14th Update: Alabama Teenager Murders - McCraney Guilty!

Nov 4, 2015 13:02:40 GMT -5 shay said:

henrycountyreport.com/blog/2015/11/03/police-officer-killed-jb-beasley-and-tracie-hawlett-16-years-ago/

The article doesn't explain how the two girls got the incriminating tapes. They were two teenagers from Dothan and they didn't know the area around Ozark very well because they got lost. There are a lot of unanswered questions in this case.

Nov 6, 2015 13:20:50 GMT -5 emmalee said:

I've been trying to figure out how or why they would be able to get incriminating evidence like this. Crum has never mentioned how the girls got these tapes, but there might be some substance. Another police officer revealed his case notes regarding the investigation and he believes that the said tapes were never recovered, but is pretty sure that the burglary of Tracie Hawlett's room just days before her murder has something to do with her murder, because, even though her room was torn apart the burglars didn't take anything. (http://henrycountyreport.com/blog/2015/11/05/retired-police-officer-shares-case-notes-on-murders-of-jb-beasley-and-tracie-hawlett/) The retired officer also mentioned that police officers tried to search Tracie's room after her murder, but her parents made them leave and refused to let them search their daughters room.

Also, the thing about both of them getting lost in Ozark, JB, who was driving the car, lived in Ozark for a good bit of her life before the Beasley family moved to Dothan. According to Jacqui Burgoon in an interview, JB knew Ozark well enough to be able to follow directions on how to get to 231. They may not have known Headland or Haleburg very well, but Jacqui mentions that JB did know how to get around Ozark if someone gave her directions.

This murder is very sad and I hope the families find peace and that they get the answers that they are looking for. Also I hope that the perpetrator is caught.

In murder investigations, all kinds of rumors get started, so it's possible that someone started a rumor that the girls had these tapes, when they really didn't have any incriminating evidence. I hope whoever did it is caught, but after all this time, unless someone confesses on his deathbed, I doubt that it will ever be solved.

Blogger Sued by Officers Involved in Beasley-Hawlett Murder Case

DOTHAN, Ala. – The outcome of dueling court filings, one in federal court in the state of Washington and one in Dale County Circuit Court, could go a long way in determining whether the owner and operator of a website went too far with posts that may have accused a former Ozark Police officer of murder and former and current members of the Dothan Police Department of systematically planting evidence. Jon B. Carroll, who owns and operates the HenryCountyReport.com website, filed a motion for declaratory judgment Jan. 12. 2016, in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Washington, requesting a federal judge rule whether threats of lawsuits against Carroll have infringed on his First Amendment right to “report on newsworthy events.”

Meanwhile, several retired Ozark police officers filed a defamation suit against Carroll in Dale County, claiming he acted with a reckless disregard for the truth and malice when a post on his site indicated a former Ozark officer was responsible for the 1999 murders of teens Tracie Hawlett and JB Beasley. The two girls were found murdered in the trunk of a vehicle along an Ozark road in 1999. The case is unsolved. Five former Ozark police officers are plaintiffs in the suit, claiming allegations they covered up the investigation are slanderous. "He is a blogger. He is not a journalist,” Dothan attorney Tom Brantley said in reference to Carroll. Brantley, along with attorneys Adam Parker and John White, filed the suit in Dale County on behalf of the officers. “Gossip doesn’t get it. You have to have proof.”

Carroll disputes Brantley’s assertion. Carroll said his work has been featured by several publications including Alter-Net, RT News, Pacifica Radio and other recognized media outlets. He also claims membership in multiple professional media organizations. “I think it is fair to say if you work for an internationally recognized news media organization and your work is published on those sites, then that probably qualifies you as a photojournalist,” Carroll said Friday in an interview with the Dothan Eagle.

Carroll’s declaratory judgment motion is pending. He has filed a financial hardship motion, asking to proceed without having to pay the federal filing fee. A judge has asked Carroll submit a financial hardship form before making a ruling.

