Smart Case, August 2, 2002

08/02/02 | Jolly Green

[Jolly Green]

Time Line
04/01/01	Sunday	Ricci burglarizes a Smart neighbor's home taking various items.
06/05/01	Tuesday	Ricci steals items from the Smart home while he is employed there as a handyman. Ricci is charged in July of 2002 of 1 count of theft related to the Smart incident.
05/30/02	Thursday	~ Ricci returns to pick up his Jeep at the auto repair shop before the shop has a chance to fully fix it He tells the repairman that it needed for an emergency.
06/04/02	Tuesday	~ Ricci is at work from about 9am to 5:30pm ~ Ricci claims he spends the evening with friends
06/05/02	Wednesday	~ 1:05am - 2 cars are spotted on the SLC Shriner's Hospital Parking Lot by a hospital security guard, two blocks from the Smart residence ~ 1:30am (approx) - Elizabeth is kidnapped from her home ~ 1:30am - Ricci claims to be in bed asleep with his with wife. ~ Ricci is scheduled to be off work all day today. ~ 7:21am - Rachel/Amber alert is issued and national media is involved. ~ 8:30am - Ricci and his neighbor talk about the kidnapping of Elizabeth, Ricci seems to know too much information about it. ~ Sometime during this day Ricci is visited by police in regards to Elizabeth's kidnapping as reported by Angela Ricci (Richard A. Ricci's Wife which is an ex-convict herself) ~ Ricci is seen by his neighbor digging a hole by his (Ricci's) trailer early in the morning. (heard the neighbor say this on TV)
06/06/02	Thursday	~ Ricci is scheduled to work from 9am to 5:30pm today, but instead works from 10:30am to 7:00pm ~ Police talk to Ricci this day about the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping. (The media is reporting this, so it could be wrong)
06/08/02	Saturday	~ Ricci returns the Jeep to the repair shop to get it fixed. The Jeep is muddy and the repair shop owner sees Ricci remove seat covers from the back of the jeep and place them into a plastic garbage bag that already contains other stuff in it. Also the repair shop owner said a muddy post hole digger was in the back of the Jeep, Ricci removes this also. Ricci has a man waiting across the street to give him a ride. Ricci takes the plastic bag and contents along with the post hole digger with him. Also there is 500 to 1000 extra miles on the Jeep since Ricci picked it up on May 30th, 2002.
06/14/02	Friday	~ Ricci is taken into custody for a parole violation, this being drinking while on parole and association with other ex-cons.
07/11/02	Thursday	Formal charges are filed against Ricci (2 counts of theft & 1 count of burglary) on the theft & burglary of the Smart neighbors home which occurred in April 2001, and 1 more count of theft for stealing from the Smart home on June 6th, 2001.
Special thanks to Brigette for starting this timeline.

[TheDon]

"I feel, just like the Ramsey's, the parents of Elizabeth Smart are hiding something and there appears to be several dysfunctional members of the Smart family. Has that beautiful girl been sold in the sex slave market? That thougt keeps bothing me."

"2) When MK got up the nerve to go tell her parents about the abduction she saw the kidnapper was still in the house. From the floor plans I've seen of the house, MK most likely saw the kidnapper in the vicinity of Ed and Lois' bedroom. What was the kidnapper doing?? Talking to Ed perhaps???"

Boy, try to make suggestions like this on FR and you get censored! You are brave Bella!

[Neenah]

You're right, Sherlock. It was Ricci. I remember that too.

[Bella]

Boy, try to make suggestions like this on FR and you get censored! You are brave Bella!

Haven't you been reading any of the other boards? There are many other boards who have threads regarding this case.

[Sherlock]

I posted this on July 4. Also in looking for this article I read Young escaped from jail briefly in 1993 and Ricci has escaped from jail twice. I don't know if this article is still available but the one that got the home vacation after a year was Remington.

No wonder Salt Lake is the national haven for ex-convicts, check this from an article today in the Salt Lake Tribune:

Like Ricci and Young, Remington has a violent criminal history that dates to the 1980s when he was sentenced to up to life in prison for bank robbery. A year later, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison after he went on a crime spree while on a home visit from the Utah State Prison, according to a story in the Jan. 19, 1986, edition of The Salt Lake Tribune.

For a Salt Lake County robbery committed during the home visit, Remington, then 28, was convicted of being a habitual criminal and given an additional sentence of 5 years to life. He served two years in prison and completed his parole March 8, 1994.


You people in Salt Lake let your convicts make home visits from the pen a year after you send them there on a life sentence? In case you don't believe this, here's the link for the article:


http://www.sltrib.com/07042002/utah/utah.htm

[Bella]

Boy, try to make suggestions like this on FR and you get censored!

