Keys, EMU campus police nor the administration has an answer

How COMPLETE is and was the failure of Eastern Michigan University in the Laura Dickinson murder? Sure they willfully broke the Clery Act, sure they put an entire community at risk but there is something far more disturbing.

Police KNEW her room keys were stolen. That's right, her keys, and full access to Hill Hall walked out the door with Orange Taylor III.

Were students notified? No.

Were students given new keys? No.

Were the locks changed? No.



You tell me how far EMU was willing to go to save face and putting THEIR needs before those who pay for the proivelege of attending EMU.

Mr. Fallon, Mr. Vick, Ms. Hall, if you won't leave on your own, we'll remove you

Ah yes, a letter writing campign seems to be having some impact. All Eastern Michigan University regents have gotten a torrent of emails critical of your poor decision making in the Laura Dickinson murder and now yes, COVER UP. Just wanted to be sure the emails hit with maximum effect just before the private, independent Butzel-Long report on how EMU handled the situation came to light. What's that? It's HERE NOW?

Well, let's delve into this shall we? Let's take a look at some FINE reporting by Amelie Nash of the Ann Arbor News:

Abby Coykendall, an EMU professor who serves on a campus Security Advisory Committee, attended a meeting the week after Taylor's arrest. Hall spoke to the group about the investigation and lack of information, but Coykendall said public safety director's explanations didn't make sense.

Coykendall said Hall told the group she was in Dickinson's room the night her body was found. Dickinson was found naked from the waist down, positioned on the floor with a pillow over her head, and her keys were missing. Hall said the case was like a jigsaw puzzle, and the complete picture wasn't obvious until all the pieces fit together, Coykendall said.

"The answers were scripted and my feeling was that it was a test run of their official story for the public forums on campus,'' Coykendall said. "They did a good job to delay our understanding of what happened. It seemed liked they were working to make a false story a reality, and I think some in the university community wanted to be deceived and not believe what happened."

WORKING TO MAKE A FALSE STORY A REALITY. Nice, well done John, Jim, Cindy, way to help this along.

Also from the Butzel-Long independent report:

Within a week of the arrest, EMU's public relations employees also posted information on the university Web site, including a "question and answer'' segment and timeline. But within days, portions - including an assertion that EMU did not identify a suspect prior to Feb. 23 - were deleted after a state police investigator sent an e-mail disputing the accuracy of those statements.

"Starting on February 23rd, many of the key players involved in the dissemination of information concerning Laura Dickinson's death went into 'damage control mode' and began developing explanations or justifications for not providing accurate information about the possibility of a homicide," the report said.

"not providing accurate information about the possibility of a homicide"

AMAZING Mr Fallon, you and Mr Vick and Ms. Hall need to go YESTERDAY. You have OBVIOUSLY and WILLFULLY broken the law, the independent law firm openly says so. All three of you have assisted in or participated in BREAKING A FEDERAL LAW, the Clery Act. This is BEYOND the pale. Fallon and Vick and Hall need to be REMOVED if they will not resign. Cindy Hall MUST NOW held to account, she performed as poorly as, if not worse than Vick and Fallon. This report shows her to be in WAY over her head at every turn.

John Fallon-Resign or be bounced
Jim Vick-Resign or be bounced
Cindy Hall-Resgin or be bounced

Now, there were those who TRIED to set the record straight, who TRIED to question Fallon and or Vick or Hall. A BIG Thank you to these people who know when something doesn't pass the smell test. Those who realize where the REAL priorities lie, with protecting the population at large, not to Cindy Hall or John Fallon or Jim Vick:

Ward Mullens, EMU spokesman
Greg Peoples, ombudsman
Jeff Nesmith, the campus police lieutenant in charge of the Wilkinson investigation


Luckily, in sleepy Ypsilanti, the Amtrak still runs through town, Mr. Fallon, Mr. Vick, Ms. Hall, try and be on the next one out of town, your services are no longer necessary and or wanted...

See if you can follow along to this logic

Perhaps credit in an Eastern Michigan course is possible if you can properly follow along with what Director of Campus Police Cindy Hall told the EMU student paper, The Eastern Echo:

"I would not jeopardize the safety of students, faculty or anyone around campus by withholding information," Hall said. "Any information was withheld to protect the integrity of the case."

OK, class so let's break that thinking down.

"I would not jeopardize the safety of students, faculty or anyone around campus by withholding information"

OK, but Cindy, you DID withhold information. How dare you tell someone to their face you wouldn't withhold information AFTER having withheld information.

