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Nothing really pertaining to the case, but this was in local news.

J
ay Howell’s work as an attorney for the U.S. Senate in 1981 energized the national missing children’s movement with the help of a pleasant New York couple freshly grieving over the disappearance of their little boy.

Howell, a longtime victims rights attorney in Jacksonville, found Stanley and Julie Patz traumatized over the 1979 loss over 6-year-old Etan. But he said the couple was also determined to speak out for other boys and girls stolen off the country’s streets. They did so speaking on television shows, news conferences and Senate panels.

Howell’s early interaction with the Patzes included his invitation to them for a 1983 White House Rose Garden ceremony in which President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation — written by Howell in Etan’s honor — designating May 25 as National Missing Children’s Day.

“I admired them because in the face of what has to be one of this earth’s cruelest blows, they were able to dedicate themselves and work to make changes that would help other people,â€￾ Howell said.

Howell spent Friday, the 29th anniversary of that day, relieved to know that police had finally made an arrest a day earlier in Etan’s kidnapping and slaying.

Police accused Pedro Hernandez, 51, of killing the New Jersey boy 33 years ago after luring him into a store where Hernandez worked, then choking him to death and stuffing his body in a trash bag. No motive has been given for the slaying.

Howell said he hasn’t spoken to Etan’s parents since the late 1980s, but he often thinks of the boy’s case. He said perhaps they can now find some peace.

“Hopefully for Stan and Julie there is evidence to convict this individual, and at least the uncertainly is finally explained,â€￾ Howell said.

Florida Sen. Paula Hawkins appointed Howell in 1981 as chief counsel to the Senate’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight. He investigated and drafted legislation for issues including missing and kidnapped children, child pornography and serial murders.

Howell worked with the Patzes and other families, including the parents of slain Florida boy Adam Walsh, to develop a national program to help police and families in their search for the victims.

Howell’s work on the subcommittee and with the U.S Justice Department led to the passage of the 1983 Missing Children’s Act, which helped place more children in a national crime information database, and the creation of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He co-founded the group in 1984 and worked as its first executive director from 1984 to 1987.

National Missing Children’s Day came out of a White House request of Howell to come up with a day to highlight the plight of such children and their families.

His local practice focuses on representing children and adults turned crime victims. He is also active among victim advocates, including serving on the Mayor’s Victim Assistance Advisory Council and hosting its annual awards ceremony. He received a lifetime achievement award from the group this year.

Howell still keeps volumes of records and pictures of his days on the Senate subcommittee and pulled some of those out Friday when asked about his work with the Patzes. The day turned out to be bittersweet for a local lawyer touched by one of the nation’s longest missing child odysseys.

“I feel relieved that Stan and Julie now know what happened,â€￾ Howell said. “You hope this truly has solved it.â€￾


Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/...emembers-work-parents-etan-patz#ixzz1vv9TbsDh
 
on yahoo this morning...

NEW YORK (AP) — The anniversary of the day 6-year-old Etan Patz vanished on his way to school dawned with his suspected killer in police custody, but it ended with a muddled portrait of the man who confessed to strangling the little boy and dumping his body in the trash.

A former neighbor who knew Pedro Hernandez as a teenager says he was someone you wouldn't want to cross — a reserved but "pent-up" young man. But the pastor of his church says Hernandez, now 51, is simply a shy and timid man who faithfully attends Sunday services.

Now on suicide watch at Bellevue Hospital, Hernandez was arraigned Friday via video link from a hospital ward on a charge of murder. His court-appointed lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, told the judge that Hernandez is bipolar, schizophrenic and has a "history of hallucinations, both visual and auditory."

Hernandez, who was a teenage convenience store clerk at the time Etan went missing, now lives in Maple Shade, N.J. He was arrested Thursday after making a surprise confession in a case that has bedeviled investigators for 33 years. Hernandez told police he lured Etan into the basement of a convenience store with a promise of a soda, choked him to death, then stuffed his body in a bag and left it with trash on the street a block away.

The legal proceeding lasted only about four minutes. Expressionless, wearing an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs, Hernandez didn't speak or enter a plea.

A judge ordered Hernandez held without bail and authorized a psychological examination to see if he is fit to stand trial.

The prosecutor who appeared in court, Assistant District Attorney Armand Durastanti, said it was 33 years ago Friday that 6-year-old Etan Patz left his home on Prince Street to catch his school bus. "He has not been seen or heard from since. It's been 33 years, and justice has not been done in this case," Durastanti, said.

Etan disappeared on May 25, 1979, on his two-block walk to his bus stop in Manhattan. It was the first time his parents had let him walk the route by himself.

Next to the bus stop was a convenience store, where Hernandez, then 18, worked as a clerk. Police interviewed him this week, acting on a tip.

