Pub talk turns to another surfer who was attacked and this poor soul died. But it was not another shark attack. This time it was one or more persons who apparently killed Emery Kauanui Jr., a professional surfer. The initial arraignment for those charged was scheduled for Sept. 10.
Allegedly, four young men who the press have apparently labeled the Bird Rock Bandits (a local gang or group of friends depending on who you talk to) were accused of being responsible for the beating of Emery Kauanui Jr. on May 24 in La Jolla. Kauanui, 24, apparently died four days after the fight on May 28. Seth Cravens, 21; Eric House, 20; Matthew Yanke, 21; and Orlando Osuna, 22, are all initially charged in connection with the beating. All have pleaded not guilty. Initially, Kauanui and Eric House fought. But Seth Cravens apparently delivered the fatal blow to Kauanui after the fight between Kauanui and House had apparently ended.
The dispute began back at a night club. Genny Grosso, was an ex girl friend of Emery. She apparently asks him to go to the bar. When he does,Genny speaks to Eric House. Emery apparently got jealous and spilled a beer on Eric. (Whether it was intentional or accidental as reported by NBCSandiego.com is disputed.) The two young men are thrown out of the bar.
Kauanui left the club and was driven home by Genny. Cravens, Osuna, House and Yanke apparently followed Kauanui to his home. (Emery apparently called House or visa versa. Either way, a fight was arranged.)
When House arrived, he was encouraged to fight Kauanui. Kauanui came out of the house and by most accounts, Emery Kauanui beat Eric House in the fight. House lost one of his teeth. The fight apparently was over at that point. Hank Hendricks may have pulled Genny off of Kauanui and House when they were on the ground. Apparently as Kauanui and House were getting up off the ground, Cravens punched Kauanui. According to witnesses, the punch from Cravens apparently knocked Emery Kauanui into a tree. (Cravens has a reputation of being a real strong guy with a devastating punch.) Four of the young men left the scene. House remained at the scene looking for his tooth. Kauanui was taken to a hospital where it was initially thought that he would be okay. Unfortunately, Emery Kauanui's condition deteriorated and he died four days later. Criminal cases are still pending against all five young men. All but one of the five charged is out on bond. All five have plead not guilty.
Update 5-20-08 Preliminary hearings are determining whether there is enough evidence to try these young men as a gang. The comments below contain summaries of some of the testimony. Cravens may have been the only "gang want to be."
Update 6-21-08: Judge Einhorn decided on May 22, 2008 that these five did not constitute a criminal street gang. Like it or not, he is not going to change his mind. These five will be tried as individuals and not as a gang.
Legal Pub reminds everyone that all suspects are innocent until proven guilty. Until there is a trial, no one knows who, if anyone, is guilty.
Update 6-30-08: Eric House, 21; Orlando Osuna, 23; and Matthew Yanke, 21; plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter and misdemeanor battery. Henri "Hank" Hendricks, 22, plead guilty to a felony of being an accessory after the fact. It is believed that the charge will be reduced to a misdemeanor. Seth Cravens, 22, re-entered a not-guilty plea after his attorney rejected a plea offer from prosecutors. Back in May, Judge Einhorn found the men could not be prosecuted under gang statutes because the group wasn't formed specifically to commit crimes.
May these young men learn from their mistakes and may Emery R.I.P.
Update 9-6-08: Co-defendants, Eric Matthew House, left, Hank Hendricks and Orlando Sandoval Osuna were sentenced on Friday, Sept. 5, 2008 in San Diego. The four have been sentenced to between 90 and 349 days in jail for their respective roles in the death of Emery Kauanui. Hank Hendricks sentence was the least do to his limited role. He will spend up to 90 days in jail. Hopefully these young men grow from this awful experience and that Emery Kauanui's death serves to educate others about the senselessness of violence.
Update 11-7-08: Mary Ellen Attridge, Cravens attorney argued that there was no evidence that the right-handed Cravens knew that one punch with his left hand could kill someone. Deputy District Attorney Sophia Roach argued that there was evidence of a group beating. She argued there was some evidence of kicking and hitting, that culminated in Kauanui being hit by "an incredibly forceful blow" to the head. Cravens is charged with voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter. Closing arguments were held today.
Update November 18, 2008: Superior Court Judge John Einhorn read the jury's guilty verdict for most of the charges against Seth Cravens, including 2nd degree murder. Cravens will next appear at a sentencing hearing scheduled for January 12, 2009.
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259 comments:
1 – 200 of 259 Newer› Newest»Oh... I hesitate to say too much. I am not trying to take sides and I have very little personal info on this one pubmeister. But what I gather is The bird rock bandits have been involved in a few tussells on the beach at Windansea over the past couple of years. Now talk is that they are the young generation of the Windansea Surf Rats.During season down by the pump house or on Neptune at sunset,you might see these so called gangs or groups having beers. They might be well behaved or they might be pains in the butt that verbally harrass
people passing by. The "gangs" have been in that neighborhood for years. Rumor has it that that they beat someone else up a week before Emerys death and the SDPD apparently did nothing about it. The San Diego cops need to get involved and protect the public. Underage drinking, drugs and fighting have always been a part of beach life. But if cops would crack down, the problem could be minimized. LJ Rancherita on Marine street aka the ranch has a lot of hot women. Not sure how well they card.
I never surfed with Emery. But I heard he was a cool dude with a real talent on the waves. I would hope that he would speak out about the need for better police supervision on the beach if he were still alive to surf the waves. Without mentioning names, more beach loving dudes are hurt by unfriendly locals then by sharks.
Surfer Dude
As always, Surfer dude, thanks for your perspective.
. . . that will teach others not to ever spill a drink on them.
They suckered this guy into a fight.
This gang stuff needs to end
Thanks pubmeister. Does that mean that I get to drive the new truck if I ever get to the midwest?
Surfer Dude
Was hip hop cause of this white trash attack?
P.P.
Rite! How come no one screaming about
da music the white boys listened to before they beat this poor man to death?
Rommie
I don’t think anybody has evidence of music that condones and encourages violence being associated with this event. If it was, I condemn it…whatever its source.
It’s amazing how many people seem to have a distingue inability to grasp the obvious point being made…to wit:
Glorification and acceptance of violence is not the answer.
Such encouragement and acceptance can come from many aspects of a culture….music being only one.
That said, I again ask a non-rhetorical question…
Why cannot one “defend their culture” without condoning and encouraging the failure of its members through acceptance of violent actions?
Anyone?
Further, what’s “white”, or black for that matter, got to do with anything?
It’s the cultural acceptance of unreasonable and unnecessary violence that is being condemned, not the skin color of the singer.
Perhaps more of those who articulate a desire for less racism in our society should exhibit less themselves.
I didn’t get the job because I’m black. No, you didn’t get the job because you came it dressed like a thug, without a proper resume, and talk like you failed 6th grade.
It’s racism against Hispanics. No, it’s a lack of respect for those who violate our immigration laws.
You’re just harassing me because I’m black. No, you’re violating the law by breaching the peace of the citizens with your stereo.
You’re…..they…..etc. Everybody’s else fault but my own.
Look at what is being done, not who is doing it. The fact that white or black or fat or thin did this or that should not be part of the condemnation calculus.
The condemnation of “rap” or “hip hop” is not a condemnation of “black”. Rather, it is a condemnation of an apparent desire to glorify and perpetuate a cycle of violence that is so damaging to those involved.
I hate to say it…but here goes:
Who is really looking out for young blacks in our society, those who wish to continue the factors highly correlated with social failure or those who wish to break the cycle?
Is Bill Cosby right?
L.S.
L.S. Dude, here is the argument about violence advocating music in my circle. Surfers like me still like the Beach Boys. Beach Boys sang: "Friday night we'll be jacked up on the football field and we will be ready to fight."
Hey, I know it is lame. Gang violence is not limited to the African American community. Race had nothing to do with the turf wars down at the beach.
San Diego cops need to get involved and stop turning a blind eye to the problem.
Surfer Dude
While I am at it, let me solve a few other problems:Illegal Imigration, Folks Being Fed to Gators, Flooding in New Orleans, All simple solutions!
Dig a moat the length of the Mexican border. Send the dirt to New Orleans to raise the level of the levies. Then put the Florida alligators in the moat along the Mexican border.
Any other problems you would like for me to solve today?
Surfer Dude
A waste of human life...
He is riding the big wave in the Sky now. RIP
Emery R.I.P.
Bird Rock Bandits Rule!
Bird Rock Bandits need to grow up. Never an excuse to take another human's life.
J.J.
This is not what should be meant by the term "quarterback sack."
Sad waste of life!
Should be an interesting trial!
A waste of a beautiful life.
He was a great Dude!
hank hendricks never touched emery the surfer, ( the courts said) hank hendricks lived in natick mass for three years ; he had no connection to the dudes in la jolla only twice a year; the battle was over his girl friend grosso who was dancing with eric house ; hendricks was outside the bar and in the " periphery of the fight" why dont you pick on the two culprits; emery and the Seth who is in jail who threw the punch and not on a bystander who did not touch emery and wished that he was elsewhere to all this scene
Hendricks was a stellar student and athlete, emery had a list of offenses for attacking people , he was on parole, why dont you check your facts, you can read can you?
i FEEL REALLY BAD FOR EMERY HE NEVER DESERVED TO DIE SO YOUNG? I FEEL SORRY FOR HIS MOM? yet that does not make hank hendricks a killer which he is not , he never touched the guy, emery said so to the police, get your facts straight and read the depositions
you sound like you want to accuse him because he is a high acheiver
all his schoolmates say that he was a neat guy ; the guy in jail is seth not hank
Anonymous, feel free to fill us in on the facts as you know them. Are charges still pending against Hendricks?
Thank you, i think that you kids are great for reading the message and acting on it, you are smart as well
in re of Hank they have dropped the charge to a lesser charge as they know that he had no part in the fight; the only thing is that gang part, and Hank was in Natick mass for three years with doug flutie and his family so he could not be part of any gang , he was not there ; Seth had a weird blog about Nazis, and racist stuff Hank never had a blog and he is buddies with Mexicans, blacks, whites he really is a nice guy and real humble , he is not a guy full of himself and that's why when his old high school mates called him, even though he lived in Boston for three years , he went because he was true to is old pals , i dont think he knew being away that they were into all that " stuff"
his mistake was to go as he arrived the day before from Boston
he is a good surfer too and my heart goes to Emery that guy should be alive and surfing , it is a tragedy for his mom too, Hank
was not into hurting emery, he had dated his sister
It is always best to hear both sides of a story. Main stream media apparently was initially mistaken about Hank's involvement. Sounds like he was just hanging out at an inopportune time. The tragedy is that one decent young man is dead and his family will forever miss him.
May Emery R.I.P.
if you want to know all about hank hendricks and the case read
LA TIMES/ DEATH IN A SEA SIDE PARADISE / DATED DECEMBER 16TH /
PAGE 6TH MOST OF IT IS DEDICCATED
TO HANK HENDRICKS
Let's leave it up to the prosecutors to decide who gets tried for what crime. Seems to me if they acted like a gang in concert, then they should all do the time. Does restraining the girl friend from helping Emery constitute an accomplice to the crime? I don't know but a jury may tell us if a plea is not worked out.
Guilt merely by association should not be a crime...
