Distortion, Manipulation and Just Another Lie!

Once again I am putting aside Part II of The Path to Lauren to concentrate on the dishonest testimony promoted by the Prosecutor. I will post from the Grand Jury testimony (July 19, 2004) which was very similar, in this instance, to what Leslie said during the trial.

Discussion turned to a description of the various paths available to take when traveling between the Parking Lot at Abalone Cove and Inspiration Point. There is also a brief discussion about the Pre-School on the Beach of Abalone Cove.

Page 143

1 Q(Hum) NOW, THIS BEACH AND SCHOOL AREA, WHAT TYPE

2 OF SCHOOL AREA IS THAT?

3 A(Leslie) IT'S A PRIVATE PRESCHOOL THAT HAS A SMALL

4 PLAYGROUND AREA. IT IS SITUATED DIRECTLY ON THE BEACH,

5 MAYBE 30 YARDS, 40 YARDS FROM THE OCEAN AND BEACHFRONT.

In fact, Portuguese Bend Nursery School was opened in 1953 by the matriarch of Portuguese Bend, Mrs. Vanderlip. She opened the school because she had small children and she invited the children of the area to participate. In 1975 Los Angeles County purchased the property and the beach was leased to the City of Rancho Palos Verdes. The Nursery School serviced the children of Palos Verdes, Torrance and San Pedro. It is a parent-involved coop for children ages 3 through 5. The fence around the playground is about 3 feet high and has at least two unlocked gates which were both open when I visited. Children walk from the roadway to the school with their parents, or car pooling is used as a means of limited car traffic on the small access road. Visitors to the Nursery School park in the upper parking lot and access the beach using the same path used by Cam and Lauren.

Cameron Brown had been taken to the school's playground as a child. The setting is very unique and the children enjoy whale watching, dolphins and exploring through the acres upon acres of tidepools right outside the playground. Cam never forgot his experience there as a child, and he thought Lauren would enjoy it as well. The Nursery School and playground is not privately owned, but is in fact publicly owned land without restricted access. The following pictures are of the school and the beach. You can see the lifeguard stand right behind the playground which warns about nude bathing.

It is important to realize, because it is not evident in the following pictures, that the playground and preschool area is NOT on the same level as the beach below. There is a stairway to the beach with about 6 steps down. There is a seawall which protects the playground from the raising tides. I will show pictures of this later.







6 Q (Hum) IS THERE ANY OTHER WAY TO ACCESS THIS

7 PRESCHOOL AREA OTHER THAN GOING DOWN THIS TRAIL THAT YOU

8 DESCRIBED FROM THE ABALONE COVE PARKING LOT?

9 A (Leslie) THERE IS ONE ADDITIONAL WAY TO ACCESS THE

10 PRESCHOOL. IT'S A WINDY, PAVED ROAD THAT KIND OF CURVES

11 AROUND FROM PALOS VERDES DRIVE SOUTH DOWN TOWARDS THE

12 BEACH. HOWEVER, IT'S LOCKED IF THE SCHOOL IS NOT OPEN OR

13 DURING NORMAL SCHOOL HOURS.

14 Q (Hum) AND CAN YOU ACCESS THIS WINDY --

15 THIS PAVED ROAD THAT YOU HAVE DESCRIBED FOR

16 US, CAN YOU ACCESS THAT FROM THE PARKING LOT AT ABALONE

17 COVE?

18 A (Leslie) NO, YOU CANNOT.

19 Q (Hum) YOU WOULD HAVE TO COME OFF OF PALOS VERDES

20 DRIVE SOUTH TO GET ONTO THE ACTUAL ROAD THAT GOES DOWN

21 THERE?

22 A (Leslie) THAT'S CORRECT, YES.

NO IT IS NOT! Let me show you as I myself walked that very road the first time I went to Abalone Cove. I did so because it was high tide on my visit and I could not walk along the beach. So let's do a little reality check here by way of pictures. Hum could have easily used pictures, but I notice he used only a map.

