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Bill Richbourg: C’mon Down!

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So in the long line of people who cashed in, exploited and turned a blind eye in the Billings case, I want to welcome Bill Richbourg to the cast of characters who should be on the other side of the bars that they put their clients in. Mr. Richbourg could arguably be the most deplorable of the attorneys who rolled over and played dead in this case. Mr. Richbourg was hired by Gary Sumner to represent him. He paid Mr. Richbourg. For 6 weeks seemingly, work was done to further the defense case for Sumner.  But on April 25, 2011, the day set for the jury selection, Mr. Richbourg tells Sumner (as they approach the courtroom) that he could not win this case, Sumner had no option but to take a plea. Richbourg strong-armed a disadvantaged young black man. Then the state had the gall to sue Sumner for the time they wasted for trial.

But the best part here is that Richbourg had an agenda from the onset of representing Sumner. He represented Bud Billings in the adoption fraud suit that somehow left the “stolen” child with the captor. Richbourg organized that circa 1989-90.

Can you say CONFLICT???? Representing a man that killed a past client and then tanking the representation? Cheryl Barnes, Gary Sumner’s mother, should be suing this man on Gary’s behalf. Not only unethical, but it rises to level of criminal when he forced Gary into signing away his life rather than actually representing him. Any civil rights lawyers out there should be on top of this.

But the people who failed to do their job in this case is so numerous. Richbourg is just ONE of the highly respected attorneys who dropped the ball.

Tony Henderson forced Lenny Gonzalez into his plea and signed off on the man’s legal mental competence, despite the SSI ruling that states the man has brain damage, dementia, and numerous mental health issues. Also his VAN WAS INOPERABLE. That was a defense within itself, but Henderson managed to negotiate Lenny’s fate which led to his death. Shouldn’t that be beyond malpractice as well?

What about the public defenders who handled Florence & Thornton?  There was a huge case for coerced confessions but they never represented their clients. They took the money  the state paid them and walked those boys into prison.  Now their lives are cast in stone.  Statistics say that uneducated black men imprisoned early (18-25) build “criminal capital”. They turn prison into a community that they are comfortable with, can network in, to feel a sense of inclusion into SOMETHING. It is the same psycho-social phenomenon that draws people into gangs. That is on  Joel M. Cohen (Florence’s public defender),  & Cheryl Alverson (Thornton’s public defender).

Richbourg has a great deal of company in his criminality.  I hope to see them punished just like Eddins, Geeker & Sir David.

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The Foundation of the Billings Case Built on Sand

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Transcript of Bill Eddins speaking at the Rotary Club on Sept 17, 2013

….They located the owner of the red van as a result of  that being publicized or where the red van was. It was Leonard Gonzalez Sr. On Sunday, he was brought in, July 12th, he was brought in to the Sheriff’s office to be questioned and we expected that..we had developed enough evidence to charge him with accessory after the fact. We expected that is what he would be charged with. We developed evidence that he had tried to put on some paint, he started painting and had it hid behind his house. I decided to contact the Sheriff’s office and I went down to the Sheriff’s office and determined while he was talking to them he was not being honest. He was BS’ing them were the words I used. Paraphrasing. I asked the Sheriff if he thought it might be helpful if I spoke with him. He decided it would do no harm. I decided I would speak with him. So I did and indicated to him who I was and that I was the State Atty and that my office would be prosecuting these cases. And that we knew there were a large number of people involved based on what we’d seen on video tapes and we knew sooner or later some of them would talk and confess and tell on everybody else. I knew he wasn’t being truthful. I wasn’t gonna be there but 5 more minutes and our office decided whether-who we will seek the death penalty against. And I found in matters of this nature that it is always better to tell the truth. The train is leaving the station and if you want to get on it all you got to do is tell the truth. He started BS’ing me (I’m paraphrasing). I told him I was leaving and I walked outside. I told the Sheriff and the Sheriff and I discussed it. Sheriff Morgan and I agreed we could arrest him for accessory after the fact anyway since he obviously wasn’t gonna talk. A high bond was placed on him and we went back and told the investigators what we had done. One of the senior investigators got very upset and said “now you ruined it, we will never solve this case. This man is not gonna talk. WE could have got him to talk and here you go ruining it”. Just as he said that, a knock at the door came and the man said Mr. Gonzalez wants to know if you would possibly come back and speak to him again. So I did. I expected him to confess. He was an older man who lived a hard life and I expected him to tell me about being accessory after the fact, but when I sat down and gave him his rights, he let out the whole story. …from there we were able to round up the rest of the people. Some of them confessed; some didn’t