"Any information was withheld to protect the integrity of the case."

OK, Cindy, but you just got done saying you WOULDN'T withhold info. It is HERE (and unlike John Fallon, EMU President I UNDERSTAND Cindy's thinking here) you make a CHOICE, public safety through awareness vs. the old bogeyman, 'intergrity of the case'. You are in charge of Campus Police which, most likely mean you could give two shits what ANY of us think about this. You have to do what's right by EMU police. John Fallon however DOES NOT fall under these auspices. He DOES NOT work for Campus Police.

Now Cindy, while your comments are maddening and border on doublespeak, you did what you felt you needed to do. You have a long reputation of the EMU police to uphold going back to the John Norman Collins cases in Ypsilanti that the EMU Campus Police BUTCHERED alongside the Ann Arbor PD. So you just be happy I'm not giving you the Fallon treatment. Next time, simply decline interviews Cindy, or have a professional spokesperson handle media requests, lest you come off as not too sure of yourself.

Mr Fallon, we're STILL waiting for your resignation. Do the right thing.

Resign.

The EMU SMOKING GUN uncovered

Yes my roaring cats, we now have the smoking gun in the sad tale of Laura Dickinson, and Eastern Michigan University student whose rape and murder were covered up by not just John Fallon, but now we find out by Eastern Michigan Communications Director Pam Young. Pam Young, I am now calling for your resignation as well. "I suggest laying low on this"? The the hell kind of thinking is that? Yeah, who cares that Orange Taylor III is running around your campus and community. Pam Young's job it appears is to make uncomfortable issues 'go away'. Pam Young and John Fallon both FAILED and BOTH need to resign.

Click on image to see larger size cover up email from Pam Young in official report uncovered by your old pal Witch King

Check and MATE Mr. Fallon, YOU LOSE

So, you had the feeling something wasn't right, you KNEW something wasn't right and you absolutely KNEW you weren't protecting students, faculty and staff at Eastern Michigan University when you CHOSE not to let people know you had a murderer, and a rapist all rolled into one roaming your campus at will. You had a VP in charge of Student Affairs who knew EVERYTHING did you not? Did he not report to you? Did you not ask him to? That's dereliction of your duties, Sir.

From WXYZ TV in Detroit:

Orange Taylor III, 20, of Southfield, was ordered Friday to stand trial in Dickinson's death. The body of the 22-year-old Hastings resident was found in her dorm room Dec. 15, and autopsy results released in March concluded she died of asphyxiation.

The U.S. Department of Education next week will begin investigating whether the university, which maintained that foul play was not suspected until Taylor was arrested Feb. 23, violated a federal law in not warning students that a violent crime had been committed.

Fallon as early as Jan. 23 wrote: "This doesn't smell right to me."

"I was never fully satisfied that the investigation into Laura's death took so long. ... While being patient was clearly the responsible course for me, I'm not certain that the university shouldn't have been more candid," Fallon wrote in a Feb. 28 e-mail to Tom Sidlik, chairman of the university's Board of Regents.

I agree, you had the chain of command that knew the facts. All you had to do was ASK. You didn't. You made a choice NOT to. You let down tens of thousands of people.

You need to move on professionally to a place that finds your idea of adminstration acceptable. I'll speak on behalf of the EMU Community when I say we DO NOT find your actions acceptable.

This just gets worse for you doesn't it, Mr. Fallon?

I was sitting down to write a post asking IF Laura Dickinson's room keys were stolen after her rape and murder as the word on the street says they were. My point was going to be to ask if they had indeed changed ALL the locks in Hill Hall to protect OTHER students while EMU President Fallon decided to let Orange Taylor III run around campus as a STILL enrolled student without warning anyone in harm's way.

That question was answered a very few minutes ago and this entire sad story JUST GOT WORSE.

From the Ann Arbor News:

Police reports released this week to The Ann Arbor News under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that EMU officers had contact with Taylor at least twice in less than a year concerning three incidents. The calls included the break-in at King Hall, a damaged table in the Pray-Harrold classroom building and a report of a student selling marijuana in the Eastern Eateries.

Taylor, 20, is jailed without bond awaiting a preliminary hearing on charges in the December death of 22-year-old Laura Dickinson. He is accused of breaking into her room, raping and killing her, then stealing keys and women's underwear.

NICE eh?

So, DID you change all the locks? I have a feeling I KNOW the answer but we'll ask anyway.

And, WHY was the human shitstain known as Orange Taylor III STILL a student at Eastern Michigan University after these run ins with police?