People are entitled to their opinions, and those boards aren't censored and are visited by thousands of people. Why should anything be censored?

[TheDon]

Good question!

[hergus]

"City Beat - August 1, 2002

Innocent Until ?

A lack of kidnapping charges against Richard Ricci hasn't cleared his name.

by Scott Lewis
SLC Weekly
It may have seemed a little surprising that Bret Michael Edmunds? first appearance in a Utah court July 23 attracted so little attention. After all, for a few days in June, he was one of the most hunted men in the country even if he was just wanted for questioning.

But it's surprising only if you had missed the virtual passing of the villain baton from Edmunds to Richard Ricci in late June. More than five weeks have passed since Fox 13 television reporters broke the story that replaced Edmunds mug with Ricci's in newspapers and on television around the world.

Later, Salt Lake Police Chief Rick Dinse confirmed the fresh news for the rest of the anxious journalists gathered at a daily press conference: Ricci had, indeed, reached the top of the list of people we are looking at in the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping.

But five weeks later, he still hasn't made the leap to suspect. No charges against him related to the 14-year-old's disappearance have been filed and police refuse to implicate him any more than they already have. Nevertheless, a daily drumbeat of stories and appeals from the Smart family have boldly implied that Ricci is more than just at the top of a vague list.

That is not altogether a fair thing to do to the man, said local civil rights attorney Brian
Barnard, who made a similar appeal for caution during the rabid manhunt for Edmunds. Police keep saying that he's not a suspect, but that he's on the top of the list of potential suspects. What is he, if he's not a suspect? All of this publicity is tainting any kind of a potential jury pool. And they haven't even charged him with it yet.

Police spokesman Dwayne Baird said that even if prosecutors had charged Ricci with the abduction five weeks ago, they still wouldn't be close to selecting a jury for trial if the jury pool is tainted now, it would have been regardless of their reluctance to file charges. The media wants us to be in a hurry, but that doesn't make for a good case.

Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom said he is prevented from talking about any potential case against Ricci as that would create pre-trial publicity. But, he said, no matter how much attention a case has received, Utah has been successful in the past ensuring that due process works well. There's no reason to think this is any different, he said. We won't be able to find anybody who hasn't heard of certain cases, but we seek out people who will be able to set aside what they've heard and put together the facts.

Facts that are still largely secret from the public. But police are not trying to lay blame on Ricci in the eyes of the public without actually prosecuting him, Baird said. If we were trying to pin it on him, we would have done that five weeks ago. We are looking at dozens of leads and many other people. It is a very methodical process that is necessary in order to ensure that if we ever do file charges against anyone, it is a good, solid case.

That sort of patience isn't something that comes easy to the Smart family. After all, they have lost a daughter swift justice and closure is a priority. On July 22, Elizabeth?s father, Ed Smart, appealed to the public to provide information from anyone who might have had anything to do with Ricci in the last two years. In daily press briefings, Smart has even addressed Ricci directly, accusing him of lying and not answering important questions about his whereabouts after Elizabeth's disappearance June 5. Potential sightings of the former handyman and the requests for information about him have become virtually the only fodder for the daily news briefings to which media attendance has dwindled in the last month.

Ricci's attorney, David K. Smith, however, found himself so overwhelmed by all of the media attention that he hired a public relations firm to handle the inquiries into Ricci's case. His spokeswoman, Nancy Pomeroy, told City Weekly Ricci believes he has cooperated fully and answered all questions about the Smart abduction openly. He just hasn't answered them the way they would want, she said.

But the daily press conferences and the family's lack of patience are reasonable, she said. I totally understand it. I would do the same thing if it had been my daughter. It hardly affects Richard he's in jail, cut off from everything. But like everyone else, he would like Elizabeth to be found.

Fox 13's Scott McKane first broke the Ricci story June 22. Ricci had been in jail for a little over a week on a parole violation. After confirming McKane's story, police released photos of the various cars Ricci owns in an attempt to solicit information about his movements around the time of the kidnapping. A truck driver later reported that he had seen a Jeep Cherokee similar to Ricci's in Eastern Utah. The Smart family then called for volunteers to search for Elizabeth in the massive area around the possible sighting. An action that one might consider indicative of their beliefs that Ricci was involved.

