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From: [email protected]
Date: 3/19/03
Time: 7:14:58 PM
Remote Name: 64.12.96.42
notes in part:
The defense put on the best show for the jury (no lawyers) but the prosecution had a better legal case. Yes, the law said ABC but the common practice was XYZ. Cochran cited no penalties for breaking the notification laws if they had been enforced – for the first time in history. Expecting that they would be enforced would be like dropping a rock and expecting it to go sideways because somebody wrote a law that said it was supposed to. For any LA detective, the long notification delay was as predictable as gravity.
This nis where you are again entirely wrong. The coroner made a huge fuss about this, an issue that was discussed at sidebar. The notification process had alos recently been changed because the coroner again made a huge fuss about the police faiolure to follow it.
The even more important points are that the coroner quickly shut up, almost certainly meaning somebody leaned opn him to stop making a fuss and maike the police look bad; and two, nobody was disclplined for such blatant disregard of the law. That, of course, was purely bedcause the cops were doing what was necessary to delay the coroner's arrival to give themselves the most possible leeway in establishing the time of death so they could play with te window of opportunity to commit the murder.
the fact is had Phillips done as you try to suggest, he would not have answered the question about having been orderd not to as he had. Even had be been ordered, he could have said that Spangler told him that notifcation would be the responsibility of RHD since they were on the case, and Phillips could have returned to his argument that he was no longer the investigator.
But Cochran reading him the state law made clear that he specifically had the legal obligation, as did any police officer. Now the LAPD procedure might arguably conform to state law by the notification being performed by someone more qualified to make the appropriqate determination that the case fell within the guidelines calling for the notification to be made, i.e. confirming that it was a murder. But the ranking homicide detective would definitely have been obligated to do that, and that was Phillips.
As to why he waited until 2:50 when he arrived at 2:10, that could certainly be accounted for by them having to go on a walk through, and spanlger arrived just as they ended it (well, according to some accounts). Phillips then briefed Spangler, and it was in that time frame that the coroner notification came up.
The fact is that Spangler had to know the law as well as Phillips did. He knew he was violating it by barring Phillips from making the call. He would never have assumed that responsibility without knowing there would be no repercussions, which he could not at all be sure about in such a high profile case unless he had also been directed about how to handle the case.
Prien