Saturday, December 27, 2008

Preston’s testimony was used in at least 60 felony cases in Brevard


Letter: Tying Adam Walsh's death to Brevard cases

Law enforcement is now convinced beyond a doubt that serial killer Ottis Toole murdered 6-year-old Adam Walsh after abducting him on July 27, 1981.

The Walsh family will be spared the trauma of a trial. Behind bars for other homicides and suffering from AIDS, Toole died from liver failure in 1996. Toole was a homosexual.

Toole was in Vero Beach within two weeks of Adam’s abduction. It doesn’t take any stretch of imagination to consider that Toole could have traveled north to Indian Harbour Beach’s reputed hotspot of homosexual activity — Canova Beach — and bludgeoned James Dvorak to death on Aug. 17, 1981.

Bill Dillon spent 27 years behind bars for Dvorak’s homicide; the charges against him were dropped earlier this month.

Some reports have Toole traveling with a male companion. In July, DNA evidence on a bloody T-shirt excluded Dillon, pointing to two others.

A dozen disgusting words appeared in a Dec. 12 Orlando Sentinel article about Dillon: “(John) Preston’s testimony was used in at least 60 felony cases in Brevard.”

Sixty cases!

Only two of Preston’s Brevard appearances had previously surfaced — Juan Ramos was acquitted at retrial in 1987; Wilton Dedge was DNA exonerated in 2004.

On ABC’s “20/20” in 1984, Geraldo Rivera discredited Preston’s wild claims about his tracking dogs’ ability to follow months old trails and locate submerged evidence.

In 1984, when elected as State Attorney, Norm Wolfinger switched sides, moving from damning Preston and defending Ramos to praising Preston and prosecuting Dedge and Dillon.

Gov. Charlie Crist, like Gov. Jeb Bush before him, is inexplicably ignoring pleas to order an investigation to find out if Preston fingered others who weren’t guilty.

Unrelated, clouded Brevard convictions had been brought to their attention. There’s no such thing as a disposable Floridian; it’s time for Crist to respond reasonably or resign.

Susan Chandler

Vero Beach

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