Ruminations (and Research) on that "Arson Fire" ...

The next event to be related in this history would naturally be the "confession" of Joseph Couture on July 26, 2013. 
I've been wanting to post the media reports of that "confession", and to comment on them and compare them with previous media reports of the Langenbrunner murder.
However, I've been waiting for months for someone in Duluth to get me copies of the original articles from the library. A couple of weeks ago I finally emailed the library website directly, and was answered within a day by a research person there. She very helpfully explained the quite simple and inexpensive procedure to get these articles copied, which I've related to a couple of people in Duluth. I'm hoping they can photograph these copies and send them to me electronically within a few days. They said they would, anyway.
In the meanwhile, I've been ruminating, on several subjects.
Very important, obviously, I eventually want to ascertain -- somehow -- if or if not Joseph and Sandra Couture ever received any news that there is a witness who says they were framed, and who wonders how they were induced to confess to something they didn't do. 
However, it is obviously impossible to hold a private conversation between a prisoner in the U.S. prison system and myself in Thailand. Anything they might say or write could be as easily "induced" as their "confessions" obviously were -- as they are certainly in a totally controlled situation.
I've got a hope back in my mind somewhere that eventually someone else will step in and help me in this matter, some way, some how. But that hasn't happened, yet, so I'm just letting that go, for the time being. 
I've been ruminating on other subjects, as well.
I've reread all of these posts several times. Sometimes I've made minor corrections in grammar, and there are probably still more small errors, if anyone wants to quibble. 
In one early post I noticed I had a date wrong: I had typed "July 7", instead of "July 17", for the date I would email Ron Taggart of the Public Defender's office with a long email "summing up" my testimony. I corrected it ... the July 17 date was directly copied from the email record, so I knew that was correct.
Then, I've also been doing more Google searches, to see if there's anything else I've missed, or perhaps been mistaken about. 
I had very clearly stated (in post 9) that what I called the "very suspicious arson fire" had very strangely not been reported in ANY media ... UNTIL the day that the Sheriff's Department stated that they had already "broken the jailhouse code" of Sandra and Joseph Couture, and arrested Sandra Couture for setting the fire. I will paste the exact words of the article reported in the Carlton County Pine Journal on August 1, 2012.
On July 6, the Carlton County sheriff’s office responded to an arson fire at the property of one of the relatives of a witness who claims Joseph Couture killed Langenbrunner. The house, a car and a truck on the property were burned with the structure being a total loss. Two dogs were reported missing and presumed dead. Details of the arson fire were consistent with details discussed beforehand between the Coutures, the complaint alleges.
On July 19, Carlton County deputies returned to the scene of the arson fire when the property owner reported that a second attempt had been made to burn items on his property. Deputies recovered the remains from several Molotov cocktails — glass bottles with accelerant and fuses in them.

Yesterday, though, I did a new Google search for "arson fire carlton county minnesota july 2012", and when I got to this search result,
 Northland's NewsCenter  News, Weather, Sports _ NBC, CBS, MyNetworkTV, and The CW for Duluth MN _ Superior WI _ Search Results.htm 
I asked that results be listed "by date", rather than "by relevance". I didn't expect to find anything regarding an "arson fire" in July -- as I hadn't found anything in my last search based on "relevance".
I was momentarily startled when I saw this entry (highlighted below, as a screen capture photo):

The above result, please notice, though, is for July 16, and not July 6, the date the "Couture arson fire" supposedly took place. And, as you can see in a screen capture photo directly below, there is no result for anything at all, on July 19, when Sandra supposedly threw the Molotov cocktails at the same address. I guess the Carlton County deputies who responded to the Molotov cocktail assault didn't think this was worth reporting?