If this “confession” lead to the other arrests, wouldn’t it be ironic if this confession proved to be fruit from the poison tree?  The poison tree being this inadmissable confession.

People with mental disabilities have often falsely confessed because they are tempted to accommodate and agree with authority figures. Further, many law enforcement interrogators are not given any special training on questioning suspects with mental disabilities. An impaired mental state due to mental illness, drugs or alcohol may also elicit false admissions of guilt.

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Above is the Social Security Determination that establishes Leonard Gonzalez Sr. as suffering from dementia, concentration problems, memory impairment, and paranoid personality disorder,  “Having marked difficulty in maintaining social function and deterioration of adaptive behavior”.

“After careful consideration of the full record” an Administrative Law Judge declared Mr. Gonzalez Sr. totally disabled under the standards defined by the SSA due to organic brain injury and mental impairment resulting from that injury. Gainful employment for any sustained period is unforseeable. Dementia and memory impairment are acknowledged and documented.

Being in Mr. Gonzalez Sr.’s presence, NO ONE can have the sense that he wasn’t mentally impaired. It is reported by family that on the day in question, that he was arrested, Mr. Gonzalez Sr. had been up for 3 days, smoking crack. Again making him far from sound mind and less apt to cover the deficiency he had psychologically and mentally, yet, Mr. Eddins took a confession of this man which led to 7 more arrests.

This confession is tainted by the knowledge of this man’s incapacity. All info stemming from this “confession” should have been inadmissable and this may have saved Mr. Gonzalez Sr.’s life as well as Pamela Wiggins.

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Proof of Two Vans

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Billings case- Saturday, July 11 - Rick's Blog.clipular (2)

Then as the investigators follow the breadcrumbs to Palm Court to Leonard Gonzalez Sr., lo-and-behold, there sits a red van that has been covered in an attempt to disguise it. Which van is the crime van? The one found on the BOLO that was Mr. Hartsfield’s old van  who he says he sold to Terri Poff for her son Patrick Poff aka Patrick Gonzalez Jr. that was being housed at the property of Lenny Gonzalez Sr. where it had not moved for weeks. So when investigators follow the trail to Sr’s home, there is another van there. But if they have the van found by Smith then what necessity is there to take this van into custody, because based on VIN numbers they are supposed to be ONE van.

Lest we not forget Blue Markham’s statement prior to any of the vans mentioned are located claims that he sold the van in the video footage to one, Cab Tice from the lot owned by Billings a few weeks before the murder.

Now the van supposedly taken from Lenny’s home was destroyed as it was damaged by water in the jail explosion. The secret of the van may never be unearthed.

What Really Happened After the Billings Murders? The Untold Story

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csi

Throughout the years since these horrific murders in Pensacola, thousands of documents, articles, interviews and depositions have been released to the public, but none of them encompass the truth revealed by the facts of the case. Surprisingly, all the exculpatory evidence as to the identity of the 5 men that bombarded the Billings’ compound on that July night, has never been covered in the media.

