· And while it is not illegal to interrogate a child without that child's attorneys or guardians present, the manner in which investigators questioned Dassey was flawed. In March 2006, while extracting Dassey's original confession, two investigators posed leading questions to the teenager, saying they knew exactly what had happened and that they would help Brendan if …
· Brendan Dassey, who has learning difficulties, was quizzed by cops without a lawyer Credit: AP:Associated Press. The doc cast doubt on the conviction of Steven, 58, and his nephew Brendan, 31, – a vulnerable youngster with learning difficulties who was grilled by cops and confessed without a lawyer or guardian present.
· Steven Avery Prosecutor Feels Sorry for Brendan Dassey: 'He Would Never Have Been Involved Except for His Uncle'. "I have a great bit of sympathy for Brendan Dassey," says …
· While what has happened to Steven, TWICE, is incredibly sad, what has happened to Brendan Dassey is just as bad if not worse. Brendan was just a sweet 16-year-old boy with a …
Throughout the book, Cicchini provides extensive insight to readers, illuminating details of the case unknown to even dedicated viewers of the well-known documentary series. As is evident from the title, despite Dassey's conviction and failed appeals, Cicchini views Dassey as innocent and Dassey's confession as false.
Interrogation. Dassey was interrogated on four occasions over a 48-hour period, including three times in a 24-hour time frame with no legal representative, parent, or other adult present.
The police questioned Brendan Dassey about the murder of Teresa Halbach on three documented occasions: February 27, 2006; March 1, 2006; and May 13, 2006.
Dassey, who has an IQ in the low 70s (an average IQ is 100), is pulled out of school by two investigators and interrogated for several hours without a parent or attorney present. The interrogators, Department of Justice investigator Tom Fassbender and Calumet Sheriff's Sgt.
Thirteen years ago this week, Manitowoc special education student Brendan Dassey was convicted of participating in the murder of Teresa Halbach based on a confession now widely acknowledged to be false. Brendan was 16-years-old and in the tenth grade when he gave that confession; today, he's 30.
Dassey's oral statement contains 26 information gaps, which indicates that he intentionally withheld information from his truthful story. Dassey told the truth but not the whole truth. Interestingly, Dassey exclusively used the past tense when he described his activities in the truthful statement.
In 2007, Dassey, 32, was sentenced to life in prison after a jury found him guilty in the death of Halbach, a 25-year-old photographer who had disappeared two years earlier. Dassey won't be eligible for release until 2048, when he will be 59.
Dassey also has below average intelligence, with a tested IQ of 73, making him even more vulnerable. In the film, he described himself as stupid.
In an age of Google, the internet, and smartphones, for a parent and a high school-age child to not know the definition of "inconsistent" — I was dumbstruck, and it was something I perhaps foolishly had never considered before.
Fassbender joined the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation in 1985 and has since retired from Wisconsin law enforcement. He moved to Nevada, where he worked hotel security in Las Vegas.
Michael Joseph "Brian" O'Kelly (1915 – October 1982) was an Irish archaeologist who led the excavation and restoration of Newgrange, a major Neolithic passage tomb in the Boyne Valley, County Meath, Ireland, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Which is why it matters that Brendan Dassey had a low IQ. According to Vulture, Dassey's IQ was between 69 and 73, while "a score of 70 is often used as a cut off for intellectual disability." This, Garrett said, would make him a prime target for interrogators looking for specific answers to their questions. "We know vulnerable people are more likely to falsely confess," the law professor told Esquire. "The bulk of the false confessions I've studied were either by juveniles or by people who are mentally ill or intellectually disabled. You'd expect people who are vulnerable to cave in to police pressure, and it's easier to put words in the mouth of a person like that."
After allowing Dassey to be interrogated alone in March 2006, he arranged for Dassey to be questioned again by Kachinsky's i nvestigator, O'Kelly. The documentary presents a videotape of the interaction, in which O'Kelly refuses to accept Dassey's detailed alibi and instead coaches him to corroborate his earlier confession, instructing him to draw a series of pictures on the form.
As Bustle reported, juveniles, which Dassey was at the time, are more malleable interrogation subjects because they "are more likely to feel frightened and confused" during police questioning, and less capable of comprehending the implications of their actions in the long run. They are more likely to give investigators the information they think those investigators are after; they are more likely to confess to crimes they didn't commit.
As People reported, Strang called Dassey's narrative one "that physically couldn't have happened, that physically was contradicted by the trace evidence." Dassey said in the March 2006 interrogation that he had raped Halbach when she was tied to Avery's bed, with both ropes and chains, and that Avery had cut off all Halbach's hair; that he himself had slit her throat; that he and Avery had then shot Halbach, both in the stomach and finally in the head. The incidents allegedly took place within Avery's trailer and garage. Police did not find evidence, such as rope fibers, Halbach's hair, sweat, or blood, in either location to support Dassey's testimony.
