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| LPD Det. Brian Koopman |
District Attorney Joshua Ritter expressed concerns that the primary rationale presented by the defense was to determine if their client's constitutional rights were violated. That was not what the trial was going to be about, he added, stating that the relevant question to the jury is whether Romanek possessed and distributed pornographic material of children.
Judge Daniel Kaup denied the defense's request for information about Koopman. The case against him has yet to be adjudicated, Kaup pointed out, ruling that the court would be overstepping its legal authority to begin questioning and further exploring the relevance of the charges against the detective.
Koopman testified to the court in March that incriminating files were shared using a program called Limewire. A Homeland Security agent reportedly documented evidence of such file sharing from Romanek's IP in 2008 and 2009.
Romanek purports a "space organization," as the 'Reporter-Herald' termed it, was harassing him and putting "disgusting things" on his computer. This was allegedly due to the UFO-related work he was doing.
Yet another motions hearing will occur prior to a possible jury trial. Watch the case tracking summary to stay informed of court dates.
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For ongoing updates and key links on the Romanek legal case:
Relevant Web Links on Romanek Case
I don't need a law degree to predict a guilty verdict and jail time for Romanek.
ReplyDeleteRomanek is going to need more than a red herring defense. He needs an escape plan because, as Attorney Kimball has pointed out, Stanley is going to prison. I wonder if the renowned scholar Richard Dolan still believes in Stanley's fairy tales?
ReplyDeleteStan Romanek's "defense" has nothing whatsoever to do with the legal process. Romanek knows what he's done, and how much truth there is in his absurd claim that "a space organization" framed him - this is technically known in legal circles as the "a big boy did it and ran away" defense, and is seldom used by anybody over the age of 10.
ReplyDeleteWhat he's doing here is telling outrageous lies which he knows won't make his situation any worse, since pleading not guilty and then being found guilty, as he almost certainly will be, means that, according to the law, he lied to the court, so telling more lies won't send him to prison for any longer than he would have gone there for anyway.
On the other hand, he's creating an alibi which will hopefully be believed by at least some of the painfully credulous people who have believed him all along about extremely unlikely things, thus giving him an ongoing career peddling nonsense to the gullible when he eventually emerges from jail.
I'm not sure that this will work. The ludicrous attention-seeking fantasist Leah Haley has gotten a lot of support on this blog, mostly from people who can barely type a coherent sentence, because her latest claims, that she has been persecuted for years by a massive government conspiracy that beams voices into her head from passing helicopters and generally gives her a hard time in elaborately pointless ways, is the sort of thing that certain people like to believe.
However, I suspect that the vast majority of the people who claim to buy into these outrageous conspiracy theories do not, in their heart of hearts, really believe them in the sense that they believe in trees and lobsters and Australia. They know that supporting Romanek's claim to have been framed in this way means they're excusing the activities of somebody they know really is almost certainly a collector and trafficker in child pornography. And that's not quite the same thing as pretending to believe a crazy lady who says CIA black helicopters are beaming voices into her head with secret microwave weapons for no discernible reason, even though of those two claims, Romanek's is far more plausible.
Meanwhile, Lisa Romanek is attempting to mount the classic OJ Simpson defense: if the investigating officer can be shown to be a bad cop, maybe the court will have to reluctantly throw out crucial evidence and legally declare Stan Romanek not guilty when they know full well he's guiltier than a puppy sitting next to a soggy patch of carpet.
This will fail for two reasons. Firstly, proving that a cop who has been taped making extremely racist statements might have a personal motive to fake evidence against a tremendously famous, rich, and popular black man is one thing; proving that a cop allegedly guilty of misconduct in several other cases might have framed a complete stranger for no apparent reason is another thing altogether!
And secondly, I very much doubt the Romaneks can afford the equivalent of OJ's legal "dream team", except in their dreams. So good luck with that. Or rather, bad luck, because it's the only kind Stan Romanek deserves.