Nevertheless, it did say there was indeed a fire, in Cloquet, in July of 2012, even though it was on the 16, instead of on the 6th, as the Couture fire was reported to have occurred, and though it was not an arson fire. 
I continued on in my search to July 6, and found absolutely nothing about any arson fire on that date, either, as below:

But, as I have caught even my own self miss-typing dates, I decided I had better click on the "More" button on the July 16 entry, and read more.  
Here is the link to the article, which also has a video which shows the home and garage. I'll cut and paste the text to the article, which is basically the same thing that is narrated in the video: 

Fire Ravages Cloquet Home

July 16, 2012 Updated Jul 17, 2012 at 10:26 AM CST Cloquet, MN (Northland's NewsCenter) -- A fire ravaged a home in Cloquet Monday afternoon.
The home and the garage are deemed a loss. The home is located on Agate Street in Cloquet.

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No one was home at the time. Two dogs inside the home were rescued by an off-duty firefighter.
Cloquet, Esko, Carlton, and Wrenshall Fire Departments responded to the scene.
The fire has been deemed not suspicious at this time.

 At first, I thought maybe the reported Couture "arson" reported as on July 6 was actually this fire on July 16 -- but please notice that this fire took place in the afternoon of July 16, as reported in the video, "around dinnertime". You can see in the video, it's broad daylight. 
It would be very strange for Sandra Couture to come right out in broad daylight, throw gasoline and charcoal lighter fluid around, and light it on fire, right in view of the neighbors ... and no one would deem it as suspicious? 
Also, please notice that the two dogs in this fire were rescued, and are not "missing and presumed dead", as are the mysterious dogs which left no skeletons behind, in the "Couture arson", of July 6. 
Also, please notice that this fire occurred right in the City of Cloquet, so why would Carlton County Sheriff's deputies be called out of their jurisdiction to investigate this fire, which even the State Fire Marshall didn't view as suspicious?
Also, if you watch the video, please notice the house and garage are not by any means junky, but quite modern, and obviously worth many times more than the $8,600 that Carlton County reported as total damages from all incendiary fires (which includes arson), in 2012. (Also in post 9.)
Obviously, this is not the same fire reported in post 9, and I will repeat once more, with even more conviction than I had before: The "arson fire" to which Sandra Couture plead guilty in April 2013, is verrrry verrrry suspicious. There was NO SUCH fire reported!!!
Well, then I proceeded to continue on in my ruminating, and I found the 2012 Annual Report of the Cloquet Police Department, as a pdf file. I read through it, to see what I could find about any relevant goings-on in Cloquet, during July of 2012. I will paste this as a screenshot of page 14 of the pdf document:

Again, nothing about an arson fire in Cloquet, especially one requiring assistance from Carlton County Sheriff's deputies.
There is this brief mention on page 16 (reproduced below), which I think may be concerning the Langenbrunner case ... though this case is said to be a "14-year-old" cold case, and the Langenbrunner murder was actually 12 years old. 

Then there is also this brief mention, below, listed almost as an afterword on page 20 -- which does specifically refer to the Trina Langenbrunner case:

However, again, we get absolutely no explanation of why this fire was never ever mentioned in any media report, on or even near the day it supposedly occurred. And no explanation of why it is said (above) that Cloquet detectives were in charge, but below, (as I already quoted once, near the top of this post) it says that it was the Carlton County Sheriff who responded: On July 6, the Carlton County sheriff’s office responded to an arson fire at the property of one of the relatives of a witness who claims Joseph Couture killed Langenbrunner. The house, a car and a truck on the property were burned with the structure being a total loss. Two dogs were reported missing and presumed dead. Details of the arson fire were consistent with details discussed beforehand between the Coutures, the complaint alleges.
On July 19, Carlton County deputies returned to the scene of the arson fire when the property owner reported that a second attempt had been made to burn items on his property. Deputies recovered the remains from several Molotov cocktails — glass bottles with accelerant and fuses in them.
Tags: news, crime, courts, cloquet
Whose jurisdiction was this "arson fire" REALLY in? When did this "arson fire" REALLY happen? Why wasn't it reported as an "arson fire"? How can a modern house and garage, plus vehicles, plus magical dogs, plus 6 other incendiary events have a total loss of only $8,600, as reported in official Minnesota fire statistics (below)?

