Posted on 09/26/2002 12:34:48 AM PDT by stlnative
NEW THREAD - PING WHOM EVER YOU LIKE - I DON'T PING ANYMORE - SORRY
Ricci has reportedly admitted to a long history of drug abuse........and apparently he DID get caught at least once while he was in prison. I have no question about Ricci's PAST drug use. As I said before, I'm just asking for some documentation to support the speculation that CURRENT drug use might have been a factor in making Ricci more likely to have committed this crime.
Now........if I go to bed, can I trust you not to keep this up behind my back?? I'd hate to wake up to a barrage of posts in the morning.......(smile)
Night.....
It's been well established that Richard Ricci was a drug user. It's been well established that Ricard Ricci had a long-time criminal record. It's been well established that Ricard Ricci worked as a handyman for Ed Smart and allegedly pilfered items from the Smart home.
But even if he was stoned out of his mind from May 1 through June 30, it doesn't mean he had anything to do with the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart. Moreover, there is not a shred of evidence linking him to the disappearance.
That particular arrest warrant says, arrest Ricci for the Adams burglary. There's another one out there, which you didn't post, that charges him with committing theft from Ed Smart. That one also has an arrest warrant attached.
An information such as you posted would be accompanied by an arrest warrant. A document requesting that Ricci's last sentencing judge revoke his parole would be a different thing. It would be accompanied by its own arrest warrant.
Note that the thing you posted, information and arrest warrant, is dated in July, 2002, and states that Ricci is already in the pentitentiary.
And WHY was he already in the penitentiary? Because his parole officer had earlier requested that the sentencing judge revoke his parole, a warrant had been issued on which he was arrested and held w/o bail, then the judge had revoked his parole, and Ricci had been returned to the pen to finish serving the sentence that had been cut short when he had been paroled on 9/12/2000.
When you put it that way, Freedox, it makes me think that current drug use by Ricci would have made him LESS likely to have committed this crime. Could a person have been that agile in getting in and out of the house with no noise, if he was stoned on heroin? I don't know, I don't know all that someone stoned on heroin is capable of, but I always picture them when stoned as being calm, and "in their happy place."
Some posters on another forum postulated that Ricci was hopped up on methamphetamine when he did this crime--if he did this crime.
Westerfield had been drinking a good bit when he sneaked in and took Danielle.
I've heard regular heroin use sort of dampens sex drive. So if Ricci was a pervert who was hot for Elizabeth, seems he would have been under control enough to leave her alone if he was doing heroin that night.
Really, I don't think that currently using drugs, unless it was the old PCP or methamphetamine, would have made him more likely to do this--even if it was a ransom thing, as some have suggested.
You can bet that needing money for drugs would have led to him committing property crimes and that armed bank robbery, though.
So was her original sarcasm.
Bishops Approve New Abuse Guidelines; Smart Family Reorganizes Search; Car Bomb Kills 10 at U.S. Consulate in Karachi.Aired June 14, 2002 - 17:00 ET
Go to my Web page, cnn.com/wolf. That's where you can vot, and While you're there, send me your comments. I'll read some of them on the air each day at the end of this program. That's also where you can read my daily column -- cnn.com/wolf.
Roadblocks are up in eastern New Mexico, and the manhunt surrounding a missing Utah girl is kicking into higher gear. Police say they have possible sightings in two states of a man they want to talk to about the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart. CNN's Michael Okwu joins us from Salt Lake City. What's the latest michael?
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, well, the latest out of Salt Lake City, as you mentioned, is actually coming from New Mexico and Texas, where there have been apparent sightings of a man resembling Bret Michael Edmunds.
Now, one specifically is coming from Hereford, Texas, which is in the northern part of Texas, the panhandle there. A woman says -- a clerk in a convenience store says that she served a man who came into the store resembling this fellow, and that essentially he tried to buy a bottle of water, his credit card was declined, he left in a huff without paying for the water.
She said that essentially she had some words with him and that he mentioned that he had bought a ticket for Amarillo, Texas. However, authorities are looking into the possibility that he might have stolen a car in the area.
Meanwhile, back in Salt Lake City, authorities here say that he is not a suspect, they just want to interview him, that this was a man who was close to the home where Elizabeth Smart was abducted just a couple days before that event, and that also that he was seen at a vigil for Elizabeth Smart on Sunday.
The police want to know what he was doing at that particular vigil. In the meantime the focus is still on the family and extended members of the family. At least two members of the Smart family have undergone polygraph tests. Authorities here say that they have cooperated with authorities fully. And they say that the family has been helping them in a whole lot of other ways. One of the family members this afternoon made an impassioned plea to the person who might have abducted Elizabeth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CYNTHIA SMART OWENS, ELIZABETH'S AUNT: I have a message for this perpetrator. God knows where you are. God knows where Elizabeth is and we are praying with all our hearts to find her. The satisfaction that you might have dreamed of, of having Elizabeth, cannot possibly be there. And the best you can do is to let her go.
