IndiaPost.com - INDIAN AMERICANS OUTRAGED: JON CASE

India Post News Service

LOS ANGELES: After successfully transferring the case to a Los Angeles court the prosecution was able to get Anand Jon indicted on over fifty counts. The court appearance had all the ingredients of a courtroom circus complete with the prosecution handing out a press release to a very gullible and headline hungry mainstream media.

It’s a different matter that the learned prosecution avoids the Indian media like a plague because we ask questions that they don’t want to answer. The community has understandably reacted to this with a sense of disbelief and skepticism. For those of you catching up late, Anand Jon is a celebrity fashion designer. It is alleged that he was inappropriate with some of the models that essentially wanted to “ride his coattails to success (New York Times, April 15 2007).

His defense team asserts that they are trumped up charges made by “wanna-be’s” that are craving publicity, fame and potentially fortune. That may be true as one of the complainants in the case went on television the same day (May 16, 2007) that the prosecutor relayed in court that “no sexual assault victim craves publicity”. There are many fingers being pointed at the way the prosecution got the indictment. What is an indictment…the preliminary hearing is where the defense team would have had the opportunity to cross examine the prosecution’s witnesses.

However, curiously, the DA’s office chose to skip that part of the process. Why? Many of the attorneys contacted mentioned several words when pressed to react to this situation including unethical, suspicious and unscrupulous. Why? “…because it taints the process,” said one criminal defense attorney. “A good DA will use the prelim process to strengthen their case. They knock out the weak counts and proceed with strongest.

If they skip that process they are worried that the entire case may get dismissed.” [which was witnessed by me firsthand on Sept 26 in another case in front of the same court when the judge dismissed an illegal arrest case.] “They are essentially throwing as much at the wall as they can, hoping that something will stick.” Rushing to grand jury produces an indictment. The court proceeding is referred to as the arraignment. One defense attorney stated that the process is so one-sided that “you can indict a ham sandwich”. Why? Because there is no cross examination by the defense.

The prosecution parades their witnesses in a closed door, secret proceeding in front of the “grand jury” consisting of 23 total. The decision (which is characteristically 99.9 percent in favor of continuing to the trial) is sealed and released at a later date, thus keeping the defense in the dark. Anand is scheduled to be arraigned Oct 25.The court proceeding is referred to as the arraignment. One defense attorney stated that the process is so one-sided that “you can indict a ham sandwich”. Why? Because there is no representation or cross-examination by the defense.

The prosecution parades their witnesses in a closed door, secret proceeding in front of the “grand jury” (chosen by the prosecution) consisting of 23 total. The decision (which is characteristically 99.9 percent in favor of continuing to the trial) is sealed and released at a later date, thus keeping the defense in the dark. In this case the prosecution has added 11 new counts. Some of these counts are from 2001 and many from the same complainant. What is questionable about this is that only one girl came forward originally to accuse the designer.

The rest jumped on the bandwagon after. (Why? See above.) That first accuser, according to TMZ, woke up late, took a shower, tried on the designer’s clothes, wanted to go to lunch, etc. there were at least four witnesses to this, one that they interviewed. A simple call to a rape center or hotline will tell you that this is not the reaction that a rape victim has the next morning. She wants the hell out, not “…good morning, honey, what do you want to do today?” It is indeed a very muddy pool where the prosecution’s side is murkier than murky.

There are many unanswered questions.

1. When did the first alleged incident occur (date-wise) and when did the alleged “Victim” complain… Allegedly occurred in 2001 without complaint until the media hit in2007. Why did she wait six years to complain?

The second “victim” incident allegedly happened in 2002, – complaint filed in 2007 after five years!

2. Why the move from BH to LA?

The prosecution wanted a change of venue from a court that was fair and balanced in the handling of this case, including keeping original bail reasonable. After reviewing all the facts of the current case the judge stating several times on record that AJ was not a flight risk, not a danger to society and should be allowed a proper defense with him on the outside assisting in any way that he can. DDA wanted increased bail to keep him locked up so that he cannot take part in the preparation of his defense. “It is called ‘judge shopping’ when a DDA doesn’t like how the current court is proceeding. They look elsewhere for a more pro-prosecution court. Which is why the grand jury indictment.

