022 – Let the Character Assasination Begin

They say you never get a second change to make a first impression. In the case of James Holmes, his reputation was doomed from the start. Not only was James Holmes identified as the lone shooter in a horrific mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado on July 20, 2012 (despite plenty of evidence suggesting multiple shooters or accomplices were involved and the fact that not a single eye-witness could positively identify him as the shooter), America had already made up their minds based on early media reporting.

The news media quickly portrayed James Holmes as a man who was a stark mad raving psychopath, a crazy-man with bright orange hair who callously played with sock puppets and spit on jail guards in a detention cell after indiscriminately shooting and killing women and children. They portrayed him as a man who’s very own mother immediately knew he was guilty the moment she heard the news of the mass shooting in Colorado. Though the media was caught lying about all of these facts and having to print retractions shortly afterwards, the first impression of James Holmes had been set firmly in the minds of most Americans.

Sock Puppets and Spitting on Guards

As an example, the media jumped all over early stories that depicted James Holmes as a wild and crazy madman, doing things like spitting on the guards at the Arapahoe Detention Center where he was being held to the point that he had to be placed in protective head gear of some sort to keep him from spitting.  

On July 23rd, 2012, ABCNews reported that, “Accused movie theater gunman is spitting at jail officers so frequently that at one point he was made to wear a face guard.” Going even further, they stated, “Holmes told police he was the fictitious Batman villain, the Joker, and when cops put evidence bags over his hands to preserve traces of gunpowder residue, he pretended the bags were puppets”.

The ABCNews reporter would claim that all of this information came from “law enforcement sources” speaking directly to ABCNews. But, as in so many other pieces of damaging information about James Holmes that first week (especially from ABCNews), this turned out to be completely untrue.  A local ABC affiliate in Denver made a half hearted apology for this character assassination by simply stating that they weren’t the only news agencies reporting this false information.  The official statement went like this,

“Two national news organizations have reported that Holmes, who is being detained in solitary confinement, has been acting out at the Arapahoe County Jail. One national news organization also reported Tuesday night that Holmes has been put in a headgear to prevent him from spitting at guards.  However, knowledgeable sources tell CALL7 Investigator John Ferrugia that is just not true.  The story claiming Holmes was in a protective headgear was reported Tuesday night, despite a report by Ferrugia on Monday that, “contrary to what some media organizations have reported, our sources say in the past 48-hours Holmes has been calm and docile in jail, just like he was in court. There have been no outbursts at all as he is in isolation.”

Consider again the appearance of James Holmes at his first court appearance. In that court appearance James Holmes didn’t say a single word, continually blinked his eyes and nodded off, and clearly appeared to have no comprehension of where he was or what was happening to him. He did not answer a single question posed by the judge nor did he acknowledge anything or anyone in the courtroom. Many viewers wondered in fact if James Holmes had been drugged.

So here we have a news story about a madman playing sock puppets with evidence bags and spitting on guards reported by multiple news sources who claim to have received this information from “law enforcement insiders” only to later have the story retracted and clarifying that James Holmes’ demeaner following his arrest, and for the continuing 48 hour following his arrest, was EXACTLY like that of his first court appearance (i.e. non responsive, dazed and confused).

I also want to point out that if James Holmes demeaner was “docile, just like he was in court” when he was arrested then how did he communicate with officers on scene to tell them about his booby-trapped apartment as officials claim he did? Holmes could not utter a single word in court nor acknowledge anyone around him. Could that “docile” man have had a conversation about bombs at his apartment?

The Joker

And what about that claim that James Holmes referred to himself as the batman villain, the Joker?

One of those so called “National” news organizations also reporting that James Holmes called himself the Joker was the New York Daily News.  Even though it was repeated over and over on television for days after the shooting, the false statement about the “Joker” was later corrected on CBS television’s “Face the Nation” during an interview with CBS Correspondent John Miller who said, “So…so…he definitely did dye his hair bright red like the character the Joker and police did have an early report that he said that ‘I am the Joker’ but as they’ve run that backwards, that report has turned out not to be true. So, yes on the hair and no on the utterance…”

In other words, James Holmes never said he was the Joker. it’s a complete made up lie. So where did that come from?

After digging into the origins of the “I am the Joker” reference it was shocking to find where it appears to have originated from. The statement first appears to show up in the press as being said by the New York City Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly of all people. Ray Kelly is apparently quoted in dozens of sources as the first person to mention the “joker” reference based on information he had received from an “insider” in the case.

One first has to ask why a New York City Police Commissioner is talking to the press about a shooting in Aurora, Colorado. However, the reason seems less of a mystery when one realizes that the Chief of Police in Aurora, Colorado, Dan Oates was a 20+ year police veteran of the New York City Police Department and a major player in Police intelligence in New York just weeks before the September 11th attacks in 2001. It appears that Dan Oates and NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly are long lost buddies from the good old days.  Chief of Police Dan Oates also would admit to reporters that he had spoken to his old friend Ray Kelly right after the shooting but would not reveal what they had spoken about.

