Stab-Wounds&id=1086168
Ben,
So let me see if I have this straight — you believe Dylan Ward murdered Robert Wone, yet the police, who from all public sources are inclined to believe this same theory, are “incompetent, prejudiced bigots?”
David
One lie is all it takes to subvert justice–remember Mark Furman.
The government & the defendants are in this epic predicament because they are both spouting lies.
It’s time for the truth from both sides.
We’re here to demand it.
If these awkward and ill-fitting vestigial echos of Marc Furman and Johnny Cochran are all that Joe has got (“They don’t fit, I can’t aquit!!”) then someone should tell someone’s friends of friends of friends that it really is time for some under the bus throwing and deal making because that dog just won’t hunt (to grossly mash-up a lot of metaphors into one post).
It really is such a pity that Johnny Cochran isn’t alive to coin some cute phrase to encapsulate this theory like “if the drugs aren’t identified my client is getting crucified” … or … er … something like that.
You started it.
Whaa, baby…I do not care what kind of drugs anyone was taking that night. Robert was murdered. And those who are hopefully charged and found guilty, will receive consequences.
Happy New Year Everyone!
Ben, I’m tickled pink that your source for information on “the presence or absence of defensive wounds on the victim” is an e-zine article written by an “online marketer” who cites no sources.
Oh, silly me – she holds a degree in health sciences. Certainly that gives her as much technical knowledge on defensive wounds as a forensic pathologist.
Penelope,
I can give you plenty of other sources with the exact same phrasing. I’m just lazy & it’s clear no one wants to hear it. I know everyone is really keen on the naughty scene the cops made up. Sorry.
Ben,
I know you are such a unique thinker that the rest of us couldn’t comprehend your deep thoughts, but the fact of the matter is your theory is just as naughty — Ward in fugue state propositions Wone, is rebuffed, then murders him.
Sounds just as naughty as the police theory.
David
The naughty scene the cops made up?? Ben dearest, if you can illustrate any other scene that was tripped across by first reponders, wholesome or othwerwise, I’m all ears.
Because Det. Wagner mussed up you boy Joe’s hair a little during the interrogation, you consider everything the MPD has said and allegedly found to be fabricated?
I’m more inclined to believe in elves visiting 1509 Swann that night than a coordinated, multiple player, homophobic-based conspiracy directed against the defendants.
Just to be clear, sexual assault and rape are not “naughty scenes” they are crimes. Murder to is not an act of “naughtiness” or lack of inhibition, it is a crime. The scene that the police encountered when they arrived at Swann St. was a crime scene. No imagination would have been required to determine that something criminal had occurred, not something “naughty.”
Your semantic manipulations bore me, they really do.
Ben – The government can’t walk and chew gum at the same time, let alone conspire and coordinate across agencies.
I don’t buy your assertions.
I don’t charge for them. You can thank me later.
Bigots??
Stop crying wolf, Ben.
I’m off to Paris until the 10th. Happy new year!
Our loss is the salonierres’ gain: say hello to Marie Antoinette for me before she loses her head (again.)
quel dommage
BEN I have elsewhere addressed the protocol for drug testing by coroners. The police, coroner and prosecutors know all about the parameters of defense wound analysis. Wone was not stabbed once; he stabbed three times. Robert was not stabbed in the back. Price, Ward and Zaborsky contend that Robert was killed by an intruder. Are you now saying that while the intruder was unknown to the defendants, he was know to Wone. Oh! I know, Kathy Wone went over to the house, found Robert having sex with Price and Ward, she picked up a knife, he recognized her, she stabbed her husband surgically three times and therefore he has no defensive wounds.
