Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Justice for Megan Rondini - Donald V Watkins - June 25, 2017
https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins
Justice for Megan Rondini
Megan Rondini's story of rape and suicide makes me sick. Too many law enforcement and University of Alabama officials failed her, all because the man she accused of raping her came from a rich and powerful family.
Tuscaloosa County District Attorney Hays Webb needs to bring homicide charges against those who failed to respond properly to Megan's police report of rape. They must be held criminally responsible for Megan's suicide. If Webb lacks the courage or is not competent enough to perform this prosecutorial task, he should resign immediately so that a real prosecutor can bring justice in this case.
University of Alabama president, Dr. Stuart R. Bell, needs to open his mouth and stand tall for Megan, or he should resign as well. Any university president who is unwilling or unable to advocate for students who are victims in the criminal justice system is unfit to serve in the office. That kind of conduct may be tolerated at Louisiana State University (where Bell came from), but it will not be condoned here.
Regardless, we are going to get to the bottom of what happened in this case and call out everybody who failed Megan Rondini in the criminal justice system and at the University of Alabama. Everyone of them will be held fully accountable on this Facebook page.
Mr. Webb may not fight for Megan, but I will. Tuscaloosa oligarchy, hear my words: There will be no failure of justice in Megan's case.
Donald V Watkins
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Donald V Watkins
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Open Letter to T.J. "Sweet T" Bunn, Jr. Tuscaloosa, Alabama - Donald V. Watkins - The unfortunate incident that happened to Megan Rondini at your home in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on the night of July 1, 2015, has brought us together.
https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins/posts/10213339651547937
June 27, 2017
Open Letter to T.J. "Sweet T" Bunn, Jr.
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Dear Mr. Bunn,
My name is Donald V. Watkins. To my knowledge, we have never met. The unfortunate incident that happened to Megan Rondini at your home in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on the night of July 1, 2015, has brought us together.
You got to know Megan in life, at least on that one night in July when you admitted to having sex with her. I have only gotten to know Megan in death.
I am a trial lawyer and investigative journalist. I usually work on the difficult cases most prosecutors are afraid to touch, or on exposing the cases where prosecutors have "fixed" the outcome for the benefit of rich and powerful people.
I am very familiar with how some law enforcement investigators and prosecutors "fix" cases for the oligarchy that runs Alabama. I have seen this type of prosecutorial misconduct occur throughout my 44-year legal career. I also understand how prosecutors sometimes use the grand jury system as cover for their unwillingness to prosecute rich and powerful people. Whether a case is indicted or not often depends upon the socio-economic status of the parties involved and how a prosecutor presents the evidence and applicable law to grand jurors.
I understand sexual assault cases in Alabama (and elsewhere). To me, a sexual assault is not just a sex crime; it is an act of violence against the victim. In many cases, the deck is already stacked against female victims of sexual assaults by the very nature of our male dominated world of law enforcement.
One version of the "truth" in Megan's case resulted in her allegations of sexual assault against you going away. Former Tuscaloosa District Attorney Lyn Head reportedly presented Megan's sexual assault case to a Tuscaloosa County grand jury several weeks after her February 26, 2016, death and that body took no action against you.
Today, Megan is dead and you are walking around free. The criminal justice system in Tuscaloosa worked well for you. The same system failed Megan miserably.
My job is to find and report the whole truth in Megan's case. I have been doing this kind of work for a long time.
You may be familiar with some of my most recent work. In 2014, I discovered and reported the shocking truth about the wife-beating conduct and marital infidelity involving a powerful federal judge in Montgomery. He was forced to resign his lifetime judgeship a year later. In 2015, I uncovered and reported the public corruption that forced former governor Robert Bentley to resign after pleading guilty to ethics violations. In 2016, I solved the 2005 murder of Army PFC LaVena Johnson by a four-star general on a military base in Balad, Iraq. The Army had publicly and falsely classified Private Johnson's death as a "suicide" for more than ten years. The Pentagon shielded the details of Private Johnson's murder from public view by classifying her "suicide" as a national security matter that required express written approval from the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before any information could be released to the public about her death.
In each of these cases, the perpetrator was a powerful male who thought he could escape the fair administration of justice in his case. In the end, we were able to find and report the whole truth in each case.
At the outset, I want you to know that one thing about Megan's case really bothers me. I was not impressed with the law enforcement investigation that occurred after Megan reported her allegations of sexual assault against you. I was somewhat surprised by the ingratiating manner in which investigator Josh Hastings conducted his interview with you. His leading questions basically suggested the answers he wanted to hear in order to clear you.
It must have been comforting to have your lawyer present during the interview. I wish an attorney had been present to represent Megan's interests during her interview with investigator Adam Jones. I know from personal experience that the presence of an experienced, strong attorney helps to keep a criminal investigator properly focused on the sexual assault allegations reported by the victim. It also tends to level the playing field between a perpetrator and his victim. Without this kind of representation, the tables often and quickly get turned against female sexual assault victims, especially when the perpetrator is rich and famous, or enjoys celebrity status.
A lot of people failed Megan after she escaped from your house through a second floor window on the night in question. Lost in the fog of the PR spin coming from the Tuscaloosa Sheriff's Department and the University of Alabama is any credible explanation from law enforcement officials as to why Megan would immediately go to the hospital for a forensic exam and then proceed to a law enforcement agency in the middle of the night to file a sexual assault report if, in fact, no sexual assault had occurred at your house.
I will be working on Megan's case until we can walk the whole truth out from under the cloak of PR spin and into the sunlight of justice for Megan. There will be no failure of justice in Megan's case. We owe this much to Megan and her family.
Sincerely,
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