Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #458 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Alan Beaman - Part 1

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#458 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Alan Beaman - Part 1 · Wrongful Conviction

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Speaker 1: Hey, it's Lauren Brei Pacheco. This new episode of Wrongful
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Speaker 1: Conviction covers the unbelievable case of Alan Beeman. Such an
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Speaker 1: epic story that we needed to release it as a
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Speaker 1: two parter, Part one right now and part two coming
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Speaker 1: next week. If you're listening in the Wrongful Conviction Feed,
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Speaker 1: stay right here. For those of you who've been listening
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Speaker 1: to these episodes in the Murder and Illinois Feed, you'll
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Speaker 1: need to head over to Wrongful Conviction for part two
0:26
Speaker 1: and for the rest of my season With Wrongful Conviction,
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Speaker 1: tens of thousands of people incarcerated in the US have
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Speaker 1: been wrongfully convicted and are being held in captivity for
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Speaker 1: crimes even as they adamantly maintain their innocence. What's it
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Speaker 1: like to be one of those imprisoned people, and what's
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Speaker 1: it like to be their ally, the one outside committed
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Speaker 1: to fighting for their freedom. I'm Lauren Brighte Pacheco, and
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Speaker 1: this is Wrongful Conviction. Alan Beaman was twenty one years
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Speaker 1: old when his life was forever altered. Going into his
1:10
Speaker 1: senior year in college specializing in theatrical lighting design, he
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Speaker 1: suddenly found himself ensnared in a police investigation into the
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Speaker 1: death of his former girlfriend. Twenty two year old Jennifer
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Speaker 1: lock Miller was found dead August twenty eighth, nineteen ninety three,
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Speaker 1: in her apartment in Normal, Illinois. She had been strangled
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Speaker 1: with a clock radio cord and stabbed in the chest
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Speaker 1: with scissors, even though at the time, Allan was living
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Speaker 1: with his parents for summer break in Rockford, Illinois, over
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Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty miles away from the murder. The
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Speaker 1: following May, Normal Illinois police arrested Beeman on murder charges
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Speaker 1: related to the death of Lockmiller an hour after he
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Speaker 1: completed his final exam, just weeks before what would have
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Speaker 1: been his graduation. Despite the lack of any evidence of
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Speaker 1: his guilt, in nineteen ninety five, Beeman was con of
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Speaker 1: murder and sentenced to fifty years. He would serve thirteen
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Speaker 1: years before the Illinois Supreme Court reversed the conviction and
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Speaker 1: the state opted to drop murder charges. It is my
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Speaker 1: pleasure to welcome Alan and his parents, Barry and Carol
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Speaker 1: to wrongful conviction. Thank you guys for joining me.
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Speaker 2: Thank you for having us, Thanks Lauren for having us.
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Speaker 1: Now I want to take a step back and Alan,
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Speaker 1: let's go back a bit. Just tell me how you
2:27
Speaker 1: would describe your upbringing and your family before all of
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Speaker 1: this happened.
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Speaker 3: I grew up in a household that was very conservative
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Speaker 3: and very involved in our community. I was raised to
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Speaker 3: take the high road, to treat my neighbors with respect
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Speaker 3: and dignity, and to withhold judgment until I've gotten to
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Speaker 3: know a person.
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Speaker 1: And what were your passions growing up? What were you
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Speaker 1: obsessed with?
3:00
Speaker 3: We grew up out in the country, surrounded by pastures
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Speaker 3: and cornfields. You know, you hear people talk about Generation
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Speaker 3: X being the feral children, And I was exactly that
3:12
Speaker 3: left the house at seven in the morning and didn't
3:15
Speaker 3: come back until seven o'clock at night. And if my
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Speaker 3: parents saw me in between, it was because I was
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Speaker 3: either hungry or had to go to the bathroom or both.
3:26
Speaker 3: From the age of four, I was swinging a hammer.
3:30
Speaker 3: My parents and I and my brother built our house. Really,
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Speaker 3: I was driving floorboard nails, and if it wasn't something
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Speaker 3: that was safe for me to do, like a circular saw,
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Speaker 3: I was still being instructed on how to do it.
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Speaker 3: My mom was a teacher and used a very socratic
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Speaker 3: method and got me to explore the things that I
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Speaker 3: was curious about without trying to tell me what to think.
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Speaker 3: So you know, I'm certainly grateful to them for that upbringing,
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Speaker 3: for the support they've given me over the years.
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Speaker 1: Wow, I can't believe you guys built your house together.
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Speaker 1: That is definition of a hands on family with a.
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Speaker 4: Lot of help from our friends and family and Barry.
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Speaker 1: I know that Carol was a teacher, But what was
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Speaker 1: your profession by trade?
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Speaker 2: I started with a degree in physics from Illinois Wesleyan University,
4:22
Speaker 2: and that led me into the Air Force. After I
4:25
Speaker 2: got out of the Air Force, I ended up spending
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Speaker 2: the rest of my career as a quality engineer, both
4:31
Speaker 2: in mechanical activities and in software.
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Speaker 1: So, Allen, you have an engineer for a father, teacher
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Speaker 1: for a mother. How did you end up getting drawn
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Speaker 1: to theatrical lighting design?
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Speaker 3: My mom told me that I was very dramatic, and
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Speaker 3: I started getting involved with the drama club in middle school.