How can all this be? I don't think it can!
Maybe the Sheriff can explain all of this so it makes a little better sense than it does now?
As my Great Aunt Frances Pulaski told me when she was about 100 years old, "Lloyd, we live in hope."
Please stay tuned.

Some DWI Arrest/Court Records

Tom Hinze was released after just a few months in NERCC, in the fall of 2003. He was allowed to leave the State of Minnesota with no probation or reporting requirements. He was also fined $50, plus a $35 "surcharge", plus $2 court costs. Tom had had (and even bragged about having had) multiple DWI offenses, open bottle charges and test refusals, several of the DWIs having been of the class "inimical to public safety".
I personally, along with other people in the area, felt that Tom had really gotten off easy -- especially since people, especially myself, were also pointing towards his probable guilt in the Trina Langenbrunner murder. It didn't quite seem right to let this guy leave the state without at least checking his DNA, first. 
Over the years I've held to my opinion that Tom was given preferential treatment, and that the Sheriff's Department was at the very least remiss in their duty to check out my allegations in the Langenbrunner case. According to Ron Taggart from the Public Defender's office (quoted in a previous post), they had DNA tested a lot of other people ... but not Tom.
Both in January, and in May through August of 2014 I tried my best to get Bob Boone of the Duluth Reader to assist me in publishing my testimony in this case. However, as I've already mentioned, all I got from him was a lot of my time wasted.  Bob Boone never gave me an answer at all, so I finally asked my brother-in-law (who was at the time writing a column for that paper) what Bob had said. My brother-in-law reported to me that Bob had said this:  He said the judicial system is completely separate from the police and he has never seen a conspiracy here between judges and police, or two separate police departments (like Carlton and Duluth).... 
About that time, I laughed out loud. And, since at the time no one would even go to the library and get me the files of newspaper articles that I needed, I decided that I would have to try to do the research myself, from here in Thailand. I found that I could look up the records online myself. 

I have to admit, I don't understand all the codes and acronyms in these arrest records. I naively thought that "GOC", for example, meant "GOOD OLD COP", (referring to the fact that Tom's father was once the Sheriff of Red Lake County in Minnesota, or perhaps "GRANT OF COURT" -- but a friend informed me that actually it stands for "General Offender Code", and he even sent me the codes, as follows: 
GENERAL OFFENSE CODES (GOC)
A ATTEMPT TO COMMIT
B ASSAULT TO COMMIT
C CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT
F FACILITATION OF
N NOT APPLICABLE
S SOLICITATION TO COMMIT
T THREAT TO COMMIT 
X AID AND ABET
Y ACCESSORY BEFORE THE FACT
Z ACCESSORY AFTER THE FACT
Below, then, are screen shots of Tom Hinze's actual arrest records, posted here as jpg files. You readers can try to figure out the codes yourselves. I don't see any of the above codes as fitting in the records as well as my original notions do -- but maybe someone else can inform me.  

I'm going to paste Tom's records first, and then after a space, I will add the records of a Mr. Raymond LeDoux, whose name appeared in the News Tribune for having had multiple DWI offenses. By the way, I don't see a single "GOC" anywhere in Mr. LeDoux's record, though they are quite numerous in Mr. Hinze's.
You can compare and contrast these for yourself. I have to say, I STILL feel strongly that Tom Hinze got preferential treatment, and I STILL feel strongly that the Sheriff should have DNA tested him before convicting someone else on the basis of a "confession" -- with no DNA evidence whatsoever. 
Here is the link to the website where I found the records: http://pa.courts.state.mn.us/default.aspx 
(If you don't believe me, you have to prove you're not a robot by typing in a number, then you can search the site yourself. The records are public.) 
*(These jpg files below can be enlarged by clicking on them. For the largest image, if you're using Firefox, right-click, and then click on "View Image". Other browsers may be a little different. Please notice (1) the first file on Thomas Hinze is like a "table of contents" to the rest of them, and (2) each new case starts with a bold black bar on the top of the file.)*

