Note from SandBox: Comment ability is not blocked on this post. However, comments will remain closely monitored on all Lofgren news. Please recall all that SandBox has ever stated on Lofgren as to the reasons why. Remember, the closure for the family and the respect all citizens we know of have shown by respectfully honoring the family at all times in their comments will be required if you wish to post here. Please also remember that with the preventable failure of prosecution to try these cases; SandBox now errs on the side of the family. All the answers they need should be brought forward and in part, those answers cannot come unless citizenry requires them. Nowhere, in the present culture of the 9th Judicial District, is there freedom for the folks to speak up freely. SandBox is not the depository for avatars trying to make up that deficit. It is simply one of three regional blogs that believe the only current means your need to be heard has is through alternative media. Maybe, just maybe, law enforcement and prosecutors in the 9th and in other Colorado districts where the citizenry has the same problem will finally set up safe, neutral means for the folks to express all of their concerns and knowledge. Until then, out of the three we know of; SandBox Commentators moderates all incoming on these very sensitive issues. Please stick to the areas in Lofgren that you control. Which are: the demand for accountability of what went wrong on Popcorn Lane that has forever shattered the hearts of surviving family, the preventable failure(s) that were the criminal allegations from the moment they were contemplated to be filed, and the power your vote holds in the politics of all elected officials involved from the day the Lofgrens were lost.
(See related stories and comments here and here)
"Why was this home so lethal? Why was there no carbon monoxide detector in the home as required by law? Why did this home have a certificate of occupancy? Who is responsible for their deaths? Three years later, there are many unanswered questions. We had hoped that the criminal trials would give us some insight into what happened. We had hoped to hear the evidence that the grand jury heard, evidence that compelled them to issue indictments.
We want to understand the seeming cascade of failures that led to this tragedy. We want to understand how to prevent this from happening again. We want to educate people about carbon monoxide poisoning, and we want to influence legislation to make carbon monoxide detectors as ubiquitous as smoke detectors...."
(Christina Fedolfi, on behalf of the extended family of Caroline, Parker, Owen and Sophie Lofgren)
(Learn more? Read the rest by clicking title. Comment to discuss)
"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."
4 comments:
There is no such thing as a mother who can let go of finding all the answers when she endures losing a child to death. Burying your child is an unnatural act. It is an unnatural assumption, a wrong assumption to think that ever she could not seek all the answers. Above all, a mother must know. She must know.
I do not believe and have never believed that our district attorney went after the right individuals on criminal charges. The original plumber and the building inspectors never has made sense. Not with 5 years lapsing with the residence being in the hands of the owner and numerous maintenance and caretakers.
The prosecutor strong investigation should have been brought against the owner. From there the truth could have been found as to who accessed the system and what took place with the system.
At least the civil case has the right names and contains the owner and developer.
I have never wanted to believe ill of our district attorney. I bore his callous arrogance when he baited and taunted Colleen Truden because there were problems in her office. That was obvious to all. I did think less of Martin Beeson as we went through that recall and his base nature showed through. There were uncalled for taunts and he made it personal. We saw same start to show through when he ran briefly for Congress. I am a Christian woman with a deep faith in God. I do not believe one can set aside human decency and kindness simply for the name of politics. Chip McCrory got my vote and I wish he would run again. It would be a landslide win.
I have not cared for the taxpayers seeing an over $3 million dollar annual budget result in not just the worst loss record in our district history but at the same time cast a shadow of disrespect for our judges and rules of law. It is only because at least one newspaper appears to no longer be afraid that voters are even seeing that disrespect for our courts.
But to knowingly stand in the way of justice by making the most elementary of errors in the attempted prosecution for Lofgren is deeply offensive to me. I am a mother. My heart breaks for the mothers of Parker and Caroline. My heart grieves that more pain and loss, more anxiety is heaped on the burden already on their mother's hearts.
This was unnecessary loss and there is no recourse but to blame and lay that blame squarely on the shoulders of District Attorney Martin Beeson and his deputies. At the very least, if they were going to choose the path of going after the lives of the 3 men they chose, they could have at least performed better than first year law students. These were senseless, ridiculous errors of the most basic of law principles.
It is my hope that these mothers enlarge their lawsuit to include District Attorney Beeson, his deputies and Pitkin County as their oversight.
