Having previously written at length about the Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee’s decision not to release the 911 call tapes, it is perhaps worth explaining what was going on.
The “Scheme Team” used the initial refusal by Chief Lee to make the audio recordings of the 911 calls public part of their “corrupt Sanford Police Dept.” narrative.
For numerous news cycles Benjamin Crump, Daryl Parks, Natalie Jackson and Jasmine Rand beat this drum loudly. Each of them proclaiming on television appearances that Lee’s decision was evidence of a botched investigation and subsequent cover-up. But the truth is considerably different. Indeed it is totally the opposite.
One of the anti-Zimmerman narrative media sites posted an article about the timeline within the story. Here is the excerpt as it pertains to the 911 calls:
On Friday, March 16, the New York Times published an op-ed by Charles M. Blow. It was one of the first stories to explain that although Trayvon was killed 70 yards from his father’s house, police had tagged Trayvon’s body as a John Doe and didn’t attempt to find his parents until Tracy Martin called 911 to report his son missing.
Sanford Police released the 911 tapes that same day [March 16th]. It’s not clear why they released just before the weekend. The family was scheduled to go before a judge and argue their case that Monday. (article link)
These type of articles are insufferably devoid of fact. Trayvon was unknown to the people in the neighborhood, he did not have any identification on him, and his phone – found at the scene – according to reports, was dead. Absent of being able to find anyone to identify the shooting victim the body was moved to the morgue as a “John Doe”, standard procedure.
However, the 911 call tape release was not a function of Bill Lee’s independent decision not to release it. It was, quite simply, a matter of law. He COULD NOT lawfully release them.
In Florida there is a separate and distinct law that applies to public information when the information contains details that record the physical death of a person.
It is called the Earnhardt Law, as a consequence from the release of famous NASCAR racer Dale Earnhardt’s autopsy pictures against the wishes of his family. The Earnhardt law deems evidence including medical examination autopsy photographs, video, and audio recordings, that reflect the death of a victim, exempt from public inspection without the expressed permission from applicable next of kin.
Because the 911 audio recorded the death of another person they became subject to the Earnhardt law. Chief Lee had asked advice from city contracted attorneys and, as the article above confirms, a hearing was scheduled with a judge on 3/19/12 to determine if the recordings could be released to the public.
The hearing became a moot point because apparently Sanford Mayor Triplett, under great public pressure, decided Tracy Martin and/or Sybrina requesting them directly would qualify as permission from the next of kin. So Triplett gave the recordings to the family after their review in his office on March 16th. It is unknown whether the city attorneys confirmed his decision.
However, the material on the tape was not necessarily helpful to the Martin family.
Previously, Tracy Martin heard the 911 calls, and the cries for help on the recordings, and told Detective Serino on Tuesday 2/28 at Sanford Police Dept. HQ the voice on the recordings calling for help was NOT Trayvon.
A conversation and statement by Tracy Martin now being verified/validated by another witness (Sanford Police Detective William Erwin) to the conversation who heard Tracy Martin tell Detective Serino the voice was not Trayvon.
But on March 16th, absent of any progress toward an arrest, the Scheme Team needed to change the narrative. Truth be damned. Hence the claim by Sybrina on Friday 3/16, in Mayor Triplett’s office, that the voice calling “help” was indeed Trayvon.
The No became a Yes because it needed to. Civil Rights/Wrongful Death Attorneys: Ben Crump, Daryl Parks and Natalie Jackson needed it to. And boy did they sell that narrative to every TV, Radio, print and available media outlet they could find.
Earlier in the day on 3/16 the Scheme Team, together with Media Consultant Ryan Julison, had pre-established the plan. They had a witness, a witness desperate for media attention; A witness with some serious ego issues around grandiosity. Her name was Mary Cutcher.
Mary Cutcher was a witness that jumped out in front of the police and the media driven by a desire for fame and a feeling of importance. She previously gave statements to the Police department that were, well, best described as contradictory, inflated and unreliable.
The more Ms. Cutcher talked, the more her story changed, but she was able to elbow sell herself into numerous TV appearances and even onto prime-time CNN. During one such interview with WFTV the story changed again, and her credibility was no longer deemed even recoverable by police inspectors and investigative teams.
Culminating in this article – Cutcher had talked to WFTV, and said she did so because she was getting no response from police. That interview drew an unusual response from the Sanford Police Department. “Her statements during the WFTV interview are inconsistent with her sworn testimony to police investigators,” the police department said.
But to the Scheme Team Ms. Cutcher was an exploitable resource. A white woman saying the police wouldn’t listen to her tell her story about the “little black boy” begging for his life from the evil White Neighborhood Watch Vigilante.
So on the morning of 3/16 a Cutcher interview/Press Conference became the pre-game warm-up to their visit to Major Tripletts office.
What started out as an eye-witness (she saw everything) on 2/26, and evolved to an ear-witness (well she didn’t actually see anything but she did hear something) on 3/16 she became a conspiracy witness.
Orlando – […] One witness, Mary Cutcher, said she was “so hurt and upset” that the police department had discounted her eyewitness account. “I don’t know this family. I’m only trying to help,” Cutcher said. “I think that they [the police department] are trying to cover up something that they made a mistake and, honestly, I feel like they’re taking the light off them and trying to discredit my statement. I can show you my attempts to contact them and their lack of interest in talking to me.”
Crump added: “This is unprecedented for a police department to attack a witness statement during an ongoing investigation.”
And that’s how the events of Friday March 16th were used to establish a weekend of news cycles filled with the audio of 911 calls and the media selling the “who is it – scream tapes”.
There are a series of really important dates in this entire case.
Monday March 5th through Friday March 9th – when the whole plan was laid out and the background seeds were planted. Court orders to seal school and law enforcement records were filed. Trademark applications were secured. Black advocates were alerted to “the cause”. Benjamin Crump, Daryl Parks and Natalie Jackson began networking with their black community resource networks both local and national. Media Consultant Ryan Julison began contacting all of his media sources, and the Martin family began cleaning up any problematic issues resulting from Trayvon’s life as a street thug.
Friday March 16th through Friday March 23rd – That was the week of “DeeDee’s” introduction and the witness #8 recording. The 911 “screaming Trayvon” claim of 3/16 followed by the media circuit on Saturday 3/17 and Sunday 3/18. Discovering DeeDee on Sunday 3/18, interviewing her on Monday 3/19 and the press conference announcement of her story on Tuesday 3/20. All controlled, all planned, all scripted. Congressional Black Caucus hearings on Capitol Hill with Obama’s Rose Garden “my son” as the cherry on top.
Can you see the plan now?
Early in the day on 3/16 get Mary Cutcher saying she heard the little boy screaming for help.
Mid-Day on 3/16 get on TV demanding the 911 call tape (that you know legally the chief can’t give you) and proclaim police cover-up.
Evening on 3/16 (5pm) get Mom in the mayor’s office crying over the tapes and the cries for help. Letting the media (Matt Gutman) know in advance this is happening.
Evening on 3/16 (6:30pm) exit the Mayors office and seed the 911 audio to the waiting Matt Gutman along with some splendid story about Sybrina’s breakdown and running out of the room in tears.
Evening on 3/16 (8-11pm) get on every TV show and sow the seeds for the next phase…..