The above are all the case records I could find of Thomas J. Hinze. Notice that the most severe conviction is for a "gross misdemeanor", though several of these cases above were first charged as "inimical to public safety". Also, please notice that Tom never got anything for driving without a license or insurance, though he had had neither one, for years. 
Below for comparison are the Minnesota records of Raymond LeDoux, who spent a full year in jail for a felony DWI offense, and got his name on the front page of the Duluth News Tribune (something Tom has never yet accomplished!). 
Do you think Mr. LeDoux dares to drive through Minnesota without a license or insurance?

I post these with the caveat that maybe there is something I don't know about these GOC codes, and perhaps someone can tell me how they prove that Tom and Mr. LeDoux WERE treated exactly equally under the law. If so, I will stand corrected on that matter. 
However, to get back to the main point of this blog, I need to see evidence that Tom Hinze was DNA tested in the Trina Langenbrunner murder case, that his DNA did not match the DNA of the murderer, and that Joseph Couture's DNA DID match the DNA of the murderer. I don't think that should be too much to ask.
And that is the end of this post! 
Please stay tuned.

Correspondence with Retired Jailer, Duane Johnson

During the time I was corresponding with Ron Taggart and getting no realistic or even half-assed response from him, it suddenly struck me that I personally was acquainted with someone who'd been a jailer at the St. Louis County jail. 
I had known Duane Johnson since we were in grade-school together at Hermantown elementary school, our parents were friends, and we'd both been attendees and even cabin-mates at the Covenant Park Bible Camp in Mahtowa, Minnesota when we were kids. 
Duane had also mentioned to me one time that he and his wife were good friends with one of my first cousins. 
I had in 1990 been charged with a DWI on my way home from visiting some Laotian friends in Duluth, and I spent a night in Duane's jail. That's how I knew that he had worked at processing people in and out of the jail.
My religious thinking had broadened a little from the precepts of the Evangelical Covenant Church, and I no longer attended nor really agreed with the thinking there -- but I knew that Duane was still a regular church-goer and quite a religious Christian. 
I thought it was not only possible, but even quite likely that the jailer who had out-processed Tom Hinze the Monday morning before the murder would recollect him, if the situation were described. And I thought that Duane would be the perfect person for me to contact. 
Indented below is our conversation regarding that subject. Please bear with the lack of paragraphs in the formatting ... this is copied and pasted directly from my Facebook message record. 

