Regarding the Wednesday editorial, “Troubling questions linger”:
As the defense attorney on the Langendoerfer case, I have never received a solicitation for comment or information from your newspaper. Thus, I was shocked when I read that you “know what happened” with Galindez’s murder because the “witnesses told police the same story.”
I reviewed over 1,800 pages of discovery, interviewed one witness for four hours, another for two hours, interviewed numerous other peripheral witnesses, and scoured phone records and I did not encounter a single consistent version of events. It is amazing that your editorial writer can be so confident in a theory that the state lacked such confidence in that they reduced the charge two times over — especially when you have not requested or had access to any first-hand information on the case.
It would be helpful for your readers to know the following facts: 1) the witnesses had markedly different stories about how Galindez died, none of which matched the forensic evidence; 2) two of the three witnesses fled to Mexico immediately after speaking with police not for fear of Langendoerfer, but because they feared that Britney’s gang would kill them because the gang believed those witnesses killed Britney; 3) the defense had a medical expert prepared to testify that Ms. Galindez was dead before she hit the water and did not have a single wound consistent with stabbing; 4) the “witnesses” each had a record of repeatedly lying to the police about this case prior to coming up with their final contradicting stories; 5) one of the state witnesses used the victim’s cell phone on his mother’s plan for weeks after telling the police he had no idea where the phone was, then he sold it to a cousin who continued to use it until police caught him with a secret warrant.
It is a tragedy that Ms. Galindez died a violent death, but it is similarly tragic that in America in 2009 the free press does not give a damn about the real facts.
Sonja K. Hardenbrook
Everett
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