Etan's remains were never found, even after a massive search and a media campaign that made parents afraid to let their children out of their sight and sparked a movement to publicize the cases of missing youngsters. Etan was one of the first missing children to be pictured on a milk carton.

Hernandez's confession put investigators in the unusual position of bringing the case to court before they had amassed any physical evidence or had time to fully corroborate his story or investigate his psychiatric condition.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said investigators were retracing garbage truck routes from the late 1970s and deciding whether to search landfills for the boy's remains, a daunting prospect.

Crime scene investigators also arrived Friday morning at the building in Manhattan's SoHo section that once held the bodega where Hernandez worked. Authorities were considering excavating the basement for evidence.

They also were looking into whether Hernandez has a history of mental illness or pedophilia.

Browne said letting Hernandez remain free until the investigation is complete was not an option: "There was no way we could release the man who had just confessed to killing Etan Patz."
more at link
http://news.yahoo.com/images-vary-man-charged-79-etan-patz-murder-112836319.html
 
Shock over arrest in NYC boy's '79 disappearance

NEW YORK – When police dug up a Manhattan basement last month in a fruitless search for the remains of Etan Patz, a 6-year-old boy who disappeared in 1979, Lucy Suarez saw the news on TV and wished that the family of the missing child would finally get some peace.

"My sister and I prayed about it. We prayed and we said, 'Let justice be done,'" Suarez said. "Never did we think it was going to be done with our family."

On Friday, her older brother was charged with Etan's murder.
[...]
The admission surprised investigators, who had been confounded by the disappearance for three decades and never considered Hernandez a suspect until this month. Just weeks ago, they had focused their attention on another man, and even ripped up a basement he had once used as a workshop in the hope of finding clues.

Suarez said her family is reeling, too, despite having had concerns for years that her brother had once done something bad to a child.

Hernandez, now living in Maple Shade, N.J., was 18 when Etan vanished. When he moved to New Jersey not long after the disappearance, he said something to relatives about having hurt a child back in New York.

Suarez said her brother never spoke to her directly about what had happened, and the family's knowledge of the incident was vague.

"He didn't say, 'I killed somebody,'" she said. "My conclusion was that it was a hit and run, or he hit someone with a bike. Nothing like a murder."

Suarez said she was shocked to find out about his arrest early Thursday, but another of the suspect's sisters, Norma Hernandez, said at least some relatives had heard something far more horrifying about what he had done.

In the 1980s, she said, Pedro had confessed to a church prayer group that he had killed a boy. Norma Hernandez said she didn't have firsthand knowledge of this confession, and didn't learn about it until later. If she had known, she said, she would have turned her brother in.

"Even if it is my own child I will go to the police station and say, 'You'd better check them out,'" she said. "I'd consider the mother and her child and her wondering what happened to her child."

The people who heard him confess "should've said something even if it wasn't true," she said.

A defense lawyer told a judge Friday that Hernandez suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and had a history of hallucinations. Suarez said she knew her brother had been taking psychiatric medications, but said she didn't think he had been debilitated by mental illness, and wasn't aware that he had been hallucinating. She also said she had never thought him to be capable of murder.

"My brother was not a monster like that. I don't know him like that," she said. Suarez said she was still holding out hope that her brother's confession might be false, prompted by a delusion, fueled by the media attention to the case.

"If he did do it, God will have justice," she said. Suarez said she would continue to pray for Etan's parents, Stanley and Julie Patz. "I would like to have a chance to meet them and apologize to them, whether my brother is guilty, or not."

Well-wishers left flowers, candles and dolls Saturday outside the New York City building that once housed the bodega where police said Etan died.
[...]
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/26/nj-man-charged-with-murdering-ny-boy-patz-in-17/#ixzz1w1d3F1UU
I really want to know why,did he sexually assault him??
B/c only thing they said so far was "maybe I did it b/c he reminded me of my least favorite nephew
 
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Suspect In 1979 Etan Patz Murder Has Schizophrenia And Hallucinations, Says His Lawyer

[...]
The NY Times' Jim Dwyer wrote yesterday, "The law enforcement official involved in the case said that investigators were now trying to find reasons to trust Mr. Hernandez’s story. Why would a man with no known history of pedophilia or murderous impulses lure a boy into a bodega basement and strangle him?" An official said, "He doesn’t give any motivation in the statement. The admission was totally unsolicited." And the Daily Beast's Michael Daly reports, "Detectives who questioned Hernandez on Wednesday and Thursday are said to have asked him his motive. His reply, they said, is that he had no motive, or that perhaps he acted because Etan reminded him of his least-favorite nephew."[...]
http://gothamist.com/2012/05/26/suspect_in_1979_etan_patz_murder_ha.php#photo-1

imagine how his nephews feel wondering which one of them it was that caused his hatred
 
I have to wonder... other than the confession of a mentally ill person, what proof do they have? Any person could confess to a crime but without additional proof, how could they charge - much less convict?? This guy could just be having a delusion brought on by his diagnosis and this would be nothing more than another media generated circus.