Hello again Duane, I remember meeting you under somewhat embarrassing conditions one time at the jail, back about 1990. I don't know if you retired as a jailer, or how long you worked there -- but I was wondering, would it still be possible to find out who was on duty at the jail one night in late August 2000 when Thomas Jerome [actually, "John"] Hinze was released after a DWI? The reason I ask is, Mr. Hinze, who we knew as "Tom" lived on the same road I lived on, the Birch Point Road, which is a dead-end. Anyway, Tom stopped in at my house on his way home from the jail. Someone had dropped him off at the end of the road, and he was walking. I noticed that he was wearing different shoes than he normally wore when we saw him -- normally, he wore unlaced work boots, but this time he was wearing these sports shoes that were quite a bit bigger than his feet. He normally wore about a size 9. I asked him where he got the fancy shoes, and he told me that since he was barefoot when he got arrested, and since he would have to walk quite a ways after being released from the jail, he asked the jailer who signed him out if there was any way he could get a pair of shoes. He told me that the jailer had given him these "out of storage", which I distinctly remember were black New Balance shoes, with white markings. I remember the brand because Tom himself was kind of laughing at the fanciness of the shoes and the fancy brand name, and because I commented, "You'll have to learn to keep your balance all over again on these new shoes." The reason I'm interested, Duane, is because about two days after this, Trina Langenbrunner was killed in Brookston, and there were people in the area speculating if perhaps Tom had done it. The Sheriff's Department had mentioned a black mini-van in connection with the crime, and Tom did have a black minivan. However, I told everyone that I knew for sure that Tom's minivan was in impound the night of the murder, so I couldn't see how he could have done it. It wasn't until the anniversary of the crime a year later that I heard that there were also New Balance shoes mentioned in connection with this crime. When I heard that, I thought back and remembered the morning Tom was released from jail, and those shoes came back into my mind. A neighbor and I drove to the Sheriff's office, and I informed Ross Litman of these shoes. However, he and fellow Investigator Sally Burns basically called me a liar who just made these shoes up in hopes of a reward. It was rather frustrating. As far as I know, and my former Twig neighbors agree with me, Mr. Hinze is dead. He was already in poor health from acute alcoholism even 10 years ago -- he drank over a liter of vodka a day. None of us have heard anything about him at all since 2003 when he showed up in Twig and threatened my life for talking about him to the Sheriff's Investigators. I've done Internet searches quite often, and have seen nothing of him on the Internet after 2000, when he moved away from the Birch Point Road (his father had died, and his mother sold their house). So, there is no question that I am trying to lie to get an award, since it's impossible to convict a dead man -- however, I am convinced that whatever Mr. Joseph Couture may be guilty of, he is NOT guilty of the murder of Trina Langenbrunner, and should not be charged with that crime. I thought I would ask you, is there any way to find either from the person who was on duty that morning, and/or by questioning the inmates who were in the jail during that same general time period, to see if a pair of New Balance shoes may have been given to Tom Hinze out of storage, as he claimed? I realize this is a long shot, but I thank you for your thoughts ... Lloyd Wagner
April 9, 2013
Duane Johnson
4/9, 8:59pm
Duane Johnson

I retired in 2004. The jail moved to their new building in 1995. I doubt if there are any searchable records from 23 years ago. The auditors office might have had pay records but I doubt they keep them this long. None of the inmate information was computerized in those days either so a search for other inmates in custody would be nearly impossible.
April 10, 2013
Lloyd Wagner
4/10, 11:30am
Lloyd Wagner

Thanks. Funny the investigators wouldn't have checked on that back in 2001 when I first told them about having seen the shoes and where I was told they'd come from. But I guess they can pretty much do what they please. Oh, well.
May 5, 2013
Lloyd Wagner
5/5, 12:15pm
Lloyd Wagner

Hello again, Duane, I was thinking again, you must know the guys who were working at the jail in August/September 2000 (I mean, I can still remember all the Hermantown bus-drivers' names from back in the 1980's.) Would you be willing to go a little out of your way to ask them if by any chance any one of them remembers giving a pair of shoes to a guy who said he'd been barefoot when arrested and had to walk out of the jail? This would have been in late August 2000 (just a few days before Trina Langenbrunner was killed). I'm thinking that the guy I'm talking about would not be easy to forget -- he was a quite jocular guy almost always dressed in all black, and would have laughed at being given shoes a couple of sizes too big for his feet, and then besides that, a flashy pair of shoes like those. He wasn't the type to wear flashy shoes at all. I think the cause of justice would be served, if I can only find someone to back my seeing those shoes on Mr. Hinze that morning. (The shoes aren't the only thing, but they would be one more thing.) If anyone DOES remember this, and would like to describe what he/she remembers, please don't send the info to me, but to the public defender. The public defender's e-mail address is ron.taggart@pubdef.state.mn.us>ron.taggart@pubdef.state.mn.us Thanks, Duane, And how is Doug doing? Please say Hi to him for me, too. Lloyd Wagner

