The Intell ran a photo of the doc with his hands behind his back as though he had hand-cuffs on! The New Era chose one which showed him in better light talking with his hired guns! (Note to Lancaster Newspaper Attorney George Werner: 5thEstate.com's use of Lancaster Newspaper photos are covered under the "fair use doctrine" in that we are criticizing the choices made by the papers. To do so, means that we need to show our readers what we are talking about! Please do not send a threatening letter telling us to take down these pictures like you have before!)
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Intell Five mostly "no show"
"Judas Iscariot" testifies?
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5thEstate.com was there at Dr. Gary Kirchner's preliminary hearing! What about Lancaster Newspapers? They sent two photographers, two reporters and three lawyers! While the LNP photographers focused on taking pictures of the doctor, they completely ignored their own news worthy staff and lawyers!
The only one of the Intell Five to testify was reporter Carrie Caldwell Cassidy. Interestingly, no reporter currently working for the Lancaster Newspapers testified. The defense called her "Judas Iscariot" and attempted to question her credibility. (The "Judas Iscariot" line brought an audible gasp!) With her "news editor" husband, John Cassidy watching in the small court room of Judge John Winters, she nervously testified. According to her answers, the now Harrisburg Patriot reporter left Lancaster Newspapers in May of 2004 and said that didn't remember when she met with Kirchner. Since Kirchner was only in office in January of 2004, that means that she only worked less than 5 months during his tenure.
Kirchner's Reading based lawyer, Emmanuel "The Greek" Dimitriou showed all of his almost 46 years of experience during the cross examining. Was his skill to show off for his pretty daughter and four adorable parochial schooled grandchildren in attendance or just his normal work? Either way Dimitriou was alternatively deliberate in his questions and quick to jump on a weakness causing the Judge to be very tentative in ruling of admissibility. Dimitriou arrived at the hearing with another lawyer from the firm, the much younger Kurt Geishauser, in a flashy black Lincoln Towncar. The two lawyers walked over to the waiting doc where two Lancaster Newspapers photogs and a Channel 21 camera crew were by his vehicle which was boldly marked "Lancaster Coroner" on the spare tire cover. The smiling, energetic lawyer warned the channel 21 to back off from his client and together they walked into courtroom on Doe Roe Road, Manheim.
As normal, 5thEstate.com publishes NOT as your sole source for the news but to "fill-in" or "straighten out" what Lancaster Newspapers puts out. Here are some interesting points that were highlighted during the 90 minutes hearing:
Interestingly, while the email which showed Lovelace implying that the doc owed him because of spiking a story about him (in the business that means not printing something), the defense attorney didn't bring it up on cross examination. Moreover, the Lancaster New Era story characterized this as "bargaining"!
Carrie offered that "…they were given immunity" rather than "they plead the 5th"!
Under examination, Carrie couldn't say when or where she had met the doc for the first time nor how many times. When pressed, she said "Maybe one or two times". "So", the defense attorney said, "you are saying that Dr. Kirchner, who never met you before, just reached over and wrote down his user name and password on your notepad?"
Brett Lovelace offered to give Carrie the password even though she already had it. Carrie was describing Lovelace "offering" it to her when the Dimitrious asked if she told Lovelace that she already had it? It was the only time that Carrie smiled as she said that did NOT tell Brett that she knew the password already.
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Did Carrie tell Madelyn Pennino the password? Carrie says no. According to the grand jury report, Madelyn, who sat listening in the courtroom, says that she did. Dimitrious declared, "One of you is lying!"
During a rather confusing testimony from the attorney general's gumshoe, Bob Drawbaugh, he explained that Lancaster Newspapers gave printed email to them in "reverse" order. Was the order just "word for word" backward or just email per email backward? Who knows. It seemed that the prosecution was trying to make a point that the newspaper provided them a confusing format on purpose.
In the gallery was editor Jon Ferguson who looked like the clerk at Turkey Hill wearing a tie for the first time!
In his closing argument, Dimtrious declared that the prosecution had "Two witnesses working for Lancaster Newspapers that were found NOT to be credible by the grand jury"
Lancaster Newspaper's Philly lawyer were late for the start of the hearing and missed a good portion of the testimony. The proceeding had to be stopped to allow them entrance. They sat down in the corner along side regular LNP lawyer George Werner and together they whispered and scratched notes during the rest of the hearing. Afterwards, they stood out in the parking lot observing the gaggle of reporters surrounding Jonelle Harter Eshbach – the AG's gun that appeared for the hearing
The Intell ran a photo of the doc with his hands behind his back as though he had hand-cuffs on! The New Era chose one which showed him in better light talking with his hired guns! (Note to Lancaster Newspaper Attorney George Werner: 5thEstate.com's use of Lancaster Newspaper photos are covered under the "fair use doctrine" in that we are criticizing the choices made by the papers. To do so, means that we need to show our readers what we are talking about! Please do not send a threatening letter telling us to take down these pictures like you have before!)
Afterwards, the AG refused to comment on whether the Lancaster Newspapers Reporters, "did anything wrong".
The only warning of punishment for giving out the password that was on the form that the doctor signed was that he could be "terminated". Since he was elected – that couldn't happen!
Stay tuned to 5thEstate.com to get "the rest of the story"!
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