Judge Sets Aside Conviction, Orders New Trial For Michael Skakel In Martha Moxley Murder

[inmyhumbleopinion]

89. Mickey Sherman did present an alibi defense

Mickey Sherman did present an alibi defense. The jury did not believe his witnesses:
Brother Rushton 19
Brother John 16
Cousin Jimmy Dowdle 17 (AKA Jimmy Terrien)
Cousin Georgeann Dowdle - in her early twenties

A new witness has come forward -38 years later! Georgeann's beau Denis Ossorio. He is the only non-family member to claim Michael was across town at 10 pm.

RFK Jr. laments, “They never heard the testimony of the people who said he couldn't have done that…….. and if those people had come in and testified…”

Who is he talking about? Which five people have not been heard? All family members he listed [Rush Jr, Julie, John Skakel, Jimmy Dowdle and Georgann Dowdle] did testify at Michael’s murder trial.

Jimmy Dowdle’s older sister, Georgeann Dowdle, did testify at trial. On Sherman's direct she testified that she saw her brother and cousins Rushton Skakel, John Skakel, Michael Skakel arrive at her backcountry Greenwich home around 10 p.m. on the night of the murder.


BY MR. SHERMAN:

Q. When did Rushton Skakel, John Skakel, Michael Skakel and Jim Dowdle, your brother, when did they arrive at your home that evening?

A. I would say probably between 9:30 and ten at night.

Q. And, you saw them there?

A. I did.

Q. And, when did they leave?

A. Probably about 11 but, 11:30, but I am recalling on what I read from my document.

When cross-examined by John Benedict she admitted she told the grand jury she only heard the group, and because she did not see them, she could not say for sure whether Michael Skakel was with the group.


BY MR. BENEDICT:

Q. On page ten, beginning of line 22, [Grand Jury testimony of GeorgeAnn Dowdle taken September 22, 1998] do you recall seeing your brother, James, any time that evening? Answer, I am not sure that I saw him. I think I heard him. I was in my mother's library which is off the living room and I was in there with my beau at the time and I didn't really venture out. Question, when you say you have heard your brother James, you mean his voice or just noises or what? Answer, his voice but I am not sure. I don't know who was there at the time. There were a lot of voices. Question, there were a lot of voices? Answer, um-uh. Question, so it was just more than your brother James? Um-uh. Question, as you look back now, were you able to recognize any of the voices besides your brother's? Answer, I just know that they were cousins but I don't recollect whom was there. Question, by cousins, you mean children of Rushton Skakel? Answer, Skakels, yes. Question, as you look back today, can you tell whether or not you heard the voice of any specific child? Answer, no. Question, of Rushton Skakels? Answer, no, I really don't remember.

MR. BENEDICT: The state has no further questions at this point.

Georgeann Dowdle, reportedly, left the courtroom in tears.


Rush Jr. did testify at trial. He testified that he, Michael, Jimmy Dowdle and John Skakel all went to Terrien/Dowdle's house that night - not from 6 pm to midnight as in RFK Jr.’s claim, but from about 9:30 pm to about 11: 10 pm. No mention of Georgeann, her beau, or her brother, John Dowdle (more on him later),

Trial testimony of Rushton Skakel Jr.:

Q. And, who watched the movie with you -- the television show with you at Terrien's?

A. At Terrien's?

Q. Yes.

A. Jimmy Dowdle, my brother John and my brother, Michael.

Julie Skakel did testify at trial. She testified that she did not go to the Dowdle/Terrien’s. In fact, her infamous “Michael, come back here!” testimony placed Michael’s Monty Python alibi in doubt.


John Skakel testified that he no longer remembered who went to the Terrien/Dowdle's house that night, but he stood by his 1975 statement wherein he said Michael was with them. At trial he was specifically asked if he recalled “bumping into” Georgeann Dowdle, that night. He said he did not.