November 25, 2013
Lloyd Wagner
11/25, 3:46pm
Lloyd Wagner

Thanks again, Duane. They convicted that guy of murder -- with no sworn testimony, and no physical evidence ever presented to a jury. Only on the basis of his "confession", which as you know, came about in a back room of the jail. I swear I saw those shoes on Tom Hinze the week of the murder, that he told me he got them when he was released from the jail. Despite that, Litman never even saw fit to DNA him. And you never saw fit to check around to see if any jailer might have remembered. And the Public Pretender's Office never even demanded any physical evidence be produced, they just accepted the "confession" without question. I couldn't even get an answer from them what size shoe-size Couture has, if it's really size 11 or 12, as the shoes I saw on Hinze WERE. Oh, well, as we all learned in Covenant Sunday School, there WILL be justice, some day. There are a few people who I wouldn't want to be when the last come to be first, and the first come to be last. Enjoy your pension, Duane. Lloyd

I never did hear if Duane contacted Ron Taggart, or not. I had asked Duane not to contact me, but Ron Taggart instead, and somehow I doubt if Ron Taggart would have told me if he HAD been contacted. 
Anyway, I was rather shocked to read on Facebook that Duane suddenly died after a brief illness, on March 5, 2014. He was younger than I was, just barely 60, I believe. May he rest in peace.

Runaround from the Public Defender's Office

After Trina Langenbrunner’s daughter Shelly Tormanen informed me in no uncertain terms (last post) that she wasn’t interested in any first-hand testimony in the case of her mother’s murder, but only in what the investigators were telling her (whether it added up, or not, and without even making any attempt on her own to contact the references I’d provided), I gave up on that line, in disgust.

The last message I’d sent to Ms. Tormanen was on March 14, 2013. On April 1, 2013, I read of Sandra Couture’s “confession” to the (otherwise unreported) arson fire and tampering with the (still unnamed) witness related in (this post).

I’ve noticed that – perhaps just coincidentally – there have been several “breaks” in the Langenbrunner murder case that have occurred just shortly after I myself have made a move in relating my testimony. For one instance, the sudden arrest of Joseph Couture in the 12-year-old “cold case” was just days after my presence in Minnesota after 7 years in Laos became widely known out in Munger. (Munger is policed by the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Department; for the first few months I’d been back in Minnesota, I’d been in downtown Duluth, which is policed by the Duluth Police Department.) Then now this sudden and very doubtful “confession” of Sandra Couture in the very doubtful arson case occurred just 2 weeks after I’d contacted Shelly Tormanen. There will be more such coincidences to be related in this and subsequent posts.

But anyway, my next step was to try to make contact with the Public Defender’s office. I’d been reluctant to do so, as I had some prejudice against this office in Duluth as being part of the “good-old-boy” system of justice only for those who have money to pay for it. The office is known in local slang as the “Public Pretender's office”.

However, I did do an Internet search, found the name of Fred Friedman as head of the local Public Defender’s office, and found that he was also a professor at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. That fact was a little encouraging, so I sent him an exploratory email. I was answered by Ron Taggart, who told me that he was the investigator assigned to the case, and that I should send any information I had to him.

I’ve decided not to reproduce all the letters I sent to Mr. Taggart here in this blog, as they are quite repetitive of what I’ve already published here in previous posts. Instead, I’ll publish some excerpts of what I wrote to Mr. Taggart, along with his full responses, and the dates these exchanges were made.

There is a mention here, and there will be in a subsequent post an exchange of correspondence between myself and Duane Johnson, a former jailer at the St. Louis County jail. This will show my attempt to get Mr. Taggart to contact Mr. Johnson, or alternatively, to get Mr. Johnson to contact Mr. Taggart. I was hoping that one or the other of these gentlemen who’d chosen to work in the career field of “justice” would do some serious investigation into my claims of Tom Hinze’s statement to me one morning just 2 or 3 days before the murder that he’d been given size 11 to 12 New Balance shoes by the jailer who processed him out of the jail the night before. That hope turned out to be yet another “dead end”, this time literally. That will be related in the next post.