Emery's girl friend is very small and would have been in trouble in the middle of two men fighting each other, what could she do? except be hurt herself. She certainly could not stop a fight that started ; she should have stayed near Emery in the condo instead of running off to get her car, she should have kept him inside his home out of trouble. as long as Emery was indoors he was fine , why did Emery get out of his condo for if not to fight ? the other kids were outside , he must have wanted an encounter? Why did he call Eric House on the phone and ask him to fight? it was a series of bad decisions that cumminated in a drama which is so awful and sad
Emery had won; Eric House had lost a tooth and was " out" of it
Emery had won
No doubt, Emery participated willingly in the first fight. But after he won the first fight, was it not over. I don't think Emery willing jumped into a second fight.
Now, as Emery was bruised and battered, did he continue to get hit or kicked after he could no longer defend himself?
Did Hendricks try to save Emery's girl friend from getting hurt or did he prevent her from stopping the fight?
Should Seth spend the next 20 years or more behind bars?
Personally, I think the only thing Hank is guilty of is choosing his friends poorly. But as a so called leader, couldn't Hank have talked Seth into walking away without hitting Emery?
This has forever changed many lives...
you speak in a very reasonable fashion and i agree; from what i understand ; Emery wanted to fight
Eric House who is not large, he already had poured beer all over Eric because his girl friend was speaking to Eric , Emery also knocked his tooth out in the fight Eric was on his knees looking for his lost tooth
Hank had arrived the day before from Boston; he was jet lagged ,all of them had a few drinks, Hank is a very laid back person and was startled, he works hard and does not get into fights because he does not have the time of day ; he usualy tries to get his work done; we dont know what these guys were thinking i feel that they were mostly drunk
Emery's girl friend could not have stopped anything she is really small specially among a bunch of guys who are into sports
It is true that if Seth cannot curb his anger and went on fighting the way that he did around town , he should be stopped ,it seems that he was bored and enjoyed his great strenght the wrong way and that cannot go on, he should be responsible for his actions
the two culprits were Seth and Emery who had a long past of fighting: Emery was on parole; the two were trigger happy
The autopsy shows that Emery died from falling bakward and banging his head which caused a blunt trauma to his skull , that's after Seth knocked him
I also understand that some of the others were on the side line? others fought , its all kind of dim
How can you be a leader when two kids fight like crazy, they would not have listened to anything probably ; have you tried to talk to drunken guys in a fight ?
It seems that its part of the culture sometimes for guys to
" have it out" once in their youth?
every little kid has one fight one time, but to make one's life full of fighting is another thing ; Seth is a
" big guy" i dont know if many people would go against him
Emery probably felt that it would be just " him and Eric"?
There are a lot of unanswered questions
Thanks for the update, keep us posted. I wonder if Hank would do anything differently if he had it all to do again.
I don't know if Seth would have listened to Hank. Only Seth knows if he would have respected him enough to refrain from hitting Emery.
Sad story for all involved, including Seth because his life too is forever changed. No matter how tough some one is, no one is bigger then the consequences.
Please keep us posted.
Is hank sorry for being there? I do not know , but in California if you are in somebody's car at twelve at night, you are stuck there , you are dependant on that car whoever drives it , you need a ride home usualy.
i have lived through things and sometimes it goes so fast that you just stand there and afterwards you feel; i should have done that, i should have said that and you could kick yourself for not doing whatever, some situations evolve so fast that there is no time to think.
Everyone feels terrible for Emery
who should be still surfing, he was so young, i feel terrible for his girl friend she loved him as well as his mom and that's a fact
such sadness they must feel, i would not wish it to my worst enemy
we really relate to their pain, we relate to Seth pain also , he must be hurting and i have a tender heart and his parents must grieve also ; what a tragedy!
Hank was not arrested at first as if he was not part of it
he willingly went to the police to be deposed like a good citizen and still they did not arrest him, that proves that he was not involved , the arrest came after they found Seth emails full of symbols and things, very racist etc, maybe he was joking about it then the police felt " its a gang" and put everyone in the same bag, including Hank who was away from San Diego for three years , he did not belong to any gang ; how could he , being out of town ?
also as an independant thinker, people like that do not associate to gangs, they do not have that kind of mentality, they do not need it , besides he was never a racist; read the article writen by one of his school chums who knew him, his name is Noah Brezinsky and writes for the " Cornell daily sun" The name of the article is
" leave, just leave" he says that when they were small; he and Hank would take classes together and that Hank showed him how to throw a curved ball" he says that hank is a nice person who worked his ass off and was largely loved in his town as " the golden boy, three sports wonder" who Doug Flutie took on as a protege"
Hank"s friends ranged from every colour in the book, he was raised without stupid prejudices, when people are half smart, they do not go down into stupid prejudices, for they undestand the many cultures and their beauty , without judgement. Hank is basically good; of course he is a guy like most American guys are
He probably likes to party now and then , but nothing gross or mean hearted, he is not that way i am sure
Greek tragedies of old are like that " how a fatal moment can change a life"
thats what hapenned to those kids " a fatal moment"
Trying to be without prejudice, we are not against gangs, America is a free country and when someone is lonely, he might find comfort by belonging to some kind of a group,
everyone has a free choice and lives by it
so who is to judge? everyone has a place under the sun
i found the answers to my questions in
A/The deposition,
B/The article from "this goesto 11"
" bird rock bandits " surf" not so much surfers; june 10 2007
C/ The Cornell daily sun newspaper
writen by Noah Brozinsky " run , just run"
D/ Boston globe , september 28TH
" A night of drinking, fighting, death " by bob Hohler
E/ LA TIMES . Joel Sappell : december 18th 2007; " death in a sea side paradise "
there you can find the answer to many questions and be more aware of what has happenned
Actually, the most important facts will be what the jury finds the facts to be based upon a presentation of the evidence by the lawyers.
Authors, simply give their interpretation of what people have suposedly said. The witnesses presumably will all testify and a jury will decide who they believe and formulate in their own minds what happened.
A.P.
All of the defendants may get off without any serious penalty. Just have to wait and see.
Prosecutors have trouble convicting people involved in fights because it is seldom just one person's fault.
yes it is never only one person's fault, but if you never touched the guy should you be guilty ?
Touching the victim is a major issue and element of most battery crimes. But what the suspect said may also be critical.
If you have a so called leader inciting another to commit a crime, he may be an accomplice or a co conspiritor. I am not saying that is the case here! What I am saying is that I suspect the prosecution will offer pleas and only take the cases to trial on the charges that he thinks that he can win.
Just my 2 cents.
An old fashion ass kicking!
i heard( i read it on one of the commentaries ) that the charges for Hendricks changed from " he was part of a gang " to " he associated with some of these people "
He had no real ties with La Jolla, he lived in Natick Mass for three years near the home of Doug Flutie and he had no beef against Emery, the fight was between Emery and Eric House because Eric was talking to his girl friend at the bar and Emery poured beer on Eric House and they both were mad at each other and Eric lost a tooth and gave up the fight , then Emery received the blow from Seth that made him fall against a tree
so that Hendricks had no strong emotion on the matter , if Emery had stayed inside his condo and turned off the lights he would have been okay , but he came out swinging , when guys are drunk at one in the morning anything goes
i heard( i read it on one of the commentaries ) that the charges for Hendricks changed from " he was part of a gang " to " he associated with some of these people "
He had no real ties with La Jolla, he lived in Natick Mass for three years near the home of Doug Flutie and he had no beef against Emery, the fight was between Emery and Eric House because Eric was talking to his girl friend at the bar and Emery poured beer on Eric House and they both were mad at each other and Eric lost a tooth and gave up the fight , then Emery received the blow from Seth that made him fall against a tree
so that Hendricks had no strong emotion on the matter , if Emery had stayed inside his condo and turned off the lights he would have been okay , but he came out swinging , when guys are drunk at one in the morning anything goes
It appears that Hendricks was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not a whole lot of criminal intent on his part that I have heard.
As to Seth, he is the one who faces the toughest challenge in the court room.
I feel sorry for Emery's mom, Cindy. Emery has been made to look like a bad kid and he was actually a nice guy. Violence gets violence. But sometimes a man has to stand up in order to be a man.
Some of these kids " had a past" some did not
we should only look at the whole picture and all these mothers are crying; Emery's mom is the worst off for her son is gone.
The other moms are in a waiting stage until everything is sorted out
Emery was not a worse guy than the others ; they were friends remember? sometimes life takes a curve. no one expected that event to come up and drinking at night is not the best way to go unless people can hold their drinks
Just my opinion, but I think Seth's parents may have missed the boat in raising their son.
r i p emery. stojan from maribor-slovenija
any updates on the may 7th hearing?
i heard that seth craven is also Hawaian like emery that they both lived in Hawaii , so that these kids were really close friends from way back, its a battle that turned bad i also read the police report saying that eric house was drenched in blood that night so that there was terrible fighting on both sides over a girl named grosso
one of these kids battle over a girl , the newpapers were the first to call them the bird rock bandits and the name stuck, thats what they said in court, not a gang , just a bunch of kids who drank, many witnesses said that they never heard of the bird rock bandits before , only in the newspapers who started that name going around and they were not able to really identify the assaillants , they seemed hesitant except on one incident
what i read from the courts; may eleven 2008
the accusations are very clouded , some of the witnesses did not recognize the " assaillants" never called them the bird rock bandits only after they read it in the papers so why did the press start it? why did the papers start this bird rock bandits alegations since they were not brought up before?
i have read the policemen reports on the night when they arrived at the scene, they saw eric house was covered with blood
emery's legs, arms, body had no blood on it, he fell back on his head , so there was a fight but he was not kicked all over as the papers said , he got one punch and fell backwards hitting his head on the pavement which is what killed him , that was posted by the court on may 12th monday from the court minutes where several police officers were deposed
i have read the policemen reports on the night when they arrived at the scene, they saw eric house was covered with blood
emery's legs, arms, body had no blood on it, he fell back on his head , so there was a fight but he was not kicked all over as the papers said , he got one punch and fell backwards hitting his head on the pavement which is what killed him , that was posted by the court on may 12th monday from the court minutes where several police officers were deposed
i have read the policemen reports on the night when they arrived at the scene, they saw eric house was covered with blood
emery's legs, arms, body had no blood on it, he fell back on his head , so there was a fight but he was not kicked all over as the papers said , he got one punch and fell backwards hitting his head on the pavement which is what killed him , that was posted by the court on may 12th monday from the court minutes where several police officers were deposed
Did you ever stop to think that witnesses are hesitant because they are scared that they are going to get their ass beat by Seth and his friends?
I think the original report on this forum called them groups...
It also called for better police supervision on the beach.
