INHERENTLY, the “scales of justice” veer irreversibly off kilter when a victim’s killer roams free. This is doubly the case when an innocent defendant pays the price. Justice denied on a two-tier level. A grave miscarriage. A perversion of the legal system.

{at “Patriotic Israeli” – http://www.kr8.co.il/BRPortal/br/P102.jsp?arc=978318}

FULL Disclosure: As an investigative journalist steeped in “follow the money”, and an expert in the Muslim Brotherhood/Islamic Jihad, I have the utmost respect for those who secure law and order. Let there be no doubt. Besides, anyone who knows me would attest to the same; both on a personal and professional level.

UNDOUBTEDLY, the risks in bringing dangerous suspects to heel are graver than most realize. Life and death. Not only that, while living in the U.S., I spent a good part of my adulthood standing squarely behind the Police and Prosecutor’s aisle, to one degree or another.Thus, this particular case is absolutely an anomaly. It merits special significance. Attention. To wit, I am aligning with the defense. A first. 

IN this regard, the justice system, if operating properly, has no greater burden, other than to obtain justice for the victim. This is their sworn and moral duty, regardless of outside pressures. Mission Number One. On the other side of the scale, the incarceration of an innocent person is a grave injustice. Unfortunately, said deleterious outcome transpires when a compromised team of investigators, coupled with an out of control Prosecutor’s office, toil to satisfy other “masters”. Intolerable. 

INHERENTLY, the Prosecutor’s office, at least in a functioning democracy, above all else, must seek justice, not merely gain a conviction, whatever the costs. Furthermore, they are not allowed to adjudicate in line with, in service of, the desired verdict of the Police and Judiciary – justice be damned. Understood?

CONSEQUENTIALLY, for redress to be truly served, the perpetrator must ultimately be brought before a Court of Law, and in a timely manner with all due process adhered to. Resultant, if found guilty, a sentence must be rendered and commensurate with the crime at hand. Few would argue otherwise, unless one is living by the “laws of the jungle” or is a committed Islamist. Same calculus.

BE that as it may, as an American-Israeli (living in Israel since 2008), I am intimately familiar with America’s criminal justice system. In fact, my area of studies concentrated in criminal justice/forensic science, in tandem with geo-politics. A two-tier nexus exists in this arena; familial-wise, plus professional access to high-level justice-related contacts. 

SEGUEING over to Israel’s legal system, well, let’s just say that there are differences. It can be akin to, for lack of a better descriptor, a balagan…בלגן…topsy-turvydom. Incontrovertibly, said contrasting systems became glaringly/disturbingly obvious while reporting (investigating) on behalf of HONENU; a national legal defense organization, one which provides legal aid to Israeli soldiers and civilians in distress.

NEVERTHELESS, regardless of locale, little is more heinous to this investigative journalist (blogger), other than the murder of a child – willful or accidental. As a matter of record, the crime of drunk driving – often leaving a string of mangled bodies in its wake – is an intolerable crime, even though usually deemed by the courts as “unintentional.” Not on this end. After all, dead is dead. 

BACK to the case at hand…the butchering of 13-year-old Tair Rada, an Israeli on the cusp of her teenage years.  

TRAGICALLY, in 2006, a beautiful young girl was viciously murdered in the northern Israeli town of Katzrin, Golan Heights. She was found in her school’s bathroom, Nofey Golan High School. This is clearly not in dispute.

HOWEVER, even though one (of several) suspect was eventually convicted, the case has been plagued with so many irregularities/inconsistencies – and this is a generous assessment – the Supreme Court intervened. Nevertheless, even with said intercession, the same (partial) judge retried the case! Outrageous. Prejudicial. Biased.

AS reported, May 5, 2014:

Roman Zadorov, 32, was first convicted in 2010 of the murder of Tair Rada, 13, in the Katzrin local council. The Supreme Court then ordered the Nazareth District Court to retry the case. Six weeks ago, the court confirmed the previous verdict.