Craig – and all;
looking forward to more great coverage in the new year. ben seems to be less popular than “lance” – though i do miss her defense talking points. at least ben thinks dylan did it — though it is not clear that ben would hold him criminally quilty.
in the new year, i would love an update on the current status of the trouple. are they still struggling to get dylan that equal share of the relationship? is he allowed in the big guy bed to sleep?
also, i want to know how needham and dianne felt when they learned their darling son-in-law (and all-star attorney) spilled the beans to the cops and the world about dylan’s emotional and mental health struggles? as a republican family, have they gotten beyond the shame of a gay and sad s/m son? was there a particular event that we should know about in dylan’s past that could have triggered years with the blues?
happy new year and love to all. good riddance (at least temporarily) to ben. come back lance and other trouple supporters — your posts give me shits and giggles.
At least Lance made sense.
Happy New Year to you too, SDI!
I too feel nostalgic for Lance. I would not go so far as to say that he made sense, but as a trouple apologist he had some style and erudition on his side. Who would have thought that I would miss him, but I do.
Hey, Ben makes me nostalgic for Brian!
Ah Brian, what year-end list would be complete without Brian.
Perhaps, this following headline could have been for an analytical essay in a would-be year-end edition of the defunct Blade –“Lance, Brian, and Ben: The Strange Evolution of the Trouple’s Trouple.”
I agree with all of you about Lance, Brian and Ben. But Ben’s comments seem more contrived and less sensible than the others. Maybe it’s just me.
Sorry I missed wishing you all a Happy New Year!
Though I cannot say I will really be happy until Robert’s killers are brought to justice. Here’s hoping. . . .
Indeed, Robert.
Happy New Year to everyone!
When will the one or more of the trouple be formally charged with murder?
When is the “Dateline” or “48 Hours” expose going to hit the airwaves?
When will Aunt Marcia get tired of Joe eating her out of house and home and kick his big butt to the curb?
How pushy of a bottom will Joe be in prison?
Former darling, I had those very same items on my Christmas list (nothing so far, but there is always next year).
How “pushy” will Victor and/or Dyl be in prison? Will they be cougars or pussy cats? Orange is really not their color, but, at least, they’ll have new roomies and, perhaps, new loves.
I have a 2010 clue-hunting to-do list for the MPD. Perhaps most of this has been done already, but leave no stone unturned, I say. These go back to finding out how Robert was sedated/paralyzed, sourcing any drugs ingested by Robert and the defendants, researching the defendants’ sexual proclivities, and identifying other participants in the crime.
Consult with an anesthesiologist and pharmacologist on sedative and paralytic drugs to test for. Hell, maybe a drug dealer too.
Consult with experts on alternative medicine, acupuncture, and Thai massage to identify nontraditional methods of sedation and paralysis.
Get the curriculum for Ward’s classes in massage, and identify instructors with backgrounds that are potentially relevant.
Identify and research calls made and received in the vicinity of the crime scene, from 9 pm to midnight on August 2, 2006.
Identify all prescriptions filled for the defendants in the month or so before August 3, 2006.
Identify all prescriptions written by Needham Ward (and perhaps other doctors in his practice) and filled in the DC area in the month or so before August 3, 2006.
Identify the sender for all tracked deliveries made to the Swann Street house, the defendants, and other properties owned by the defendants in the month before August 3, 2006.
Research all checks and credit card activity of the defendants and perhaps their inner circle in the month before August 3, 2006.
Identify any money transfers between the accounts of the defendants and their inner circle in the months around August 2006. Find out which accounts Price’s salary was deposited to.
Identify where Ward’s sex toys were purchased, and interview employees on their interactions with him.
Obtain Price’s communications on Alt.com.
Obtain Craigslist postings and responses to ads made from the defendants’ known email and IP addresses. If possible, obtain responses as well.
Consult with the Gay and Lesbian unit and a BDSM community member on local hookup locations and websites. For locations, interview staff and 2006 regulars on possible interactions with the defendants. For websites, find activity on those sites from the defendants’ known IP addresses and email addresses.
Look at the defendants’ water, electricity, and gas bills from the August 2, 2006 billing period and compare usage to other periods.
Find out the defendants’ and their parents’ current financial positions. Collaborate with the USADA to apply pressure strategically.