Personally, I do not have a clue whether the Defendants are innocent or guilty. I do; however, personally believe that if you punch someone, you have to accept the consequences of your actions. If you punch an egg skull person and his skull cracks, you are responsible for the results. That is my opinion, and these defendants would not want a juror like me...
i have an open mind and guilty people should pay but i read the hour to hour depositions from cops in court on may 12TH 2008 who are not scarred of any of these kids and they said that they NEVER heard about this " bird rock bandits from the newspapers" not before ;witnesses did not remember either and these kids do not all have the same portion of guilt, they did not throw the punch
i learned also that seth craven and emery were both half Hawaians
that they had a long time relatinship and Emery would have been out of harms way if he had stayed inside his condo , he came out swinging and threw the first punch
the press is only into great titles , they do not speak of details
Yes it is horrible that emery died but they were not all beating him ; the police said that the one with blood was eric house and emery's body did not have marks , he died from a punch and a fall ,thats awfull but let us see the real facts here, lets not tar everybody until all comes out , it is sensation that they are after in the news
i have an open mind and guilty people should pay but i read the hour to hour depositions from cops in court on may 12TH 2008 who are not scarred of any of these kids and they said that they NEVER heard about this " bird rock bandits from the newspapers" not before ;witnesses did not remember either and these kids do not all have the same portion of guilt, they did not throw the punch
i learned also that seth craven and emery were both half Hawaians
that they had a long time relatinship and Emery would have been out of harms way if he had stayed inside his condo , he came out swinging and threw the first punch
the press is only into great titles , they do not speak of details
Yes it is horrible that emery died but they were not all beating him ; the police said that the one with blood was eric house and emery's body did not have marks , he died from a punch and a fall ,thats awfull but let us see the real facts here, lets not tar everybody until all comes out , it is sensation that they are after in the news
We shall wait and see what a jury does with Seth and the others. Everyone involved is entitled to a fair trial so that true justice is administered.
The thing about Seth is that this may not be his first brush with the law. Supposedly,at a party in La Jolla in the summer of 2002, [Seth] Cravens, then 17, punched Thomas Barrow in the head as many as 20 times. Barrows got a hearing loss and jaw damage. Barrow, was supposedly beaten after he came to the defense of a young woman.A group of Cravens’ friends supposedly made sure nobody got in the way of the beating. Barrows said, ”I remember trying to shield my head and thinking, ‘Don’t fight back.’ If I were to fight back I’d have 10 people on me.” Supposedly, Seth got only juvenile punishment. Maybe this time the court will send a message?
According to the New York Times,
the community of La Jolla has long produced beach cliques, most formed around the inclination of surfers and other beachgoers to guard their local break.
In particular, the locals who frequent Windansea Beach included a little known group whose members call themselves the Bird Rock Bandits.
Clique, group, gang... it matters not. All involved used poor judgment that day. Not one single leader stepped up to break up the fight.
i have listened to a newspaper video ; the man interviewed said that " in Hawaii where both Seth and Emery are from ( they are both half Hawaiian, Samoan ) there is a terrible turf battle going on there if you are not a local. But it was not racist because both were part islander and Osuna is part Mexican , they were brown and white.It was a quarrel over a girl; grosso who lied in court; she said that " she was called by Emery to pick him up at the bar, because he was drunk. In fact when it first came out in the papers she said that she was dancing with Emery and when Eric House spoke to her, Emery spilled beer on Eric House , then she drove Emery home and left him alone? Why? if she felt that he was in a bad way? She also said that " he was calling his friends for help " Why not call 911 instead? Also, Emery called Eric for a fight and instead of staying in his condo he came out shirtless and beat the crap out of Eric House. The police said that Eric was covered with blood, that Emery had no marks on his body only a cracked skull from the fall and the one punch. If they all beat on him when he was down , he would haave had marks all over :There are a lot of different stories here and how is Grosso going to look to the judge who seems very smart if she has two stories to tell ? would someone lose all credibility if they lie in court?
then the rest of it is incredible it seems
If you follow everything and read you get a feeling of incomprehension altogether here
which does not excuse the violence of some of this kids for sure
but lets not put them all in the same bag,
the fact that poor emery died so young is a total tragedy for him and his family and such a waste of a young life, but lets not beat up on the ones who are alive , because there was guilt on both sides
If there is such a thing as guilt by association, then these boys may be in trouble.
Just because everyone is doing it (fighting) does not relieve one of responsibilty if someone dies, in my opinion.
Seth and the others may get sued criminally in a wrongful death action after the criminal cases. It happened to O.J.
Search warrants allege they were part of a gang known as the Bird Rock Bandits. The documents claim that the men wanted to be affiliated with the Hell's Angels outlaw motorcycle gang.
Prosecutor Sophia Roach displayed photos from Craven's bedroom.
"We found numerous items with 'Bird Rock Bandits' on it and a couple of Hells Angels stickers," Holden testified. Apparently, also found were two knives and wooden club with "BRB" written on it. One of the knives had a Nazi swastika. Holden said.
Pretty serious stuff! The men each face up to 15 years to life in prison if convicted.
Officer Manansala said as he arrived on the scene, he illuminated House who was shirtless and covered in blood. As House walked toward his patrol car, Manansala pulled out his Taser gun and ordered House to the ground.
House complained about losing his tooth. "He was agitated and wouldn't calm down," the officer said.
Manansala noticed Kauanui in a pool of blood on the ground. He said he applied gauze to the back of his head.
The officer also testified that Karen Loftus told him at the hospital that she was a witness to the fight. Loftus allegedly said she saw Kauanui fighting with three men. She allegedly saw the surfer being kicked while he was on the ground. She also said she saw him get up but one of the men hit Kauanui in the face. The blow knocked him out and he fell back and hit his head.
"She said he (Kauanui) wasn't moving at all," according to Manansala.
Wow, great updates!
i followed the courts every day: there were a large amount of witnesses to the past of all this guys, except for one: his name was never mentionned by any of the bearers of complaints, as if he was a non participant to any of their activities , almost an outsider, and he never touched Emery : the Nazi blogs were found only at Seth Craven house , not the others , does that implicate all of them or will they judged individually?
One would expect that each individual will be judged separately. I do not think all will be convicted of the same crime. One or more may get off entirely as some posters have suggested.
This was an unfortunate consequence to a night of bad judgment on the part of several people, including Emery. Pray that justice will only punish the guilty and that the innocent shall be set free.
As I understand it, the current hearing is a preliminary one in which the court will decide if the young men acted as a gang. statute defines criminal street gangs as:
"Any ongoing organization, association, or group of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, having as one of its primary activities the commission of one or more of the criminal acts [contained in the statute] having a common name or common identifying sign or symbol, and whose members individually or collectively engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal gang activity."
We should know soon...
A professor from Irvine university spoke to the courts on may 21th; his specialty is gangs
he said that the guys involved had no equivalent gang ennemy, which gangs usualy have, that Eric House wept and told the police and the paramedics that " please take care of Emery" as he felt so guilty and gang members do not show guilt ? one thing that was not mentionned is that Emery was staying at one of the group's house because his mom had kicked him out so that he " lived" at one of the accused member home temporarily
People do not listen to courts enough , of course that will not revive poor Emery , but it shows that this kids did have some feelings and some were tough and some were not tough, their names were not mentionned once in the accusations of problmes caused in the past
I believe Seth Cravens has been in trouble in the past!
This was an unfortunate incident. Emery does not appear to be without fault. But why did Cravens hit him? The fight with House was over when Cravens hit him.
thats what all the mothers are crying about? Why did craven hit him? they are all paying for it now
they were all bewildered , osuna said' this fight is over'
maybe seth saw eric house covered with blood and wanted to defend him?
anyway emery did not have blows to his body, showing that they did not beat him up in a group, his body bore no signs of blows, only his jaw from the punch and the back of his head from the fall
emery probably had good and bad in him like all of us
it is a crying shame
and they are not a gang said the judge they were friends from grammar school ( all of them)
It appears, that Seth Cravens acted alone in throwing the punch. By most accounts, the fight between House and Kauanui was over. Why Seth threw the punch and hit Kauanui remains to be answered.
some of this kids had a past for rough housing, but some had a clean slate past , it will all show up in the end because records are there
the shame is that when emery and house wanted to fight , the others should have stayed behind , they
had one car, but hind sight is always better than.......
we need an answer to a question; Genny Grosso after giving several versions of events, suddenly took off and lives in Italy
Is that legal?
it seems too easy to accuse people of all kinds of things and then to leave the country after giving to the police two or three versions of the events ?
Could we get a legal answer to that as we dont know
If we follow that story as a mistery writer, it makes for an interesting novel; there is a girl named Genny Grosso, she is the ex girl friend of Emery, she asks him to go to the bar, while there she speaks to eric House knowing that men get jealous, she speaks to Eric House :Emery reacts and throws beer at Eric, they are thrown out of the bar and Emery and Eric call each other for a one to one fight;
she is in the condo with emery, she should stay and pacify him;
At that point, she runs out and leaves him alone and upset as drunk as the others
she comes back while Emery is on the ground, Eric has lost a tooth, they( eric and emery) are on the ground fighting, she jumps on the two of them and kicks everybody, hendricks pulls her off the two fighters so they they can stand up, unfortunately at that point , the punch arrives and emery drops to the ground with a mortal wound
Genny Grosso gives two or three diffferent version of what happened to the police , all of them untrue
As a nice finish, she takes a plane to Italy
How does that grab you?
ONE GUY IS DEAD? THE OTHERS IN JAIL
One Legal answer:
A witness has a right to live anywhere she chooses. If a deposition is admissible,typically either side is allowed to introduce evidence to contradict her testimony. This would include prior inconsistent statements. Another deposition can also be taken and used as evidence.
Article on the San Diego news; men in surfer's death not a gang
The accusation said and i quote
" Grosso jumped on House and Hendricks pulled her off , allowing Kauanui to get up, after Kauanui stood up, he received the fatal punch "
Also " no one beat or kicked Kanuanui when he was down"
the autopsy shows no marks on his body except a punch to the jaw and a trauma to the back of the head
when he fell back on the concrete"
everyone is sad that a young life was taken and we grieve, but also for the ones who were there accidentally and did not mean anything bad and were drawn into a
situation, we should consider their young life, because each one of these kids carry a different burden of guilt, being young and getting drunk is a bad recipe for disaster, then everyone suffers in the end
but the most compassion should be kept for the poor mom and some of the other moms as well
now the five are going to court on second degree murder charges, some of them had no past offenses or any police reports about them
will that aleviate their sentenses?
"the gang "
the judge said " they are not a gang" the DA said " we will bring back the gang charges" can she do that?
You are always enlightning and very composed as lawyers which is refreshing after all the insults on blogs that we read which sometimes make people feel as being nasty back even though they are not
COULD YOU ANSWER THE QUESTIONS?
Legal answer two:
My understanding is that Cravens is the only one not to have posted bond. Cravens remains in the George F. Bailey Detention Facility on $1.5 million. House and Yanke are free on bonds of $1.5 million and $1 million bond, respectively. Osuna and Hendricks are both free on $500,000 bond.
As I understand it, all four men are banned from going to any beach as a condition of bond.
Third legal view:
To the poster that wondered if they can bring back gang charges. I do not know the exact ruling of the court in this case. However, the general rule is that if the defense knocks out a part of the prosecution's case (i.e. gang related activity) they can not re allege the allegation unless there are extraordinary circumstances.\
Hendricks will probably be offered a real lenient plea agreement in exchange for his testimony. It appears that Cravens is the one the prosecutor wants the most. The reason appears to be because no one can figure out why Cravens punched Kauanui. The fight between House and Kauanui was over. Why not everyone leave? Did any one bet on the fight? No evidence of such so far...
That being said, the prosecutor can amend the charging information, but likely the judge will dismiss the amended portion.
no, no one was betting on anything , they were a bunch of stupid drunken kids and their brains were in their shoes
I am a survivor of world war two as a child i saw horrific things and they sometimes happen so fast that you are " tetanysed" meaning paralized and i was not a coward, sometimes one could intervene and i had courage for a little kid and somtimes it goes so fast that you just want to shoot yourself for not intervening
The prosecution said " Hendricks picked up Jenny because there was emery, house and Jenny pilled on top of each other which allowed Emery to stand up" suddenly the blow from Seth came out of nowhere " bang" they were all aghast and freaked and did not know where to go from there; dont forget they were drunk and a drunken man is not the most composed
what do you think? I always welcome your good answerw
I have not heard all of the evidence. However, based on the limited information that I have been able to read, Hendricks should be ok. I see him as the least culpable. This is especially true since he was away at college most of the time. The others don't appear to have too much more liability with the exception of Seth Cravens.