Notably, his uncle, to whom Das sey allegedly functioned as an accomplice, had previously been found not guilty of mutilating a corpse. But, however questionable the court's decision to allow use of this confession may have been, the details of the confession itself were incongruous, at least according to Strang.
It was this incident that spurred Kachinsky's removal from the case in August 2006, Bustle reported, noting that one of Dassey's post-conviction attorneys, Laura Nirider, said Kachinsky's maneuvers "violated his duty of loyalty to Brendan" and represented "steps to essentially coerce Brendan into pleading guilty."
In March 2006, when Dassey confessed to helping his uncle to maim and murder Halbach, he was assigned lawyer Len Kachinsky. In the documentary, it seems like Kachinsky accepts the appointment as a balm for his bruised ego. As Bustle reported, he had been in the running for circuit court judge in Winnebago County but had recently lost, polling third in the primary; the Dassey case presented an opportunity to restore his image.
According to court docs, Steven Avery's appeal lawyer Kathryn Zellner has pointed the finger at Barb's son Bobby Dassey and her husband Scott Tadych, who were each others' alibis at the time of the killing. Zellner also claims in the court filings that Bobby had access to violent pornography.
STEVEN Avery's nephew claims the Making a Murderer star is INNOCENT and alleges his stepmom wiped computer files in a bid to destroy evidence.
Speaking with Rolling Stone, Zellner said: “I ask myself what would motivate Tadych and Bobby to be such obstructionists and I have reached the inevitable conclusion, as our court filings state, that they were involved in the crime and Barb, was and is involved, even unwittingly, in its coverup”.
In the court docs, Sowinski said: "Bobby Dassey looked me in the eye, and I could tell he was not happy to see me there. I knew that Bobby Dassey and the older individual were doing something creepy,"
He claimed: "Barb sacrificed Steven and Brendan for Scott and Bobby."
The doc cast doubt on the conviction of Steven, 58, and his nephew Brendan, 31, – a vulnerable youngster with learning difficulties who was grilled by cops and confessed without a lawyer or guardian present.
STEVEN Avery's nephew claims the Making a Murderer star is INNOCENT and alleges his stepmom wiped computer files in a bid to destroy evidence. Netflix's crime documentary series detailed the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach, 25, who was found dead after visiting Avery's home in Manitowoc, Wisconsin to photograph his car. 7.
(Edit: In some states, including Wisconsin) Minors can be legally be questioned on their own, even if their answer s might lead to charges against them. Police don't need the permission of parents.
A recent post asked whether it was true that a deep clean of Avery's trailer took place. It was indicated that evidence photographs showed the trailer was very clean, and it was described in terms of being immaculate, glistening and freshly dusted. We can of course view evidence photographs from inside the trailer and easily decide for ourselves.
In December 2015 Netflix released their emotive ten-part documentary film Making A Murderer following the case of Steven Avery and in final episodes his 16-year-old nephew Brendan Dassey. This is a case which has sparked widespread debate and controversy. Complex, emotional and disturbing, it has the nation questioning the fairness and reliability of the American criminal justice system.
There are so many outstanding questions that have just not been answered, you can see why over 200’000 people in America have signed a petition for the release of Steven Avery, believing that once again he has been wrongly convicted of a terrible crime.
In all criminal trials a defendant is to be presumed innocent before any evidence is presented. It is the job of the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this defendant is guilty. From the footage we have seen in of this case, it is questionable that this is a man who was presumed innocent by all jury members before any evidence was heard.
Out of the 130 potential jurors who filled in questionnaires for jury selection, 129 of them confirmed they knew about the case from pre-trial publicity and as a result thought Steven Avery was ‘ probably guilty ’. It was this pool of people who the final 12 jurors who sat on the Steven Avery trial were selected.
On 12 August 2016 news broke that Brendan Dassey’s conviction had been overturned and if no charges are refiled against him in the next 90 days he will walk free.
Brendan Dassey was charged with being a party to first-degree intentional homicide on 2 March 2006. Brendan Dassey was 16-years-old at the time of these interviews, with a low IQ and a clear lack of understanding of the consequences to his statements, there is a huge amount of speculation over his confession. Taped interviews suggest coercion by the police officers who used leading questions and continued to push Brendan Dassey for the answers they wanted.
Just weeks after their depositions, on 31 st October 2005, Teresa Halbach, a 25-year-old photographer, went missing after she visited Avery at his home to photograph his sister’s car for Auto Trader Magazine. Her car was found inside the Avery Salvage Yard prompting repeated searches of Steven Avery’s home and his surrounding property. At the bottom of a fire pit outside Steven Avery’s trailer, the burnt remains of a young woman were found, soon identified as Teresa Halbach.
In Making a Murderer, Dassey was awarded a new lawyer in August 2006 when it comes to light that Len Kachinsky allowed him to be interviewed by a court investigator without the presence of an attorney. (Kachinsky, for his part, claims he was available by phone and that an investigator from his office was there.) The rights of the child are the same as an adult in which they are supposed to be read their Miranda Rights and have the right to remain silent, something the police claim Dassey chose to waive.