So one has to wonder if the “law enforcement insider” who leaked this information is none other than the Chief of Police of Aurora, Colorado himself. Wouldn’t HE be someone that you’d feel confident standing by when questioned about your facts?

How many people know this statement was proven to be a false statement? And better yet how many people know it may have come from the police chief himself? Shouldn’t the public be allowed to ask WHY police insiders were giving out this information if it wasn’t true?

Crazy Lunatic or Calm and Cool on Drugs

ABCNews correspondent Brian Ross would make this claim on national television aired on an ABC World News report with Diane Sawyer.

“…Diane, late tonight we got word from our Denver affiliate that Holmes told police he was so calm because he had taken doses of the painkiller, Vicodin.” 

Diane Sawyer would respond, “A very STRONG painkiller.” 

Brian Ross would nod emphatically, “Yes..yes.” 

Oddly enough however, nowhere in the hours of police and fire audio feeds is there any mention of James Holmes being on any sort of drugs that night or telling officers anything like that. It appears to be a complete fabrication.

Tea Party Member

Further, Brian Ross of ABCNews would suggest that James Holmes was a member of the controversial Tea Party movement and pointed out that he had found a website belonging to a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado as his evidence.  Problem is, it wasn’t James Holmes the alleged shooter but rather was a different Jim Holmes entirely. THAT Jim Holmes started being harassed terribly after the ABCNews report came out.  For that, ABCNews had to issue a formal apology which stated, “An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect. ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted.” On air later in the that same day, Ross also said: “An earlier report that I had was incorrect that he was connected with the Tea Party. In fact, that’s a different Jim Holmes. He was not connected to the Tea Party.”

But it didn’t stop there and it wasn’t just Brian Ross giving out false information.

James Holmes Mother Believes He’s Guilty

Perhaps one of the most damaging early false repots again came from ABCNews. In the early morning hours following the shooting an ABC News reporter named Matthew Mosk reported that he had contacted the mother of James Holmes, Mrs. Arlene Holmes, at her home in San Diego, California and that she had essentially implicated her son as the shooter.  He recalled how he called and woke her in the early morning hours following the shooting and told her that her son had been arrested for a mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado.  Upon hearing the news, she reportedly told him, “You have the right person.  I need to call the police. I need to fly to Colorado” and quickly got off the phone.

The story spread like wildfire and the effect was immediate and damaging as news agencies repeatedly suggested that even James Holmes own mother had no doubt that he was the shooter before even hearing any evidence.  The problem however, was that Arlene Holmes claims she never said any such thing.  In fact, three days later a visibly angry Arlene Holmes hired a lawyer and insisted on giving a press conference to refute the claims of ABCNews.  Arlene seemed agitated at how the story was portrayed.  Recalling the events of that call before a national televised press conference, Arlene would say before cameras that she was contacted by an ABC reporter about 5:45 am on July 20th and that, “I did not know anything about a shooting in Aurora at that time,” she says.   “He asked if I was Arlene Holmes and if my son was James Holmes who lives in Aurora, Colorado.  I answered, ‘Yes, you have the right person’. I was referring to myself.  I asked him to tell me why he was calling and he told me about a shooting in Aurora.  He asked for a comment.  I told him I could not comment because I did not know if the person he was talking about was my son and I would need to find out.”

Unfortunately Arlene’s version of the story has been quietly downplayed while the original ABC News story where Arlene seems to implicate her own son remained all over the internet, condemning James Holmes in the eyes of the public.   Just look how deceptive and damaging this reporting is. Arlene may have uttered the words “You have the right person” but she was referring to herself and NOT implicating her son as the shooter. America however was led to believe even his own mother knew he was guilty.

Miscellaneous Bad Reporting

As more and more reports came out regarding the arrest of James Holmes, questions and inconsistancies began to arrise.  For example, Aurora Police spokesman Officer Frank Fania was interviewed via phone on CNN Live sometime that early morning and confirmed that they had one suspect in custody and that they found a knife, a handgun, and another gun inside the theater as well as a vest. These facts are a contradiction to the story story that states that James Holmes was found near or in his car with his vest on and his handguns and rifle.  And of course there had been no mention before of a knife.

Again, I want to re-iterate how damning it is to a persons reputation to have the first things anyone hears about them to be utter lies. Even though news agencies would later retract their false reporting, the damage was already done and many were convinced authorities had the right man. The trial that took place a year later would never be about WHO committed the shooting but rather to sentence James Holmes for a crime he’d already been convicted of.