Cravens threw a punch at a person that he was not even fighting. (IF that part is true, he will likely be held culpable for the consequences of his actions.)Cravens also needs to try to surpress the inflamatory information found in his residence. He needs to be able to explain why he threw the punch. He needs to strongly consider any lesser plea.
If Hank H. were reading this forum, hopefully he would be encouraged to step up and express his disappointment in himself for not being a better leader and trying to break up the fight. (Yes, alcohol may have clouded judgment, but Hank should have tried to be a voice of reason.)Hank may be best served by expressing his disappointment in his self while still proclaiming his innocence of any crime. Hank should then cooperate fully with the prosecution.
Similar action may benefit any other defendant who was not witnessed striking Emery.
Hope this helps.
That night, no one had recognized Hank, Jenny Grosso did not know him, he had arrived the day before from Boston
the place was very dark and no one arrested him that night as he was not considered quilty, he had the courage to go to the police and say" yes i was there and this is what happpened" and he deposed
he went back to UHN and felt fine until suddenly the DA had him arrested and used his deposition against him which had everyone floored
there is a very good article in the LA Times by Joel Sappel who is a brilliant journalist , it is called " Death in paradise" as of December 12th 2007. on page six he speaks about Hank and describes his life as a young man and as of now as well as emery's etc
During the battle which obviously was fast and furious, Hank tried to help : what misled people was the fact that emery, eric house and jenny grosso were on top of each other and witnesses from afar took it for a group beating which it was not, emery had not one mark on his body( autopsy ) suggesting that no one beat him while he was down
Hank picked up Jenny and set her on her feet so that emery and eric house could stand up and they did
when suddenly from behind him came that crushing blow to emery's chin
sending him to the pavement
Emery had invited them to come over and fight one to one with eric house, they spoke on their cell phones and the police has a hard disc of emey's voice saying
" they are coming over, i'll kill them" which the prosecution hid from the court and the defense pulled it out embarrassing the prosecution caught in a lie by omission.
Hank has many mixtures in him like most Americans and one of his great grandfather was part Semitic , you would never find anything like seth on his blog, which is strange because Seth is part Samoan as emery is part Hawaiian , how could one be a Nazi like that? ignorance for sure
i beleive that all of them were leery of Seth superman strenght and did not want a " sucker punch" which was his specialty
Hank was jet lagged , he should have stayed home and no one anticipated that blow; they all sincerely felt that it would be; eric house and emery who wanted to square it off
Hank is on the dean's list at UNH and a quarter back, quite a brilliant student and he never resolves anything with his fists but with his brains , one of his good friends from la jolla high wrote an article about him on the Cornell Daily sun called " leave , just leave" and he love Hank : he is Jewish and his name is Noah Brozinsky , the date is september 26TH 2007
Trying to understand Seth, i thought " he is the thirteen child of fourteen, he may have been rough housed by the bigger kids , explaining that rage , who knows?
Trying not to be biased and sincere, we looked at the court reports and there is a good article writen by a woman who is an American Pulitzer prize ; her name is Caitlin Rother, it is on
" in cold blog" wednesday may 14TH
2008 " bird rock bandits"
we only tried to find the truth and still love everyone involved and grieve for Emery, but justice should be " just" and thats all we tried to find out
It was a stupid imature event between drunken young men which turned to a tragedy and poor Emery and his mom are the worst off as well as in a lesser way the parents and "the boys"
they should have know how to behave , but if there was a culture of fighting among some of them , they paid for it and that's the rule often times
we will not write anymore as we tried to fing out as much as we could and we are not unfeeling people? THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING KIND
was it alright to try to find out, as trying to know is somewhat of a relief ?
this would be our last question
do you feel that it was unsensitive or unkind to try to figure out all that we could?
In any case you were kind to answer our questions
Eric house was telling the paramedics to take good care of
emery and the others were angry that the blow came in; no one rejoiced as Emery was also their friend, he used to stay at their home when his mom was unhappy with him; they cared for each other, no one understands that tragedy it was not based on past hatreds
They were grieving but scarred by the suddeness of what happened
Are you lawyers attached to this city who enlighten people and their questions?
I think your posts are very helpful. I for one have changed my mind about these boys. In the beginning, I thought all of them were guilty. After reading your posts, I only feel Cravens deserves to be punished.
Please keep posting. Your observations and thoughts are very helpful. No, there is nothing wrong with you wanting to find out the facts. It makes no one cold or uncaring to inquire about the truth.
Law dog
I encourage all the posters to continue to post on the subject if it helps explain what happened. Without posters questioning and posting answers, a forum like this does not work. However, please delineate when you are giving an opinion v. providing facts where possible. Surfer Dude provided the original information. He did not want to take sides. Much has been learned since the original posts.
Was a fight club like mentality present? I do not know but that might be real important information in determining the intent of all involved. I continue to ponder why Cravens threw a punch at Emery. I too have heard stories of Cravens devastating punching power. What I don't understand is why hit someone that you are not fighting? I suspect no one intended for anyone to die that night. What I have read about Hendricks leads me to believe he is a nice young man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
There could possibly be some responsibility for the health care providers if they should have diagnosed Emery to have a potentially fatal injury.
However, the point remains that if you punch someone in the head, you must be prepared to accept the consequences. We won't know why Seth threw the fatal blow until he testifies. In the mean time, a lot of speculation remains.
But when it is all said and done, does the Bird Rock Social Click get a vacation to "the rock" or do they go back to doing what they were doing before their involvement in this case?
reading the courts minutes during the preliminaries, some people came and testified against some of the kids; for exemple Osuna, Craven and another one were accused of rough behavior before the fatal night , also some of the others were never mentionned at all by accusers and they have a spotless past as far as the police is concernned , so we beleive it will make a difference at the trial or will it?
All the comments that we have posted are from the court minutes,
from excellent journalists who have really studied the subject, so that there is no wishful thinking , inventing, prejudice
we tried to be factual
thank you for encouraging us to write
WHEN THEY GO BACK TO COURT. WHAT THEN ? what will they discover from there ?
Again thank you so much for your help " you give us heart "
Legal View Six:
Here are some general rules: Prior bad acts of a defendant are not usually admissible to prove guilt on the night in question. Therefore prior fights will generally not come into evidence. Prior convictions do not generally come into evidence until the sentencing phase.
Now there can be exceptions if the prosecution uses prior acts that night to show a common scheme or state of mind.
House is likely not guilty of anything but fighting... disturbing the peace and maybe battery. Hendricks is likely guilty of nothing but using bad judgment. I see him getting offered a plea agreement for deferred prosecution in exchange for cooperation. Otherwise, I see him winning at trial.
Cravens, I see in major trouble. That being said, it won't be murder or attempted murder. More likely manslaughter. I don't think you can have a gang of one and that is what I believe a jury will conclude.
Osuna is a closer call. I believe there is some conflicting testimony but since he did not punch Emery, I think he is a minor player. Yanke is a wild card. He may have a reputation that while not admissible, may still affect how prosecutors treat him. I hope I am wrong on this one.
In the end, I see only one who will really be punished severely in this case. But no one has seen all the evidence yet. This is just my opinion based on what I have seen so far.
Keep getting information and I will compare it to mine and will weigh my opinions accordingly.
Law Man
Based on comments of Surfer Dude, my major observation is that if the police did a better job of patrolling the beaches and cracking down on harassment, this incident may never have happened.
Thank you so much to ; legal pub, law man, viper, law dog, to legal answer one, two and three, and in case we forget someone thank you,
as we were shocked by the titles in the press, by the vicious blogs and we do not blame tham as they knew what they saw in the papers which was enough to raise their angers but some were vicious and blind stabbing the wind with insane remarks which were scarry to people who knew a little more the details of what occured
The police were used to go to Emery's home for disturbances , they knew his address right away whereas they has never heard about some of the others and feeling badly for speaking of someone who
passed away, who loved life and God as his friends will say and had such talent never the less as we try to see the facts this is what came up often times among the ones who knew
Maybe juge Einhorn wanted a court case in order to clarify all these " knots " and see clearly as he said , i beleive " that he wanted to understand " the whole case better and that's fair enough, he seems like a nice judge and very wise as well
Dear lawman
You said that " you would like to swap information" so that we are asking you
we thanked everyone for the answers to our questions; there were several persons asking
there is a factor there and we need to know
On new year's eve there is a tradition to go from parties to parties, its a tradition as we all experienced that ourselves: you invite thrirty and fifty will show up; Hank went to one of these with emery's bus with emery and with others; someone barred the door and shoved him and he showed back causing a black eye ( we beleive) the judge is calling Hank back to court for that
What will be the consequenses ?
We thought that there was not a problem there but there was one incident
Would you please tell us what you
think
Again thank you lawman et all
The New Years Eve incident is not likely to be admissible against Hendricks. It is too remote in time to be used as evidence that he committed violence on the day in question. While the prosecution may try to use it as evidence of "gang related" behavior, any probative value is substantially outweighed by the prejudicial impact, in my opinion.
My bet is Hank's attorney wins that ruling on Motion in Limine.
What I have heard is that Hendricks and the other four grew up in La Jolla. Some people referred to boys from tony streets as from the Bird Rock section. (There is a large boulder that juts out of the ocean.) All five friends played football at La Jolla High School. They also were recreational surfers at local beaches. Beach kids in the area often settled disputes with fist fights.
While Hendricks was away at school, his friends may have formalized their relationship into a group known as the Bird Rock Bandits. The debate is whether this rose to the level of a street gang.
Hank gets back from New England on May 23 and hooks up with the group for beers. They left about 10:30 p.m. for the La Jolla Brew House, according to court records.
Eric House, exchanged words with Emery who knew Hendricks and his buddies. Kauanui and House get kicked out of the bar. (Hendricks apparently had already left to go to a nearby convenience store.)
Kauanui's former girlfriend drove him a few blocks home and the so called Bird Rock Bandits apparently followed not too far behind. However, before Cravens and company left the bar, three of them were videoed touting their alleged gang ties. A DVD apparently shows House, Seth Cravens, and Matthew Yanke "throwing up BRB hand signs, stating 'BRB for life.'
Emery beat House in the fight. Cravens then punched Kauanui, sending him reeling into a tree.
Yanke and Orlando Osuna allegedly kicked Kauanui as he lay motionless according to prosecutors. (This is hotly debated)
Hendricks apparently admitted to police that he pulled Kauanui's former girlfriend, Jennifer Grosso, off of house. "He pulled Grosso off Eric House and said, 'You don't know what the [expletive] is going on,' " according to prosecutors.
Grosso was the only person who tried to stop the fight.
"According to Hendricks, he held Grosso at bay while she hit and slapped his arms trying to get away," the prosecution's affidavit states.
Hendricks apparently yelled to his friends, "Get the hell out of here," after Cravens hit Emery. Cravens and Yanke fled in the SUV. Hendricks and Osuna left on foot. (House stayed to search for his missing tooth and was arrested.)