*Disclaimer: I’m not a techie, a cop, or a lawyer, so who knows how much of this is feasible.
Penelope – This comment of yours from 31 Dec went into the spam box by mistake. Apologies. Craig
I have a 2010 clue-hunting to-do list for the MPD. Perhaps most of this has been done already, but leave no stone unturned, I say. These go back to finding out how Robert was sedated/paralyzed, sourcing any drugs ingested by Robert and the defendants, researching the defendants’ sexual proclivities, and identifying other participants in the crime.
Consult with an anesthesiologist and pharmacologist on sedative and paralytic drugs to test for. Hell, maybe a drug dealer too.
Consult with experts on alternative medicine, acupuncture, and Thai massage to identify nontraditional methods of sedation and paralysis.
Get the curriculum for Ward’s classes in massage, and identify instructors with backgrounds that are potentially relevant.
Identify and research calls made and received in the vicinity of the crime scene, from 9 pm to midnight on August 2, 2006.
Identify all prescriptions filled for the defendants in the month or so before August 3, 2006.
Identify all prescriptions written by Needham Ward (and perhaps other doctors in his practice) and filled in the DC area in the month or so before August 3, 2006.
Identify the sender for all tracked deliveries made to the Swann Street house, the defendants, and other properties owned by the defendants in the month before August 3, 2006.
Research all checks and credit card activity of the defendants and perhaps their inner circle in the month before August 3, 2006.
Identify any money transfers between the accounts of the defendants and their inner circle in the months around August 2006. Find out which accounts Price’s salary was deposited to.
Identify where Ward’s sex toys were purchased, and interview employees on their interactions with him.
Obtain Price’s communications on Alt.com.
Obtain Craigslist postings and responses to ads made from the defendants’ known email and IP addresses. If possible, obtain responses as well.
Consult with the Gay and Lesbian unit and a BDSM community member on local hookup locations and websites. For locations, interview staff and 2006 regulars on possible interactions with the defendants. For websites, find activity on those sites from the defendants’ known IP addresses and email addresses.
Look at the defendants’ water, electricity, and gas bills from the August 2, 2006 billing period and compare usage to other periods.
Find out the defendants’ and their parents’ current financial positions. Collaborate with the USADA to apply pressure strategically.
*Disclaimer: I’m not a techie, a cop, or a lawyer, so who knows how much of this is feasible
Re the drugs…..Joe was known to dabble in street drugs. Probably the best bet.
One word: Ketamine. A widely known and easily obtained party drug.
It paralyses without halting pulmonary function. Most other paralytics can interfere with breathing. There aren’t that many on the market.
Sounds good. But for much of your list law enforcement would need to swear out a warrant demonstrating a legal basis and factual relevance.
So far as the electricity bill is concerned, that probably vacillated “up and down” depending upon the frequency with which Dylan and Joe were using various devices such as electrostimulation units, cattle prods and psychedelic drugs.
Breaking news: the Blackwater charges have been dropped. See the link below.
http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/politics/2010/01/01/blackwater-charges-dropped-war-crimes-are-bad-when-done-by-foreigners/
So, how will this surprise affect the scheduling of the Wone case? Will Spag and Schertler be more invested in Dylan now, because they will not get the billable hours/publicity from the Blackwater or Xe case?
Thanks Clio – More on the downstream effects of the Blackwater developments come Monday.
As to Patrick Martin – We’ll see what we can find. Not a lot has been written about him so we’ll have to do a deep Lexis Nexis dig.
I didn’t think Spag and Schertler were involved in the Blackwater case. As I recall, Thomas Connolly had the Blackwater guards as clients.
SKS, both Connolly and Schertler (and Schertler’s vassal Spag) were defending Blackwater guards: see the Editors’ “Big Guns” posting of May 18, 2009.
This does raise the question: will Connolly have the time and incentive now to redouble his efforts to turn Victor against his husband? Aunt Marcia, do not stand in the counselor’s way, if that is the case!