Nevertheless, it will be interesting to observe the reaction of the hardline quasi-religious True Believer UFO community to this case. As I said above, I predict that Stan will be largely shunned and discredited, because even that crowd, or at any rate 90% of them, know deep down that there's a very clear line between the paranoid gibberish they espouse as gospel and stuff that actually happens.
Thanks for your comments and interest, all.
ReplyDeleteAs for Romanek attempting to evade the issues, the lines below could be interpreted to sum it up pretty well. They're from a HuffPo article containing statements quoted from Det. Koopman's report he filed after serving the search warrant:
"[Stan] told me he had had concerns because he had in his possession top secret documents that were given to him by a high ranking official from the Air Force. Stan said he thought that 'someone' in the government would get in trouble for giving him these documents."
Koopman reminded Romanek that officers were here for child pornography, not about "other documents from the Air Force or anything that has to do with aliens, etc."
Here's the HuffPo source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/17/stan-romanek-child-pornog_n_4964459.html
As for the Leah Haley case, I view a primary issue as exploitation within the UFO community. I interpret that to be the situation, as well as often overlooked by people who tend to opt instead to argue the feasibility or lack thereof of alien abduction, covert human experimentation and related issues.
I'd say the manners people conducted themselves surrounding her case - people who qualified themselves as being in positions to provide quality services and support - is significant regardless of the possible explanations that might apply to various aspects of the chain of events. Those interested in reading more might choose to check out the links below, among others.
If there are points of contention, I request they be expressed specifically and in constructive, objective manners, preferably absent insults and similar tactics that devalue both the quality of discussion and the point attempting to be made.
Thanks again for all of your interest.
http://ufotrail.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-carpenter-affair-for-record.html
http://ufotrail.blogspot.com/2012/02/leah-haley-case-eglin-expedition.html
My apologies if I offended anyone. I merely wish to point out that if wildly improbable claims are made, they are likely to be accepted by the the kind of people who will accept these claims because their belief system says so. But if those claims would compromise their claim to be politically correct, somehow they aren't true after all.
ReplyDeleteI realize that this blogger has a very strong personal motive to denigrate MUFON, but he's missing the basic point - how good does any of this so-called evidence from any source whatsoever have to be to make any other evidence worthless? Hysterically self-promoting claimants with wildly improbable claims that change over time really don't help.
That may be "your" point, or "a" point, but it is not "the" point. Your lack of interest in exploitation in ufology does not make it any less reasonable an object of study for me or others. Neither does it keep it from being a prevailing dynamic within the genre. That is the circumstance regardless of what explanations may or may not apply to the Haley case or any other chain of events.
DeleteI don't understand how Romanek can drag his case out for almost two years. I don't remember OJ or Holmes getting this much time to go to trial.
ReplyDeleteIf Koopman testifies than his credibility is at issue. It seems to me that the defense should get discovery of the reports related to any incident that has a bearing on that. It does not mean that such evidence would be admissible to impeach him, but just that the defense should be able to investigate it. But Colorado law may be different from that in my state.
ReplyDeleteStill, that is a far different matter than offering a defense that a space organization or some other hacker planted the material on Stan's computer. A third party culpability defense requires more than speculation. Unless Romanek can offer expert forensic evidence to establish his computer was hacked, they would be left with his own testimony. A prosecutor would have a field day with that. The videos of Stan claiming that objects moving about during an interview were paranormal would be admissible to impeach his credibility. I would not want my client exposed to that.
Perhaps a plea could be negotiated.
I wanted to send my comments to you via email but your email addy link, like so many lately, just looks like it's an active link by changing color but it's as dead as a doormouse.
ReplyDeleteYour book is unnecessary as it doesn't have an audience. The people you write about, especially the unethical - which includes celebrities such as Stanton Friedman who is in it just for the money and the satisfaction that the money he constantly deposits in his bank accounts comes from the gullible - won't buy your book, they know who they are and are the reason you have material for your book. Ditto for the majority of other authors.