The four gathered at Yanke's house. Hendricks apparently drove Cravens to a residence beyond the jurisdiction of local police and returned to the scene.
Hendricks was told that he was not a suspect and could return to UNH.
Then it looks like they identified Hendricks as possibly being involved in other one or more other fights. Prosecutors, began building evidence for a gang charge and alleged that Hendricks had participated in previous assaults with the other four suspects. Prosecutors said Hendricks acted as a member of a criminal street gang in Kauanui's death as well as assaults against three individuals last New Year's Eve in La Jolla.
Hendricks acknowledged fleeing after the New Year's Eve incident because he "did not want to be contacted by police with blood on his hands."
Some of Kauanui's neighbors said they were aware of the Bird Rock Bandits, but none cited Hendricks.
Hendricks deserves a separate trial. He was not a member of the gang. The evidence of gang activity is prejudicial as it pertains to Hendricks and should not be admissible to a jury.
thank you, i know for a fact that Hendricks was only involved in the new year's eve incident , never again ; that i know for sure
that is is only involvement
Remember he lived in Natick with his family for three years and worked very hard
i thought also that the judge decided with the expert witness
( in relation to gangs)that this was NOT a gang , only friends from high school football team
Could they still invoke the gang theory ?
The expert said that " gangs have clothes, colours, grafittis , that they have an enemy gang, that they kill, robb, etc and shed no tears when they kill someone, Eric House wept and told the paramedics to take care of Emery , remember they were friends
what do you think?
I WOULD APPRECIATE AN ANSWER
THANK YOU
the people who ask questions about Hank are well known journalists, and the ones who care are fellow students and ball players, coaches at UNH WHO STILL LIKE HIM AND WANT HIM BACK
NO ONE UNDERSTANDS THIS WRANGLING OVER HIM BECAUSE AS YOU SAID LAW MAN HE SHOULD BE TRIED SEPERATELY
WE JUST DO NOT UNDERSTAND
WE WOULD LIKE ANSWERS FROM ALL OF YOU FROM VIPER TO LEGAL 1 2 AND 3
TO LEGAL PUB/ IT JUST DOES NOT SEEM POSSIBLE TO US AS IT WAS DECLARED NOT A GANG THEN THEY SHOULD BE ADDRESSED SEPARETELY
AND ARE THEY GOING TO BE JUDGES SEPARATELY?
CORRECTING ORTHOGRAPH. THE LAST PHRASE/ ARE THEY GOING TO BE JUDGED SEPARATELY?
is it okay to ask questions about a case if you are a group of interested individuals who care
about one of the people involved?
i guess that you did give us all the answers and then we will have to wait
to law man
you gave us Hendricks deposition
where he made himself look worse
but in the court room, the DA said that " he picked up grosso so that
Emery and House could stand up"
is it okay to show a deposition to the public at large?
A deposition is generally public knowledge. Grand jury testimony is private until the trial. I just gave you what I have heard. I suspect the information is reliable but is of course, subject to cross exam.
Yes, family members and friends can ask questions. So can journalist. This is how we learn about the case and as suspects or family members, formulate reasonable beliefs so as to give our input to loved ones should they be necessary.
I agree with the earlier advice, Prosecution can always try to amend the complaint to bring gang charges but given the judges comments I doubt that issue ever gets to the jury.
Now, I doubt the New Years Eve incident gets into evidence. They wmay try to use it to show that it shows a common scheme to fight etc. As said earlier, it is doubtful this gets into evidence because it is too prejudicial.
I suspect Hendrick's lawyer will move for a separate trial against him. I concur that I think Hendricks will be offered defered prosecution or some form of probation. I do not feel he will be a target of the prosecution. His main involvement was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Cravens is the main target in my opinion. Yanke and Osuna could have trouble if someone believes they kicked Emery, but to my understanding Emery's body did not show evidence of kicks.
The above are my opinions based on what I understand the evidence may be. Obviously the judge ultimately makes key evidentiary rulings that may effect the ultimate verdicts.
And no, while the prosectution may believe otherwise, I do not think the gang charge will stick!
Law Man
We thank you for your compassion and your very informed information
that goes to you law man and all the others who came up and gave us hope; you are a great organisation and we really needed your knowledge in matters of law
You were right, the judge felt as you did and knew that the prosecution laid it to heavily and a bit much
We listened to a tape of judge Einron he said " i do not create laws i follow the laws and usualy
gangs are known for their activities before the facts as the police knows about their existence
In the bird rock bandits case, no one knew that they ever existed according to police reports , therefore we cannot accept that gang name from press releases after Emery passed away
Only craven had a blog with gang and Nazi mentions, no one else did
These conditions are not valid for a gang"
He allowed Yankee to go to Santa Barbara for the week end and told him " behave now" in a nice way, he also thanked the families for being very cooperative and patient
beleive me these kids were and are scarred to death, they needed that wake up call for they were bullies
( some of them)
the judge also mentionned Hendricks who was called in " as an attachment two months later " based on his own testimony as no one knew him in the last few years
His coaches who had profiled him never saw a bully in him but a dedicated citizen somewhat stupid and naive( i'll say) : he never wanted to appear like " you guys i made it , i am on the dean's list, drop dead etc " he went when they called , they had missed him
they just really admired him from high school and even though he was tired and jet lagged he went to be loyal to the old buddies that he hardly saw
He is not a saint by a long shot but a fairly decent kid according to the ones who know him and live and work with him
he made some erros in judgment for sure and once a stupid punch on new year's eve
Emery was never beaten while down as the autopsy shows and the place was very dark , but the autosy does not lie and again we weep for that poor mom who loved her son who had a great promise and did not deserve to die
Tempers while drunk are dangerous and young people nowdays we uderstand drink in colleges to the point of passing out; some universities have " barf bags" i heard, that goes for Europe as well , what a shame
THANK YOU SO MUCH . YOU WERE THE HOPE AND REASONABLE ADVISE THAT WE REALLY NEEDED BECAUSE YOU TOOK THE TIME TO CARE
THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU YOU EVER SO MUCH
what we felt is that the gang tag being dropped there would be more justice per individual instead of a wholesale punishment
The one who led a life with brute force should be accountable but the ones like Eric House who was really a victim, he had no fighting backroung like Craven and a face full of stiches and minus a tooth and covered with blood from his encounter that night could not be punished as a gang member as they were not a gang in a legal definition , it was a one man gang mostly craven who felt he had to be tough and who kept a Nazi blog
how does a plea bargain work ?
To law man, there was not a single mark on poor Emery's body just a blow to the chin and a blunt force to the back or the head when he felL
We read the autopsy
The judge also read the autopsy which s a good proof of no kicks which is proof tht he was not kicked while he was down
keep talking to us as it is so reassuring
Cravens was a one man gang as I see it.
No gang activity here!
The charges against House should be reduced to battery, public intoxication, disturbing the peace. All minor charges for which he should not face jail time.
Plea bargains...
Typically a few days before trial the prosecutor calls and asks the defendant's attorneys if they are willing to plead guilty to a lesser or minor offense.
I predict all are offered pleas. I see Hendricks being dismissed form the case in exchange for cooperation.
Cravens, on the other hand, better hope he has a good lawyer. His fatal punch needs to be explained some how to a jury. While he did not intend to kill him, he did intend to hurt him. I see his case more in terms of involuntary or voluntary manslaughter.
If I were guessing, Craven will be found guilty of some charge and spend 3 to 5 years in jail.
Law Dog
"The mean prison sentence for murder and nonnegligent manslaughter was 18 years and 9 months." Another source says 20 years." The US Department of Justice statistic includes sentences from all 50 states then calculating both the median and the mean.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/fssc02.txt
The same link also says most people are released after serving 51% of their sentence. So in my estimatation, Cravens will serve perhaps 9 years.
At a party in La Jolla in 2002, a 17-year-old Cravens punched Thomas Barrow in the head as many as 20 times. Barrow had hearing loss and jaw damage. Barrow was beaten after he came to the defense of a young woman Cravens allegedly had threatened to hit. Cravens’ friends allegedly made sure no one got in the way of the beating.
Barrow’s family pressed charges and Cravens was prosecuted in juvenile court. Cravens’ parents sent him to live with relatives in Hawaii.
Nigel Kauanui (Emery's brother) said the “Bird Rock Bandits’” ways were about “pride” and “power.” His mom, Cindy Kauanui says that they were about “intimidation” and “terrorism.”
After a year in Hawaii, Cravens returned to La Jolla. He was alleged to be involved in five more beatings. In 07, he reportedly punched 16-year-old Libby Schneider, who asked him to leave her party. Schneider’s father, David Blende, did not press charges because he felt he would not be able to protect his daughter and ex-wife.
On New Year’s Eve 2006, Cravens and four friends showed up uninvited at a late-night party.
In May of 07, Cravens reportedly beat a patron of the Shack ( a Lajolly bar). Cravens wrote on a MySpace Web page “Bird Rock Bandits: May 10, 2007 3:32 PM ... I can't go to the Shack for a while because I murdered someone hahahaha no biggie call me up and lets get krunk"
Mary Ellen Attridge, attorney for Cravens, says the young men are friends who work, attend college and coach sports, as well as socialize. She said the group has no initiation rituals, nor do they wear uniforms.
Cravens, House and Yanke — shouted “BRB” and “bandits for life” at the La Jolla Brew House approximately two hours before the fight with Kauanui.
Hendricks said the group never considered itself a gang when he voluntarily talked to police.
Cindy Kauanui, said, “I believe in the American justice system.. And I believe the truth will surface.”
We all beleive in the American justice system and the "truth"
i feel that Craven needs a shrink
as the thirten's of fouteen children , he may have been beaten up by the bigger ones and grew enraged or something and as a man when his strenth became spectacular he used it with terrible results; he should be stopped, no doubts about it and some of the others should be stopped but not all
Yet if you beleive in justice , you should follow the court's day to day
The specialist on gangs who worked for the FBI on hundreds of cases through the American justice system and as professor at Irvine said that " some of them wanted to think of themselves as a gang , but they did not fit the gang's profile; had no enemy gang as it usualy works , did care when Emery died " and Emery was one of them" , he spent time at their homes when he could not stay at his condo, he bore no marks of violence to his body , only to his head from falling and a blow to the chin, no one ganged up and kicked him" no one followed him home to " jump him" it was a fight " in agreement with two guys"
Emery and we love him ,should have never died but he was on probation for beating up people , the police knew where he lived very well as they were called there often for violent scenes
This the " truth"
The two men had agreed to a one to one fight over their cell phones
and they did : Emery beat the
" c,,," out of Eric House who was covered with blood and yet told the medics " to take good care of Emery" he cared
When two guys decide to " have it out " do you go and say
" no stop it", specially if they are drunk , it was a two men's decision to fight and after that, when Seth punched Emery it was like a flash out of nowhere, nobody expected it " bang" everyone was flabergasted like
" what was that? " no one rejoiced in it they were freaked like
" Dear God what happenned?" they felt that something terrible had occured and they were sick about it and got scarred ,
They were fools but not hardened criminals
the police played a hard disc record of Emery's voice saying " i am going to kill him", meaning Eric House: The judgge heard it and the whole court heard it
So the future will tell us what is just or not just
But before ranting we should listen to the day to day court events , not go on generalisations and newspapers big titles , we must look at all the nitty, gritty details
Yes these guys should be stopped and punishhed for violence in their past ; they cannot do it ever again and it shoud be taken care of individually
It is good that they are scarred and are paying for what they did
but they should not be judged as a " pack" but as individuals as they are all different , with a different past and a different degree of whatever they did
They should apologize to Emery's mom who must be hurting so much
but above all that there is God's judgement and they will pay for their behaviour individually
All but Seth should be okay. Seth needs to be punished!
