Reading for extra credit [you may want to wait until the series is complete]:
http://members.calbar.ca.gov/fal/Member/Detail/199838
http://members.calbar.ca.gov/fal/Member/Detail/198399
Wow, as someone said above, you can’t make this stuff up. If this were the plot of a TV show, I’d think it was ludicrous.
It is truly amazing to me that the officer who took the initial call exercised such superb judgment. As stated in the article, a poor person of color in a “bad” neighborhood would almost certainly have fared very differently.
So it’s a true story? I started reading it and decided I wasn’t interested in reading a mystery/thriller. I thought it was fiction.
Irvine PD are taking some heat for the resources they have poured into this case, with critics claiming the crime did not warrant the amount spent prosecuting it. I disagree, I think the potential destruction of someone’s life and character by framing them should be prosecuted as though it were a violent act. The poor victim was lucky the police believed her initially, she could have ended up in jail for a very long time if they hadn’t fully investigated.
Riveting. How soon will it be a movie?
“now, pizzagirl, are you trying to say that you didn’t get the reference to Beverly Hills? It is a pretty well-known signifier for a certain kind of ostentatious wealth.”
I did have a smiley in my post! No, honestly, I’d know that stereotype but I don’t really have any more impression other than generic Hollywood celebrity glitz. I don’t have any real picture of it in my mind. I was amused to see the description of NB as BH in a beach town, because for all I knew BH was on the beach as well. And yes, I’ve been to LA, but it’s not a city that gives one a real sense of place. But I digress! Thanks for those who have described it in more detail!
@Pizzagirl yes that was me, born and raised in Los Angeles and never really lived elsewhere. I think you do have a picture of NB in your mind! If you ever visit Orange County, we need to do a meet up!
What, you don’t watch Real Housewives of OC/BH/etc??? There was a reality series about PTA moms – “Mother Funders.” I don’t think it lasted!
@CheddarcheeseMN I bet it will be on Lifetime one day, if Lifetime still exists as a network!
No, I have no interest in RH shows!
Newport/Irvine = Hinsdale/Oakbrook- if that helps…
@NJres : It’s a very true story, sad to say.
After reading this, these two fed into every stereotype of the elite school graduate as sociopaths and as people who saw themselves as better than others. I say sociopaths because even after admitting guilt, they both made it seem like it was no big deal and saw the victim only was doing this for financial reward and so forth. I read the conclusion of the case but I won’t reveal it if people like the suspense of waiting for the conclusion in the serialized story, I will say I don’t know if I think justice was done.
I love that the first investigator was ex-NCIS, I could just see Gibbs doing that.
What stereotype of elite school grads as sociopaths?
They seemed like a couple of jerks who happened to have elite degrees, that’s all. That wasn’t their defining factor.
Thanks for the recommending the article. I bet they expected their lives to be a lot different when they enrolled at Stanford and Berkeley. Kind of ticks me off that scum like that got into those schools over some much better people. Looking forward to reading the final installment.
I think the fact that they went to Stanford and Berkeley is really completely irrelevant to the story, but whatever. Glad everyone is enjoying it!
@pizzagirl:
The stereotype I am talking about is pretty common, that the people that go to elite schools are these driven monsters who see themselves as better than anyone else and feel like they, being better than mere mortals, are entitled to do what they want, to hell with what it does to others. The stereotype is out there, from the Wall Street investment type ruining the economy with their greed, to the ‘elites’ who look down on everyone else…I don’t know if they are diagnosable as sociopathic, but a normal person doesn’t try to frame someone for a felony because they thought they insulated junior, when the payback doesn’t fit the crime, something deeper is at work. By the way, both of them seemed to frame their self image in being graduates of elite programs, hubby’s license plate had UCLA law grad in a Stanford frame, not exactly underplaying it.
And note I was careful to say stereotype, I didn’t say it reflected on anyone else, and as far as the negative stereotypes of elite college graduates out there,they abound, they are found even on CC in various discussions shrug. All I said was these two feed into the negative perceptions many people have about elite college grads shrug
Projecting?
@Pizzagirl The schools are mostly irrelevant to the story, but considering this is a college site and people on here are dreaming everyday of going to those kinds of schools, this kind of outcome would be the farthest thing from their minds. I’d guess they entered school fairly idealistic and everyone around them so proud of them. Speaking of jail, just noticed your jail bars are gone.
My crimes were not nearly so dire 
I wonder what else the lawyer/wife has done to others. I loved the part about how when she was jilted by her fireman lover, she sent info to his wife and to his wife’s employer. She had a lot going on.