So, the child in question may refuse to answer any question, and may request to have a parent or lawyer present. This is something the investigators claimed in the documentary Dassey declined to do when he supposedly waived his Miranda Rights.
In the scene featuring Dassey getting arrested, the investigators tell him that since he confessed to these crimes, he must be arrested. Even though he was a minor, if he agreed to speak with investigators, his admissions were considered voluntary and could be used against him, according to the previously stated law.
According to the report on CriminalDefenseLawyer.com, police are not legally required to contact the parents of a minor they interview. As Dassey's public defender Len Kachinsky pointed out in the documentary, the police may not have wanted Dassey's mother present since she is Steve Avery's sister, and he was awaiting trial for the same case and could be a conflict of interest in the police department's search for the truth.
In the series, Brendan Dassey's mother claims that investigators Mark Wiegert and Tom Fassbender did not initially inform her that they were going to be interviewing her son. Although, Mark Wiegert and Tom Fassbender claim in the documentary they did. "We contacted Brendan's mother told her we would like to take Brendan to the Manitowoc's sheriff's department so we could do a videotaped interview with Brendan to see what else he had maybe known," Weigart said during his testimony in Dassey's trial. In the documentary his mother responds to his comments saying, "He said I declined to go in with [Brendan] but I wanted to go in with Brendan, [the police] wouldn't let me." But hypothetically, is their interviewing Dassey without her permission within legal parameters?
According to CriminalDefenseLawyer.com (a subsidiary of NOLO, an online legal information base) law enforcement officials are allowed under the law to question any child about their involvement in a crime. According to lawyer Peter Goldscheider, "The United States Supreme Court has approved such questioning of a minor in the absence of his or her parents. The police still have to give Miranda warnings if the minor is in custody ... In addition any statement the minor gives must be voluntary and not the product of coercion and/or promises." So, the child in question may refuse to answer any question, and may request to have a parent or lawyer present. This is something the investigators claimed in the documentary Dassey declined to do when he supposedly waived his Miranda Rights.
So, yes, technically it was legal for Dassey to be interviewed by police even as a minor and even without parental supervision. Whether he understood the implications of his words at the time is another question entirely, but it's worth watching Making a Murderer to decide for yourself.
Steven Allan Avery is an American convict whose rollercoaster story featured in Netflix’s Making a Murderer . In 1985, a court convicted Avery of sexual assault and attempted murder. Eighteen years into his 32-year sentence, DNA testing helped exonerate Avery. Following his release, Avery filed a $36 million lawsuit against the authorities ...
The witness, delivery driver Thomas Sowinski, claims that he saw Bobby Dassey – an essential prosecution witness – and an older man pushing a Toyota RAV-4, the car model driven by Theresa, in the early morning hours of 5th November 2005.
Steven Avery is in prison in 2021, as four years after his release, he was sentenced to life for the murder of Teresa Halbach. Making a Murderer supports Avery’s insistence that he is innocent. The series introduces new evidence and exposes instances of evidence tampering and witness coercion. Avery believes authorities in Manitowoc County conspired to send him back to prison.
Following his mother’s death, Steven fears that his dad will pass away while Steven is still in prison. On 8th July 2021, Kathleen tweeted that Steven Avery’s mother, Dolores Avery, had passed away. She died a day before Steven’s 59th birthday, which was on 9th July 2021.
According to the Milwaukee magazine story, "In September 2004, sheriff deputies arrested Avery for violating a disorderly conduct ordinance after an altercation with (Jodi) Stachowski. The court ordered him to stay away from the woman for 72 hours and pay a fine of $243.". 3.
The key, of course, is the key piece of evidence the defense claims law enforcement planted. There are very fishy things about the key. It was found by a Manitowoc law enforcement official days after others had already searched Avery’s residence repeatedly and had not found it – and Manitowoc had already publicly handed over the case because of Avery’s pending wrongful conviction lawsuit against that agency. This same officer was deposed shortly before the murder in Avery’s civil suit for his previous wrongful conviction. Very weird.
Angela Schuster, magazine operations supervisor, further testified that Halbach went to the Avery compound six times from June to Halloween to take pictures and also said, "She talked to Halbach by phone around 11 a.m. that day to tell her of the appointment at the Avery property," according to the AP.
This is also contained in the same AP story. It said that the same woman, Pliszka, testified – this time before the jury – that Avery called her on Oct. 31, 2005 "to request the photographer who had been out to the property previously."
The AP article said the judge would not allow the testimony to be heard by the jury "because the date wasn’t clear and few details were known about the alleged encounter."
Avery had drawn a torture chamber while in prison and was violent to other women. According to an Appleton Post Crescent article from March 9, 2006, "While he was in prison, Steven Avery planned the torture and killing of a young woman, new documents released Wednesday indicate.
Also, according to the Department of Justice investigator’s testimony in Dassey’s trial, Dassey’s pants had bleach stains that he said were from helping clean the garage, transcripts say. 5. Pornography was recovered in Avery's residence.