Unless Cravens has a good explanation, I think he will be found guilty of being a thug!
What explanation could he possibly have? I was drunk ain't gonna cut it!
Like it or not, Judge Einhorn decided on May 22, 2008 that these five did not constitute a criminal street gang. There is no way, in my opinion, Jude Einhorn is going to change his mind. They will face charges as individuals not as a gang.
the people who have gone to the courts are amazed on how bad this case was presented and about the pit bull attitude of Ms Roach
Even tough, when the witnesses came in to point fingers at the ones who were thugs in the past, some of them were not pointed out for anything as the witnesses were asked to point they said
" no, i do not recognize him, no its not him who beat me, i never saw him before etc " she still sent emails all over the US
trying to find a way to go back to the gang theory and wanted to lump them all as " felons" and some as killers
Yes some of the kids were recognized as brutes in the past and we wont name names , but the ones who were not pointed out should be let go as , Emery was not beaten up while down; some witnesses said that the one who messed up the scene was miss Grosso who threw her body on top of Emery and on on top Eric House and screamed and kicked until she was removed so the two guys could finally stand up normally , the melee is what gave the impression that people where piled on him to beat him
the pity of it all was the final punch and when one of the kids drove by to go to his grandma's house who lived two blocks away from Emery's condo , he was stopped for going by ?
They say that the case is weak and was presented like a big premeditated murder scene
Poor judge Einhorn who is very smart and has the patience of Job has to deal with it
The article " in cold blog " by Caitlin Rother describes the courts atmosphere pretty well
What do you thing legal pub?
you are informed and dispassionate as it should be , not like insane bloggers who want a taring a feather threatment like an old fashioned lynching back in the south a long while ago
The mob scene mentality
Personally, I am keeping an open mind until I hear more of the evidence. But I suspect that Law Dog, Law Man and some of the others will continue to gather information and share their opinions.
In the interim, when is Seth's trial? Has there been a date set for Hendricks and the others? Maybe we can get a press pass for someone to attend one or more of the trials.
In the meant time,things seem to be looking up for all but Cravens.
we would like to know the legal meaning of" felony for accesory to, after the fact" does that marr your future ? is it a grave accusation?
Would you please tell us what it means, and what the consequences would ne?
thank you everyone ; legal pub, viper, law man, lawdog etc
In general an accessory is a person who assists in the commission of a crime, but who does not actually participate in the commission of the crime as a joint principal.
The distinction between an accessory and a principal is typically a question of fact and degree:
The principal (i.e. the one that punched the victim) is the one whose acts or omissions, accompanied by the relevant mens rea("guilty intent"), are the most immediate cause of the actus reus (Latin for "guilty act").
If two or more people are directly responsible for the actus reus (crime), they can be charged as joint principals under a common purpose doctrine. The test to distinguish a joint principal from an accessory usually requires a determination of whether the accused independently contributed to causing the actus reus rather than merely giving generalised and/or limited help and encouragement.
These are general definitions, hope they help.
Law Man
Law Dog:
To be blunt, any felony is serious. A felony accessory charges are serious. I would not plea to such a charge unless the states evidence is strong. Any felony must be disclosed on all applications for employment or law school etc. This is the type of charge that the accused needs to really discuss with his lawyer and make an intelligent decision on after weighing the risks and benefits.
Law Dog
Law man and Law dog, you two are like mut and jeff.
Thanks for explaining the definition and the need to be cautious. Sure hope all these defendants get good legal advice.
Pops
when the accusation offers you a plea bargain and you agree, can they still put you in jail when it comes to courts? even though it show very little harm was done by you
If so they would trick you that way IN MAKING YOU BELEIVE THAT IF YOU ACCEPT THE PLEA YOU ARE OKAY.
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR INFO
Generally speaking, the Prosecution won't offer a plea bargain unless they are confident the judge will accept it. The Plea will have the punishment in it. If the judge does not accept the plea, then the plea is withdrawn and it is not held against the defendant. No tricks in our system of justice.
Law Man
what is the meaning of the accusation by the judge of " a two years probation with the accusation being brought to a miseamekor after two years" ?
spelling; misdeamenour ?
This gets complicated. In general, a misdemeanor, will not usually prevent someone from getting a job or getting accepted in professional school. However, under the Hatch Act (Legal Pub did a story if you type it in the search box )if you are charged with a felony and it is plead down to a misdemeanor, it may still prevent you from holding office. Any defendant needs to fully discuss the plea and its ramifications with their lawyer.
Just knowing what I think I know about the case, it is too harsh for Hendricks. It seems he ought to be able to get a better deal but he needs to find out what his lawyer thinks, as he knows more of the facts and circumstances then I do...
Law Dog
Yes law dog, this is for Hank who had just flown in the day before from Boston, who should have said " no" i am not going out to his old buddies whom he saw very little for playing football and being on the dean's list at UHN for several years
Hank sinned by being innocently dumb; the lawyer who took his deposition should have sealed it and did not, and nobody knew he had been there , he watched in horror the whole scene; being jet lagged and a little drunk , they accuse him of fleeing the scene
these kids all knew each other and the court case with Seth will give us the real truth much more as a lot was pure fabrication and dramatisation from the press and the DA
I am close to that famly who would not dream of posting as i do, but i feel freer being more detached from it all
So! can his plea be changed when the trial comes along or is it final ?
His name has been marred and he has lost weight; the funny part is they loved Emery , its like a Greek tragedy and they have been shown as thugs , of course two or three were very " bad" in behavior and handling themselves , but Hank
and you can read the article by his school friend Noah Brozinsky who is at Cornell now ; he writes on the cornell sun paper " leave, just leave" which was adressed to Hank as he knew him since they were twelve he says " Hank was the golden boy of my town , he was the best at football, baseball, basket ball and is on the dean's list at UHN.etc"
How could a person so dedicated go around beating people; his IQ is high, how could he go around doing mishief? he was in books and sports mostly and made a beautiful arc in space all his life, now to come to this is sad for all who know him well
but you people ; from law dog, to legal pub all of you have given us hope and a great rational base of information through a maze of lies and cruelty
THANK YOU
In general, if a judge accepts a plea, then it can not later be withdrawn.
Here is my two cents. H.H. used incredibly bad judgment being there. But that does not mean it was a crime. The problem may be if H.H., after the fact, drove Seth and the others some where (such as a return to the scene.)
If a plea has not been entered, H.H. needs to talk with his lawyers about the pros and cons of going to trial. My guess is that H.H. would be the last one to be tried. My guess is that a deal of a misdemeanor would be offered. (Note the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony plead down to a misdemeanor.) But the best advice is to make sure H.H. and his lawyers discuss what the lawyers think is best for H.H.
For whatever reason, H.H. has kind of become our adopted child around here. I think most every one that posts here believes while he used bad judgment, he did not intend to commit a crime. As such, we want what is best for H.H.
Law Man
i will not tell you who i am but i send all my love to you;
i was not born American and i endured world war two and i will never forget what you did for us Europeans during world war two as you saved me from certain death as some of my friends went to camp and died or almost died ,
I owe a great debt to America and i felt that Hank was a thank you to this great country for being a good American as well as his brother and sister who are good acheivers
You should listen to president Sarkosy speech to the American congress; he had a long standing
ovation and i wept and kershiefs were out in that great American hall of power .( you tube )
I feel the same way that he did and when i was thirteen and America blew up the Nazi sign on the Bradenburg gate in Berlin we knew that " yes thank you America we are free"
So that i sat down and wrote a poem
as we had poets and writers in my family as English is my third language
I called it
America land of my dreams
When i was knee high
Could we ever cry
For our countries gone under
Because we had to surrender
Shredded by German's plunder
Yet i rejoiced and thanked God when the sun was shinning
I did a lot of day dreaming
Watching the clouds as they went by
The only jewells i saw
Where the daisies by the road
Their perfect little rows
Of white petals, center gold
I dreamt of far away lands
Where people were free
Free to speak and free to laugh
Free of fear and striffe
America land of my dreams
You were floating in my inner space like a desert's mirage
I clung to it with determination
Until the day it came into action
Young GI's , fresh faced,
Full of youth
Smiled at us from their metal girth
Tanks, cannons, guns and the likes
They looked so vulnerable and young
They held my hand " small"
In theirs " strong"
In their palms well fed, reassuring
They could be so loving to a little girl who defied dying
So land of my dreams
you will come true
In my heart you grew and grew,
Till one day,
i will see New York bay
Land of my dreams you will be mine
i stood there on my skinny legs and woed that i would know " this America that saved me from all the horrors i saw"
So there is a thousand thank you for America, for you young men who perpetuate that beleif that i had about American kindness which has never left me
Open my heart and that great country stands in it as well as you
Thank you again and again
I never was a cynic , so in my old age i remain that Pollyanna who beleives in the good for all good men
H was desolate when the three others accepted their pleas and he felt " here i go , i have to accept mine also", maybe that was a bad judgment , but they were exausted by all the lies they heard and the pain they felt
i cannot undrestand why some of these young people who had a potential used their fists instead of their brains, that goes for Emery also They had everything they could ask for; freedom, opportunities, a great country where they could acheive and Emery did acheive
If we only had one tenth of that when we grew up in Europe we would have made circles around the moon
he, he , but really , such a waste
of good talent and youth
Hank had been told all his young life that " he should make the most of what he had as " this is America, you have your free will and the future will be with you "
But he is a loyal fool and when he saw his old childhood friends in a quandry, he wanted to try to protect , i guess
they lost their heads for sure that night
i am the one who wrote the poem and only one of the people who ask about H
Is the status quo going to remain until the september pronouncement by the judge as " a two year probation, followed by a misdeamanour mark?" for H?
Excuse my poem, i was carried away and felt grateful
i am the one who wrote the poem and only one of the people who ask about H
Is the status quo going to remain until the september pronouncement by the judge as " a two year probation, followed by a misdeamanour mark?" for H?
Excuse my poem, i was carried away and felt grateful
Judge Einhorn received seventy to eighty letters in order to help HH as we feel that he has been pretty good all of his young life
thank you for advising us
does the judgment hold as it was pronounced by the judge on the
27th of june for all the guys concernned ?
H has many friends and a large American family; among the many people who are concernned about him and ask about the status of his case, i was touched because you said that " he was like your adopted child "
i am not a close parent but you touched my heart and i send to you a poem that i wrote to say thank you, was that uncouth? wrong? if so , i apologize, it was a move from the heart
Sorry , but tell me if i did something wrong
all friends and familes are finally happy because a great article came out and we finally heard the truth concernning
the bird rock bandits; The San Diego Tribune had an article on the sunday edition; june 29th 2008
The sufering is over , there are no more lies being printed at least on that newspaper
The pleas should all be upheld. It is best now for all of these young men to get on with their lives. The one who will not be able to get on with his life is Seth.
Thanks for the poem. It was great.
Law Dog
Your poem makes me proud to be an American. One question though, why would Cravens apparently be anti semitic when his friends were part Jewish? Was this part of the case blown out of portion by the state?
