[conspire] (forw) Reiser trial: DNA tests partially flubbed, defence motion for mistrial

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Christian Einfeldt (einfeldt at gmail.com):

> It's sad that the judge didn't have enough backbone to grant def's
> motion to dismiss, which I am assuming was filed.

I would guess, on the latter (motion).  Anyway, my impression is that 
she thought there was just enough to support allegation that a crime had
occurred, and that the DA had produced enough reason to suppose that 
Hans at least was in some way culpable, or at least had knowledge about
the crime that he wasn't producing.

> Aha, that is what I was looking for.  I would like to know more about
> Doren, Zografos, and the others.  I can understand that friends would
> be upset that a friend was missing under suspicious circumstances, but
> something doesn't smell right here.

So, Ellen Doren was a fellow mail-order bride from Russia, and Nina's
best friend.  Anthony Zografos was Nina's (reportedly) latest and
then-current boyfriend.  They, Irina Sharanova, and other of Nina's
friends were well aware of the very antagonistic nature of the Reisers'
divorce, the fact that Nina had managed to sock Hans for a rather
ghastly amount of court-ordered money each month, and the fact that she
and Family Court had ripped pretty nearly all of Hans's parental rights
away.  So, when she suddenly disappeared on Labor Day weekend, 2006,
shortly after she was scheduled to drop off the kids at Hans's house,
they started a very vocal "Help Find Nina Reiser" campaign[1] -- that
didn't actually _accuse_ Hans of murder, but, when you heard Doren in 
particular in front of the press, the hostility towards Hans was very 
noticeable.

Anyway, they got sponsorship from Clear Channel, CBS Outdoor, and Idiom 
Technology for free professional marketing (billboards, Web site); how 
exactly, dunno, but they may have just asked.  

> Okay, but I am wondering what the nature of that pressure is.

DAs rushing cases to trial because of heavy publicity happens all the
time.  (Some even claim Bruno Hauptmann was innocent.)