Zadorov’s attorneys, Tel Aviv district public defender Elkana Leist and Dr. Itai Hermalin of the Tel Aviv University Law Clinic, said that the district court made a mistake when it chose to accept the expert opinion of Dr. Constantin Zeitzav for the prosecution over that of the defense’s expert witness, pathologist Dr. Maya Forman Resnik.

Leist and Hermalin want the Supreme Court to accept Resnik’s opinion that the cut on Rada’s chin came from a serrated knife. When Zadorov confessed at the time, he mentioned a box cutter. They also want the court to take into account that the same judges who had heard their client’s original case also heard the appeal.

According to the defense, the claim by another expert witness for the prosecution, police Superintendent Yaron Shor, that bloody shoe prints found at the scene were Zadorov’s, was “weak,” and there is no proof that the shoe prints belonged to Zadorov.

ACCORDINGLY, Dr. Haim Sadovsky explained how innocent people – before they know it – confess to the most heinous crimes. Basically, as a by-product of massive psychological pressure (brought to bear by high intensity interrogation techniques, certainly valuable when a suspect is guilty) confessions are elicited – guilt or innocence notwithstanding. Simply put, when an onlooker rightfully queries: Why would an innocent person confess, the answer (for the most part) lies within the body’s reflexive physiological response (for this discussion, it is too complicated to go into specific components) to a seemingly hopeless and pressurized situation.

NOT only that, before Zadarov’s trial his cellmate chatted him up, on instructions from the police. Simply put, he was a jailhouse informant, another coercive method used to build cases. Thereby, Zadarov theorized: Perhaps, in an unconscious state, he may have committed the crime! At this juncture, he didn’t know if he was coming or going. In plain-speak, he would have admitted to being “Jack the Ripper”, if asked. After all, the Police said they had DNA/forensic evidence, alas, who was he, a poor and undocumented laborer, to argue with these seasoned professionals. Besides, they were packing heat.

AS you will soon see, indeed, the Police and the Prosecution LIED! In Hebrew, fabricators are coined: שקרנים. I call them: Bastards.

NOW, let’s get to the heart of the case, the Exhibits.

EXHIBIT A – CONFESSION

IN fact, there were so many severe issues with the case, even his so-called “confession” was incontestably tainted. Let’s start with that, since the Police and Prosecution believe that this “admission” sealed his fate. NOT so fast.

FIRSTLY, a backgrounder: Some of us are familiar with the methods utilized to elicit false confessions via intensely coercive interrogative techniques. You know, the oft bandied about “good cop/bad cop” tag team approach. Oh dear, it’s not just a tactic used in tv shows. “It be” reality. How do I know this? Well, straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. Several interrogators (seasoned Detectives, from both the U.S. and Israel) admitted as much, albeit off the record, when interfacing with them for this and that investigative info. Let’s just term it: Quid pro quos.

SPECIFICALLY, according to several credible experts, the following explains the physiological and psychological components of a false confession. Hence, the creation of the highly successful Innocence Project, a U.S. non-profit to counter these miscarriages of justice. 

In an effort to find out what leads innocent people to making false confessions, researchers from Iowa State University launched a study that measured numerous indicators of stress, such as blood pressure, heart rate and nervous system activity.

The results showed that stress levels increased for all participants when they were first accused, but they were significantly lower for the wrongly accused. Researchers said that’s a concern because it can make those who are innocent less likely to vigorously defend themselves in a real interrogation.

“The innocent are less stressed because they believe their innocence is going to protect them and they think everything is going to be OK, so there is no reason to get worked up over this accusation,” said Stephanie Madon, an associate professor of psychology and researcher for the study.

“But if you’re going into a police interrogation and you’re not on your guard, then you could make decisions that down the line will put you at risk for a false confession. Because once you talk to police, you’re opening up the chance that they’re going to use manipulative and coercive tactics,” Madon added.

