Smart Case, August 1, 2002

08/01/02 | 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.

[varina davis]

Sorry. Thought you meant after they were abducted. I am surprised those strapping young men didn't put up some sort of resistance, but it's never easy to walk in someone else's moccasins.

[Iwo Jima]

Well, I may be talking about after they were abducted. Or before. Just don't let him duct tape you. And if he's duct taping another girl, then either try to help her out or run away. Don't just stand there and await your turn to get duct taped. And if he's raping another girl and you're duct taped, don't just lay there, do something. Some people have chewed through duct tape.

The point is never admit defeat. Never submit. Always be on the alert for the least opening to flee, fight, frustrate.

[Iwo Jima]

"he told me that ... he would shoot everyone in the place.... I did not want the other people to be shot."

That's a very traumatic story. I have absolutely no criticism of how you, as a young, sweet, and inexperienced girl, reacted to that situation. But I would like for all of our daughters to know this: resistance is almost always better than submission.

He's not going to shoot everyone in the place. That's absurd. One or two maybe. But that's it. If other people get shot, it's not your fault. You have no responsibility to sacrifice yourself for them. If he shoots them, that's his blame, not yours.

It is almost always better to make a public stink and just let the lead fly than let him take you somewhere and do the unimaginable and then kill you.

[cookiedough]

I have a daughter who was in 1st grade last year. There was a boy in her class who would haul off and hit kids for no reason.

I told my daughter that if he ever hit her, to hit him back as hard as she could, because he probably wouldn't bother her again after that. My daughter has older brothers and she good at defending herself in the rough and tumble.

I told her teacher and the principal that I had told my daughter to do this because she has the right to self-defense.

The teacher said great, she agreed.

The principal said that if my daughter hit another child at the school, no matter what the circumstances, my daughter would be "the one in trouble" because "hitting is always wrong".

Boy was I pissed. I told the principal if she interferred in any way with my daughter's right to self-defense, she'd have a lawsuit on her hands. I told her that while my daughter is physically present on school grounds, the school has a duty to protect her, and if the school fails to do that, I will take serious steps to rectify the matter. I reminded her that I am an attorney, so I wasn't just whistlin' Dixie. And my instructions to my daughter remain the same.

This is a homogeneous, suburban school in a middle-class town. Not a hotbed of trouble at all. Still, there is no way I am going to put up with that crap.

[cookiedough]

P.S. All I could think of at the time of my altercation with the principal was if my daughter is taught from this young age not to defend herself from physical attack, what happens when she's older if someone tries to attack her -- with that kind of training, she'd stand there and take it.

[cherry]

That young man didn't resist because the perp had a gun

. my point was only to refute that the girls should have some how resisted..well, they had a gun at them also...do we expect them to be braver or stronger than the males...? if the guys didn't think they could fight back , I should think we wouldn't expect the girls too...who , by the way, were much younger than the boys, and much smaller than the boys.....

[Iwo Jima]

Good for you. Last year my son had another boy come up behind him and put a choke hold on him. He almost lost conciousness. He had a red whelt on his neck for days.

My son had taken judo for years, and so he spun out of this stranglehold and then "put him down." My son had the guy on his back with my son's thumb at a vulnerable place on the guy's neck before my son got his bearings and then backed off.

Long story short, both the "perp" and my son got suspended for three days because, according to the school, fighting is always wrong whether it's self-defense and your fighting for you next breathe or not.

[lakey]

#78 - My family & I watched both yesterday & today's Abrams' programs on video tape tonight. The concensus was that Smart didn't seem concerned. At one point, he threw his head back, sort of laughed.

Yes, I agree, he does know what's going on. Perhaps more than Lois knows, at least as far as the motive. If she appears to distance herself from him, could be that she has suspicions.

And I've come to the conclusion that withholding what they know is a form of child abuse. Mary Katherine knew on June 5th, & no one can convince me that she didn't tell her parents that very night.

The crime scene wasn't protected. Why wouldn't they have asked questions of MK? Answer: They would have asked every conceivable question.

Ed Smart is afraid of something, some revelation - I get the impression it is not about Elizabeth. The motive??? He's relaying messages via media, assuring the culprit that Ricci can be made to take the fall.

Law enforcement: Well, one of the first things my pappy taught me was, "Follow the money." Also look to officials' egos.

And if nobody likes what I've said, they can flame all night & it will not change my outlook until they present evidence otherwise.

