DocCec <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
In a message dated 98-03-23 12:55:50 EST, you write:
<< This case your talking about sounds really interesting! I hope you can
do some summaries up for us >>
There's not a lot more to it than what I already mentioned. Ruthann Aron was
a legislator in MD, married to a man who allegedly played around here and
there and ultimately wanted a divorce. At about the same time it seems her
chances of re-election looked shaky. Anyway, she asked an acquaintance to
find her a hit man to eliminate her husband and an attorney -- I'm not sure
whether that was an attorney working on the divorce or one connected to some
other action. The acquaintance went to police who set up a cop as the "hit
man" -- there are tapes of her talking to both the acquaintance and the cop
himself.
Her husband was in FL (I think, somewhere like that) when he got the call from
the police that she had taken out a contract on him. He was understandably
flustered, since she is known to have a number of guns and not all are/were
accounted for. He's been pretty generous in his testimony about her, but
won't live in the same house with her anymore. (He may be a playboy, but he
isn't that dumb!) She was held in jail for awhile, then released to live with
a friend with a monitor on -- that fell apart when she and the friend couldn't
get along, so then she was allowed to live in her own home with just the
monitor. A bit scary, given the gun thing, and probably not something that
would have been allowed had she not been a prominent citizen.
The pros is relying on the tapes and the cop's testimony, plus the testimony
of some psychiatry/psychology types who claim she faked her tests. The
defense is relying mostly on some psych types who claim the tests show she is
mentally ill, plus her mother's testimony concerning childhood abuse by her
father (who is now conveniently dead.)
They are in closing arguments and should go to the jury this week if not
today. It's a toss-up which way the jury will go, I think. If she really was
abused then she has my sympathy, but it's hard for me to see how that long ago
abuse could have all of a sudden triggered the attempt to kill. The defense
theory is that she somehow saw her husband and this attorney as playing the
same abusive roles as did her father, and snapped. IMO a bit far fetched, but
I guess possible. There seems to be no argument that she actually did engage
in this clumsy attempt to hire a hit man; the only argument is whether or not
she is criminally responsible.
It's been an interesting case, largely because her name is well known and the
course has been so strange -- the house arrest thing, for example, and her
behavior in the court room (crying, head down, then staring straight ahead
without expression.)
That's about all I can tell you. Apparently this hasn't made the news outside
this area? Interesting.
Doc
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