It's not unheard of for people to "take credit" for crimes - whether from desire for fame, to instigate "power", or from absolute weird mental issues.
 
I have to wonder... other than the confession of a mentally ill person, what proof do they have? Any person could confess to a crime but without additional proof, how could they charge - much less convict?? This guy could just be having a delusion brought on by his diagnosis and this would be nothing more than another media generated circus.

It's not unheard of for people to "take credit" for crimes - whether from desire for fame, to instigate "power", or from absolute weird mental issues.

Saw documentary on false confessions awhile ago and it happens ALOT
 
Saw documentary on false confessions awhile ago and it happens ALOT
Exactly what I mean. Even without the fact that many sane folks make false confessions, I have doubts. I have brother that is a schizophrenic and when he's not medicated life gets really weird... but logical if you can get into an alternate thought process. He's confessed to all sorts of ludicrous shit and accused many of shit that you have to prove (to cops!) that is false.

I'm very skeptical of this"confession" without additional proof.
 
Exactly what I mean. Even without the fact that many sane folks make false confessions, I have doubts. I have brother that is a schizophrenic and when he's not medicated life gets really weird... but logical if you can get into an alternate thought process. He's confessed to all sorts of ludicrous shit and accused many of shit that you have to prove (to cops!) that is false.

I'm very skeptical of this"confession" without additional proof.

Look at John Karr/Carr said he killed Jon Benet
 
A defense lawyer told a judge Friday that Hernandez suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and had a history of hallucinations. Suarez said she knew her brother had been taking psychiatric medications, but said she didn't think he had been debilitated by mental illness, and wasn't aware that he had been hallucinating. She also said she had never thought him to be capable of murder.
I to wonder whether his confession is based on reality. He could have hallucinated doing something and IF he had troubling thoughts coupled with mental illness, who knows for certain without actual evidence, and that's not going to happen at this point.

This is interesting. I must have read over this part before. I thought he turned himself in but this says he confessed after a relative "ratted" him out and that he had confessed to the murder years ago.
Etan Patz’s alleged killer tried to confess to cops years ago that he had murdered the long-missing 6-year-old — but he was dismissed as a nutjob and detectives never followed through, the suspect’s sister told The Post yesterday.“Every time the anniversary of that little boy came up on TV, I would say, ‘Why doesn’t he turn himself in?’ ” recalled Lucy Suarez, 43, the youngest sister of Pedro Hernandez.
“And my sister said, ‘He did, but the police let him go because they said he was too crazy,’ ” Suarez said.


Sources yesterday also revealed that five days after Etan disappeared, cops saw Hernandez at the bodega, where one of the owners explained away his presence by noting he was merely his brother-in-law. There is no record that police ever interviewed Hernandez that day about Etan.

Hernandez, 51, confessed to the NYPD Wednesday after a relative ratted him out, police said. He was arraigned on a second-degree murder charge from Bellevue Hospital on the 33rd anniversary of Etan’s disappearance.
. . .
Read more:



I'm dunno. I'm torn. A confession twice? seems likely he's guilty. It's all possible it's him even w/ mental issues. He was 19 when he allegedly killed Etan, hard to believe virtually a kid himself would do this but, well, we know killers come in all ages. I'm leaning to it being him but wondering how is it the cops arrest him without more...thinking maybe there is more and we just don't know.



 
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FBI not convinced that Pedro Hernandez actually killed Etan Patz
The nation breathed a collective sigh of relief Wednesday when NJ resident Pedro Hernandez confessed to the NYPD that he choked and murdered 6-year-old Etan Patz 33 years ago. Maybe now Etan’s parents could now have some peace, and some closure. But the FBI isn’t convinced that the Hernandez confession is the real deal.
[...]
some FBI higher-ups are expressing their doubts that Hernandez actually killed Etan Patz.
[...]
http://www.examiner.com/article/fbi-not-convinced-that-pedro-hernandez-actually-killed-etan-patz
 
[...]
Without a body or DNA evidence, the DA will not be able to prosecute Hernandez on his confession alone.

Meanwhile, Stan and Julie Patz are said to be skeptical of the confession, according to DNAInfo, as it is just the latest in a string of stories they have heard from various sources and people over the last 33 years.

As well as a number of false claims and wrong leads given to police - including the recent questioning of handyman Othniel Miller, the family have also had a number of young men come to the family home claiming to be Etan.

Sources told DNAinfo that one man actually walked up to Stan Patz and said, 'Hi dad, I am Etan.'