[cookiedough]

I just watched the LKL rerun. I was deeply offended by the questions he asked about the girls having been raped. He wanted the details.

The perp is dead. The girls are alive and physically unharmed enough not to have to be admitted to the hospital.

There is no reason any of us need to know the details of what happened to them. I view it as a violation of their privacy for any of the media to ask, much less publicize, that information.

LK seemed like a voyeur, IMO, when he asked that question.

[Iwo Jima]

The girls should not gauge the propriety of their own actions by what the boys do. That's a false comparison. The boys may or may not care less what happens to the girls. They apperently didn't care much about what happened to these girls. You can't let the girls think "well, if the boys don't think that I am worth fighting for then well maybe I'm not." The boys have entirely different risks and agendas.

[cookiedough]

It is an understatement to say that that situation would have infuriated me had it happened to one of my kids.

My sons take karate and they are required to do so until they earn a black belt (an adult one, not a junior one). That will also be a requirement for my daughter in a year or two.

I am personally terrified of guns, no doubt because of what happened to me, but I am mulling over having my children learn gun safety, to shoot guns (target shooting), etc., so that they can handle a gun safely for self-defense if they choose to when they are adults.

We do not own guns (because of my fear and because we have a lot of children in our family), but my husband is a former sharpshooter and I will probably let his judgment prevail on this particular issue. This idea is not for now, but I'm thinking about it for when the kids are teenagers.

When I was kidnapped, I did not know one single thing about self-defense. I was very much protected, but I did not know what I was being protected from.

My kids are not going to grow up like that. They will know how to defend themselves and that they have the obligation and right to do so.

I am glad your son had the ability to protect himself when he needed it.

[cherry]

missing the point ....

someone stated why the girls didn't fight back..

I won't expect from these girls...one who was just 16...both who are petite...I don't expect more from them then I would from the boys...

if the point is that we can't expect males to be protective of females...then that is that....

[cookiedough]

I saw part of a Fox show tonight on which two criminal profilers were interviewed. They were asked if it is better for victims to resist, and both said that no one knows. The victim has to assess the situation for him/herself.

The studies I've seen of rape cases bear this out. Sometimes people who resist are killed, sometimes they are not. Sometimes people who don't resist live, sometimes they are killed.

I guess the perp is the one who holds the cards as to whether the victim's resistance or compliance makes a difference in his decision to kill or not.

[Jolly Green]

Perhaps we should all make a solemn vow not to engage in any "I told you so" when the time comes. I hereby vow.

Your plea is a little late. I've had the crow thawing out for some time.

[Jolly Green]

What I find interesting are the opinions/discussions of all the professional people, Dr Lee, defense attys, ret police chiefs, detectives, etc., that hav been interviewed on the different shows.

The ones you find most interesting are those who are not privy to case evidence and have no clue about this particular case.

[cookiedough]

Well, if this case drags on much longer, you should mummify said crow before it rots. My kids did this with chickens, as part of a homeschool project. Put the crow in a ziploc bag and cover it with tons of salt. Change the salt and the bag once a week. Toss in some fragrant spices. In about 6 weeks, the crow should be mummified and you can save it for future use.

Before you ask, I don't know whether you should pluck the crow first.

[varina davis]

And I've come to the conclusion that withholding what they know is a form of child abuse. Mary Katherine knew on June 5th, & no one can convince me that she didn't tell her parents that very night.

Of course, she did, Lakey. Any child would. And any mentally competent parent would make sure every question they had was answered. The only way this would not have happened, is if there was some sort of complicity by one or more of the principles.

[varina davis]

The ones you find most interesting are those who are not privy to case evidence and have no clue about this particular case.

Which, of course, makes them much more objective than those who believe they have the facts, but have none.

[Jolly Green]

An article about Ratliff on the Fox website says that he had been in and out of prison for burglary and drug possession. But until he was charged with rape in October 2001, he had not had a record for sex crimes.

Sheesh! I wish you hadn't said that. Half the people on this thread have given Ricci a pass because it doesn't fit his M.O.

[Jolly Green]

Well, if this case drags on much longer, you should mummify said crow before it rots.

When it comes to crow, I'm not sure it makes any difference. Do you remember the old recipe for cooking carp? You tack the carp open on a shingle, cook it for 3 hrs at 340 degrees, then throw away the carp and eat the shingle.