Madon, along with Max Guyll, an assistant professor of psychology, said that minimization is one of those tactics used in interrogations and the tactic they used in their study.

As Guyll explained it, by minimizing the severity of a crime, investigators try to convince the person they are questioning that it’s in their best interest to confess. Although it’s initially easy for the person to defend his or her self, they start to wear down over time.

“If you’re brought in late at night and kept for several hours, you’re exhausted, and you have these investigators who are in a position of power. They’re challenging everything you say and they’re not accepting anything you say,” Guyll said. “That pressure starts to take a toll physiologically and there’s a greater chance you’ll give up and confess.”

As one can imagine, once an innocent person ends up making a confession to a crime they did not commit, the stress they previously minimized starts taking a toll.

THIS same critical aspect was deeply explored in Dr. Haim Sadovsky’s book: “Innocent Condemned.” Specifically, it was penned in relation to Zadorov’s confession because his interrogators not only menaced him, but they “led” him in the direction they wanted him to go!

INTRINSICALLY, several layers of lies “supported” the confession. Compromised. 

EXHIBIT B – SHOE PRINT

INCREDIBLY, the Prosecution’s most “solid” evidence, a purported shoe print, was best summed up by an expert among experts: Non-existent. Can you believe it? You better. 

ACCORDING to William Bodziak, a Special Agent for the F.B.I., the shoe print evidence (I repeat) didn’t exist, at least in relation to Zadarov! For the record, this link is germane and explanatory – http://www.kr8.co.il/BRPortal/br/P102.jsp?arc=621191.

READERS, let these bombshells sink in. But hang on…there’s more. Adding fuel to the Prosecution’s misfiring, not only is Bodziak world-renowned in this arena of forensics, he taught shoe print forensics to Israel’s so-called experts ! Credo quia absurdum. Again, can you believe it?

Dr. Bodziak has written a book on the topic of footware identification W.J. Bodziak, Footwear impression evidence: detection, recovery and examination (2nd ed.), CRC Press, London (2000).Between O.J. Simpson’s civil and criminal trials, pictures showing O.J. Simpson in Burno Magli shoes were discovered. The existance of these shoes was evidence admitted to the civil trial, when the Mr. Bodziack restated his testimony. There were multiple pictures produced as evidence from different cameras, since it was alleged the first pictures were forged.

“William Bodziack, an FBI agent and one of the country’s most foremost experts on shoe print impressions, testified that the prints were left by Bruno Magli shoes, style Lorenzo, incorporating a Silga sole with a waffle-type print. The footwear, manufactured in Italy, retailed for $160 per pair and was sold by only 40 retailers across America. In all, only 300 pairs of size 12 (Simpson’s size) were ever sold. Only 9% of the population wore size 12. Simpson had denied ever owing a pair, calling them, “ugly-ass shoes.”However, on September 26th, 1993, AP photographer Harry Scull Jr. had taken pictures of Simpson wearing these exact shoes at the Rich Stadium in New York.” 

EXHIBIT C – DNA 

DESPITE a VERY BLOODY crime scene, the defendant’s DNA was nowhere to be found. Incredulously, more than 100 DNA samples of hair in blood and fingerprints in blood were found on the scene, yet NONE of them belonged to Zadarov. How could this be, if he was the killer? Was he “ghost-like?” Trenchantly, to whom did the treasure trove of evidence belong? Could it be the real murderer(s)?

INCREDIBLY, the DNA samples matched Rada’s “friends” and an “unknown” male. Hmm. How did it reach the crime scene? Could it have been “transferred” by the real killer? Proper due diligence should have ensured that all angles were explored, come what may. The Police, non-deterred, told Zadarov that the DNA was his and that was that. As detailed, false confessions are elicited under EXTREME psychological pressure, with attendant physiological breakdowns becoming the coup de grace.

NOW, one has to wonder, why did they ignore the linkage to her “friends?”