Another was so sure and insistent he was the missing boy from the milk cartons that he had to submit a DNA test to prove he was not him.

It is believed he had even convinced himself he was Etan after becoming obsessed with the infamous case over the years.
[...]

The Patz family have never been able to escape the publicity surrounding their youngest son's disappearance and have been particularly hounded in the weeks since the FBI dug up a SoHo basement believing they were going to find traces of the child's body.

Yesterday, Mr Patz pinned a note to their door saying: 'To all the media people hanging around here. You have managed to make a difficult situation even worse. Talk to your assignment editors.

'It is past time for you to leave me, my family and my neighbors alone.'

Stanley Patz has always maintained that convicted pedophile Jose Ramos is responsible for his son's death.

In 2004 Ramos,who dated Etan’s babysitter, was declared responsible for their son's death by a civil judge. Stan Patz has been so convinced of Ramos’ guilt that every year, on Etan's birthday and on the anniversary of his disappearance, Patz sends Ramos a Missing Child poster of his son.

On the back he writes, 'What did you do to my little boy?'

The FBI are also said to be skeptical that they have their man and Manhattan DA Cy Vance has expressed doubts over the bipolar schizophrenic's confession.
[...]

There is no physical evidence that Hernandez committed the crime and the only thing police are going on is his confession to police, a prayer group and relatives.

Hernandez’s sister, Norma, told The Wall Street Journal yesterday that after hearing from other relatives about his alleged confession, she went to the Camden, New Jersey, police.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ple-skeptical-alleged-killers-confession.html
 
Former suspect in Etan Patz case to be freed

15Wk2zY.jpg

Jose Ramos in 2010
While prosecutors weigh what to do about a suspect who surprisingly surfaced this spring in the landmark 1979 disappearance case of Etan Patz, the man who was the prime suspect for years is about to go free after more than two decades in prison for molesting other children.

These two threads in the tangled story are set to cross next month, a twist that evokes decades of uncertainties and loose ends in the search for what happened to the sandy-haired 6-year-old last seen walking to his Manhattan school bus stop.

The new suspect, Pedro Hernandez, has been charged with Etan's murder after police said he emerged as a suspect and confessed this spring. But there's no public indication that authorities have found anything beyond his admission to implicate him, and his lawyer has said Hernandez is mentally ill.

The Pennsylvania inmate, Jose Ramos, was declared responsible for Etan's death in a civil court, but the Manhattan district attorney's office has said there wasn't enough evidence to charge him criminally. After serving 25 years on child molestation convictions in Pennsylvania, he's set to be freed Nov. 7, about a week before prosecutors are due to indicate whether they believe there's evidence enough to keep going after Hernandez.
[...]

In a letter last month to The Associated Press, Ramos said he was declining interviews while in prison but will be available to speak after his release.
[...]

After his arrest, the New York Police Department announced that Hernandez had admitted strangling the boy and leaving his body in a trash bag.

There has been no signal that an extensive probe in the months since has turned up further evidence against him. Hernandez's attorney, Harvey Fishbein, raised further doubts about the case, saying Hernandez is schizophrenic and bipolar and has heard voices.
[...]

A DA's office spokeswoman and Hernandez' lawyer declined to comment on Ramos' release, as did the now-retired GraBois. The Patzes' lawyer didn't respond to phone messages; the parents have asked to be left alone.

There's no time limit for bringing charges in a murder case, so prosecutors could charge Ramos — or someone else — in future if they decide not to pursue Hernandez. But from a practical standpoint, the fact that Hernandez was charged could be grist for any other suspect's defense.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10/28/etan-patz-case/1664179/
 
121107-02.jpg
L8JoHgv.jpg
The kiddie perv, once suspected in Etan Patz’s disappearance, walked out of prison before he was locked up again for allegedly lying to cops about his living arrangement, authorities said today.

Jose Ramos, 69, was released from SCI Dallas Prison in northeast Pennsylvania late last night and then immediately rearrested for telling police he was headed for a home on Leggett Ave., in the Bronx -- a location he had no real plans to inhabit, officials said.

Ramos is required, under Megan’s Law, to tell police where he’ll be living.

Magisterial District Court Judge James Tupper this morning set Ramos’ bail at $75,000 and ordered him back to court on Nov. 15.
[...]

As he walked out of jail this morning, on his way to court, Ramos gave rambling answers to questions posed by The Post.

Asked if he killed Patz, Ramos said: "Does your mother know you're here?"


Asked why he’s been rearrested, Ramos nonsensically responded: "Because my pants are falling down.â€￾

He declined to say whether he knew Pedro Hernandez, the New Jersey man who has confessed to killing Patz.

The white-bearded Ramos was dressed in a blue jail jumpsuit, waist shackles and white shoes, looking like a crazed, emaciated Santa Claus.
[...]