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Speaker 3: I think getting involved in theater and just being naturally handy,
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Speaker 3: I got appointed to do things. Oh you know how
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Speaker 3: to do this? Okay, here you go. But as I
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Speaker 3: got even older, going into college, I just lost interest
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Speaker 3: in the performance side and really got sucked into the
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Speaker 3: technical aspects, especially lighting.
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Speaker 1: I've read that you were able to combine your love
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Speaker 1: of music with a vision you had for your ultimate
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Speaker 1: career in terms of working on design for concerts.
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Speaker 3: Eventually, by the time I was in college, that's what
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Speaker 3: I wanted to do. I wanted to do lighting design
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Speaker 3: for rock bands. Not that I wouldn't want to do
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Speaker 3: that for plays and other things as well, but I
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Speaker 3: think I always verged on the motion of lighting, so
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Speaker 3: I think I would have naturally gravitated towards lighting for music,
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Speaker 3: a feature of that that.
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Speaker 1: Takes us really pretty much to write about. When your
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Speaker 1: family was abruptly altered by what ended up befalling Alan,
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Speaker 1: So you're twenty one years old and you're just weeks
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Speaker 1: away from graduation, about to start your adult life. How
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Speaker 1: prepared were you or your family for what you'd collectively
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Speaker 1: go through for the decades that would follow.
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Speaker 3: We were not prepared at all to deal with the
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Speaker 3: legal conundrums that came upon us at all. Growing up
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Speaker 3: in that rural, conservative environment, I was raised to trust
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Speaker 3: law enforcement. We did not ever perceive it as a
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Speaker 3: hostile element that would overtake our lives and attempt to
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Speaker 3: destroy us.
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Speaker 4: For me, my experience was just with the police officers
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Speaker 4: that served in my school, and they were my helpers
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Speaker 4: if I had difficulty in a classroom. It wasn't something
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Speaker 4: that even entered my mind in terms of entanglement with
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Speaker 4: the police.
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Speaker 1: So just to set then the stage, and just in
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Speaker 1: terms of your relationship with Jennifer, how long had you
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Speaker 1: guys dated? How long had you known each other? Were
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Speaker 1: you in contact at the time of her murderer?
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Speaker 3: I met Jennifer, I want to say, in the spring
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Speaker 3: of my sophomore year in college, when we were both
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Speaker 3: going to Illinois Wesleyan and we were friends. Nothing romantic
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Speaker 3: occurred until the summer after that school year, and we
7:34
Speaker 3: started dating later in that summer and then throughout my
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Speaker 3: junior year. We dated for about a year and we
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Speaker 3: broke up about a month before she was murdered.
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Speaker 1: So just that circumstance probably made you a little bit
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Speaker 1: of an easy target in terms of a lazy investigation.
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Speaker 1: But how would you categorize your relationship and the way
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Speaker 1: it ended? Was it volatile or there was their animosity?
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Speaker 3: What you're asking there is speaking to the initial suspicion
8:12
Speaker 3: we had an on again off again. Relationship, we broke
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Speaker 3: up several times. There were a lot of public conflicts
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Speaker 3: that we had in front of other people, friends and
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Speaker 3: even family, and so I think it was only natural
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Speaker 3: for a police investigator to initially say, hey, we got
8:33
Speaker 3: to talk to this guy, and if that had been
8:36
Speaker 3: where it ended, it would have made perfect sense. Unfortunately,
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Speaker 3: as you mentioned, the potential for a lazy investigation with that,
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Speaker 3: you know, the statistics probably tell them that most of
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Speaker 3: the time it's the ex boyfriend, and that's great, that
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Speaker 3: gives you a lead to start with, but that is
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Speaker 3: not evidence. Is that should not be indicative of probable cause,
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Speaker 3: And so I think they just jumped to that conclusion
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Speaker 3: very early on and did not go through the steps
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Speaker 3: that are necessary to rule things out with scientific method.
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Speaker 1: Do you remember how you collectively found out as had
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Speaker 1: happened in the first place.
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Speaker 4: At the time of the murder, how he found out?
9:20
Speaker 4: It started with a knock at the door. Alan had
9:22
Speaker 4: just left to go meet some friends at Denny's who
9:26
Speaker 4: were leaving for college the next day, and within the
9:30
Speaker 4: hour of that knock on the door, we received a
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Speaker 4: phone call from the county jail, where they had Alan
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Speaker 4: for questioning and Alan said he had been allowed to
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Speaker 4: call us, and he told us he was being questioned
9:43
Speaker 4: about something and he didn't know where his car was
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Speaker 4: and could we come pick him up. He had been
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Speaker 4: picked up on the road going into town to meet
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Speaker 4: his friends and question.
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Speaker 2: That was about two o'clock in the morning, as I recall, Yes, so.
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Speaker 1: You thought your son was out with friends and he
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Speaker 1: was a actually at the police station. Alan, how did
10:03
Speaker 1: you were just pulled over?
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Speaker 3: Yeah? I was about halfway to the city limits when
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Speaker 3: I noticed that there was a squad car behind me.
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Speaker 3: I tried very hard to make sure I drove exactly
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Speaker 3: the speed limit while he was behind me, and then
10:17
Speaker 3: crossed over into the city limits and was immediately pulled over.
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Speaker 3: So then I thought I have long hair, you know.
