This reminds me of the recent ruling that said the lawyers in the case of the teenager (Kyle Rittenhouse?) who shot and killed three people cannot refer to the murder victims as “victims.” 
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I don’t have to read anything. I can sum it up in 2 letters:
OJ
A jury will do as a jury will do.
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Considering both sides will know each side’s witness lists before the trial, the prosecution will do everything they can to muddy her previous victims’ testimony. As @Knights_Mom has already said, Bilinkas knows how to get information out to the jurors by use of well framed questions.
In the latest hearing Bilinkas struck me as an Andy Griffith type of attorney, sly like a fox, bumbling for effect and getting the job done. Several times the judge told Bilinkas during questioning of the two cops, he knew what he was trying to do and the information he wanted for the record, but to hold it for the trial, that the procedure was a simple hearing without jurors. He never said particular questions were inappropriate, rather hold them for the actual trial. Anything Bilinkas asked that did not directly pertain to how the cops responded to and treated MB was stopped during the hearing. I guess it will be game on at the trial.
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I agree with this except for the word “habitually”. Based on the disclosure that it’s going to be an insanity defense, I would expect the defense to call all the other occupants of the farm who were witness to (and subject to) the “terroristic” behavior and threats, such as MHG and her children and the other trainers and students, to testify to the threats and harassment as well as its effect on MB. I’d expect the defense to call all 11 police officers being sued in the civil case. Also MBs standard therapist as well as a forensic specialist therapist.
According to the civil case, the behavior of LK and RG in the week leading up to the shooting was so abusive that it wrecked MBs sanity (while the police failed to intervene). They have no need to reach back to her similar behavior to others when they can document the triggering events of that week. With an insanity defense, the main issue is not the provocation itself but the effect of the provocation on Barisone’s mental state.
As I understand it, with an insanity defense, the defense is not trying to establish that she was a horrible person who deserved to be shot, but that her actions THAT WEEK brought on the insanity so that MB is not responsible for shooting her. I would think that a shrewd defense would avoid sending a mixed message.
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I can’t imagine that LK and RG will NOT be called as witnesses. MB is claiming he has no recall of the shooting and RG and LK were the only other people there.
It seems to me that LK and RGs behavior allegedly creating the mental stress that led to the mental breakdown is relevant. I understand that the civil and criminal cases are different, but I would expect the defense witnesses to be pretty much everyone named in the civil suit.
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I can imagine all of MB’s attorneys are looking forward to getting them in the witness stand, under oath, along with her father, who would have been well aware of their actions that week and his involvement in those actions. Add to that list the mysterious person she was on the phone with when the actual scuffle occurred. MB’s attorneys aren’t going to ask questions they don’t already have a fairly good idea what the answer is.
Her past encounters prove a tendency to harass and terrorize others to the extreme and will be important for jurors to understand. The simple fact MB/MH were calling her past victims (per LK herself) looking for advice in how to stop her behavior is reason for her past to be introduced.
Perjury carries a harsh penalty.
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I agree that if she was on the phone at the time of the shooting (“scuffle”, really?) the person on the line will be a valuable witness. I don’t see how it matters who the person was; presumably the police know who it was.
You state that MB/MH were calling her past victims “looking for advice on how to stop her behavior”. That suggests that MB had the rationality, and the time, and a supportive partner, and was capable of thinking through ways of dealing with the situation legally and nonviolently. There’s a conflict between that picture and a picture of MB simply crumbling mentally and acting while insane.
In terms of strategy, do you really think that emphasizing MBs sensible, rational moves that week is going to support, or contradict, an insanity defense? To me that just raises the question of: if LK and RG were known for tormenting people, and other adults in the situation knew MB was in therapy and mentally vulnerable, and other adults like MGH were working with MB to deal with the situation, why didn’t MGH and the others act to protect MB by getting a restraining order against LK? Or suggest they (MB/MHG) take a trip to Nantucket for a week?
This suggests to me that MGH is going to be the crucial witness in the case.
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There are quite a few crucial witnesses.
As mentioned countless times, the false allegations and arrival of CPS was apparently the breaking point. How much further was this woman planning to go to achieve whatever her warped goal was?
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No, LK makes that statement several times in previous threads and laughs at his actions.
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How so?
I’m no legal expert, but I don’t think rational behavior one day precludes irrational behavior later in the week, or even later on the same day.
Especially if someone is barely hanging on by their fingernails, and then something happens to send them over the edge. Like a false accusation called into Child Protective Services. For example.
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But often, posters don’t believe the things that LK states. I interpreted you as believing, in that instance, that MB/MHG were contacting previous cyber victims. I apologize if that is not what you meant.
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Who says anyone knew MB was in therapy or ever had been other than his attorneys saying he had a past history of psychological abuse. Although I recall LK posting something to the effect she was aware he had issues.
Do you not think calling 911 however many times with zero results was appropriate? I can’t answer why a restraining order hadn’t been ordered. Can you?
Tell me, would you leave hundreds of thousands of dollars of property and animals with someone who had threatened to burn the place down and kill the horses (as noted in the updated filing)?
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Wow, really?
I have not had a chance to read all the updated material, but that would probably send me over the edge in a heartbeat.
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I thought the civil filing said that MB had been in the care of a therapist for some time and was currently under the care of a therapist. Am I misremembering that? If I remembered that correctly, I assumed that a girlfriend/partner would know about the therapy.
Mostly I’m reacting to the civil suit saying that it should have been obvious to the police that MB was on the edge of a mental breakdown. If it should have been obvious to the police in their 20 minute encounters (generally different cops each time), I just think it also should have been obvious to his partner. That’s one reason I think she is a key witness.
No, I didn’t see the allegation in the civil suit that she had threatened to burn the place down. The barn? Where MB, MHG and others were living, in addition to the horses? (I admit I skimmed a lot of it.)
What do you mean by a restraining order not being “ordered”? Was a restraining order ever requested by MB/MHG? Did the filing say that MB requested a restraining order based on the arson threat among other things and did not get one?
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The issue, that MB’s attorney may have his work cut out for him getting admitted into evidence, is her behavior towards others. The judge could easily find that irrelevant. She’s not on trial.
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My point was that MB was not acting in a vacuum; other people (particularly MHG) were going through the ordeal with him, and if his fragile mental state was so obvious that the cops should have noticed it, that raises the question in my mind as to why his fragile mental state was not also obvious to those in his circle.
I agree with you that rational behavior one day does not preclude irrational behavior on another day.
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The apparent behavior that caused MB to call the police and subsequently break down certainly IS a factor, just as it has been with at least one other victim.
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See item #110 of the latest filing.
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Item #110
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The shooting was the culmination of several minutes of other actions/words of the parties involved.
Limiting the examination of the phone conversation she was having to just the shooting would leave out some vital context which may have been overheard by whomever she was speaking with.
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