Unless Ramos makes bail, he’ll be spending the next week at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility. He faces up to 10 years in prison for allegedly giving bad information on his post-release whereabouts.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/longtime_etan_patz_suspect_jose_wzx0yPBr8nVFu7EJetV8aM
 
yCIjrdd.jpg
A grand jury has indicted a former SoHo bodega clerk on charges he lured 6-year-old Etan Patz into a basement and killed him 33 years ago.

Pedro Hernandez is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping, the Manhattan District Attorney's office said Wednesday. He was set to appear in court Thursday.

Hernandez, who has a history of mental illness, was arrested last spring, 33 years after Patz disappeared off a SoHo street in a tragic case that mystified New York City for decades.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at the time that police focused on Hernandez, who now lives in Maple Shade, N.J., after the Missing Persons Squad received a tip from someone who remembered Hernandez speaking of having killed a child.
[...]

Hernandez's attorney, Harvey Fishbein, said the trial would not solve the mystery of what happened to Patz.

He said Hernandez, who has taken medication for schizophrenia for years, has recently been diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder, which includes hallucinations. Fishbein cited both court-ordered and private psychiatric evaluations and said the entire case is based on statements made by his mentally ill client.

"The statements alleged by the people are not supported by any evidence whatsoever despite extraordinary investigative efforts by the police, back then and now," Fishbein said.

A spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney said the grand jury found sufficient evidence to charge Hernandez and that the office believes the case should go to trial.

"This indictment is the outcome of a lengthy and deliberative process, involving months of factual investigation and legal analysis," said Erin Duggan.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/loca...-Grand-Jury-Charges-Indictment-179304281.html
 
Etan Patz Suspect Pedro Hernandez Pleads Not Guilty
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – The man charged with killing a 6-year-old New York City boy in 1979 has pleaded not guilty to murder despite police saying he confessed to the crime.

The defense of a man charged with killing a 6-year-old boy in 1979 will revolve around his mental state and a false confession to the crime, but he is not pursuing an insanity defense in the sensational case, his attorney said.

Pedro Hernandez, 51, appeared in court Wednesday afternoon for an arraignment on the murder charge in the death of Etan Patz. Patz disappeared on his way to a school bus stop more than three decades ago.

Hernandez will maintain he didn’t kill Etan and argue he made a false confession because of his mental problems, among other factors, his attorney Harvey Fishbein said. An insanity defense would mean acknowledging he committed the crime but arguing that he was too psychologically ill to know it was wrong.

“The only part that mental disease plays in this case is its role in the confession,â€￾ he said before the court date.

Psychiatric exams of the jailed Hernandez have found that he has an IQ in the borderline-to-mild mental retardation range, his lawyer has said.

Hernandez also has been found to suffer from schizotypal personality disorder, which is characterized by hallucinations, according to his lawyer.

“The statements made by client are not reliable,â€￾ Fishbein said last month. [...]
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/12/12/etan-patz-suspect-pedro-hernandez-due-in-court/


Etan Patz suspect reportedly said boy was still breathing when he dumped body
He claims he killed Etan Patz, but when the man accused of the murder last saw the missing child, the boy was still breathing, according to new details about the confession.

Pedro Hernandez — who was an 18-year-old SoHo bodega clerk when Etan Patz, 6, vanished near the store in 1979 — told cops he "placed the boy in a plastic bag [and] placed the bag in a cardboard box," according to defense papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday.

"He then carried the box to the entranceway of a basement approximately one-and-a-half blocks away, where he placed the box on the ground just inside the open entranceway," the papers say.

Hernandez's confession was taped in May at the Camden County, NJ, prosecutor's office, near his current home in Mount Holly.

"According to the video-recorded statement by Mr. Hernandez, when he left the box, Etan Patz was still alive," the papers say.

A law-enforcement source who asked not to be identified told the Post that Hernandez said that although Etan was breathing, he was motionless.

"He said [Etan] was unconscious, but still breathing. He was almost dead," said the source. "Hernandez said he panicked and dumped the body."

It was some seven to eight hours after he was taken into custody that Hernandez, who has an IQ of approximately 70, made that first video-recorded statement to cops, his lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, told reporters after his client pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and murder charges.

In a second videotaped statement, made the next day at the Manhattan DA's Office, Hernandez added that “Etan Patz might have died because of his [Hernandez’s] actions,â€￾ the papers said.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/1...aid-boy-was-still-breathing-when-dumped-body/
 
Man Asks Court to Toss 1979 NYC Child-Killing Case

A man who confessed to killing a long-missing New York City boy is asking a judge to throw out the murder case against him. His lawyer says the confession was false and there's not enough evidence to support it.

The dismissal request was filed Wednesday in one of the nation's most notorious child disappearances. Six-year-old Etan Patz (AY'-tahn payts) vanished en route to school in May 1979.