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Speaker 3: I thought it was the typical stuff that I had
10:26
Speaker 3: experienced while in college. But this time the officer was
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Speaker 3: standing in front of me with his side arm drawn
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Speaker 3: and there was a police dog, and I was told
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Speaker 3: to get out of the car. They patted me down
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Speaker 3: and then maybe asked if there were any weapons.
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Speaker 1: What was going through your head?
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Speaker 3: I was in shock. I really didn't have a coherent
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Speaker 3: thought going on in my head, but when I was
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Speaker 3: placed in the squad car, I finally gathered up my
10:56
Speaker 3: senses and I asked the officer, Hey, can you tell
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Speaker 3: me what the is about? And he said, some detectives
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Speaker 3: from Normal want to talk to you about a homicide.
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Speaker 3: So I'm in shock, sitting in the squad car, thinking
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Speaker 3: who do I know in Normal that could have possibly
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Speaker 3: been involved in a homicide to where they want to
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Speaker 3: talk to me? And I could think of a few people,
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Speaker 3: and then of course there was Jennifer. I stayed in
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Speaker 3: that squad car right there until a detective's car came
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Speaker 3: up and it had passengers who were Tony Daniels, a
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Speaker 3: detective from Normal, and Tony's partner. I got into that car,
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Speaker 3: I was still handcuffed.
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Speaker 1: So you're handcuffed. They've not told you why, what You've
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Speaker 1: been accused of? Nothing?
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Speaker 3: Nothing, I know. I'm in handcuffs and they want to
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Speaker 3: talk to me about a homicide. And I guess if
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Speaker 3: I were a little more street wise, I would have
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Speaker 3: realized that I was a suspect. But I didn't grow
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Speaker 3: up in the environment where I ever expected to be
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Speaker 3: a suspect. I didn't know what was going on. I'm
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Speaker 3: just supposed to speak when I'm spoken to, and respect
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Speaker 3: the police officers who are doing their job.
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Speaker 1: But even though you had long hair, you didn't exactly
12:15
Speaker 1: have a long wrap sheet. In fact, you had no
12:19
Speaker 1: criminal history, that is correct. When did they tell you
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Speaker 1: that Jennifer had been murdered? And how did they tell you?
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Speaker 3: When I got into the squad car with Tony Daniels,
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Speaker 3: I asked him what is this about? And he simply said, well, Allen,
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Speaker 3: we want to talk to you about your friend. And
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Speaker 3: it seemed very cryptic to me. I felt like he
12:41
Speaker 3: did not really want to answer my question yet, and
12:45
Speaker 3: so I opted to be polite and again respect law enforcement,
12:50
Speaker 3: and I did not press the issue. We rode back
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Speaker 3: to the police station in Rockford and I was placed
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Speaker 3: in an interrogation room with a couple of chairs and.
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Speaker 1: Questioned for how long before you could call your parents?
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Speaker 3: I want to say it was about an hour and
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Speaker 3: a half. And he gave me my Miranda rights and
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Speaker 3: all that, and I probably could have walked out right
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Speaker 3: then and there, but again, that's not something you do
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Speaker 3: when you've grown up to respect law enforcement and you've
13:18
Speaker 3: got nothing to hide. And he started asking me questions
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Speaker 3: and most of the questions were either about my whereabouts
13:26
Speaker 3: throughout the week or about Jennifer. And eventually I could
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Speaker 3: figure out from the line of questioning something was going
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Speaker 3: on with Jennifer, and they had told me there was
13:38
Speaker 3: a homicide, and so I pieced that together. And he
13:43
Speaker 3: challenged me, like, how come you haven't asked me if
13:45
Speaker 3: she's okay? And I said, is Jennifer dead? And he
13:49
Speaker 3: said yes. And I again still in shock, but now
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Speaker 3: even more so in shock and being accused of now
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Speaker 3: knowing something that I'm not supposed to know, just because
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Speaker 3: I can put pieces together. And so he did this
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Speaker 3: whole very sort of evasive and then accusatory, and then
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Speaker 3: evasive and then accusatory. And he would tell me one
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Speaker 3: thing and then he would change it and tell me, oh, no,
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Speaker 3: that's not really what it is, it's this. And so
14:17
Speaker 3: he told me she was dead. He told me she
14:20
Speaker 3: was alive in a hospital calling my name. After about
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Speaker 3: an hour and a half of this interview, where it
14:28
Speaker 3: really didn't seem like he was interested in hearing what
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Speaker 3: I really had to say, but was just trying to
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Speaker 3: provoke me and wanted me to say what he wanted
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Speaker 3: me to say, I finally said, you said that I'm
14:40
Speaker 3: not under arrest, so that means I don't have to stay.
14:45
Speaker 3: So I'm leaving. And I got up and I left.
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Speaker 3: But I walked out of the police station and I
14:52
Speaker 3: didn't know where my car was, and I could find
14:56
Speaker 3: a payphone, and so I called my parents.
15:01
Speaker 1: So all of this at this point early morning drama.
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Speaker 1: Did it ever occur to you, Barry or you Carol
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Speaker 1: that this was anything other than a horrible event and
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Speaker 1: a crazy misunderstanding. Did you think was it in terms
15:18
Speaker 1: of what Alan had just been through.