Carroll’s suit lists nine defendants, some of whom are connected to his report on the murders of Hawlett and Beasley, while others are connected to his report that alleges rampant evidence-planting by Dothan police officers. He said threats against him are impairing his ability to exercise his First Amendment rights. “The defendants’ conduct and legal threat has a direct ‘chilling effect’ upon the exercise of First Amendment-protected rights that include the right of the press to gather information on newsworthy subjects and report upon these victims’s stories to the public,” Carroll writes in his 24-page motion. The defendants have not been served with the suit.

The Ozark officers’ lawsuit deals only with the post concerning the Hawlett and Beasley murders. “In these ‘news’ stories, the defendants allege the plaintiffs either murdered JB Beasley and Tracie Hawlett, or aided in covering up the murder of the two girls. Several plaintiffs are named specifically and others … are described in such detail that it is apparent to all in the local community who the defendant is referring to and there are no others which its references describe,” the lawsuit states.

In order to prevail in a defamation suit, the plaintiffs must convince a judge that Carroll acted with a reckless disregard for the truth and with actual malice toward the defendants.

Attorney John White said a written or verbal accusation that a person has committed a crime without evidence to support the statement is considered defamation per se (on its face) under Alabama law. “I was the third law enforcement officer on the scene (after discovery of the bodies of Hawlett and Beasley). All this talk and reports about a bungled investigation and evidence destroyed ... it is not true. I was there,” said White, who was Dothan’s police chief at the time Hawlett and Beasley were killed.

Carroll said he believes he has a legal right to post the stories because they are based on leaked internal affairs and Alabama Bureau of Investigation documents obtained legally, or on published interviews with others who had involvement with the cases. Carroll said he and others have been threatened and that complaints and documents have been filed with the ABI and Department of Justice.

Source: Lance Griffin, The Dothan Eagle, January 29, 2016.

Blogger Lawsuit Transferred to Alabama

DOTHAN, Ala. – A judge in Washington state has decided against taking a case involving controversial posts made on a Wiregrass website and is transferring the action to Alabama. U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour issued an order this week transferring a motion for declaratory judgment filed by Jon Carroll to U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Alabama, which encompasses Dothan.

Carroll filed the motion Jan. 12 in the U.S. District Court Western District of Washington. He is asking a judge to declare that certain posts related to the murders of two teens in Ozark in 1999 and allegations of corruption in the Dothan Police Department are not defamatory. In his motion, Carroll said Washington is the correct place jurisdiction because he legally resides in Washington and because a “substantial part of the events” giving rise to the motion occurred in Washington, such as the editing and publishing of the material. “At no time did the published work product physically reside in the State of Alabama,” Carroll wrote in his argument for jurisdiction in Washington. “Plaintiff produced and published the content in question that gives rise to the action in Edmonds, Washington. The internet used as a sole tool for publishing films and creative work has become common. With that development, the remaining constants are where the work is created, from where it is published, and where the physical hosting of said digital work exists.”

Cougenhour disagreed. “The primary events giving rise to plaintiff’s claims were not the editing and publication of his journalism. They were the incidents on which he was actually reporting, and the fact that defendants threatened him with suit for defamation. The primacy of these events is apparent that plaintiff’s claims are, essentially, that his reporting was accurate and defendants’ suit is unconstitutional. Plaintiff has never denied that these events have occurred and are occurring in Alabama,” Coughenour wrote in his order transferring the case.

“We are looking forward to a judgment from the federal court and pleased Judge Coughenour stated that the ‘allegations in the complaint are serious’ and that he recognizes the constitutional issue. We expect the ACLU and another organization to enter the suit. The right of journalists to report legally-obtained leaked documents is a constitutional issue and should not be impaired, nor should the right of free speech in the effort to hide information from the public about a police department planting drugs on the African American community,” Carroll said in a written statement in response to an inquiry from the Dothan Eagle.

Dothan Police Chief Steve Parrish has instituted an internal affairs investigation into any specific allegations of corruption in the police department and has asked for a federal investigation. Parrish said the department has kept records dating back to 1975.

Carroll is a defendant in a defamation case filed Jan. 29 in Dale County related to posts made about the 1999 murders of teens JB Beasley and Tracie Hawlett. The case is expected to continue in federal court in the Middle District of Alabama.

Source: Lance Griffin, The Dothan Eagle, March 16, 2016.