Maple Shade, N.J., resident Pedro Hernandez was arrested last year after police got a tip. He later told authorities he'd choked Etan, boxed his limp body and left it with trash.

Defense lawyer Harvey Fishbein has said Hernandez is mentally ill. Fishbein says in Tuesday's court papers Hernandez' confession included questionable claims.
[...]
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/man-asks-court-toss-1979-nyc-child-killing-18982249
 
The case against a New Jersey man charged with murder in the disappearance of Etan Patz can proceed to trial, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Maxell Wiley declined to toss out the case against Pedro Hernandez from Maple Shade, N.J., who was charged last year.

Hernandez, 52, confessed to killing Patz, whose disappearance in 1979 when he was 6 years old has remained one of the city’s most high-profile unsolved crimes. The body has never been recovered.

His lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, had argued that his client is mentally ill and his confession to investigators was false.

Fishbein said there was no evidence to back up the confession, but authorities said Hernandez had made incriminating remarks to family members years before he confessed.

Under New York law, a person can be convicted based only on a confession if there’s additional evidence that a crime was committed.
[...]

Hernandez, a former SoHo bodega worker, told cops he saw the child at a bus stop and lured him to the basement of the store with the promise of a soda, prosecutors said. He said he then choked Patz and put him in a plastic bag and left him still alive in a box half a block away, according to authorities.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/etan-patz-murder-case-trial-article-1.1344881

I hope they have more than just his ramblings. I've heard the crap that comes out a delusional person and without additional evidence, there is no way I would believe them. My paranoid schizophrenic brother has called the cops and FBI with some really impossible whoppers that he truly believes at that moment.

Even if Pedro Hernandez had been confessing to everyone for years, I wouldn't believe him without something a bit more substantial than that to go on.
 
A child molester who was long considered the likely killer of 6-year-old Etan Patz — who disappeared in 1979 — has been ordered to appear at the upcoming trial of the man charged with the boy’s slaying.

Judges in Manhattan and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where convicted pervert Jose Ramos is incarcerated, have ordered Ramos to appear for 52-year-old Pedro Hernandez’s murder trial, slated to begin April 23 in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Hernandez’s lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, wrote in court papers he “may seek to present evidence that [Ramos] — and not Pedro Hernandez — is responsible for the disappearance of Etan Patz.”

Ramos was also dating Etan’s babysitter at the time and had knowledge of the events that transpired when the boy went missing on his way to his SoHo school, Fishbein argued.
[...]

In 1988, Ramos told police he brought home a boy he made a sexual advance upon and then sent the boy away on an uptown train. He said he was almost certain that child was Etan. A civil court judge found Ramos responsible for the boy’s death, but he was never criminally charged.

Hernandez, who is mentally ill, is facing up to life in prison if convicted of a single count of second-degree murder.

Prosecutors say Hernandez, who worked at a bodega near Patz’s school bus stop, killed the boy. Etan’s body has never been found.

Hernandez’s lawyer says does not know of any physical evidence and argues the confession is false.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/molester-attend-etan-trial-article-1.1497320
 
Notorious child molester Jose A. Ramos says he's tired of being linked to the 1979 disappearance of a New York City boy whose case put a national spotlight on missing children.

He also doesn't like being called a "sex offender," even though the state classifies him as such.

Ramos, who held national notoriety for long being the prime suspect in the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz, recently sent a letter to The Citizens' Voice to complain about media coverage linking him to the boy, his attorneys' alleged ineffectiveness and the Luzerne County court system.

"I want you to know that I am an ex-sex offender and not a sex offender," Ramos said in jail mail sent from the Luzerne County Correctional Facility.

Ramos served 27 years at State Correctional Institution at Dallas for unrelated child sex charges and was arrested immediately upon his release in November 2012 for allegedly lying about where he would live after prison. He's been jailed on Megan's Law violations in the Luzerne County prison ever since.
[...]

In his letter, Ramos criticizes media reports linking him to Etan.

"Your continual diatribe about my being an alleged suspect in the matter of the alleged disappearance of Etan Kalil Patz is also without substance or merit," Ramos wrote.

When asked by a reporter during an October court appearance about Hernandez's defense team trying to pin the crime on him, Ramos responded, "No crime. No comment," following a string of "No comment" responses to other questions.

During another court appearance on Friday, he wouldn't say if he'd say anything if called to testify at the trial.

"No comment on that," Ramos said.
[...]

Ramos has appealed a ruling that requires him to appear at Hernandez's trial.

Much of his letter argues that the man who filed that appeal, Wilkes-Barre based attorney Tom Marsilio, hasn't been effective in challenging the local Megan's Law charges or fighting the order requiring him to attend Hernanez's trial.