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Speaker 4: The next day, Alan was supposed to sing at church,
15:25
Speaker 4: and we asked him when we got him home, what
15:28
Speaker 4: are you going to do about that? And you want
15:31
Speaker 4: us to call and cancel? And he said no, he
15:33
Speaker 4: was going to go ahead. We went to church and
15:36
Speaker 4: he did his solo and then we talked to our
15:40
Speaker 4: pastor about what do we do next, and he got
15:43
Speaker 4: us in touch with a lawyer, a family friend who
15:47
Speaker 4: kind of advised Alan at that point and advised us
15:50
Speaker 4: to just keep Alan away from the police at that time,
15:53
Speaker 4: and they did show up at our house Sunday afternoon.
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Speaker 2: Sunday afternoon, my father and I were trying to move
15:59
Speaker 2: a cabinet into the house that my parents had brought
16:03
Speaker 2: from their home to us, and these two huge men
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Speaker 2: walked up and said, can we help you with that,
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Speaker 2: and picked it up and moved it in forrest, set
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Speaker 2: it in a corner, and then told us they'd like
16:17
Speaker 2: to talk to Alan. And I said, I got some
16:19
Speaker 2: concerns about this.
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Speaker 1: And you all knew that, Allan, you were what over
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Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty miles closer to one hundred and
16:27
Speaker 1: forty miles away from the scene of where this tragedy occurred,
16:32
Speaker 1: and you're living at home for the summer, So I
16:37
Speaker 1: should think that you all just thought, obviously it was
16:40
Speaker 1: impossible that you were involved.
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Speaker 3: We all believed in my family that the detectives would
16:51
Speaker 3: do their job, investigate the case, and they are professionals
16:55
Speaker 3: and they know what they're doing, and that at a
16:57
Speaker 3: certain point they would realize, yeah, this is the wrong
16:59
Speaker 3: way to go, and that they would move on. Unfortunately,
17:06
Speaker 3: I think, you know, and I'm editorializing here, there was
17:09
Speaker 3: so much pressure on the department and on the county
17:15
Speaker 3: to find someone that when their investigation broke down and
17:25
Speaker 3: their ability to properly investigate failed they just decided, we
17:31
Speaker 3: got this guy here, he looks pretty crazy. We can
17:34
Speaker 3: probably make him look bad, and that's our guy.
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Speaker 1: Alan. You mentioned having long hair, and your sense of
17:41
Speaker 1: righteous indignation was also growing. How do you think that
17:45
Speaker 1: combination could have made things worse for you?
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Speaker 3: I was a dirty hippie in college, and I think,
17:53
Speaker 3: you know, it did probably add to the opportunity to
17:57
Speaker 3: make me a target. But I was also really frustrated
18:00
Speaker 3: that they were accusing me of something I didn't do,
18:04
Speaker 3: and I was very angry about that, and I reacted poorly,
18:10
Speaker 3: which should be understandable coming from an adolescent essentially who's
18:15
Speaker 3: being accused of something.
18:16
Speaker 1: And dealing with grief.
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Speaker 3: Well, it was denied that I couldn't grieve because I
18:23
Speaker 3: learned about her death by being accused of murdering her,
18:31
Speaker 3: and I never had the opportunity to experience a neutral
18:38
Speaker 3: individual perception of her death, to say, you know, man,
18:42
Speaker 3: somebody that I cared about has died and I'm really grieving.
18:46
Speaker 3: And even though things didn't end great between us, I
18:49
Speaker 3: didn't wish this on her, you know, I didn't have
18:51
Speaker 3: the opportunity to do that, and under the circumstances with
18:55
Speaker 3: the police scrutiny and the obvious perception that went along
19:01
Speaker 3: with that. I didn't feel comfortable going to the funeral.
19:04
Speaker 3: I didn't feel comfortable interacting with other people that loved her,
19:09
Speaker 3: and so I was very much alone in my grief
19:13
Speaker 3: and I couldn't really explore it with other people who
19:16
Speaker 3: had the same feeling.
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Speaker 1: Which also played into the narrative exactly.
19:20
Speaker 3: That was again further used against me, and so they
19:24
Speaker 3: had a lot of opportunity to say, Oh, he's really fishy,
19:28
Speaker 3: something's not right, and unfortunately, in the current state of
19:32
Speaker 3: our legal system, that is what passes for evidence.
19:36
Speaker 1: So you end up going back to school and Carol
19:39
Speaker 1: and Barry, you have been staunch defenders of your son
19:43
Speaker 1: and supporters of him and adamant believers in his enna sence.
19:49
Speaker 1: Did the police ever try to manipulate your opinion of
19:54
Speaker 1: your son or try to cast out on him or
19:57
Speaker 1: his character.
19:58
Speaker 2: No, they did not. Lieutenant Daniels, who was the was
20:05
Speaker 2: the lead detective coming to Rockford to talk to Alan,
20:10
Speaker 2: concluded by the time he left Rockford that Allan probably
20:13
Speaker 2: didn't do it, and he held that belief throughout the
20:17
Speaker 2: trial as well. Wow and eventually through depositions and things
20:23
Speaker 2: like that. Became one of Allan's top cheerleaders.
20:30
Speaker 1: So the nightmare certainly didn't end when you went back
20:33
Speaker 1: for your senior year. You go back and you're trying
20:37
Speaker 1: to focus on finishing up your degree and the police
20:40
Speaker 1: are continuing to pop in. How and when did they
20:44
Speaker 1: show up and how invasive was it in terms of
20:47
Speaker 1: your ability to be a student.