Sheriff David Morgan, contrary to all guidelines of criminal investigations, dumped boat loads of information about the case into the public domain before the investigation had evaluated such data or even vetted it for truth. This immediately spun into storm of chaos and confusion within the Sheriff’s office, within the investigation and naturally within the media. The most astonishing thing is that there is a statement of an investigator, who is currently in Internal Affairs, that a narrative of what happened to the Billings’ that fateful night was released to the national media with a complete background on 8 people. This was prior to the actual information received by the investigators working on the case or had been established as leads. The narrative released to the press was from the Sheriff’s office and included booking photos and driver’s license photos of people. How could the Sheriff’s office work up a narrative and press package with pictures when the actual investigators had not heard the names of the people being sold to the public as the killers?

Another fun fact is that the beat up red van in the video was found at a weigh station in Alabama, which is consistent with the escape route that deputies theorized. Until someone comes forward to say that van may have been his van. James Hartsfield is concerned his old van sold to Terri Poff was the van in the video. So as deputies follow up that lead and track the van in question to Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Sr’s home on Palm Court. But “surprise”, there sits another van. One van at the weigh station and now one in the yard of Gonzalez Sr. They are similar vans but there are distinct differences in mirrors and doors. What happens next? Gonzalez Sr’s van is taken into custody because he is acting weird. The weigh station van disappears. Baldwin County deputies who reported the abandoned vehicle say it was never impounded by them. It was assumed Escambia County would take care of it, but in the meantime, the van disappears from the weigh station. “Poof”. No more second van.

Now all this is known to everyone surrounding the investigation within 72 hours of the murder. Yet no one reported any of these things. Rick Outzen, his own words in telephonic interview was on the scene at the Billings’ house, has not reported any of this to the public. He even recalls Ashley Markham screaming in the driveway of the Billings home that night that “He did this” pointing to her brother, Justin Billings, who later tested positive for gunshot residue on his hands and no emotion while talking to deputies moments after the horrific murder of his parents. How does a second van and complete backstory of a crime get past the fact checkers at the Sheriff’s Office? Well, that brings up another point. According to a sworn deposition by Chris Baggett, a deputy involved in the investigation, there was no true head of the investigation. There are at least 6 investigators who are not briefing each other on their own knowledge of the crime while they are each working different angles. There is no logging of who interviewed who and when. There were many interviews with Bill Eddins (State Attorney) and ECSO officials with suspects that were improper because an attorney was requested and that request was ignored as well as numerous interviews that are never recorded. When asked if anyone was in charge of making sure all the statements of the people being interviewed was recorded, there is an answer of “No” by more than one deputy. People were walking in and out of interviews. Chris Baggett had info on the van but he did not have time to brief Lee Tyree who was talking to the suspects. So he didn’t have Tyree’s knowledge from the interview and Tyree didn’t have his knowledge of the van.

With all this chaos, a story suddenly emerges to the national news of what happened. How is that possible when there was so much disorganization? There are pictures of people who aren’t even known to the investigators on television with a story outlining their roles. What kind of Sheriff’s department is running this town?

So many missteps that it would make OJ Simpson’s case look more credible than this. No reporting of facts. Leaking stories that cannot be corroborated. Not even knowing which deputy, official or random citizen had been allowed to talk to the suspects. No honoring of the invocation of counsel. No REPORTING OF THE MADNESS THAT WAS THE SHERIFF’S OFFICE. Yet David Morgan looks nice in his press conference, but the paperwork that was on his desk did not support a word he spoke within the first 5 days of the case. Anybody with a conscience on the fringe of this could see this was a dog and pony show. Yet no one had the guts to say anything against the Sheriff. Deputies were understandably wary of ratting out their boss but what about the media? What about Mr. Outzen? He had all these facts. He even told Damien Cave of the New York Times on August 19th, 2009, he was committed to finding out what happened in this case. The article titled, “Blogger Stirs a City by Suggesting That a Florida Couple’s Murder Was a Contract Killing”, touts Outzen integrity in journalism and his family legacy of fighting against political wrongs done in the civil rights era. Yet he chose to not address a single discrepancy mentioned above to people of Escambia County.

Why is that?