Bluhm Blog

Stockleman to Plead Guilty in Katie Collman False Confession

METH-MYTH FUELED FALSE CONFESSION -- Anthony Stockleman, who was linked through DNA to the murder of ten year old Katie Collman from Crothersville, Indiana, is expected to plead guilty to her murder on Friday.  Collman's case made the cover of the Sunday NY Times when it was featured as part of a story on the devastating effects methamphetamine use in small-town Indiana.  The meth-angle was a myth -- the FBI and Indiana State Police coerced a false confession from a local meth-user named Charles Hickman -- and maintained that Hickman murdered Collman because she stumbled on his meth lab operation.  Even though the true killer was in their sights, had been seen near the crime scene and was in a white pickup truck that matched the description of the truck in which Katie was last seen, the FBI and ISP let him go and wasted months trying to sell the meth story.  The interrogations of Hickman (I've reviewed the transcripts) were very unprofessional and show agents force feeding Hickman with details of the crime that only the true perpetrator would have known.  Today's story is in the Louisville Courier Journal by Harold Adams. Stay tuned for a more detailed story about the case in the days and weeks to come. 

Get out your VCRs: False Confession on ABC's 'PrimeTime'

NEXT THURSDAY, ABC NEWS' PRIMETIME (10:00 ET, 9:00 CT) will air a three-segment show on the subject of false confessions. The show will feature several false confessions captured on videotape (Roberto Rocha's false confession to the murder of 15 year old Katie Hamlin in Georgia, Robert Armstrong's false confession to a triple murder Phoenix, Arizona), and John Kogut's confession. Yours truly will provide some color commentary on the police interrogation techniques and the show will also feature live footage from the laboratory of Saul Kassin as he and his students produce "false confessions" from students in their classic ALT-Key study.   

Tankleff denied new trial

Judge Stephen Braslow denied Marty Tankleff a new trial in a poorly reasoned result-oriented decision.  Every factual inference was resolved in favor of the prosecution, every defense witness was deemed unreliable, and the court analyzed the testimony of each witness individually instead of looking at the massive amount of new evidence to suggest Marty Tankleff is innocent. Although the decision is devastating, Tankleff's lawyers and army of supporters did not expect to win in Suffolk County.  They are placing their hopes in the appellate court to reverse the judge's decision and finally set Marty on the road to freedom.  Despite an obvious effort to make his decision appeal-proof, the trial court left several meaty issues open on appeal.  And, amazingly, after the publicity surrounding the decision, yet another witness has come forward to testify that Peter Kent was among the trio of men who murdered the Tankleffs at the behest of Seymour's business partner.  For full coverage of these issues, go to www.martytankleff.org 

Tankleff Decision Out Tomorrow

On Friday March 17, at 11:00 a.m., Judge Stephen Braslow will issue his decision in the Marty Tankleff case.  Tankleff was 17 years of age when he confessed (I believe falsely) to murdering his parents in Belle Terre, New York in 1988. Twenty months ago, Tankleff returned to court armed with powerful new evidence of his innocence, including a confession from one of the men, Glen Harris, who was present when two other men  (Peter Kent and Joey "Guns Creedon") murdered the Tankleffs.  The case for Marty's innocence was also bolstered when the son of Joey "Guns" Creedon, the man believed to be the killer, testified that his father had admitted to him that he was the killer.   Tankleff's supporters have kept his hopes alive with a first-rate website (www.martytankleff.org), a blog, and a skilled public relations campaign.  Will it be enough to get Marty a new trial.  Stay tuned. We will know in a matter of hours. The ruling will be made public on the New York courts website, according to a
press release from the courts. Here's the website where the ruling should be
posted at 11:00 a.m.EST  www.nycourts.gov/courts/10jd/suffolk/ 

Video of Amy Yates Press Conference

To see video of yesterday's press conference, visit the website of Atlanta's Channel 11 News at http://www.11alive.com/video/player.aspx?aid=50852&sid=77328&bw=&cid=51

"We just want the right person in jail"

Yates case update: At the press conference today in which Tom Yates, the father of murdered 8 year old girl Amy Yates, called for the release of the 12 year old who had been convicted of his daughter's death, several new facts were learned: 1) Yates spoke with the parents of the 18 year old new confessor and heard him confess in the background; 2) Yates believes that the 18 year old knew details only the true killer would have known; 3) These details include the fact that she was found at the bottom of the hill and that his description matched details of the bruising on her neck andhow she was held down. Prosecutors and police still insit the right boy is in custody.  The AJC quotes Carroll County Prosecutor Skandalakis as saying "He [the young man] could not tell us what happened" and that the 18-year-old has recanted his confession, saying it was the product of a dream. It is ironic that prosecutors and police are referring to the statement as a "dream statement".  Police officers routinely ask suspects if they had visions or dreams to keep them talking about crimes when they claim not to remember details.  It is a classic interrogation tactic and one that has been linked to many false confessions.  It's late arrival in this saga may be some evidence of an attempt to confuse the 18 year old boy and raises suspcions in my mind of a potential cover-up.  The case is back in court on March 29 when Gerald Word, attorney for the 12 year old boy seeks to have the Alford plea vacated.

