Bill Harrison
Appearances
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Factual Innocence | Chapter 9
One of the things that's important here is that the whole reason why these two individuals were actually roped into this matter was the fact that some jailhouse snitches said they were involved. And one of the affidavits we presented to the court was my affidavit.
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Factual Innocence | Chapter 9
We went up to Saguaro, and this has got to be 10, maybe 10 years ago today, and we interviewed Michael Ortiz, which was one of the main witnesses the state had in this case. And Mr. Ortiz told us that what his testimony that he gave to the court was not true. That, in fact, he got some benefit from testifying on behalf of the state in the case.
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Factual Innocence | Chapter 9
He got some... The state apparently offered him something with regard to his parole. I don't exactly know the facts of that or remember the facts of that. But he had mentioned he had lied. And, in fact, the whole testimony he had given was given to him by the investigator who went up from the...
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Factual Innocence | Chapter 9
Hawaii Police Department and the prosecutor at the time to actually give him facts that he didn't know about to testify to.
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Factual Innocence | Chapter 9
That whole idea that there were other individuals that gave testimony as to what these gentlemen said Mr. Ian Albert Schweitzer said is incorrect. That individual was debunked by his own words that he had lied to the court at that time. This is Michael Ortiz.
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Factual Innocence | Chapter 9
Absolutely. And one further thing on that path there. Mr. Ortiz was involved with Mr. John Gonsalves' niece. They had a relationship. And John Gonsalves had also asked him to assist the police.
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Factual Innocence | Chapter 9
He said, I can't tell you which, but it was an investigator. They came over there to sit down with me. They brought me some omiyage we ate, and they told us, basically told me, facts I did not know to put into this statement that I was going to give the court. That's what he told us.
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Factual Innocence | Chapter 9
Yes, Your Honor. The court's very familiar with the facts. I'm not going to spend too much time on the facts here. As you know from yesterday's pronouncement by the chief of police here, they spent a period of time with this individual, Mr. Laro, interviewing him, and apparently they had video going at the same time of the interview.
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Factual Innocence | Chapter 9
as well as statements and apparently some discussion with some witnesses relative to this matter as well. All of that information is really important. We'll let the court decide that. There's been so much error in this case, Your Honor. Not that we don't believe. the state when they say something. But we want to make sure that we get what we're entitled to.
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Factual Innocence | Chapter 9
And we believe the court can be the gatekeeper in that regard by taking all the information that we requested in this motion in chambers and decide what the court will turn over to us. So in short, Your Honor, we believe that we're entitled to this information.