20:49
Speaker 3: It was always a surprise when they showed up. They
20:54
Speaker 3: occasionally would have somebody from campus security with them, sanctioning
20:59
Speaker 3: and supervisoring their visit to the campus. But I think
21:03
Speaker 3: the first time I met Tim Freiesmeyer was outside the theater,
21:10
Speaker 3: and I think he kind of was lying in wait
21:13
Speaker 3: for me to come out a door that I typically used.
21:17
Speaker 3: So the first time I met him, he served a
21:19
Speaker 3: warrant to collect biological samples from me. And my thought was,
21:27
Speaker 3: this is good. They're collecting actual evidence. That means that
21:32
Speaker 3: they have something to compare this to, and my worries
21:36
Speaker 3: will be over. They will realize, Okay, it wasn't him,
21:40
Speaker 3: and so you know, I didn't put up any fuss.
21:43
Speaker 3: I just went with them and I was like, all right,
21:44
Speaker 3: this is great. And they took me to the hospital
21:48
Speaker 3: and had a technician take samples from me. Then after
21:53
Speaker 3: those were taken, they took me back to the police
21:55
Speaker 3: station and fingerprinted me and took the miss photograph of
22:01
Speaker 3: me that eventually appeared in the newspaper, making me look
22:07
Speaker 3: very rough and scruffy, I should add. They picked me
22:10
Speaker 3: up in the middle of tech week for a show
22:14
Speaker 3: that I was designing for, and I had not slept
22:20
Speaker 3: the night before. I had not slept much that week
22:23
Speaker 3: at all. I had not bathed very much that week
22:26
Speaker 3: at all. I had not shaved, I had not brushed
22:28
Speaker 3: my teeth that night. I was disgusting, even more so
22:32
Speaker 3: than usual. And that's when they took the picture of
22:35
Speaker 3: me that they later put in the newspaper.
22:39
Speaker 1: So are you looping your parents in about the frequent
22:44
Speaker 1: visitors in your life at that point? Are you trying
22:50
Speaker 1: to protect them?
22:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm just trying to protect not loop.
22:53
Speaker 3: Yes to protecting. I didn't believe it was really a
22:56
Speaker 3: big problem because I was so confident that they were
22:59
Speaker 3: going to to rule me out and move on.
23:03
Speaker 1: Did you guys, though, pick up on the fact that
23:06
Speaker 1: it was impacting Alan emotionally?
23:11
Speaker 4: We did not. However, we went down to campus one
23:15
Speaker 4: weekend to see the show that he had been working on.
23:18
Speaker 4: He wasn't there. He was over in Peoria at a
23:21
Speaker 4: friend's wedding that weekend, and we went to the show
23:27
Speaker 4: and one of Alan's faculty advisors said, do you realize
23:32
Speaker 4: how often he's being questioned? And that's the first we
23:35
Speaker 4: knew that he was being questioned frequently. And also on
23:39
Speaker 4: that first we found out that he was being taken
23:42
Speaker 4: out of classes from a professor who had a no
23:45
Speaker 4: cut policy, which eventually impacted Alan's graduation as well.
23:53
Speaker 1: And then you get arrested. Can you tell me how?
23:57
Speaker 1: And when that went down?
23:58
Speaker 3: It was on my life last day, my last final
24:01
Speaker 3: exam for my theater history class. And when I left
24:06
Speaker 3: the final exam, I went to the dining hall and
24:11
Speaker 3: while I was sitting eating my dinner, Tim Freiesmeyer came
24:14
Speaker 3: into the dining hall, walked up to me and said, Hey,
24:17
Speaker 3: can I talk to you for a minute, And so
24:20
Speaker 3: I was like, fine, let's let's go talk. And so
24:24
Speaker 3: I walked out of the dining hall with him, and
24:26
Speaker 3: I was walking towards a door that I typically used
24:29
Speaker 3: that would get us outside, and he was like, no,
24:31
Speaker 3: we need to go this way. So I followed him
24:34
Speaker 3: to the other side of the building, and when we
24:36
Speaker 3: walked out of the door, there was like twenty squad
24:38
Speaker 3: cars out there, just a whole bunch of cops out there.
24:41
Speaker 3: But I just remember looking around and seeing cops everywhere,
24:46
Speaker 3: so I thought, Okay, this is different. And he said,
24:50
Speaker 3: I need you to come down to the station with me,
24:53
Speaker 3: and I said, I don't think I want to go
24:56
Speaker 3: down to the station with you. And he said, I'm
24:59
Speaker 3: going to have to place you under arrest if you're
25:01
Speaker 3: not going to come with me, And I said, then
25:02
Speaker 3: you need to arrest me here. So he handcuffed me
25:05
Speaker 3: right there in front of the student center, in front
25:09
Speaker 3: of all of my classmates and professors and people coming
25:14
Speaker 3: and going around the campus, put me in his car
25:18
Speaker 3: and took me to the Normal Police department. And I
25:21
Speaker 3: don't even know how that works with jurisdiction because it
25:24
Speaker 3: was actually in Bloomington, but I think he just wanted
25:27
Speaker 3: to be credited for the arrest or something. I don't know,
25:30
Speaker 3: but he took me back to Normal and then booked
25:33
Speaker 3: me there and I made my phone call.