Marsilio had filed a request earlier this month to withdraw as Ramos' attorney due to Ramos' "antagonistic" attitude toward him, but withdrew the motion on Friday. Ramos' trial before Luzerne County Judge David Lupas is slated for Dec. 30.

In his letter, Ramos claims the Luzerne County judicial system is against him, making a reference to the infamous "kids for cash" scandal that saw two judges arrested and jailed for taking kickbacks for sending juveniles to for-profit detention centers.

"This is the kind of justice you get in Pennsylvania, especially in Luzerne County. It's the 2.0 version of 'Adults for Cash' syndrome," Ramos wrote. "You and this county have continually trampled on my Fifth Amendment rights, while in the same venue the court of the county has issued me an excessive bail."

At his most recent court appearance, Ramos declined to elaborate on the letter, saying, "Just answer my letter."
http://citizensvoice.com/news/molester-claims-courts-media-after-him-1.1601630

Jose Ramos' letter to The Citizens' Voice: http://wbcitizensvoice.com/pdfs/ramos.pdf
 
There is no such thing as an ex child sex offender. Once you molest/rape/torture a child you can never undo the harm you did to that child, therefore you deserve that label for the rest of your miserable life.
 
not likely the guy in the story is Etan Patz. The guy in the story is only 30 years old and Etan would be 41, too many years between those two.
 
It's damn near impossible.
I am certain that... Pedro? guy killed him. Confession recanted be damned.
 
Pedro Hernandez hadn't attracted much attention from police before detectives came to his suburban New Jersey door on a tip one morning in May 2012. Seven hours later, the investigators' video cameras started rolling as he admitted killing a 6-year-old boy whose 1979 disappearance
[...]
The circumstances surrounding that confession are set to be scrutinized at a hearing, starting Monday, to determine whether Hernandez' statements are fair game for trial. The answer rests on whether he was properly advised of his rights to stay silent and consult an attorney, and whether he was mentally capable of waiving them. Hernandez' lawyer has said his client is mentally ill and has an IQ at the border
[...]
The hearing will likely mark the first time the confession will be played publicly, and it will put complicated questions under the microscope of a notorious and haunting case.

"Does he understand the consequences of his actions? That is a huge part of what we're talking about," said Denis Keyes,
[..]
If Hernandez behaves and thinks more like a child than an adult, Keyes said, "then he will never fully understand the importance that goes with the Miranda warnings."

Hernandez, 53, worked at a Manhattan corner store nearby when Etan Patz disappeared while walking to his school bus stop on May 25, 1979. The boy has never been found, despite a search that stretched across oceans and decades.
[...]
More than three decades after Etan disappeared, police got a lead that brought them to Hernandez in 2012.

After agreeing to go to a police station near his home in Maple Shade
[...]
he was questioned for about seven hours before detectives advised him of his so-called Miranda rights, the warning often heard in crime dramas. They then recorded him saying he lured Etan into the store with a promise of a soda, suffocated him in the basement, put the body in a bag, stuffed the bag inside a box and left it on the street
[...]
Hernandez has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, has said the confession was false. But the upcoming hearing is solely to determine whether the confession can be used in court, not whether the statement itself is true.

A judge will examine the timing of the Miranda warning, an often-disputed legal issue that turns partly on whether a suspect felt free to leave during any questioning before the warning. But the judge also will be asked to decide whether Hernandez made an "intelligent and voluntary waiver of his rights, and what role his psychological status and very low IQ play,"
[...]
The Manhattan district attorney's office has said the confession was legally obtained.

"At the point at which the defendant's liberty would be questioned, he was issued his Miranda warnings and continued to give statements," Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon
[...]
The confession is a key piece of evidence against Hernandez. Authorities have not pointed to any physical or scientific evidence against him, and his defense has said there is none. Authorities have noted that Hernandez also allegedly told a 1980s prayer group he'd killed a child in New York.
[...]
defense has said his IQ is about 70; a score of "about 70 or below" is considered to equate to intellectual disability, according to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Hernandez has a two-decade-long history of psychological problems, including hallucinations, and he's been on anti-psychotic medication for several years, Fishbein has said in court papers. Since his arrest, Hernandez has been diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder; common characteristics include social isolation, unusual speech and "odd beliefs and behaviors,"
[...]
There's no hard-and-fast rule saying that a certain IQ level or mental illness necessarily makes a person unable to comprehend the Miranda warning, said Greg DeClue, a Sarasota, Florida-based forensic psychologist who specializes in issues surrounding interrogations and disputed confessions.

