Team Notes on Direct for Rory Riley

Direct Examination of Detective Rory Riley

NEW* Don't forget to have Rory Riley tell about violent pictures in Casey's room.
Ideas from Xanga Team: Prosection: igniter could be found in high school labs
could be setup earlier
amateur job - by student?
volatile substance when exposed to oxygen
Doxene available to everyone
- janitor's closet nearby
contained irritants
blast radius of 60 feet
no other purpose

Introduce all three pieces of evidence. -- We need to practice doing it!

1. Rory Riley is a qualified, competent police detective. Detective Riley is a seasoned police officer. She is used to being on the witness stand.

(Rory Riley will share her story of what happened on April 4, 2008.)
phone call

Line #9 -- If it had been a longer call, would she have ever been able to recognize a voice?

*This was a threat to the school – it is important to establish this since it speaks to one of the counts Casey is charged with.
Detective Riley needs to explain just how she conducted the investigation – step by step – each step was reasonable.

Things to note – Should Sawyer be asked about if she made the call on April 4, or if she saw the bomb \? She never says anything in her statement about looking in the garbage can or calling to report the bomb.

The principal goes with the Detective while she searched the campus.

The trash can the bomb was in was the one closest to the tables – There was another trash can by the wall (See the map.) Whoever planted it planted it to be closest to where students could be sitting.

Seems that the only things on top of the bomb were “lunch remains.”

Detective Riley (who had bomb training as a cadet -- Defense may bring up that this would have been 13 years or more ago, implying that she may be getting rusty concerning bomb training. Could she reasonably reply that she has handled other cases with explosive devices.) recognized the device as a bomb. She took it seriously enough to treat it as bomb, had the school evacuated and called in the bomb squad.
Rory Riley followed proper procedure, directing that the school be evacuated, then calling the Police captain, then calling the bomb squad. She stayed near the dining patio to "make sure no one came near the area."

She reports that the bomb squad disabled the bomb, then took it to the lab for analysis.

Can we infer from her statement that she actually came in to work early on Saturday morning? She was apparently very concerned that the case be solved -- the perpetrator found. After all, the lives of kids were threatened.

As a police detective, she understands reasons why there may have been no fingerprints.

Rory (or better yet Sawyer) could use the word "lurking" to describe what Casey was doing early in the morning of the 4th. If defense objects, have the witness link the idea of being somewhere he usually wasn't at an odd time for student to be there, peeking in a garbage as if checking for something, and scanning the area. How about that word "lurking"? "suspicious"

R-Place Posting
Riley had RECENTLY been trained on using the Internet to do investigation, so was able to find Casey's R-Place page -- and saw the disturbing, violent image that was posted there -- in his latest post. a disturbing, violent picture showing a school burning [can we assume it looks like Park Lane High School] and a figure clearly labeled Sawyer -- being blown out of the building -- not running or walking out -- Just two days before, Casey had verbally threatened Sawyer, and on this R-Book page had posted a visual threat. Verbal and visual threats.

This was enough -- the testimony of another student that Casey was in the area where the bomb had been planted --- early in the morning -- not hurrying to a classroom to do extra work, but peeking into a garbage can -- the can where the bomb was later found -- scanning the area, as if checking if there had been anyone to see him, then walking away.

If defense brings up --
The bomb was clearly not intended to go off . The timer may have been set for 3 p.m. -- according to the prosecution expert -- and Casey would know that the garbage was emptied after lunch (12 something).
We can say that -- They are admitting the possibility that our expert is right, and kids don't necessarily know when the trash is emptied. They would be in class by the time it is.

The Search Warrant:
What does a police officer need to do to obtain a search warrant? Does he or she have to present the judge with some evidence that a search is a reasonable measure in that case?

How did the judge respond when you requested a search warrant for Casey Campbell’s residence?

Riley HURRIED down to the Campbell home --
Casey seemed surprised -- that could go for or against us
SEEMED surprised?
sat on the couch
an almost empty can of paint thinner
many drawings
strange twist to drawings
why green skin on Casey and friends? (jealousy?)
Park Lane -- the High School -- "in various stages of disarray" in other words, messed up!
violent drawings in notebooks by the bed == MANY of the characters labeled as Sawyer