25:38
Speaker 1: Tell me about that phone call, You guys who answered
25:41
Speaker 1: the phone Carol or Barry, as Carol did I did.
25:45
Speaker 4: I had just gotten home from my last graduate class
25:50
Speaker 4: and found out that my thesis had been accepted. And
25:54
Speaker 4: I honestly can't tell you right at this point whether
25:57
Speaker 4: we spoke in person or whether you had left a
25:59
Speaker 4: message on the phone, but it was get in touch
26:03
Speaker 4: with Bill, my lawyer. I've been arrested. And that was
26:08
Speaker 4: the end of my celebration of graduation. And Barry was
26:13
Speaker 4: at a meeting at the public observatory. And I called
26:16
Speaker 4: Bill right away, and I called Barry at the observatory,
26:21
Speaker 4: and within an hour we were on our way to
26:23
Speaker 4: normal to try to get Alan out. We couldn't. We
26:30
Speaker 4: had to wait a while to get him out. But
26:33
Speaker 4: that was a drastic change to life at.
26:37
Speaker 1: That point, In that moment of finding out that your
26:49
Speaker 1: son had been arrested, when you got in the car
26:52
Speaker 1: and you drove there, what was that reality like for you,
26:58
Speaker 1: that kind of sense of helplessness to realize that you
27:01
Speaker 1: can't just say you've made a mistake. He's my son
27:05
Speaker 1: and he's coming home with us. What was that helplessness
27:09
Speaker 1: like for you?
27:09
Speaker 2: Guys?
27:10
Speaker 1: How would you explain it?
27:12
Speaker 4: Total frustration determination on my part. There had to be
27:18
Speaker 4: a way.
27:20
Speaker 1: How long did they hold you there before I assume
27:22
Speaker 1: that you posted bond.
27:27
Speaker 3: I was in the county jail. I want to say,
27:30
Speaker 3: maybe ten.
27:31
Speaker 2: Days, yeah, probably until the arraignment.
27:34
Speaker 3: There was a bond hearing and several of my classmates
27:39
Speaker 3: were called and some of my family members were called
27:42
Speaker 3: to testify about what sort of person I was, to
27:45
Speaker 3: help the court determine I guess, whether I was a
27:48
Speaker 3: flight risk, or whether there was some risk that I
27:51
Speaker 3: might harm some other person if I were out on bond,
27:54
Speaker 3: and those sorts of things. The state's attorney, of course,
27:59
Speaker 3: tried to get it to where there was no bond,
28:02
Speaker 3: and my attorney asked for a bond, but the judge
28:06
Speaker 3: set the bond at one million dollars. So at that
28:10
Speaker 3: point I thought, well, this is not going to happen.
28:14
Speaker 3: But my uncle owned several grocery stores, and he made
28:21
Speaker 3: the decision to take money out of that business. If
28:26
Speaker 3: you have a one million dollar bond, it means you
28:28
Speaker 3: need to put up one hundred thousand dollars to be
28:30
Speaker 3: able to bond out. And so he put up the
28:34
Speaker 3: money from his businesses and risked those businesses, and he
28:40
Speaker 3: wasn't a rich man. He had a good business that
28:43
Speaker 3: he had built over many of many years and worked
28:45
Speaker 3: very hard to build, and he did that for me,
28:49
Speaker 3: and I'm forever grateful.
28:51
Speaker 1: It's the ripple effect of these injustices, how they impact.
28:57
Speaker 4: The uncle Alan was talking about as my brother. I'm
29:00
Speaker 4: the baby sister. He's ninety three now. But he was
29:06
Speaker 4: determined that he was going to help us whatever way
29:09
Speaker 4: he could, And so I guess I knew family sticks together,
29:18
Speaker 4: and if it's in God's will, it will happen. And
29:24
Speaker 4: it takes a long time sometimes, but but yeah, a
29:30
Speaker 4: lot of frustration and a lot of concern, but always
29:34
Speaker 4: determination that this was going to be taken care of.
29:38
Speaker 1: What was the transition like for you, Alan, in those
29:42
Speaker 1: ten days before you bonded out, What was it like
29:45
Speaker 1: being held?
29:47
Speaker 3: I reacted very irrationally to the confinement and probably rationally
29:52
Speaker 3: to the injustice. I was very angry and terrified. At
29:57
Speaker 3: the same time. I was desperately pleaded with anybody that
30:01
Speaker 3: walked past my cell that there had been a terrible
30:03
Speaker 3: mistake and that they had the wrong guy. I was
30:07
Speaker 3: going through nicotine withdrawal and just absolutely beside myself about
30:13
Speaker 3: the wrongness of my circumstances. I just panicked. Whenever I
30:18
Speaker 3: talked to my parents on the phone. I was not
30:20
Speaker 3: very nice. I demanded that they get me out of here.
30:24
Speaker 3: And it was not my proudest moment. And I don't
30:30
Speaker 3: know how much processing I did with any of it
30:34
Speaker 3: at that time. There's a lot that I've gone through
30:37
Speaker 3: in the last thirty years that I still haven't completely
30:41
Speaker 3: processed as far as that's concerned.
30:43
Speaker 4: Understandably, he was angry, he was scared, and we were
30:48
Speaker 4: scared for him.