OKWU: Now, more than 8,000 volunteers have stepped forward to help in the search. We understand that within an hour there will be a press conference. The family will announce that they are trying a new program here to make the search more efficient -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Michael Okwu with the latest. Thanks for joining us.
It has been nine days since Elizabeth Smart was taken from her bed at gunpoint, right under her younger sister's nose. Since then, the Smarts and countless friends and volunteers have been working around the clock to find her. Joining us now from Salt Lake City to get a deeper view of the family's vigil, the former United States Congressman Wayne Owens, a neighbor and close family friend.
Congressman, thanks for joining us. What do you know about this announcement that the Smart family is going to make, that they have a new plan to try to help find Elizabeth?
WAYNE OWENS, FMR. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Well, thousands of volunteers have combed the area and recombed it, Wolf. On Sunday we had almost 2,000 people out and Saturday much the same. We feel like we've covered -- they feel like they have covered that ground and now they want to organize it on a neighborhood watch basis, where volunteers accustomed and familiar with their own neighborhoods can have greater capacity and more perception, perhaps, to see things that are suspicious and different.
So it is an attempt to try to reconcile the fact that we've done the big thing and now it is time to do the minute careful analysis up close.
BLITZER: So this is basically a logistical hunt, basically an investigation that is going to go into the neighborhoods around the home, is that right?
OWENS: Not just around the home, but wider, to try to get basically all the neighborhoods in Salt Lake County and perhaps in some other areas, but assigned to people who live in the area, people who know the area, people who can understand that which might be suspicious.
It is a different kind of a search, a less intense in a sense of bodies, but a very important continuation.
BLITZER: Congressman, you've known the family for some 25 years. When you hear that there may be some suspicions about an extended family member -- someone within the family who might have been responsible for this -- that's been all over the press in Utah, what goes through your mind?
OWENS: Well, I know who they're talking about, and I know him well. And I'd bet my ranch, Wolf, that that's not true.
But the family has been totally cooperative, including he. He's taken a polygraph, he's answered every question, he's given them every access and the entire family wants so bad to bring this to a conclusion. And so confident that it is someone from outside that they're giving it everything they can in terms of cooperation and assistance and they're not offended.
You would think they might be offended. They understand that sometimes happens in these cases, Wolf. But it's an unbelievably good family, unbelievable.
BLITZER: And the reports out there, also widely reported -- Congressman Owens, I want you to stand by one minute.
Once that announcement is made, we'll go back to Dallas, but for now I want to resume our conversation with former Congressman Wayne Owens. He's joining me once again from Salt Lake City.
Congressman, we were talking about one member of the extented family. You say you know who that person is, that there may be some suspicion. There are reports, as you well know, that perhaps this individual's lie detector test did not come up with a conclusive result, inconclusive results. Have you heard about those reports?
OWENS: Well, there are a lot of rumors around to that effect. I think it is a bad thing for the police to do. I think it is unfortunate. They shouldn't leak these kinds of things and I think it is irresponsible. If there is evidence, Wolf, they should put it out. If they don't, they should keep it quiet.
This family has had pure unadulterated hell for 10 days, and the whole family, every brother, every sister on both sides has worked 12, 14, 16, 18 hours a day for 10 days. They don't deserve to be treated by innuendo. Let them put it up. Let them put the evidence up if it is there. I don't think it is there. As I said earlier, I'd make a big, big bet on the fact that it is not there. There's nothing -- this family would not do that.
BLITZER: And what about all the interest in Bret Edmunds, who is wanted for questioning, presumably in connection with the disappearance, with the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, the beautiful 14-year-old. What is your assessment of his potental involvement?
OWENS: I have no idea. There's no evidence revealed. The police very properly have kept that very quietly. I hope that there's something there. I hope that Elizabeth can be found alive. We genuinely think that she will be. There's a great amount of faith being exercised in her behalf, Wolf, but we have no way of knowing what's real and what isn't, except Tom Smart, I'll bet you that's not real. I'd bet the family farm on it.
BLITZER: And what about the Smart family? You know these people, obviously, very well. How are they coping?
OWENS: They're coping very, very well. I was around most of them this morning for a long period of time, talking about the new plan that you brought up, and how they can pursue and how they can make things happen. They're desperate to make it happen. The feelings of pain and sorrow are very, very real. Fatigue now setting in after 10 days on all of them. Fatigue, in fact, setting in on the community. There've been 10,000 plus volunteers.
I helped run the air search over the weekend. We had 50, 60 airplanes in the air. This community has been extraordinary in supporting this search. We're trying to figure out how to do it in a more efficient, less costly manner.
BLITZER: The former United States Congressman from Utah, Wayne Owens. Thanks for joining us, and to all of the Smart family, to everyone out there, good luck in this important search.
OWENS: Thank you very much, Wolf. Thanks.
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