Friday, December 5, 2008

Undercover Mother


From MSNBC:

Doreen Giuliano was obsessed with saving her son from a life behind bars after he was convicted of murder.

She gave herself an extreme makeover — blonde dye job, fake tan, sexy wardrobe, phony name — and began spying on jurors. She befriended one juror to root out any possible misdeeds at the trial, and for nearly eight months, they drank at bars, smoked marijuana and shared meals in her tiny Brooklyn hideaway.

The juror eventually opened up to her about his time as a juror, completely unaware that this seductive older woman was the same dutiful mother who sat through the entire trial just a few feet away from him.


Giuliano says "she was driven by the belief her son was set up by authorities and vilified in the press." So she hatched a plan:

In the fall of 2007, Giuliano reinvented herself. She slimmed down at the gym, rented an apartment in Allo's neighborhood and printed business cards with her assumed name: Dee Quinn, a recent West Coast transplant.

Her husband initially told her she was crazy, but backed down. Soon she orchestrated a chance meeting with Allo on the street, pretending to be a lonely single woman from California and giving him her phone number.

Giuliano began inviting Allo over to her place to soften him up. He never recognized her from her days sitting through the trial.

"She was offering me wine, offering to smoke weed," he said. There also was flirting. But both said it never went any further. Mainly, they talked. And her digital tape recorder rolled.

She says she struck gold in late 2007, while grilling her new friend about his jury duty. "I'll tell you this but I would never tell anybody else," he said, according to transcripts prepared by the defense. "I actually had some type of information."

Allo went on to explain that he didn't know Giuca directly, but used to hang out in his clique and heard rumors about the Fisher slaying — something he failed to mention when questioned under oath during jury selection. Asked if he had been curious about newspaper accounts of the trial, he responded that he'd read them. He also bragged that he had been the first one during deliberations to vote for a conviction. "I shouldn't have been in that jury," he said.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I have often thought that a good investigator during jury selection could investigate online some of the connections between jurors and people in the case.

Some jurors seem to have too relaxed an attitude during voir dire --- like know one can check online who they donated money to --- or who their friends or neighbors are --- it is as if they can lie or they just do not have to answer questions truthfully because the oath is only given once en mass at the beginning and no one reminds them that they are under oath and subject the truthfullness of their answers are subject to being examined. Too often, jurors lie, don't answer the question fully, or just don't pay attention. Sincerely, Glen