![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/schofield.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nMichelle Saum Schofield was very brutally murdered with a knife, and stabbed all over her body more than 20 times, in 1987. It\u2019s a\u00a0horrible<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0killing. A person capable of that level of insane, murderous mutilation should\u00a0never<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0be free to walk among women \u2014 or anyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michelle\u2019s husband at the time, Leo Schofield, has\u00a0never<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0wavered in asserting his innocence,\u00a0despite Jerry Hill\u2019s unpunished lie to the contrary in 2020. Never in the nearly 40 years since the killing, through all the pressures and punishments he received as a result of his prosecution for the murder, has he broken in that assertion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So let me ask you a question, dear reader, especially if you\u2019re a Polk County resident, based on some \u201cifs\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If<\/strong><\/em> Polk Sheriff Grady Judd (who led investigations for the PCSO at the time of Leo\u2019s arrest), State Attorney Brian Haas, former State Attorney Jerry Hill, and Hill\u2019s former employee circuit judges who kept Leo in prison; if Grady and Jerry, arguably the mouthiest<\/strong><\/em> two Florida law enforcement officers of their generation, actually believed<\/strong><\/em> Leo did it \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n If<\/strong><\/em> Grady and Jerry and Brian actually believed <\/strong><\/em>Leo Schofield was an unrepentant<\/strong><\/em> butcherer of a woman about to be released into society on parole without taking any<\/strong><\/em> responsibility for it \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do any<\/strong><\/em> of you who know them at all<\/strong><\/em> by their public personas think they would have meekly, publicly acquiesced to the Commission on Offender Review\u2019s decision to release Leo? Or would they have held screaming joint press conferences for weeks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you think they would have let Bone Valley<\/em>\u2019s Gilbert King defeat<\/strong><\/em> them \u2014 with only whiniest of whines from Brian Haas spokesman Jake Orr about how \u201cthe media\u201d made them do it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n No, Jake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your<\/strong><\/em> garbage case and garbage public morality made you<\/strong><\/em> \u2014 and Jerry and Brian \u2014 do it. Not \u201cthe media,\u201d which has far, far more often covered for and\/or abetted you in the last 35 years. (See Suzie Schottelkotte.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trust me on this: in your shoes, Jake, if I<\/strong><\/em> believed in this<\/strong><\/em> conviction for this<\/strong><\/em> horrible crime for which the defendant has never acknowledged guilt, I would have fought to the bitter, bitter end with every tool available to me. But you\u2019re not me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Leo Schofield didn\u2019t do this crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You, Jerry, Brian, Grady and all your shamefully self-protective house judges and prosecutors who should know better are your own best evidence of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This article is a bit of place holder for deeper dives to come, as I have time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But speaking of media, compare and contrast the articles on Leo\u2019s parole that ran in The Ledger (Gary White)<\/a> and LakelandNow (Suzie Schottelkotte).<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Two very, very different agendas on one factual story, in which life, death, crime, and punishment are the massive human stakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which one reads a serious, actual 2024 update of the full status of the case? And which one reads like a rehashed argument for the conviction? And I would bet a lot of money that LakelandNow\u2019s editors had to ratchet back Suzie\u2019s aggressive advocacy for the conviction and its perpetrators, which has played out in public over decades<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s just one example of that advocacy \u2014 which ran at a crucial time in the Schofield case, too \u2014 in a profile of lead Schofield prosecutor John Aguero:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The full article is pretty amazing.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s the key excerpt, right at the start, especially for those of you who know the Schofield case and Aguero\u2019s generally sleazy behavior and likely invention of an immunity offer than never existed for Jeremy Scott, for which fellow prosecutors say Aguero should have been fired.<\/a> Note the part in bold:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Assistant State Attorney John Aguero has sent 13 defendants to Florida’s death row in the 19 years he’s been prosecuting first-degree murder cases in Polk County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among his more notable victories: George Trepal, who poisoned his Alturas neighbors, cop killer Robert Norris and most recently Tavares Wright, convicted in a violent crime spree that left two cousins dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n State Attorney Jerry Hill said there’s a reason he’s assigned Aguero, 53, to cases like the Serrano trial, where there’s no confession, eyewitness or murder weapon.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Aguero, he said, is a master at arguing cases based on circumstantial evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “John completely understands the questions that are going through jurors’ minds when they don’t have a confession or an eyewitness,” Hill said. “He anticipates those questions and he can tie the pieces together as good as anyone I’ve seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “He doesn’t leave any gaps, so he doesn’t leave room for reasonable doubt,” Hill said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve reached out a few times to Suzie to ask general and specific questions about her coverage of the Schofield case. I specifically asked her if she considered Schofield prosecutor John Aguero a friend before his death. She refused to answer or engage, beyond a perfunctory bit of I stand by my reporting blah blah blah.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Given all that, I can understand why simply telling an honest, factual story about the Schofield case, when prosecutors are accustomed to Suzie\u2019s 35-ish years of unskeptical local cheerleading for them, can feel like and unfair attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suzie spoiled them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway, I\u2019m issuing a public invitation, right hear and now, to Jake, Brian, Grady, Jerry, the house judges, Suzie, and Suzie\u2019s long-time boss Skip Perez, retired Ledger executive editor (who was my also my boss):<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s talk about the Schofield case in a public forum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps LakelandNow could host the forum. They often host public forums on issues of public importance in Lakeland. <\/a>This seems like a perfect candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe question that yields the most definitive answer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
When you\u2019re used to \u201cthe media\u201d being Suzie Schottelkotte, any skeptical question probably feels unfair<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/ci3.googleusercontent.com\/meips\/ADKq_NY4guUtq2o1Y6WwFpPEYSRN_9JAOcIGOvuaK_FD3HqUGayBJLS_4tHNXfQcsGqw8hchVKYFnF9DlJdHk0Yrsj4nd--cmrQKD5RoYxChZf6v0BZD0Gj4Py6oRk7KkbEXpCzvIlg9ajyF1uUmuM-TxPeShV77zCeeCTSPwgtsl2wb0jt-XaP83muCqr-ujxZYlBm8sRRUpht1RjussfFbHzUBVVolS8tAFykrOeGgA3CKzYiWgg5O_Thu9u46P4_xnkRrAOnrc0Ty7twuDgXTtTh2_K0a6lGnNQgqg5ZJPpNqOwzztMJ_oo7K=s0-d-e1-ft#https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1484,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6eba2599-5e26-4294-bf3e-291bf406dd14_742x586.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n