"It can be hard to reconstruct" what a suspect understood, he said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/14/pedro-hernandez-missing-boy_n_5818320.html?utm_hp_ref=crime
 
New Jersey man’s confession to killing Etan Patz heard in court: 'I just started choking him'
'I wanted to let go but just couldn't,’ Pedro Hernandez said of choking the 6-year-old boy in an alleged recorded confession, heard for the first time publicly on Monday. His attorney said the confession was coerced and wants it recanted.
[....]
1979 disappearance and murder of 6-year-old Etan Patz said he “just couldn't” resist the urge to choke the child in a chilling confession video played in public for the first time Monday.

“I started choking him,” Pedro Hernandez said in the opening moments of the alleged confession.

Hernandez, who defense attorneys say is mentally ill, told cops he lured young Etan — on his first solo walk through SoHo to catch his school bus on the corner — into his bodega with the promise of a soda.
[...]
brought the 6-year-old into the basement of his store.

“I told him, you know, to go down to the basement with me,”
[...]
who gave a three-hour taped interview to cops in 2012.

During the first half of the recording, Hernandez calmly detailed what he says was his involvement the disturbing event that led to Patz’s disappearance
[...]
“I wanted to let go but just couldn't,”
[...]
“It was like something took over me and, I don't know, something just took over me and I choked him.”

Hernandez added that he “took a plastic bag” and put Patz inside.
I put him in a plastic bag and closed the plastic bag and I took a box, a cardboard box, and I put it in a box. I push him in the box and I closed the box. Then I went up the steps outside, put the box on my shoulder,”
[...]
“I went up the steps and I walk to the right on Prince St. a block and a half or two blocks, and then I make a left and, and put the box in ... the basement walk hallway. I put the box inside there and I left
[...]
“Why did you pick there?”
[...]
“Because that was the only place I just kind of figured I’d put it,”
[..]
Despite a widespread police response that involved searching the area around Prince St. and all the garbage disposals within the time frame of Hernandez’s alleged murder, Etan Patz’s body was never found.

The boy’s fate has remained of the city’s enduring mysteries. For years, suspicion has fallen on a pedophile named Jose Ramos.

Ramos was involved with Etan’s babysitter at the time the boy vanished and was the prime suspect until Hernandez’s name emerged
[...]
Hernandez, who was 18 in 1979, claims he eluded police detection and moved to New Jersey
[...]
He claims he contracted AIDS from touching his father's blood and says he gave it to his wife.
[...]
lawyer says he's bipolar with a low IQ and falsely confessed, believing the fiction he described after hours of police interrogation.

The Sept. 15 hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court was to determine the admissibility of his alleged confession.

“There are constitutional issues that have to be addressed about the taking of the statement,” Hernandez's attorney Harvey Fishbein had said
[...]
Fishbein has argued that the district attorney's case is entirely based on the alleged confession of Hernandez.

Hernandez, who has since recanted his confession, says he was coerced into admitting he abducted and killed little Etan.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...ling-etan-patz-played-court-article-1.1940185
 
Judge says confession admissible in Etan Patz case
[....]
jury will be allowed to consider a confession by a suspect with a low IQ who is accused of killing a 6-year-old boy more than three decades ago
[...]
In May 2012, Pedro Hernandez told police that he choked Etan Patz to death in New York City in 1979
[..]
Hernandez's attorney, Harvey Fishbein, argued that his client falsely confessed and the statements were not reliable because Hernandez had been repeatedly diagnosed with schizophrenia and has an "IQ in the borderline-to-mild mental retardation range."
[....]
statements in question were made during three events across two days in May 2012: a 7½-hour interrogation, a 20-minute videotape of the statement following the interrogation, and a statement made at the district attorney's office the next morning
[...]
"I think anyone who sees these confessions will understand that when the police were finished, Mr. Hernandez believed he had killed Etan Patz. But that doesn't mean he actually did and that's the whole point of this case,"
[....]
But Judge Maxwell Wiley ruled Monday that the confession was admissible, writing that Hernandez's waiver of Miranda rights was "knowing and intelligent,
[..]
Wiley cited reports of two forensic psychology experts who met with Hernandez and determined he was "in fact capable of knowingly waiving his rights,
[...]
The two experts agreed that "although the defendant has a very low IQ, that alone does not necessarily prevent a person from understanding Miranda warnings and making a knowing and intelligent waiver of his rights,"
[...]
Hernandez admitted to luring Etan, who was en route to a school bus stop, into the basement of a bodega where he worked as a stock clerk and killing him, according to police. The boy's body was put in a garbage bag and thrown away, Hernandez allegedly told authorities. The remains were never found.
[...]
Fishbein told
[...]
that although the jury will be able to consider the confession, it is now up to them to decide if it is truly reliable or not.
[...]
November 2012, a grand jury indicted Hernandez on second-degree murder and kidnapping charges. He pleaded not guilty in court the following month.

The trial is set to begin January 5, Fishbein said.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/24/justice/etan-patz-ruling/index.html?hpt=ju_c2
 
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