On my first visit to Abalone Cove I had not bothered to check the tide level and encountered tides beating against the seawall. I explored the various ways that I might be able to cross over to Portuguese Point (attempting to cross at point "B"), but realized that Altamira Canyon is far too steep and wild to cross. I then walked up the road from the playground and instead of going all the way to Palos Verdes Drive South I went along the road marked "A" on the picture. This road took me to the bluff area where the parking lot is located. It is completely unhampered and very easy to travel. If Leslie claims no such road exists, he is mistaken. Point "C" on the photograph is the path you walk down from the parking lot to the playground. I might also add that while there is a gate across the road from Palos Verdes Drive South to the playground, it is easily stepped over or under by a hiker. It is only closed to driving traffic which is it's purpose...to eliminate the number of cars going into the school each day. If a child needs to be picked up from the school, the teachers take the child to the gate to meet their parent.

On my second visit to Abalone Cove I wasn’t sure I would be able to make the entire hike because I was not going to go through Altamira Canyon. According to Leslie’s testimony which follows, you can’t go along the beach so I wasn’t expecting to be able to.

27 Q (Hum) AND THEN IF YOU WERE TO LEAVE THIS BEACH

28 AND PARKING LOT -- I'M SORRY, THIS BEACH AND PLAYGROUND

Page 144

1 AREA AND TRAVEL AWAY FROM THE ABALONE COVE PARKING LOT,

2 HOW WOULD YOU DO THAT? WHAT WOULD WE RUN INTO? WHAT

3 WOULD WE FIND?

4 A (Leslie) LEAVING THE PRESCHOOL AREA?

5 Q (Hum) YES.

6 A (Leslie) ONCE YOU LEAVE THE PRESCHOOL AREA, YOU WALK

7 A SHORT PERIOD ALONG THE BEACH. IT'S KIND OF A DEEP,

8 SANDY BEACH; AND THERE'S -- IT'S NOT REAL WIDE. THERE IS

9 A HILL ON ONE SIDE AND THEN THE OCEAN ON THE OTHER. IT

10 IS KIND OF JUST A SHORT BEACH WALK WITHIN THAT AREA.

11 Q (Hum) AND THEN IF WE CONTINUED AWAY FROM THE

12 PARKING LOT, WHAT WOULD WE ENCOUNTER?

13 A (Leslie) THERE'S TRAILS THAT THEN BEGIN TO STEM OFF

14 FROM THAT SHORT AREA OF THE BEACH WHERE YOU WOULD WALK,

15 AND THEY AGAIN GO UP SOME INCLINES, ACTUALLY SOME VERY

16 STEEP INCLINES, AND WIND UP AND AROUND THROUGH THE HILLS

17 WHICH SIT ABOVE THE OCEAN AND WOULD TAKE YOU IN A

18 WESTERLY DIRECTION.

19 Q (Hum) SO THE ONLY WAY, BASICALLY, TO GET OUT FROM

20 THE BEACH, YOU HAVE TO GO UP; IS THAT CORRECT?

21 A (Leslie) THAT'S CORRECT, YES.

22 Q (Hum) YOU CAN'T JUST KEEP WALKING ALONG THE

23 BEACH?

24 A (Leslie) NO.

No, Mr. Leslie? Three years and many trips to that beach and you say, “No?” I guess we need a few pictures to enlighten us as it is clear we can’t depend on the investigator's version of events.

I walked down to the beach using the cement stairway. People I encountered along the way didn’t want their pictures taken so I have blacked them out. I chose to walk along the rocks most of the way, but the option to walk in the sand is readily available. As the tide washes in you could get wet in some areas, depending on the water’s level at the time. The walk was easy, and the worst I encountered was two dead herons.

So how exactly do we know the level of the tide during that day when Cam and Lauren walked along the beach at approximately 2pm (1400hrs)?