CLIO Now that the Blackwater cases have been dropped maybe law enforcement authorities can turn their attention to the redwater traces around washers, dryers, showers, drains & killing fields.
One recommendation for the Book Review section: Dossie Easton and Janet W. Hardy, The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships, & Other Adventures, Second Edition (Berkeley: Celestial Arts, 2009).
Aunt Marcia, it is an ideal Valentine’s Day present for the boys: it may be too late to save them from jail, but it does feature a useful section on “constructive break-ups” for polyamorous arrangements.
A monogamous bisexual activist who does not believe in sex outside of love relationships, my curiosity was piqued when I saw that book in the soon to be defunct Lambda Rising bookstore.
But I beg to differ on the utility the publication for the “Poly Armor Three.” As it says in the title,
the book is for the ETHICAL slut. Whatever else Price, Ward and Zaborsky may be, ethical ain’t it.
Hi All,
Season’s Greetings to my friends here – I’ve been gone a week and cozied up to read the latest. I see that sanity has persevered (well, except you-know-who). With some time away, I am of the mind that either Dylan or Joe (or both) just couldn’t stand being rebuffed by Robert, and in disbelief and drug-enhanced indignation, decided to ‘take’ him anyway and ‘show him’. They may have stabbed him after they thought they ‘accidentally’ killed him, but those three knife wounds are indeed premeditated – no one would buy that they didn’t check for a pulse and undoubtedly he was still breathing and his heart pumping. The bastards need to be convicted of murder – after they’re in the pokey for conspiracy. My New Year’s hope is that someone tries to save himself and tells the entire truth.
Kisses for all!
BEA I think you know my theory about Joe having unrequited love for Robert, planning to make an advance on him, preparing for various possibilities, being rebuffed, drugging him, restraining him, sexually assaulting him, etc.
In addition, I have been insistent, as have you, that the knife wounds were not as it were
“accidental.” They were surgical. Indeed so surgical that it is more likely that a single perpetrator inflicted them as opposed to two or three perpretrators.
The quandry for me is whether it was the culinary artist or the Eagle Scout who stabbed Robert. Personally, I tend to think it was the
artist under the direction of the Scout.
You may be right about the probability of Price and Ward checking Wone for pulse and breath, but I am not so sure. In any event, if Robert was under the influence of a paralytic, it may not have been so simple to detect those signs of life.
I believe the wounds were indicative of an execution, frankly. They were upside down, which says to me the perpetrator was above his head. Robert was prone when he was stabbed. And, I still believe he was placed in the bathtub. Perhaps his back was a little elevated on the side of the tub, hence the downward angle of the blade.
Your first five questions continue to be my first five questions as well.
Concerning Sarah, who screamed, and who helped get rid of all of the evidence.
Yes, Editors, when are we getting the much-awaited look at the basement tenant — who appears to be keeping an especially low profile these days? No more Cosi breakfasts, indeed.
Divining the secrets the Great Sphinx is far easier than those of the Divine Miss M(organ).
So now you know.
Not to offend, but I am more interested in the theories of formerly drugged up gay men in this kind of sexually charged situation, then those imagined by so many others.
John, I would imagine your comment would offend the gentlemen on this site more than the ladies on this site. You’re assuming the men on this site can place themselves inside a drugged up murder better than a female. Not offended at all.
That is not what I said. To say it another way, I believe many more often-drugged up gay men could perhaps provide much greater insight in “placing themselves in a drugged up murder better than a female,” to use your words.
Fortunately, there is at least one here.
As much as I love this site, one of its great limitations is how the demographics of its frequent posters are so unwelcoming and predictably judgmental of the gay male drug-using S&M subculture. And by default, extending all sorts of unwarranted virtues to the apparently so clean and pure-as-milk Victor.
I have not seen that kind of behavior from the female posters, John. In fact, I haven’t seen anyone on this site talk down about the S&M community. And I’m on this site EVERYDAY.