Police spokesman Baird said the media has been running its own justice proceedings with regard to the abduction. And that in many ways it has nothing to do with what's really going on in the investigation, which, of course, is top secret. In the meantime, he said, the family's determination to hold daily press conferences may be fueling that frenzy. They are running out of things to say every day. Talking about Ricci is as good as anything else, so they do it. It's almost as if they are wondering out loud."

http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2002/city_2002-08-01.cfm

[Bella]

So very true..Remember way back I posted about the media convicting Ricci and doing it for ratings..However, as this article states, the family has contributed to this. Try getting an impartial jury, good luck!

[sandude]

People are entitled to their opinions, and those boards aren't censored and are visited by thousands of people. Why should anything be censored?

From what I know I feel that the FreeRebublic has very reasonable censorship practices. To my knowledge the only things that may have been censored on this thread are those regarding the Smart's religious beliefs. It is alright to question those beliefs. Utah Girl has posted many times in an effort to clear up peoples understanding of the Mormon church and it's dealings in the State of Utah. There have been some posters who have slandered the religion with unsubstantiated innuendo. That is not helpful and can hurt feelings unnecessarily. I believe that there is a place for censoring these kinds of posts. However if legitimate evidence that deals with this case surfaces that puts an unfavorable light on the church then that should be open to discussion here. If that information has nothing to do with this case then there are more appropriate venues to take those discussions. These are just my feelings and I post them because of the question in your post. I've probably used too much bandwidth today discussing this but I felt compelled to express my approval for the FreeRepublic's censorship standards. Perhaps I'm naive and unaware of legitimate gripes.

[Neenah]

Boy, do I want to respond to this ! I have to make supper now...but I want to expound on this one. It is the MOST DISJOINTED interview he has done yet !!

This is the first interview that I felt the agitation of the host to Mr. Smart. The man HAS to stay off the air....or maybe he has to stay ON the air. time.

[JudyB1938]

Hurry on back. I want to see what you have to say !!!

[Sherlock]

Oh boy, here come all the folk that are intoxicated with their hatred of Ed Smart and the family. The problem with these people is not that they don't pass the censorship test, rather their perspectives don't pass the logic test. If a person has the right perspective, it's a simple matter for him to ask the right questions to get to the truth in any matter. But if a person has skewed perspective, no amount of presentation of facts or knowledge will save him from the resultant folly of his viewpoints.

[JudyB1938]

Are you including me in your misguided list? Frankly, I don't give a darn if you do. But just for the record .. I don't HATE anybody, let alone the Smarts. In fact, I don't have an opinion one way or another about them.

All I care about is Elizabeth. I am so worried about her. THAT's why I come to this thread, hoping for some good news one of these times.

And looking at ALL theories is not something that is going to send me to hell! So please be more polite in the future. Thank you.

[sandude]

Why do these people (recently Ed in particular) appear on national television when they have NOTHING substantive to say?

The networks would not put them on the air if the ratings were not good. I think there are plenty of Smart family supporters and detractors out there in TV land. Whatever camp people are in there is still interest in this case and in what the family has to say even if it isn't substanitive. As for me, I always look forward to seeing what they have to say so that I can gauge how they are holding up over this long ordeal. I think you would be hard pressed to find another family who could do as well. When I say that, I'm talking about the family as a whole and not just the individual members.

[Sherlock]

Wednesday, Salt Lake Police Chief Rick Dinse called Ricci a suspect for the first time. Formerly, police had taken great pains to make sure they didn't call the former Smart handyman a suspect in Elizabeth's kidnapping. Rather, they referred to Ricci as another person they were looking at in the investigation. Atkinson said police have not changed their tune about Ricci's level of involvement.There is no new evidence to elevate Ricci to the level of suspect, and it may just be a matter of word choice as to how different people refer to the man with a long criminal record, Atkinson said. "I think it's semantics," he said.

This is, until they say otherwise, really a local story that has been amplified to global proportions by the family and the media.

I disagree, this is a really great mystery and that's why you and I are interested and follow it. And it's LE, not Ed Smart, responsible for it being so obscure and such a mystery, for whatever reason. Don't forget, a week & a half ago LE was saying if Elizabeth or her body didn't show up there would be no arrest. I think old Ed Smart is working his magic. I think something has changed, I think they just got something or have something in the works that will elevate the accusation of involvement of Ricci or one of his accomplices. It's probably Jolly Green's timeline he dropped off to them, or maybe Bella's.

I said yesterday that Ed appeared a little more confident on the Abrams show, especially after the commercial break. He obviously KNOWS what is going on but won't say.

I agree and I definitely believe Ed Smart didn't know anything other than what his own sources were telling him before Boylan came in. Had Ed Smart moved to the sideline I don't believe there would ever have been an arrest in this case, for whatever super secret reason LE has. Now it's looking like there might be a chance.