Update 6-30-08: Eric House, 21; Orlando Osuna, 23; and Matthew Yanke, 21; plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter and misdemeanor battery. Henri "Hank" Hendricks, 22, plead guilty to a felony of being an accessory to the death. Seth Cravens, 22, re-entered a not-guilty plea after his attorney rejected a plea offer from prosecutors. Back in May, Judge Einhorn found the men could not be prosecuted under gang statutes because the group wasn't formed specifically to commit crimes.
May these young men learn from their mistakes and may Emery R.I.P.
YES you should be proud to be Americans; We saw Nazis ferociousness, Russians brutality and yes young Americans with their sweet young faces who looked so handsome and kind; they gave us chocolate and navy beans and to this day, i love navy beans , my heart swells with sadness as i see all this young ones burried with their flags flying in Normandy who saved us with their youth and courage and i weep
Yes during your revolution against taxation from the British, we came and helped you be free; Rochambeau, Lafayette, de Grasse who brought his fleet from New Orleans and blockaded the port of Yorktown so that the British could not be given goods from the sea,and our soldiers brought cannons and fought alongside with your soldiers ; yet the British also paid with their lives in ww2 . So bless them
Be proud because you have a beautiful constitution and Europe in 1776 who had wanted freedom from kings came to America in order to learn how freedom was practiced , because freedom had never BEEN practiced in Europe; so there was the old country coming to a new country in order to learn how freedom worked in our beautiful United States
Europeans wept on september 11th
So let us keep ourselves strong for we are a citadel against tyranny and the strongest citadel in the whole world , you may not know it as you live in it , but the world looks at you for direction, so let us be wise Americans and let us continue to shinne for the world to see our beautiful citadel be true to its past and be a model to all
what we want to know is ; when the court case comes around and new evidence will be brought and will put the case in a different light, will Osuna, Yankee, House keep their three years prison terms or
will it be altered?
Also for Hank will the two years probation with a felony be changed to a midemanour?
Is this how it works or could the juge change his mind?
Thank you to all the ones who know the answers tell us how it will go and how it works
Nazism came into the picture because Seth had the Nazi blog; he could not be a Nazi if he wanted to as he is part Samoan, which is great to be whatever we are specially in America
Nazis were also mistaken as to think that they belonged to the
" perfect race" Hitler was misinformed and nuts
In Europe during world war two six million Jewish people died and fourty five million Europeans and Americans, Canadians, New Zelanders, Australians, blacks, whites,Dutch, Italians, Poles, Norvegians, French, Russians etc
They were in camps with gays, malformed, gypsies, anti Nazis etc
It was extermination for everyone who did not fit " the mold" of the insane plan
We do not know about Seth really what cooked in his brains , why he wrote that stuff ?
Yes the case was overblown and the newspapers were overboard
thats why the guys accepted their pleas because they felt that they did not have a chance in this mob fury , a jury would have shredded them
They feel that the truth will come out during the court case with Seth and juge Einhorn was glad that they accepted the plea as it would have been an unending case
with five defendants, five witness each etc etc
The Seth case will be interesting as other evidence will come up
And yes some of these bullies should be punished , no one should use their brute force on anyone, thats called primitive and base to be a bully is the worst and to hurt people who are less strong is horrible , thats how tyranny starts , no we do not want that in our towns
Yet two of them had no witnesses point to them and say " this guy punched me" that was Eric House and Hank Hendicks
The witness were asked " did this guy punch you" , the answers were vague like " no, i dont know him, i never saw him " but they remembered Osuna, Craven and House
so they cannot be lumped into one and same group as there are degrees and degrees of guilt
Emery could be a bad boy also but he beleived in God so that he must be surfing in the sky
Our love goes to him
correction to the one before last "comment" no one pointed to House and Hendricks, they pointed to Craven, Osuna and Yanke
Hendricks pleaded guilty after the fact, not after the death whatever the difference is
Hank should be fine. I suspect the charge will eventully be reduced to a misdemeanor if he completes the terms of his plea successfully.
Law Dog
one newspaper article says that
" judge Einhorn is not held to the pronouncements that he made concernning the sentencing of the four " does that mean that the punishment could be less or more by september when the final sentencing comes through if the judge is not held to it
Sentencing will not likely be more. Very likely H.H. sentence will end up being less. His ultimate charge if he successfully fulfills the terms of the agreement may even be reduced to a misdemeanor. All is good at this point for H.H.
Hi , i am one of the eigty people who wrote letters to the judge in favor of HH ; it could be any of us
Anyway we are worried about H H and all of you at legal pub have been so kind ; we care for you and we are greatly troubled as one paper says that judge Einhron wanted " two years probation with a misdemanor at the end , another paper says " judge Eihorn wants three years in jail like the prosecution"?
i AM SURE THAT A JUDGE WOULD NOT BE THROWING DIFFERENT STATEMENTS AROUND contradicting one another
We count on you so much , would you please tell us as we are into uncertainty until Sptember AND CAN ANYTHING BE APPEALLED ?
Hey, I am one of the Legal Eagles club. Here is what I suggest. Get as many supporters of H.H. that you can get to write why two years probabation is the right route to go. Detail all the philanthropy that H.H. has done and what good things besides sports he has accomplishe. Judge Eihorn seems like a real bright and fair person. In the end, all should work out for H.H.
Thank you, all of you who have been so kind and great, we care about you
we beleive its the route of two years probation followed by a misdeamanor
We feel that in view of the fact that really that death was accidental , that only two of them fought with Emery, meaning Eric House and Seth Craven , the others tood by, the body of Emery shows that , he has no marks and we feel horrible to even mention that
Some of these kids got the blame because they had a past
HH had no witness point to him in court and not a single witness said " yes i know him, he punched me " it was not like that more like " i never saw him before , i do not know him" for the good reason that he was gone for three years
In any case your advise is good as he was into helping people a lot
The great punishment is that he will not be a quarter back and that he loved the sport since he was twelve , but we are so lucky compared to poor Emery's mom ; our hearts are with her ; it must be horrible for her and she seems nice
When the xmass eve event came up and in La Jolla people crash parties , they were with Emery in his truck and someone punched Hank who punched back, thats the only event that he was involved with
His past was free on anything illegal, not even driving tickets
Once H.H. has this behind him, he may be able to apply for a year of college elgibility. If not, there is arena football or CFL to try to get noticed and get a shot at NFL.
This should not be a permanent stop to his dreams.
Unfortunately, it was a permanent end to Emery's.
you have been a wonderful confort to us , now we are facing some terrible blogs we lookes at saying that if they see HH IN La Jolla they want to kill him, its really terrifying that the newspapers have made it into a nightmare and why HH WHO IS THE ONE WHO DID THE LEAST should be so hated , it must be jealousy and anger because he was given the least punishment , we cannot beleive it, he has been through so much already
please answer soon
Please again give us advise soon
There are veryk few people who blame H.H. Best thing to do is to lay low and let the Cravens trial get over with. H.H. will be given permission to go back and finish school some where and get back to his life.
Emery was an amazing kid. It is a shame he had to die. But his blood is not on the hands of Hank.
Brad
Thank you Brad, you always warm our weary hearts and these kids: Emery and Hank had promise and Hank liked him a lot , they went in Emery's truck to celebrate often times when Hank was in town from UNH , Hank respected Emery and vice versa ; the shame of it is that Eric House and Emery fought over Genny Grosso and being drunk , it ended up in a nightmare
and poor Emery was not to surf again and his poor mom , we feel for her, such sadness for all of us as they were not ennemis but friends , our lives were altered and nothing will ever be the same , as young people have such a zest for life; they will never forget this horrible event, they are marked by it and yet they have hope and Emery does not
We pray for him ; we want Emery's mom to know that and we pray for her
We hope does not have to carry that burden anymore either , he paid by losing his dream; college football that he loved so much, let us consider ourselves lucky though and thank God
To you all our gratitude , thank you
Correction in last paragraph
We hope that HH will not be marked etc
H.H. needs to complete probation and move some where else and get on with his life. We wish him the best. Our prayers go out to Emery and his family.
Legal Eagle 7
All of us who have posted on your legal pub for clarity and undesrstanding are upset about a blog called " this goes to eleven" where they have been really vicious concernning the Emery's case, vicious to all of them specially in re of HH where he is accused of all kinds of caracter faults , they are libelous and cruel; can they be responsible for their words as they are accusers and their libelous remarks full of hatred can they be pursued for their terrible remarks?
They do not seem to read the documents, they just want to spout hatred , they really are scarry, tell us if we are wrong
Thank you again for your fair assesment of the situation , you have been great
In general, this county allows freedom of speech. While some one can not defame another with things that are known not to be true, they can in general state their opinions.
It is best to let the uninformed spew forward their erroneous accusations and prejudicial judgments unopposed. In the end, such words tend to fall on deaf ears. To post in opposition is may only give credence when they deserve none.
Law Man
Thank you so much lawman and all the others who stood by, everone at UHN welcomed HH these last few days and i am one of them; HH is low key, gentle and compassionate: his teachers and trainers greated him as someone that they respected and liked, he never gave us any problems and we are sure that this goes to the rest of his family and friends ; Doug Flutie speaks to him as well very kindly
HH was so releived to be liked after all this year of dread and hurt
Something came up today; Emery's mom is suing everyone; all the kids including HH and their parents, strangely she did not include Eric House mom or HH parents, we wonder why?
What do you think ? here we go again !!
why did she skip HH parents as being guilty?
Now we start to worry again
Will it ever stop ?
Again please give us advise
Thank you so much
First step is to contact the insurance company who insured the residence of H.H. They will likely defend the case under reservation of rights.
Second, he does not have much of a case against House because he voluntarily fought him.
Third, just because someone sues, does not mean that they will win.
Fourth, I doubt any civil jury will award damages to Emery's family against H.H. There just is no evidence that he is responsible for Craven's punch. Cravens, on the other hand, has in my opinion, the potential for civil liability.
If the insurer does not hire a lawyer for H.H., go to Martindale Hubble.com and find a lawyer in San Diego who does insurance defense work. This is the best type of lawyer to handle a civil defense.
Law Dog
On the San Diego news, there was a nice video stating that HH family was not sued by emery's mom because he had no past of violence like the others,then why is she suing him? at least it put some balm on our hearts that someone saw it the way it was and they also said in the paper that HH was charged by what he said in his own deposition which says little for the lawyer who made him depose and then left him at the mercy of the DA / HH is too naive and is wiser now : telling the truth was a bitter pill
It shows that maybe lies are better than truth. or not talking at all and hidding the issue
THANK YOU SO MUCH LAW DOG AND ALL THE OTHERS WHO HAVE BEEN A GOD'S GIFT TO ALL OF US
THANK YOU AGAIN
This will work out. The mom knows H.H. is not responsible for her son's death. Give it some time and I bet she will dismiss H.H.
In the mean time, H.H. needs to get a lawyer through home insurance and get an answer on file.
We are going back to pour old fears
First we never thought that HH would be arrested and he went to jail, second we felt that he would get a misdeamanor and he received a felony and to morrow september
5th judge Einhorn said that he would recommend for Hank a two year probation followed by a misdeamanor now we are worried if that is really going to go that way as we have become distrustful and we are awaiting friday the fifth with bated breath
HH has been working since this all started as people who know him gave him a job as they trust him, What do you think , we hope that we wont be disapointed and that we can breathe again; we hope that your read the blog even though it has become an old one
please let us hear something from you and reassure us
thank you for all your kindnesses
please speak to us soon
we understand that the DA will give the sentencing which really worries is , please read this blog someone this concerns HH
It is hard to know all the factors. But my intuition is that H.H> needs to get this behind him. Trust Judge Einhorn who is an honorable judge. He will ultimately determine the sentence and he will be fair and have everyone's best interest in mind.