Because what we have left in the same type of arrogance as was revealed during the recall of Truden is now morally repugnant for a Christian voter to bear.
Good to see someone finally call a spade a spade.
The Lofgren family survivors civil attorney needs to take a good hard look at how badly this was handled. Not just by the D.A. but by the county that oversees him.
There is a long, long history of over-reach and a record for the most lost pleadings and cases of any D.A. we've ever had.
This one shouldn't be fought on political grounds it should be fought in court.
We are long past the time for Martin to step down.
That is something he should have done when he launched his platform against the constitutional rights of the accused to full defense under law. We may have an exceptionally disorganized and partial approach to meeting defense requirements under Fang. However, to personally attack defenders of the accused was an knowing and intent filled act. Martin's ham-handed approach afterward, to the public he serves, was inexcusable.
The 9th Judicial District Office of the District Attorney prosecutes crime.
The office is not a personal, moral platform nor is it a political platform. When an elected prosecutor recieves the oath of duty to office they are to shed completely all personal self. Never has that been done in the 9th under Martin's regime.
"We had hoped that the criminal trials would give us some insight into what happened. We had hoped to hear the evidence that the grand jury heard, evidence that compelled them to issue indictments."
Paul Nitze is to be appreciated for pointing out to the general population through his column on the Times the requirements of duty that a prosecutor is to meet before charging or tasking.
For this family's grief to be compounded now and their obvious confusion as to the role Beeson and Mordkin chose to take is appalling.
If this family was led to believe that the path to the answers they seek is to first charge and then seek at trial, they were grossly misled.
It is the duty of law enforcement and prosecution to make certain to all ability within their power that they are charging from the point of truth. That is not only duty, it is the law.
We do not use our judicial and trial system as an investigative tool.
Let's not forget for a moment how flawed this prosecution was from the beginning. The way the material was presented to the grand jury was still under question at the time Judge Boyd dismissed these cases. Overzealous, misleading and one-sided were the defense points. Obviously, if we still have a family who believes they were headed to trial to find answers instead of to prosecute known crime; Hutt and Scissors are strongly favored for accuracy in those points.
There are a few of Martin's staff that are of high ethics and believe strongly in the power of the duty they hold. Sadly, there are far more that have helped turn the office into a locker room next door to a gambling hall.
The recent declaration from Martin regarding his own salary paying for bonuses is a stellar example of unchecked power corrupting logical thought. The time is long past for Martin to step down. He should have done so some time ago.
Nitze goes on in accuracy.
All of the flaws in Lofgren will now be used to allegedly victimize this family further as they are rolled out, and rightfully so as we are a nation of law, to defend. The tragedy they know will be now compounded in longer and more drawn out court battles. Rightfully so, we are a nation of law. It is through the service of law and duty that justice is found.
As a citizen voter who just happens to be a lawyer, I am not appreciative of our district attorney putting the public he serves through the continued heartache we all feel for the Lofgren survivors.
The time is long, long past for Martin to step down.
And exactly why after almost a month now have we no answer from District Attorney Beeson on the total cost of Lofgren from his end?
Somebody and it sounded like a lawyer wrote in on another article about Lofgren something along the lines of moral agendas having no business in seeking justice and if ever coming into play in our system are actually the farthest thing from justice because they show complete failure of duty.
The palpable emotions in our community over Lofgren ever since the deaths isn't about the logistics of money and how much or the technical parts of government having to defend themselves.
What's wrong in the people's minds is that we have a family of four who died on our watch and a prosecutor who took it all down the wrong, wrong path because we still have no answers anywhere.
If at any time after Braudis and DiSalvo's investigation, which was really the last time we saw any reasonable thought and sensible action over Lofgren, there had been any common sense shown from the 9th in how to go find answers and who to dig into to look, the people wouldn't be so upset.
All three BOCC's need to waste no more time and instead demand an answer on cost of all this on Lofgren and what went wrong from the technical law points.
Because the answers to those two things are what is going to get rid of the problems we have in the 9th district of a moral based prosecutor staff over reaching on way too many cases while they've got gangs, major drugs, murdering young bangers running around.
Don't underestimate the power of the votes that put you in office, Martin. You or any of your current deputies will not win on the Republican ticket in Garfield County ever again. It's all been way, way too much ever since what you did to Truden to get where you are.
This family deserves real answers and it's long past time to get them.
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