The rest of this post consists of selected comments from me to Ron Taggart, and his full response. I will indent the email conversations, and my comments as I write now, will not be indented.

Taggart, Ron

To me

Apr 1, 2013

Mr. Wagner I am the Investigator assigned to this file by the Public Defender’s Office.  If you have anything to share- please forward it to me.

Ron Taggart

Investigator

…………………………………….. At this point I sent Mr. Taggart files of all the letters I’d previously sent to various agencies, my correspondence with Shelly Tormanen, and the photo of the Camel jacket.
[Notice: I apologize that the information given about the jacket in this post and previously is in error. Please see Post 16 of this blog, for more details.] I also mentioned names of other witnesses who knew Tom Hinze. Please notice in Mr. Taggart’s response, just below, that he never contacted any of these witnesses, but “ran background checks” on them, as if they were suspects, instead of witnesses! Who would the “background checks” have been answered BY? No one else but the Sheriff’s Department, of course! What an “investigation”, eh? What a defense team, here, eh? That’s EXACTLY why people call them the “Public Pretenders’ office”.

Taggart, Ron

To me

Apr 3, 2013

Thank you for your memos.   I am going over them now and running background checks on all mentioned.

Ron Taggart

Taggart, Ron

To me

Apr 3, 2013

The jacket issue has been solved even to our satisfaction.   It had been left at Trina’s house by a boyfriend named William.   It has been identified.

……………..Please notice that Ron Taggart did not tell me in his response (just above) if the jacket in the picture I sent him was or was not the same as the jacket in evidence. If it IS exactly the same as the jacket in evidence, and if it is ALSO exactly the same as the jacket left at the house by the boyfriend named William, it would really  be quite a coincidence, as the one in the picture I sent Mr. Taggart is the only jacket of that type I have ever seen in my entire life.

[Notice: I apologize that the information given about the jacket in this post and previously is in error. Please see Post 16 of this blog, for more details.]

me

To Taggart, Ron

Apr 6, 2013

What is inexplicable to me is: if they want me to shut my mouth so bad, instead of threatening me through "Interpol", etc., why didn't they just check out the wood-stove in the trailer and the car itself, and why didn't they DNA Mr. Hinze??

If all of those had turned out negative, they could have easily proven me a liar, and Mr. Hinze certainly could have sued me, and easily won.

And another thing that is inexplicable to me -- I saw the printout of Mr. Hinze's string of DWI's. I believe there were 17 of them in 2003, on two pages, and several of them were "inimical to public safety" (Sorry, not "immanent", as I wrote before). Yet they released him after a not-very-long sentence at NERCC, with no requirement for probation, no requirement that he stay in the state of Minnesota, no nothing.

I know people who have gotten worse for a 3rd DWI.

…………………………………………….. I’ve left out part of my email, here, as it’s been included elsewhere. However, please notice that in his reply to this email, just below, Mr. Taggart admits that Tom Hinze had STILL not been DNA tested, 11 ½ years after I reported the size 11 or 12 New Balance shoes on his feet, just before the murder. And then notice, that neither Mr. Taggart nor anyone else in the Public Defender’s office does a damned thing to see that Mr. Hinze IS DNA tested, though they should have means to have found out that Tom Hinze WAS actually still alive, at that time.

What a defense team for Mr. Couture!! They background-checked the witnesses as though they were suspects, they accepted 2 very unusual and exactly-the-same jackets in the same case,

[Notice: I apologize that the information given about the jacket in this post and previously is in error. Please see Post 16 of this blog, for more details.]

and they didn’t even ask for a DNA test on Tom Hinze. It would be VERY interesting to know if they even told Joseph Couture of my testimony. I’d like to ask him himself, but he’s not an easy guy to get hold of, as I’ll relate in a later post.