I believe the regular posters, myself included, do not judge the S&M subculture. I have stated many times, that I have known many people that are part of that sub-culture. I spent a lot of time with those friends a few years back and went to many “parties” (or scenes, if you like) and organized events. It is a well-organized sub-culture and most make safety paramount.
Lastly, the S&M community is just that….a community. It is tight knit. However, I don’t place Joe et al in that community. Joe was a bit rogue in trolling for participants on alt.com. That is not safe. And the people I knew (male and female) would certainly cast an eye of caution on his behavior. There is always one in the crowd that doesn’t follow the rules, and Joe, of course, would be that one.
The S&M community is a community made up people just like me. I judge them NOT.
As for Victor? His reduced responsibility in the murder of Robert has nothing to do with his presumed lack of participation in S&M. It has to do with his presumed lack of participation in the murder.
So ease up on the female posters, John. Welcome back, but, geez…don’t start.
“Lastly, the S&M community is just that….a community. It is tight knit. However, I don’t place Joe et al in that community. Joe was a bit rogue in trolling for participants on alt dot com. That is not safe.”
You continue to underscore my point.
There are more rogue alt dot trollers out there then there are tightly knit, lifetime card carrying S&M community members.
“Lastly, the S&M community is just that….a community. It is tight knit. However, I don’t place Joe et al in that community. Joe was a bit rogue in trolling for participants on alt.com. That is not safe.”
You again underscore my point.
There are more so many more rogue alt. trollers out there than tightly knit card-carrying S&M community members.
I am going to have to add an “aye” to this part of John’s observation with regards to practitioners of BDSM.
My own experience has been that the overwhelming majority of people (be they heterosexuals, homosexuals or any combination thereof) who feel the need to express themselves sexually by means of kink are just as private about it as so-called normally sexually oriented people. Scenes (of all types) are for people who have the additional kink of liking to express things about their sexuality publicly, they are just a sub-set of BDSM.
When I was in my kink phase I was aware of the card-carriers, the scenes and the play-by-the-rules types. I saw people expressing publicly their kinks (like being lead around on leashes and such) and went to a few rumbles, but I was bored and put off by them. I have no taste for making a spectacle of myself. Now, as for trolling on alt.com or lavalife or some such haven, perversely it seemed more private and there are countless numbers who go about finding the like minded just that way.
No, it’s not too safe, and no it’s obviously not actually private, but somehow it seems like it is.
I think my post went into the void (spam) because I mentioned alt (dot) com.
AnnaZed … is that why so many of my posts seem to be blocked? Thanks for the helpful tip!
It happens to everyone, John. Don’t take it personally. It’s a spam filter glitch.
JG & AZ: Apologies for the overly aggressive spam filter.
I fixed and posted your comments that went in there.
John, your post was about the judgement and “demographics” on this site not about rogue S&Mers. So, to underscore MY point, don’t judge who YOU are judging.
1. What were the circumstances of roommate Sarah Morgan’s absence on the night of the murder?
2. What did Morgan know ahead of August 2, 2006 and when did she learn that Robert was to spend the night?
3. Were Tom and John, her two gay friends that she allegedly spent the evening with, fully interviewed by investigators to corroborate her story?
IS IT NOT POSSIBLE FOR WMRW.COM TO ESTABLISH A LEGAL INVESTIGATIVE FUND TO EXPLORE THESE TOP THREE VITAL MATTERS? TO HIRE ITS OWN EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONAL CRIMINAL INVESTIGATOR? MAKING IT POSSIBLE FOR THOSE OF US ON THIS SITE COMMITTED TO BRINGING TO JUSTICE THOSE WHO MURDERED ROBERT TO CONTRIBUTE AND COVER THESE COSTS THROUGH PAYPAL, ETC.?
That is, I would be eager to contribute to such an indepentent investigative effort, as I would hope many of are other frequent posters would.
I would, too. Miss Morgan deserves such an in-depth study, if only to document the parameters of the devotion of a young lady to her “safe” (only to her) male companions and confidantes.