30:50
Speaker 2: I was feeling like a failure as a father. I
30:53
Speaker 2: couldn't do anything to get him out of there.
30:58
Speaker 4: I do remember that we were told we could bring
31:00
Speaker 4: him some clothes, long underwear. You remember that we wanted
31:05
Speaker 4: to make sure he was warm because he said it
31:07
Speaker 4: was cold in the cell. Other than that's one of
31:10
Speaker 4: those odd things you remember.
31:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, because you want to provide whatever comfort in
31:17
Speaker 1: a situation like that you can. What were some of
31:21
Speaker 1: the realizations, the realities you had to come to terms
31:25
Speaker 1: with as you headed into trial. What most surprised you
31:33
Speaker 1: about that process? And Carol, why don't you start.
31:39
Speaker 4: I'm not sure anything really surprised us, other than I
31:44
Speaker 4: couldn't figure out why the logic of everything didn't make
31:50
Speaker 4: sense to the jurors.
31:53
Speaker 3: It has been professionally compared to the Trial of the
31:58
Speaker 3: Knave from Lewis Carroll, where everything that came up was
32:05
Speaker 3: obviously suspicious. This is suspicious, and that is suspicious. And
32:11
Speaker 3: oh my gosh, he's defending himself that is suspicious. And
32:16
Speaker 3: he's angry about being accused. That is suspicious. And there
32:21
Speaker 3: was a very a consistent pattern throughout the entire trial
32:29
Speaker 3: that there was no evidence. It was entirely made up
32:34
Speaker 3: of conjecture. They would take excerpts from letters that I
32:40
Speaker 3: had written, and they would leave out the parts of
32:44
Speaker 3: the letter that didn't fit with what they wanted, and
32:47
Speaker 3: only present the parts of the letter that they felt
32:50
Speaker 3: could make me look bad. They even had I had
32:54
Speaker 3: been scribbling on the back of her address book. And
32:58
Speaker 3: I don't even remember what when this was. It may
33:01
Speaker 3: have been early on in our relationship, it may have
33:04
Speaker 3: been later, but Pearl Jam's ten had just come out,
33:09
Speaker 3: and I was trying to write down the lyrics to
33:11
Speaker 3: the song. And you remember, back when you didn't have
33:14
Speaker 3: the internet, you had to play the tape stop it
33:17
Speaker 3: rewind it, play it again and try. And Eddie Vetter
33:20
Speaker 3: is really hard to understand sometimes. And so I was
33:23
Speaker 3: writing down the lyrics to the song black and they
33:28
Speaker 3: found that at her apartment and they accused me of
33:31
Speaker 3: writing it as a poem about her. And so I
33:36
Speaker 3: probably should have been felt honored to be accused of
33:39
Speaker 3: being Eddie Vetter. It was just it for me, capitalized
33:44
Speaker 3: the ridiculousness and the ignorance that went into the developing
33:48
Speaker 3: of their case in.
33:50
Speaker 1: Terms of how how Alan was then portrayed. Am I
33:56
Speaker 1: write in recalling that they actually compared you to Adolph
34:03
Speaker 1: Hitler in the closing statements.
34:06
Speaker 3: You are correct?
34:07
Speaker 4: Oh, yes.
34:08
Speaker 3: During the closing arguments, Jim Suke not only compared me
34:12
Speaker 3: to add Off Hitler, but also quoted scripture from the
34:18
Speaker 3: Bible about how the devil is a roaring lion going
34:21
Speaker 3: about to seek whomever he may be may destroy. There's
34:27
Speaker 3: so much theater involved in the way this case was prosecuted,
34:33
Speaker 3: and probably most cases involve some level of that, and
34:36
Speaker 3: I understand that, but there was no evidence. And this
34:41
Speaker 3: is the frustrating thing, is that you can get up
34:44
Speaker 3: and you can just present nothing but conjecture and suspicion
34:49
Speaker 3: and get everybody all upset with the comparisons, and the
34:54
Speaker 3: jury will remove themselves from their responsibility to to actually
35:01
Speaker 3: expect proof beyond a reasonable.
35:04
Speaker 1: Doubt, because then it becomes emotional.
35:06
Speaker 3: I did not expect that. I genuinely walked into this
35:09
Speaker 3: trial believing that I was going to be vindicated because
35:12
Speaker 3: the evidence did not point to me.
35:19
Speaker 1: You're listening to Wrongful Conviction with Lauren Bright Pacheco. You
35:22
Speaker 1: can listen to this and all the Lava for Good
35:24
Speaker 1: podcasts one week early and ad free by subscribing to
35:28
Speaker 1: Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. So take me
35:41
Speaker 1: to the moment of the verdict.
35:43
Speaker 3: The trial was about three weeks and the jury deliberate,
35:47
Speaker 3: deliberated for more than a couple of days, and I
35:50
Speaker 3: think we were going into the Final four tournament.
35:54
Speaker 4: It was the weekend of the Final four tournament, April.
35:57
Speaker 3: First, and on April Fool's Day. I was a real
36:04
Speaker 3: April fool for believing that our justice system was going
36:08
Speaker 3: to vindicate me.
36:09
Speaker 1: Wow.
36:10
Speaker 4: When the verdict was read, I mouthed to the state's attorney,
36:16
Speaker 4: which I should not have done. It's a wonder I
36:18
Speaker 4: didn't get reprimited for it. How do you sleep at night?