Taggart, Ron

To me

Apr 8, 2013

I don’t know the answers to the questions that you pose.   They certainly DNA’d many many other people in the ensuing years.    They followed up on many leads – 17 thousand pages!!!!    We’re still trying to get through all the data.    I too have alternate suspects than Mr. Couture.     Interesting to note that the Sheriff’s Department commissioned a professional profile agency out of state early on in the investigation and paid them a good deal of money.   These people came back with the recommendation that the killer was Trina’s husband.    Yet he was never charged and certainly had motive and opportunity.     WE are still investigating leads.

Thank you for your thoughts.

Ron Taggart

Investigator

me

To Taggart, Ron

May 12, 2013

About a week ago I wrote to Duane Johnson, the former jail employee, again. (I contact him on Facebook.)

I asked him if he would please contact his fellow employees who worked in the St. Louis County jail in 2000, to ask if any of them possibly remember the jocular guy who came into jail barefoot, and the time of out-processing, asked for shoes because he had to walk out -- and was given flashy sports shoes about 2 sizes bigger than his feet.

I sent Duane your e-mail address, and asked that if anyone does remember this, to send whatever he/she remembers directly to you, and not to me.

Duane hasn't replied, and I don't know if he's willing to go out of his way for something like this, or not.

Lloyd Wagner

me

To Taggart, Ron

Jul 17, 2013

Dear Mr. Taggart,

I've written you a few time already concerning this case, and I have decided that I will write once more. This is a long letter, and I apologize for that, but you mentioned before that the Sheriff's Department had generated some 17,000 pages -- this will be just a few more. I hope you will find they are worth reading. Please note that the attached file belongs to the last part of this letter.

………………………………………….  (This was a very long letter that contained everything I’ve already published in this blog, and perhaps even more. Please note the date, July 17, 2013. And then note the date of the “confession” of Joseph Couture, July 26, 2013. Another “coincidence” of a new “break” in the case shortly after I’d made the move of “summing up” my testimony, all in one letter. For a week or so after the "confession", I didn't have any idea what to say, but finally sent Mr. Taggart this rather sarcastic email:

me

To Taggart, Ron

Aug 7, 2013

Dear Mr. Taggart,

Inducing the guy to plead guilty is a sure way to eliminate the need for testimony of witnesses under oath, or the presentation of physical evidence to a jury.

Congratulations are due, I guess,

Lloyd Wagner

Taggart, Ron

To me

Aug 7, 2013

First of all Mr. Wagner I was out of town when all of this recent court activity went down.  I only found out about it on Monday.

Secondly from what I understand from the attorneys representing Mr. Courture that he confessed to them and filled in all the blanks.    Case closed.

And that was Mr. Taggart’s last communication with me. He didn’t even sign his name!

However, I did some research on the Internet and found an excellent article entitled “Police-Induced Confessions, Risk Factors and Recommendations”, published by the American Psychology-Law Society/Division 41 of the American Psychological Association, in 2009. This article addressed the weaknesses and often deliberate falsehoods of police-induced “confessions”, and gives a history of many cases in which people who had “confessed” later recanted their confessions, and were later found innocent through DNA evidence.

Boiled down, the article says that police tend to use three basic tools in obtaining false confessions: (1) lies, (2) threats and (3) false promises. This is a PDF document, and you can find it through a Google search, if you’re interested in reading the entire 36 pages yourself. I highly recommend it.

I thought Mr. Taggart in his role as an investigator for the Public Defender’s office would CERTAINLY be interested in this document, especially as he had so recently been involved in just such a case – so I printed off a copy and mailed it by the very reliable Thai Postal Service to him at his home address in Duluth. I never received any thank you for my efforts, however.

Subsequent posts will include my correspondence with Duane Johnson, the retired jailer at the St. Louis County jail, and then the newspaper articles relating Joseph Couture’s “confession”, with my comments to be printed in red font.

Please stay tuned!