3. Why did these girls take so long to speak up?

This again is a total mystery and defies common sense. How come there were no 911 calls or no hysterical women running down the street screaming “Rape”. Referring to the other counts, there are complainants with several identical allegations over a period of time. So are we to believe that if someone is assaulted they continue to be assaulted on different days at different times against their will, if it ever happened at all? Are we to believe that all these girls were assaulted by a man who lists his address on his website? And invites people into his living and working space? And lives 5 blocks away from the Beverly Hills police station? Are we to believe that none of these complainants knew how to dial 911? Or knock on a neighbor’s door? It would seem that they didn’t need to because no crime was committed.

The DDA, in an apparent “act of desperation” (again, the “throwing everything against the wall” theory or piling on charges so that the case looks bleak - to the defendant, the media and to the public) added more counts / charges from 2001. Are we expected to believe that all of this happened in different jurisdictions for years, without a single complaint filed? What about friends, family or counselors? If these alleged allegations apparently began in 2001, does it seem likely that no one ever complained? The prosecution would like us to believe that there are now 59 counts meaning 59 individual instances of alleged inappropriateness. And 20 alleged victims? However, when you look closer, you see that many of them are duplicated. (In fact, the prosecution pushed many of the girls to file in Dallas, as stated in the NY Times article referenced above. This was apparently done to increase bail elsewhere as the court has consistently stated that the bail from the Beverly Hills court would not be increased. The court also stated on the record that the defendant is not a flight risk, not a danger to society, and should be allowed to competently defend himself from the outside.)

Had he been a flight risk Anand would have taken off the first time he was bailed out. As for the bail status; that again is a whole new story. The first bail company colluded with the first atty. Bail company took $141,500 and the atty took even more. When the first atty was fired, the bail company revoked the bond. They kept the money. The judge ordered them to pay it back based on illegal revocation. They refused and filed in the appellate court to overturn 1st judges order. That is the sole reason that AJ is behind bars currently.

Current status – waiting next court proceeding. Need added funds and collateral since original bail money was never returned. What motivates these young women? There have been many exposes about today’s progressive and aggressive culture. (Remember the movies Kids, Cruel Intentions and recently, John Tucker Must Die and even Ugly Betty. All these pieces contained manipulation in today’s youth). Look at Myspace. On these networking websites, these teens and young adults try to outdo each other through sex, drugs, violence, etc. Innocence in today’s youth has been replaced with manipulation, conniving and blackmail. Lying has gone beyond cheating on the math quiz and has moved to affecting real lives in a real world There have been too many people in the system that has been proven innocent too late (mostly due to DNA evidence. An innocent man spending one day incarcerated should not be tolerated (i.e. the Duke Rape case).)

In this case, there is something suspicious going on and it is our job as journalists to search for the truth and report it objectively. As for the community...the less said the better. This is the same Anand Jon who everybody claimed as their own when he was at the pinnacle of success. Today the entire community is very conveniently looking the other way. It is indeed very heart wrenching to see Anand’s sobbing mother and sister literally going pillar to post looking for help. Are we so cold and heartless? Has the lure of the greenback made us lose our humanity? Here in So Cal we have a number of so called “ Community Leaders” who suck up to local politicians and do fundraisers for them…and this is what I have to say to them-----“You claim to be ‘Community Servants” and you do it all in the name of the community.

Well folks, tell the politicians you patronize that its payback time…and if you don’t, then it is very clear that it’s all about you and not the community”. Finally, it must be borne in mind that Anand is an Indian national. What is the Indian embassy in DC or for that matter the Consulate in San Francisco doing about his situation. Are they here to look after the interests of Indian nationals in this country or are they here simply to wag their tails at visiting politicians from India. What is the Minister for “NRI affairs” Vyalar Ravi doing about Anand Jon.

Is Ravi there only to visit America to give long lectures on how NRIs can invest in India…is that all that the Indian Government cares for where we NRIs are concerned. Ravi should bear in mind that Anand Jon is from the same state that voted Ravi to power and enabled him to hold such an important position. Yes, Anand is a son of Ravi’s home turf, Kerala. It is the God given duty of Ravi to do everything in his power to help Anand Jon…and if that does not happen then who knows what horrors the next election results will bring for Ravi and the chair that he so fondly occupies.