Forums such as Above Top Secret and Unexplained Mysteries are populated by uneducated believers and they perpetuate the awful state of UFOlogy. There are no UFO experts. Those who call themselves experts or are considered experts by fools get their expertise from what others have written. No one has been abducted and all abduction tales are constructed by people for various reasons none dealing with truth.
There are no secrets about UFOs and allege aliens being hidden by Uncle Sam. There are no government agents or agencies that give a damn about UFOs/"aliens" and Men In Black was started by a good-time author. No one is going to acost you or come to your house dressed in black or driving a black Cadillac.
UFOlogy is a joke, a waste of time 'cause no one really gives a damn. We will continue to see, photograph and videotapee UFOs and hoaxes will continue, it's good press. But don't wait for any revelations or "disclosure" as there is nothing new forthcoming.
Learn all you can but don't put anyone on a pedestal as they just know a little more than you and you can learn all there is to know if you just Google for info. Books are not necessary for everything is in here, the Internet.
Zoam?
DeleteDon't believe everything you read, children. Your impassioned opinions about Romanek are unfounded. "Romance purports a "space organisation," as the 'Reporter-Herald' termed it, was harassing him...." And you automatically accept the veracity of this information? Well, well.
ReplyDeleteI think an Appropriate Question would be, "Why was HomeLand Security concerned with watching a 'NO BODY?'"
ReplyDeleteThat's been addressed a number of times, several places, such as by Jessica Maher at the Loveland Reporter-Herald:
DeleteThe investigation was initiated last year when the Department of Homeland Security identified the IP address belonging to Romanek as a location where images and movies containing child pornography were being publicly shared, according to an arrest affidavit.
The arrest affidavit also alleges that Loveland police detectives received a similar case from the Department of Homeland Security in a 2009 investigation, where a homeland security agent conducted downloads of child pornography files that were later identified as coming from an IP address listing to Romanek.
Source:
http://www.reporterherald.com/news/loveland-local-news/ci_25196461/ufo-author-appears-court-child-pornography-charges
And by me in an article I posted in March, 2014, at Examiner:
Many people associate the DHS with counter terrorism operations. While that is correct, counter terrorism is not the exclusive interest of the agency, which actually conducts many additional law enforcement activities, including investigation of human trafficking, child exploitation and similar crimes.
A 2011 press release available on the DHS website provided details about Operation Protect Our Children, jointly conducted between the DHS and the Department of Justice. Statements contained in the press release suggested the DHS is committed to working with law enforcement partners to shut down websites and arrest individuals engaging in the promotion and sharing of child pornography.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is identified as the principle investigative arm of the DHS, containing over 20,000 employees located in all 50 states and 47 foreign countries. The ICE website indicated that the same week Romanek was arrested, a Denver man appeared in court on charges of producing, distributing and possessing child pornography, circumstances resulting from an ICE investigation.
Similarly and since the time of the Romanek arrest, a March 6 ICE press release indicated a South Florida man was indicted for possession and distribution of child pornography. As a matter of fact, the ICE website enables access to viewing dozens of such press releases published just since the turn of the year. Clearly, the DHS conducts such operations on a regular basis.
Conspiracy theories are not impossible, and their actuality has precedence. Some significant conspiracies have been validated, well documented and thoroughly reported. Validated conspiracies, however, require much more than allegations. They require verifiable evidence which produces proof of the alleged circumstances.
Source:
http://www.examiner.com/article/romanek-conspiracy-requires-solid-evidence
It is clearly obvious that if you use shareware like Limewire then be prepared to be bombarded of viruses that will rape and insert data into your system especially Windows systems. If you look at one smut video, and you have no idea where it is coming from then be prepared to be taken over - all it takes is a meta tag to be inserted into your system. It's real simple to setup someone, so stop watching porn and have real sex with human over the age of 21 or an Alien.
ReplyDeleteIf you do a even little research it is not difficult to find instances of viruses that collect child porn infecting peoples computers. I even came across instances where the NSA, FBI, and ICE had done this this to people and it is documented by news sources like NBC, TIME and the Huffington Post.I am not saying that is the case here but your an idiot if you really believe that our government does not do such things.
ReplyDelete