Long Beach, Terminal Island, CA Long Beach, Terminal Island, CA: Data Inventory

Station ID: 9410680 Page Help

Historic Tide Data
Historic Tide Data
Station Date Time Pred 6
DCP#: 1
Units: Feet
Data%: MLLW Local 100.00
Maximum:
Minimum:
------- -------- ----- -------
9410680 20001108 00:00 0.68
9410680 20001108 01:00 0.76
9410680 20001108 02:00 1.36
9410680 20001108 03:00 2.34
9410680 20001108 04:00 3.49
9410680 20001108 05:00 4.52
9410680 20001108 06:00 5.19
9410680 20001108 07:00 5.33
9410680 20001108 08:00 4.93
9410680 20001108 09:00 4.07
9410680 20001108 10:00 2.99
9410680 20001108 11:00 1.94
9410680 20001108 12:00 1.18
9410680 20001108 13:00 0.89
9410680 20001108 14:00 1.14
9410680 20001108 15:00 1.82
9410680 20001108 16:00 2.76
9410680 20001108 17:00 3.69
9410680 20001108 18:00 4.36
9410680 20001108 19:00 4.58
9410680 20001108 20:00 4.29
9410680 20001108 21:00 3.56
9410680 20001108 22:00 2.58
9410680 20001108 23:00 1.60



My picture was taken on February 12, 2007 at 1530 hours. The tide data at that time is found in the following data:

Long Beach, Terminal Island, CA Long Beach, Terminal Island, CA: Data Inventory

Station ID: 9410680 Page Help

Historic Tide Data
Historic Tide Data
Station Date Time Pred 6
DCP#: 1
Units: Feet
Data%: MLLW Local 100.00
Maximum:
Minimum:
------- -------- ----- -------
9410680 20070212 00:00 3.47
9410680 20070212 01:00 3.83
9410680 20070212 02:00 4.26
9410680 20070212 03:00 4.65
9410680 20070212 04:00 4.91
9410680 20070212 05:00 4.93
9410680 20070212 06:00 4.65
9410680 20070212 07:00 4.06
9410680 20070212 08:00 3.23
9410680 20070212 09:00 2.26
9410680 20070212 10:00 1.32
9410680 20070212 11:00 0.56
9410680 20070212 12:00 0.12
9410680 20070212 13:00 0.05
9410680 20070212 14:00 0.34
9410680 20070212 15:00 0.92
9410680 20070212 16:00 1.63
9410680 20070212 17:00 2.33
9410680 20070212 18:00 2.87
9410680 20070212 19:00 3.20
9410680 20070212 20:00 3.28
9410680 20070212 21:00 3.20
9410680 20070212 22:00 3.04
9410680 20070212 23:00 2.96

Further, we have the Grand Jury testimony of Sergeant Erickson who monitored the call and went to the scene when the emergency was broadcast as follows:

Page 78

1 Q (Hum) AND WHAT DID HE TELL YOU HAD HAPPENED?

2 A (Erickson) WELL, THIS ALL TOOK PLACE DURING A WALK

3 ALONG THE BEACH, BECAUSE I HAD SEVERAL CONCERNS. IT WAS

4 GETTING LATE IN THE DAY, AND I WAS WORRIED ABOUT THE TIDE

5 COMING IN AND POSSIBLY WASHING AWAY ANY EVIDENCE, SO WE

6 PROCEEDED TO WALK ALONG THE BEACH AREA WHILE HE EXPLAINED

7 TO ME WHAT HAD HAPPENED AND WHAT HE HAD DONE.

And Leslie’s Grand Jury testimony (pg 18) about the tide:

17 Q (Hum) NOW, DURING HIGH TIDE DOES THE WATER

18 ACTUALLY COME UP ONTO THOSE ROCKS AND COVER THOSE ROCKS?

19 A (Leslie) A PORTION OF THEM, YES.

20 Q (Hum) YOU TRIED TO -- HAVE YOU TRIED TO GET OUT

21 TO THE ROCKS DURING HIGH TIDE?

22 A (Leslie) YES, I HAVE.

23 Q (Hum) AND YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT AND YOU GOT AWFUL

24 WET?

25 A (Leslie) THAT'S CORRECT.


The following photos were taken on December 21, 2005 at 1:20 to 2:30pm.

This picture is taken from the upper bluff above Abalone Cove during a high tide condition. It is actually on the path going down to the playground.

This is a picture taken at point "B" of the above satellite view. It shows Altamira Canyon. At this point I declined going down the steep side of Altamira Canyon. There was no clear pathway to follow and no reason to believe this was a reasonable option when considering ways to get to the other side. I opted to go up the road from the playground instead, and found no way to cross.

This picture was taken on the roadway going away from the playground and shows the terrain.

This picture also shows the terrain between the parking lot and Portuguese Point.