You don't see this everyday!

What will prosecutors do in the Amy Yates case now that her parents have sided with the parents of the 12 year old boy who was convicted (wrongfully, I believe) of her murder.  Today, both sets of parents will join together at a press conference to call upon prosecutors to release the boy from a juvenile facility where he has been held since he entered an Alford plea in the case.  Amy's father, who angrily displayed photos of his dead daughter when the 12 year old was on trial, feels like he was defrauded by police and prosecutors who led him to believe that the case against the boy was solid. Expect fireworks today when he stands with Gerald Word, the lawyer for the 12 year old boy and the boy's parents, and denounces the State's case as razor-thin and calls upon the authorities to release the boy and to charge an 18 year old who has confessed in detail to the slaying.  In a preview of what is to come, the Atlanta Journal Constitution quotes Mr. Yates as saying: "This man [Word] was my enemy because we were led to believe there was mounds of evidence against his client," Yates said Monday, "but since the trial, we learned the investigators didn't have a thing on the boy but one blue fiber that was in thousands of coats."  The article can be found at:  http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/0314metyates.html

False Confession Story in O (as in Oprah) Magazine

Check out the story on false confessions in the April 2006 issue of Oprah magazine by Melba Newsome.  The article tells the story of Kenzi Snyder (Melba wanted to feature a woman who falsely confessed because Oprah's readership is mainly women) and is filled with pictures of other famous false confessors including Marty Tankleff (see www.martytankleff.org), Michael Crowe and Bruce Godschalk.   

News flash -- Despite the fact that an 18 year old confessed in some detail to the murder of 8 year old Amy Yates in Georgia, a crime for which a 12 year old boy had previously been convicted, authorities refuse to reopen the case.  DNA testing on hairs found on the victim did not implicate the 18 year old (or the 12 year old for that matter) and the Carrolton Sheriff's Office is claiming that the 18 year old was mentally disabled and was mistaken about some of the details. This is not the last you will hear of this case.  The 18 year old was at the girl's home earlier in the day, confessed to his pastor (a former detective), his parents, and even to Amy's father, describing how he and a friend were watching pornography, he noticed Amy, lured her into the woods, tried to assault her, and then strangled her when she started to scream.  The 12 year old, now 15, is serving time in a juvenile correction facility.  His confession was an admission that he accidentally bumped into the girl and fell on top of her. It was a reluctant confession, dragged out of him after interrogators screamed at him (outside the presence of his parents), called him a liar, and plied him with promises of leniency and threats of harm.  Could this be a case of law enforcement tunnelvision or is the 18 year old's story really not worthy of belief.  Stay tuned...

Teen Blogger's Confession Tossed

It's only right that the first post on this new false confession blog is about a false confession from a teen blogger who was tried for murdering her mother. 16 year old Rachelle Waterman was arrested for the murder of her mother under a theory that she lured two former lovers to commit the crime by telling them that she had been abused by her mother. Attention to her case mushroomed when it was learned that Rachelle maintained a blog, entitled "My Crappy Life: The Inside Look of an Insane Person." The blog was replete with swear words, sexual innuendos, and smirking accounts of being an outcast. Her website also detailed minor complaints with her parents but also chronicled happier moments she spent with them. In a trial that was covered gavel to gavel by Court-TV with riveting daily coverage by reporter Harriet Ryan (whose work on another false confession case involving Kenzi Snider, was stellar, and is being published as a book, see http://www.courttv.com/room_103/chapter_six/page1.html), defense attorney Steven Wells shredded the two jilted lovers on cross-examination and raised concerns about Rachelle's vulnerabilities to police pressure through the testimony of a clinical psychologist. The jury did not believe that the State proved that Rachelle knew her mom was going to be killed and voted 10-2 to acquit her. But the biggest surprise was yet to come. After reflecting on the trial, the trial court held that Waterman's videotaped confession was involuntary and false with respect to several key facts needed to convict her. She tossed the confession and barred the State from using the confession in any retrial of Waterman. Could Rachel go free? Stay tuned on Court TV's website for the next chapter in this drama. http://www.courttv.com/trials/waterman/photogallery/index1.html