Finally! Ronald Richie may be prosecuted in the John Crawford murder

[CitizensHaveRights]

...but don't expect the murderers to face charges themselves, they already escaped indictment last year.

A judge has found probable cause to prosecute Ronald Ritchie on charges of making false alarms for placing the 911 call that brought police to the store.
Attorney Michael Wright, who represents the Crawford family in their civil suit against Beavercreek police and Walmart, said Wednesday evening that, “based on the video we do know that he was making assertions that were not correct. However, it wasn’t his fault that John Crawford is dead.”
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/crime-law/judge-finds-probable-cause-for-911-caller-in-crawf/nqzq4/

Soon after the murder, when Richie was basically confessing to lying to the 9-1-1 operator in SWATing Crawford, I was thinking "why hasn't anybody arrested this asshat?"

[gryphon]

Unfortunately the judge ruled that there was not probable cause to issue a criminal complaint against Ritchie for inciting to violence, inducing panic, involuntary manslaughter or reckless homicide.

And the cops get off scot-free.

[CitizensHaveRights]

After seeing what happened to the main cop, who lost the probable cause hearing but then the prosecutor got him no-billed by a grand jury, I get the idea that the PC hearing just forces the prosecutor to do something.

In this case, with a lawsuit hanging over the police, and with the prosecutor feeling a bit of backlash for clearing the murderer, I think our Richie is going to go before a grand jury with the prosecutor setting him up for indictment, and probably for a lot more than making a false claim of assaulting children with a deadly weapon. But it won't be for inciting a crime of violence, because the murderer didn't do anything illegal, according to the prosecutor.

Surprisingly to me, the judge found that Crawford really did do much of what Richie claimed, including waving the 'gun' around at people and looking like he was loading it. I hadn't heard anybody say the video supported that before.

But still, if Crawford were really on a rampage, would Richie and Mrs Richie have followed him all over the store? That story just falls apart all by itself.
And why was nobody else in the store concerned in the slightest about Crawford's behavior?

[gryphon]

I watched the video, including the version that was synced with the 911 audio. Crawford did none of the things claimed.

[CitizensHaveRights]

He didn't load it, but not even I, who desperately want to see Richie behind bars, would vote to convict him of falsely stating that 'it looks like' he's loading it. At the time Richie said that, he was holding the gun up as if he were inspecting or manipulating the action.

To me, he just looks like he's standing by the pet toy display, acting bored, but I already know he's just killing time before taking an open box A*I*R*17 to checkout.

The 9-1-1 operator, and this seems unfortunately typical, quickly escalated Richie's "looks like he's loading it" to "he's loading it".

When I see him just holding it pointed at the floor, or moving it up and resting it over his shoulder(8:24 in the video), I don't think "he's just looking around, waving it, waving it around" is accurate. (but it's a whole lot less embellished than a badged witness would have said)
And Richie did refuse to confirm that Crawford loaded it: "(long pause) well, it looked like he was trying to load it, I don't know" should have dialed the operator's emotional setting back from 'active shooter' to 'possible situation'.

OK, the probable cause in the video: at 8:25:30, an adult and two kids walk by as he raises it from down at his side pointed at the floor to over his shoulder pointed at the wall. "My name is Ronald Richie, he just pointed it at like two children". The question is, was that malicious, or are Richie's panties twisted so tight by now that they're cutting off the flow of oxygen to his brain and he really thought he saw that?

[gryphon]

There's a news interview with Ritchie afterward where he denied telling the 911 operator those things.  Too bad we have audio, eh?

[CitizensHaveRights]

Richie won't be criminally charged, says Associated Press...

http://my.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20160418/e58c8941-c404-4cd5-965c-f24a298db5f7