Legal Eagle 7
LEGAL EAGLE SEVEN
we are so distraght THE JUDGE CONDEMNED HH TO NINETY DAYS IN PRISON ? DO THEY GET HARRASSED THERE WE ARE SO WORRIED I FEEL THAT THE JUDGE HAD A PERSONAL GRUDGE WITH HENDRICS HE JUST DESTROYED HIS LIFE
PLEASE ANSWER US SOON
HE GOT 90 DAYS IN JAIL, NOT PRISON. EINHORN WENT EASY ON ALL FOUR OF THESE BOYS.
yet if you dont touch the vitim and the battle went so fast how could they be guilty as bystanders?
the battle went so fast and they were just there
As I understand it, H.H. was only punished for being an accessory after the fact. This had to do with his conduct after the fight.
90 days in jail is not 90 days in prison. The days will be served in the county jail which is not too bad. Furthermore, there is often shock probation after 30 or 45 days whereby they are let out of jail early. In the long run, this will not ruin H.H.'s life. Next year at this time he will be back in school and on with his life hopefully learning a valuable lesson to choose his friends better in the future. H.H. will be fine.Judge Einhorn is fair and knows what is best for all involved.
Legal Eagle 7
Thank you legal seven
Are they treated in a fair fashion in jail as a rule?
Thank you for reassuring us
your notes are reassuring
Thank you legal seven
Are they treated in a fair fashion in jail as a rule?
Thank you for reassuring us
your notes are reassuring
Legal Eagle 7 is right, Hank will be fine.
Law Dog
Thank you lawdog, legal seven and the others, you have been great to all of us
Can HH ever play football again though? and we wre not being cynical for we grieve for Emery's mom and Emery yet H only saw these kids on a break of a few days as he had lost contact, being in Natick for three years , he just went for memory sake and what a twist of fate that was
We are sad to read some blogs dragging him in dirt
Some people vent their own angers
and jealousy because someone was a real doer and a productive human being
No reason why he can not finish his degree. He could actually play at a Division II or III school. More likely Canadian football or Europe football.
No matter what, Hank will be fine.
while HH is being sued by emery's mom can he represent himself pro per ?
WHAT ARE THE PENALTIES GOING TO BE FOR THIS LAST blow EVEN THOUGH HIS PARENTS ARE NOT SUED BECAUSE HE HAS A CLEAN RECORD
So why is she suing him he has no money and he needed seven units in order to get his micro economic BS at twenty one, now he is twenty two and in a quandry, how sad for him ;fourteen months of pure hell
for being present in a place he did not particularly wanted to be in
Real simple:
H.H. needs to turn over the defense of the case to his parents home owners insurance. While they may defend under reservation of rights, they will usually still defend. Otherwise, H.H. needs to hire a private defense atty.
Law Dog
Now in court as October 29th , it seems that Geeny Grosso has changed her story, she does not speak of a group attack anymore (KICKING EMERY ON THE GROUND)and is coming closer to the truth
( the defense attorney Said so)
she only speaks of Eric House and Seth into the fight meanwhile with her first statements she had " all thEsE kids" guilty as hell " and it comes out that they just STOOD THERE and that gave them jail time from all the furor that ensued
Some of thess men lives were shattered because she lied and now what ?
WE ARE SO ANGRY WITH THAT
This will help H.H. in the civil suit against him. It may even warrant a dismisal. As for the criminal case, at some point H.H. needs to put it behind him and get on with his life.
Legal Eagle 3
Thank you legal eagle; HH gave a calm, honest testimony in court
and told the truth ; Emery and Eric agreed to fight one to one
Emery who was in his condo came out, wiped off his shirt and took on Eric and Eric lost and was bloodied , lost a tooth and said
" its over" then Emery argued with Seth who gave him a punch which was fatal , the autopsy again shows that Emery's body bore no trace of traumas, no kicks or anything, only his jaw and the back of his head
It was a tragic accident for everyone
Word on the street is they all are getting pimped in jail OUCH! Hank cried a few nights and well rumor has it they might be coming out the closet.
I guess the sentencing could be worst.
First thank you for your support all of you at legal pub with your lawyerly advise and your printing the " truth" as all of us told the truth and it came out in the court the way that we described it pretty much
The last post is digusting , thats what i mean about the hatred out there from lunatics who have not found their way and seem lost
The good news is that HH is not in jail, he served , he is out of here( meaning SD) on a great job furnished by powerful men who knew him since he was small and respected him for the person that he was
A " good citizen" who was stuck on vacation in a bad place that he had left three years before ; he has kept all the poweful friends who know his performance as a person , i am one of them
Dont you dare lift a hand, a word on some of these guys who did nothing to you
You blogger sound like you need to SEE A SHRINK AND SOON
The DA insisted that Emery was kicked but the autopsy denies her allegations, there were no bruises on Emmery and we are sorry for what happened , it is horrible.
Several witnesses said that " he called Eric House on his cell phone as he wanted to fight with him" and why did she run off when he needed her?
He came out of his condo willingly and jumped over a fence and beat Eric House to a pulp
Genny Grosso was picking up her car at the bar, she did not see the fight as she arrived toward the end and HH said that in his testimony which made the DA angry because it was the truth
Many newspapers stated that Emery came out of his condo willingly and fought willingly
Seth is facing retribution and we pray that God will change his heart
i have read comments and statements from friends of Emery make statement about Seth , the others and HH making HH sound like a cynic such as running around with Seth who said " we put him to sleep"
Okay i know that they are angry and all that but HH has not been a cynic as i was around him since he was small,he was more like gentle and kind
I cant phantom him as making wise cracks about Emery's death its not in caracter for a guy who followed the rules, worked hard and did not have even a driving ticket on his records
Sour grapes of those grieving for Emery?
H.H. will get on with his life and go on to be a productive citizen. God help Seth, he will need it.
Funny I went to school with HH, I dont remember him being an angel. Far from it actually. No angels hung out with those guys. And I definately recall more than a few parties that involved a drunk HH throwing punches with his buddies. I am assuming, from your blind generalizations, that you are a relative. What I can tell you, for a fact, is that Jenny is a wonderful soul and has suffered beyond belief and I am sick of these guys and thier families trying to deflect guilt by attacking her. What do you mean "why did she run off when he needed her?" She went to get her car.
HH might not have been overheard saying he put Em to sleep, but he was definately heard yelling "Lets get the F out of here" as his supposed "friend" lay bleeding and out on the ground. He definately has a record now and he has no one but himself and his lack of morals to thank for that!
Yes we know that Emery had a lot of friends and so did HH
His friends range from the powerful to the super humble and they loved him like you love Emery whats wrong with that?
Why do you always assume that a relative writes on the blog ?
WHY DONT YOU GO TO Yard Barker a blog for athletes and read what the UHN profiler says about HH
( post number two) : it is all these people who blog for HH not relatives NECESSARILY
Are you so blind with anger that you would say anything to hurt his reputation?
HH was the quarter back for La Jolla high school and a lot of his school mates blog about him and he played football with these guys THREE YEARS BEFORE / but he had been out of touch : he had many other friends AND WORKED SO HARD
Do you think that Doug Flutie would have let his daughter date his brother if they were thugs ?
Doug invited him and his family to live near him in Natick for three years and he had ample time to see for himself if HH was a thug, yet he said that HH was like his son
some compliment we think
We know that you are angry and we understand but that night everyone made mistakes
They were all drunk okay?
So that HH should have stayed but he was blown away by the sound that Emery made when he struck the concrete and made the mistake to leave, he was wrong
Emery made the mistake of getting on his cell phone and calling Eric House to his home in order to fight.
He made a mistake when he punched Eric to a pulp and did scream at Seth Craven in his face
He made mistakes in Oceanside when he strangled held a guy, he made a mistake when he threw a beer can in a guy's face and made him bloody in Florida ( all recorded) Emery had a criminal past HH did not
He made a mistake when he broke his parole and was going to be arrested about it
Genny and bless her heart should not have left Emery who was calling everyone over to his house in order to fight :he called Eric house first, then Seth
The other guys did not call him, he called them ( court reports) he should not have said " kill, kill" over and over again ; Emery wanted to fight
So seeing that and loving him the way that she did Genny should have stuck there to protect him from himself and the others, he stepped out willingly out of his condo, wipped up his shirt, jumped over a fence and took on Eric House who is no fighter ;
he knew that he could beat him and he did badly
That night everyone made mistakes it seems so dont go on a mean talk
and get angry because all of them are paying for mistakes commited under the influence of alchool
all of us have suffered and most of all Emery's mom and thats where our hearts go because she lost her treasure; her son
Being mad wont change that; life is a river, we go down a stream because there is only today and tomorrow in front of us
AGAIN?
We felt that the " accused had paid their debt to society yet some of their probation officers want to search their houses?
please answer us and thank you
IS THIS LEGAL ?
weird
Actually I went to school with these guys and know them all pretty well. I know HH played football with them, he also hung out with them a lot. And while I will agree with you that he was a nicer person then Seth, he was definately a part of that crew and their antics. If they showed up at your party, you knew you had a problem because they all liked to fight.
Can you please answer a question for me? Why did it take 5 of them to go there for a one on one fight? One thing that has not changed from high school, these guys are too chicken to fight fair. It is never a one on one with them.
I dont understand how you can beg everyone to not say or think bad things about Hank and then bash Jenny (spelled with a J) who did nothing wrong that night. Are you so "blind with anger that you would say anything to hurt" her reputation? You really need to lay off her. She did everyhting she could to stop that fight including yelling, screaming, honking and even kicking in Matt's headlight to try and get the guys to stop the fight. They would not do it. But you know that, and you also know that when she was out of other options and jumped on Eric ( who was on top of Em) that HH grabbed her and told her she didnt know what the F was going on and then continued to hold her as she hit at him and tried to get away. Something extremely precious was taken from her that night and I dont think she needs anyone bashing her on these boards. Hank's trial is over, they got off light and hopefully it will scare them enough to grow up. If you dont want people to bash HH, dont be a hyrocrite and bash others who were way more innocent in their actions that night than he was.
First we are several bloggers here so you must be addressing all of us;
We know that Emery had a long line of offenses HH did not even have a traffic ticket for one , so how could you compare the two of them
you are just angry
Jenny is small she was on top of emery and Eric house kicking, did that help you think?
Emery and HH WERE ACHEIVERS BUT HH DID NOT LIVE IN SAN Diego for three years
you have a " slant" on Emery , we have a slant on HH
The British writer said " east is east and west is west, never shall the twains meet "
you are standing on one shore and we are on the other one it seems
We are sure that jenny is a great person and she must be hurting our good feelings go to her
She did not tell the whole truth in court, how could she as she left for the bar before Emery came out of his condo where she should have stayed with him
We are not angry like you we only try to tell the tuth
HH had almost finished his degree at 21 and needed seven units to be done; no, a guy like that does not fight much because he is a doer on the dean's list and that takes a lot of energy
we are not desperate on the contrary, we are happy and thank God every day
we will not blog here anymore it is not productive anyway
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