36:23
Speaker 4: But that's as they were handcuffing Alan back and taking
36:27
Speaker 4: him out to where we would not see him again
36:31
Speaker 4: for a long time.
36:33
Speaker 1: What went through your body, Barry, when you heard a
36:37
Speaker 1: guilty verdict?
36:39
Speaker 2: I heard the judge reading it, and I could swear
36:44
Speaker 2: to this day that as he started to read that,
36:47
Speaker 2: he said this says guilty, as if to say, I
36:55
Speaker 2: didn't expect that. And I will also point out that
36:58
Speaker 2: all the women on that jury, we're crying is that
37:01
Speaker 2: verdict was read. What's that tell you?
37:05
Speaker 3: I do remember after the verdict was read, there was
37:08
Speaker 3: an audible gasp in the room collectively, and then it
37:14
Speaker 3: was pretty quickly chaos after that, where bailiffs were moving
37:18
Speaker 3: through the room towards me and people were standing up,
37:24
Speaker 3: and I looked behind me, after collecting myself to encourage
37:30
Speaker 3: my family and say, hey, I'm gonna be okay. Just
37:34
Speaker 3: the motion, just the step I took towards my family
37:38
Speaker 3: as I stood up, was too much for the police
37:41
Speaker 3: officers in the room, and I was immediately affronted from
37:45
Speaker 3: several directions by officers yelling move it and pushing me
37:51
Speaker 3: out of the room. Into the bullpen, and of course
37:53
Speaker 3: I had been coming in on my own recognissance throughout
37:57
Speaker 3: that trial, and so this was very sudden change, in
38:01
Speaker 3: a very drastic, almost violent interaction.
38:06
Speaker 1: Immediately immediately, you're seen as an entirely different.
38:12
Speaker 3: Human, not human.
38:14
Speaker 2: I was in just a state of disbelief at that point.
38:18
Speaker 2: But and I do remember walking out of there. We'd
38:24
Speaker 2: been fairly willing to talk to the press during a
38:27
Speaker 2: lot of this. We didn't say a lot, but we
38:30
Speaker 2: talked with them, and they're standing there with their microphones
38:33
Speaker 2: and everything, and they just wave and say, no, not now,
38:37
Speaker 2: we can't talk now, and we walked on out.
38:41
Speaker 1: You were sentenced to fifty years, yes, to life, which
38:49
Speaker 1: at that point in your lives, Carolin Barry, was very
38:53
Speaker 1: much a life sentence for both of you. Yes, I
38:56
Speaker 1: can't even imagine how you processed that.
39:00
Speaker 2: I just felt my life's over. I have no right
39:04
Speaker 2: to go, do anything or be anything from this point on.
39:08
Speaker 1: And I can very much understand the struggle because, as
39:11
Speaker 1: another mother told me, she served every single day with
39:16
Speaker 1: her daughter in a different way, her life stopped.
39:20
Speaker 4: Now for me, it was a little different. I got
39:23
Speaker 4: my dander up at that point. I got angry, and
39:29
Speaker 4: I was determined that I was going to do whatever
39:31
Speaker 4: I could to help defend Alan and to get him out.
39:38
Speaker 1: And eventually they did, but it would take more than
39:41
Speaker 1: a decade. Coming up on part two of Alan Beeman's
39:45
Speaker 1: Unbelievable Wrongful Conviction, Alan's case attracts the attention of a
39:50
Speaker 1: very famous criminal defense attorney.
39:52
Speaker 3: Jeffer Dangen called my mom and told her I don't
39:56
Speaker 3: like him, but I believe him.
39:58
Speaker 1: Which leads to an equal the incredible opportunity to enlist
40:02
Speaker 1: law students on his behalf.
40:04
Speaker 4: Said, I've got a chance to go to Northwestern and
40:08
Speaker 4: I can take along a case.
40:10
Speaker 1: But even with all that help, Alan Beeman would still
40:13
Speaker 1: sit in prison for thirteen years and fight for decades
40:18
Speaker 1: more to clear his name, all ending in a headline
40:22
Speaker 1: making settlement but not necessarily justice. Thank you for listening
40:35
Speaker 1: to Wrongful Conviction. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco. Please support your
40:39
Speaker 1: local innocence organizations and go to the links in the
40:42
Speaker 1: episode description to see how you can help. I'd like
40:45
Speaker 1: to thank our executive producers Jason Flam, Jeff Kempler, and
40:49
Speaker 1: Kevin Wardis, as well as our producers Annie Chelsea, Kathleen Fink,
40:54
Speaker 1: and Jackie Paully. This series is produced, edited, and hosted
40:58
Speaker 1: by me Lauren Bright Pacheco. Our senior producer is Kara Kornhaber.
41:02
Speaker 1: Story editing by Hannah Bial, research by Shelby Sorels, mixing
41:07
Speaker 1: and sound design by Nick Massetti, with additional production by
41:11
Speaker 1: Jeff Clyborne. Our theme music is by Jay Ralph. Be
41:14
Speaker 1: sure to follow us across all social media platforms at
41:18
Speaker 1: Lava for Good and at Wrongful Conviction. You can also
41:21
Speaker 1: follow me on all platforms at Lauren Bright Pacheco. Wrongful
41:25
Speaker 1: Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in
41:28
Speaker 1: association with Signal Company Number one