I'll let Karen Simpkins, ACTING Vice President of Student Affairs take that one:

"We're striving for an educational outcome where they learn and are able to better themselves,'' Simpkins said. "If there are redeeming factors, we try to keep them and work with them."

So in essence Laura Dickinson is dead because of "redeeming factors".

Mr. Fallon, we're STILL waiting on you to do what's right and RESIGN effective IMMEDIATELY. It's really your ONLY decent choice.

No, Mr. Fallon, we'll hold your feet to the fire NOW

"I have a lot of faith in this investigation. Then you can hold our feet to the fire"

--EMU President John Fallon on not telling an entire university community they had a KNOWN rapist and murderer running around campus

See, President Fallon, it's like THIS. YOU FAILED. You utterly and completely failed your first big test as university president. Nothing you can say or do can or will change that fact. Your FIRST job as EMU President is the SAFETY of your students and campus community. You however let a known rapist and murderer run around campus, still enrolled and still attending classes while you LIED to students and told them Laura Dickinson died in one of YOUR dorm rooms of natural causes.

You then lie further in defense of your poor decision making in saying the suspect was under full time full on surveillance.

Horseshit. Unless you have an ankle tether or other tracking device ON the suspect, he's most certainly NOT under 100% surveillance. Especially when he's on and around campus.

The last EMU President was an absolute failure as a steward of the University's money and goodwill. Most people in and around Ypsilanti and in the greater EMU community couldn't wait for him to leave. I was one of them. One thing I WILL say for him is that he never ever endangered the lives of thousands of students.

YOU DID. The buck stops with you. YOU ave the responsibility and you chose to be a super secret police lackey. The police weren't in any danger. Your students obviously were.

You now MUST resign.

Laura Dickinson's teammate on the EMU rowing team put it best:

"Laura is an angel and she deserves so much better than what this university is displaying''

Eastern Michigan University President John Fallon, your resignation, please

OK, readers, first a little background on why John Fallon MUST resign (and a mea culpa, I attended said school and am initmately familiar with it).

On December 13, 2006, Janice Dickinson a student at EMU was found dead in her dorm room. She lived in a huge complex of dormitories referred to as the Hill dorms, all ten stories in height. Ms. Dickinson lived in the aptly named Hill Hall. The first reports in an interview in the Ann Arbor News via the Medical Examiner of Washtenaw County SUSPECTED foul play. EMU went batshit and told anybody who would listen it was NOT NOW nor was it ever supected of being a murder. Students recently went on record as saying certain dorm authority figures hinted in fact it was a suicide. Jaclyn Armstrong, an EMU student who also lived in Hill Hall asked President Fallon "Couldn't we have at least been told we were in danger?'' Armstrong recalled being told the death seemed like a suicide. "To be told there was no danger to us - that was a direct lie''. In fact the university ITSELF said this:

The cause of death was undetermined but foul play was not suspected.

Imagine everyone's surprise (and your own if you lived in the dorms at EMU or have a child going there) when EMU announced February 23 that another EMU student had been arrested for Ms. Dickinson's MURDER. That's right, and they knew it all from the beginning.

An EMU student was free to walk around campus among other students under suspicion of being a cold blooded RAPIST and MURDERER. Wow, will they put that in the brochure for prospective students?

We value your safety here but ONLY to a point

Orange Amir Taylor III was a suspect almost IMMEDIATELY as he was seen entering the dorm at about 4am that morning and then he was on camera again leaving the dorm around 6am, the period in which the autopsy said Ms. Dickinson died. They knew it IMMEDIATELY and did NOTHING to warn the general campus population.

According to Eastern Michigan University THIS does not hint at foul play:

When police entered Dickinson's room, they found her lying on a blanket on the floor - naked from the waist down and with a pillow over her face, the transcript said. EMU Lt. Jeff Nesmith noted there was evidence of sexual assault, including the way her body was positioned.

Mr. Fallon, you might be able to understand the incredible indignity SOME in the EMU community might just have. You'll recall that former Theta Chi President John Norman Collins was an EMU student as were some of his victims. The death of Laura McBride remains unsolved to this day.

All that President Fallon can muster is a deflection of ANY KIND of accountability and hoping to pass this all off. Fallon said EMU will conduct on how it handled the release of information in the wake of Dickinson's death.

How the hell do you sleep at night Mr. Fallon? How do you put some thousands of student in HARM'S WAY and then try to whitewash this?

Your RESIGNATION, please. You are clearly unfit and unable to do the job a University President is expected to do.