Trial testimony of John Skakel:

Q. Do you remember anybody being up there other than Jim Terrien, of course, when you got up there that night?

A. No, I don't.

Q. Do you recall coming across Terrien's mother?

A. No.

Q. Do you recall coming across Terrien -- Terrien had two sisters, is that correct, one Tedesh (ph) and one Georgeann?

A. Yeah, and then a sister Anne and then another sister Alexandra.

Q. Do you recall bumping into specifically Georgeann when you got up to the Terrien house that night?

A. No, I don't.


Jimmy Dowdle testified that he watched the show with Rush, John Skakel and Michael in both his own room and his brother John's room. No mention of his brother John Dowdle or Georgeann’s beau.


Trial testimony of Jimmy Dowdle

Q. And, Michael Skakel watched the show?

A. Yes.

Q. Rushton, Jr. watched the show?

A. Yes.

Q. John Skakel watched the show?

A. Yes.

Q. Do you have a sister, Georgeann?

A. I do.

Q. She was in the house?

A. She was.

Q. Did she watch the show with you or do you know where --

A. No, she didn't watch it with us.

Q. She was in and out or where was she?

A. She was just in another section of the house.

Q. You saw her then, though?

A. I did.

The only person in RFK's "Fab Five" who did not "come in and testify" at trial is Georgeann's beau, Denis Ossorio.


From Bishop's Memorandum:

At the habeas trial, Dennis Ossorio, now seventy-two years old, testified that in 1975, he, as a psychologist, was operating a program for women. He indicated that he then had a personal connection to Dowdle and that he had been at the Terrien home in the evening hours of October 30, 1975, visiting with Dowdle and her daughter. He testified that, while there, he had visited with the Skakel brothers, including the petitioner, and Terrien, while they were watching the Monty Python show on television. He indicated that he was in and out of the room where the others were watching Monty Python while Dowdle was putting her daughter to bed. Finally, he indicated that he left the Terrien residence at about midnight and was not sure whether the Skakels had left before him.

http://nypost.com/2013/10/24/skakel-wants-bail-so-he-can-see-his-son/

“I’m 70 and sometimes have some lapses,” Ossorio, a former psychologist from Rye Brook, NY, told The Post. “But there were certain things that were indelible about that evening that imprinted on my memory.”

I wonder if one of those lapses is his age? Bishops seems to think he is 72. I don't have the habeas trail transcription in front of me, but I recall Ossorio also placing John Dowdle - Jimmy and Georgeann's brother, at the Monty Python party. According to Michael Skakel in Dead Man Talking:

http://campyskakel.yuku.com/topic/3686/DEAD-MAN-TALKING-A-Kennedy-Cousin-Comes-Clean

Afterward I wandered off to my older cousin Johnny’s room. He was away somewhere.

According to the prosecution’s habeas trial post trial brief - with the exception of Georgeann’s mention of a nameless beau - no one claiming to be at the Dowdle/Terrien’s that night mentioned the presence of Denis Ossorio or anyone else not related to the family - not to the police in 1975, not to the grand jury and not at the murder trial.

Where has Denis Ossorio been all these years? In the Greenwich area! Why didn’t Georgeann contact him to give his statement to the police in 1975 or to testify at the grand jury in the late 1990's or at Michael’s murder trial in 2002? Why didn’t Rushie or John Skakel or Jimmy Dowdle think to mention him as a non-family member corroborating witness to the police in 1975 or before the murder trial or during one of Michael’s numerous appeals? What is up with that?

What caused Ossorio to come forward now after Michael has been rotting in prison for 11 years? Michael claims he gave Mickey Sherman Ossorio’s name before the trial. Mickey denies it. If true, what would have prevented Mickey from contacting Ossorio? He’s listed in the phone book! No money saving motive there. If Mickey did, in fact, ignore Michael’s pleas, what kept Michael from looking him up? Oh, I forgot – hiring an attorney is like riding on the Concorde, once you buy the pricey ticket you just sit back and enjoy the ride. Even if you learn the jet is way off course, low on fuel, and a phone call could prevent it from crashing and burning? Really, Michael? How could the Hon. Thomas Bishop fall for such utter BS?