Saturday, June 22, 2013

Slow Saturday Special: The Comings and Goings at the Hernandez House

I'm so glad the Globe is on top of this story:

"Hernandez meets with lawyers, no charges filed; Patriots tight end largely out of view as rumors outdistance real news" by Mark Arsenault, Wesley Lowery and Javier Panzar |  Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent,  June 21, 2013

NORTH ATTLEBOROUGH — In a day filled with rumor and anticipation, New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez huddled with his lawyers in Boston Friday, while investigators remained tight-lipped about the homicide investigation that has embroiled the football star.

Reporters stood vigil outside Hernandez’s North Attleborough home and at a local courthouse, on speculation that investigators were poised to take action against him.

Related: Hernandez Held on Murder Charges

The stakeouts by reporters and photographers extended to Dorchester, where the anguished family of a 27-year-old man gunned downed Monday near Hernandez’s home demanded justice.

Hernandez’s entanglement in the ongoing investigation cost him a corporate sponsorship Friday, as a nutritional company terminated the player’s endorsement contract.

No charges have been announced against Hernandez, or anyone else, in the shooting death of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd, an acquaintance of Hernandez’s found slain Monday in an industrial park near the player’s home in North Attleborough....

In Hernandez’s hometown of Bristol, Conn., a small, hilly community best known as the home of ESPN’s headquarters, several friends who knew him from high school declined to discuss the investigation, noting only that they are torn as to what to believe....

Related: 

ESPN's Economic Barometer 
Is Your TV Watching You? 

Not in 3D anyway.

Attempts to reach Hernandez’s family were unsuccessful. The driveway in front of the home at the Bristol address listed for Hernandez’s mother sat empty on Friday.

No one answered the door and the day’s edition of the Hartford Courant, which splashed the latest on the homicide investigation across the front page, sat untouched on the property.

Neighbors refused to discuss the case....

--more--"

"Story may expose new crack in the Patriots’ Way; Many exceptions to proud focus on character" by Bob Hohler |  Globe Staff, June 22, 2013

Aaron Hernandez, 23, is the latest in a string of Patriots players who have become entangled in police investigations in recent years. Amid the fallout, the proud image Kraft has projected — that his franchise is an institution for men of respectable character — has never been more in question....

It's like he's cursed or something.

With a proud and proven winning tradition, the 21st century Patriots have tried with mixed results to rehabilitate some gifted players who have failed, sometimes badly, off the field....

Donté Stallworth
Alfonzo Dennard
Albert Haynesworth
Brandon Spikes
Willie Andrews
Corey Dillon
Nick Kaczur
Kevin Faulk
Christian Peter

*************************

“I don’t want thugs and hoodlums here,’’ Kraft told Bill Parcells, his coach at the time, according to the 2012 book, “Coaching Confidential: Inside the Fraternity of NFL Coaches.’’

*************************

Each transgression has tarnished Kraft’s record of trying to win Super Bowls with teams of admirable character. Yet the Patriots should not necessarily be denigrated for their history of player-related legal woes, said Dan Lebowitz, executive director of the Center for Sport in Society at Northeastern University.

He said American culture is rife with men behaving badly. That some are pro athletes should come as no surprise....

Hernandez’s dubious past, including a positive marijuana test in college and his long association with “street activity’’ in his hometown of Bristol, Conn., raised concerns about his character among some NFL executives before the 2010 draft, the Globe reported Friday.

Those concerns caused Hernandez to fall to the fourth round of the draft as every other NFL team passed him over before the Patriots selected him, 113th overall, out of the University of Florida.

Hernandez had no history of major behavioral problems with the Patriots until news surfaced this week....

Related: 

"But the two events, separated by four months and 1,400 miles, are raising serious questions about Hernandez, the company he keeps, and the places he went." 

Time to get ahold of those NSA logs, especially since Hernandez destroyed his home security system and cellphone. Globe still hiding that ball.

While the Patriots wait for additional information about Hernandez in both the Miami and North Attleborough cases, Lebowitz said the team can take a measure of pride from recently acquiring Tim Tebow, an evangelical Christian whose off-field behavior is unlikely to further embarrass Kraft’s franchise.

Let's pray anyway.

--more--"

I gotta go myself, readers. I've got other things to do today. 

NEXT DAY UPDATE: 

"Hernandez home subject of intense police search; 5th day of investigation ends without arrests" by Mark Arsenault, Wesley Lowery and Juliet Pennington |  Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent, June 22, 2013

NORTH ATTLEBOROUGH — As many as 20 law enforcement officers, police dogs, and a locksmith descended on the home of New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez on Saturday afternoon, conducting a nearly four-hour search of the property and leaving with bags of possible evidence.

The search, which included local and State Police, came after days of investigation into what role, if any, Hernandez played in the slaying of his acquaintance Odin Lloyd, whose bullet-ridden body was found in a nearby industrial park Monday evening.

What had been a dull scene of staked-out media members began bustling with activity about 1:45 p.m. Saturday when multiple uniformed and plainclothes officers parked in the driveway and entered the home.

Officers guided two dogs throughout the sprawling home and backyard. Hernandez’s white sport utility vehicle was searched. North Attleborough police directed traffic around the scene, as neighbors gathered to watch with a pack of reporters that has been outside the star tight end’s home for days.

About an hour into the search, police carried a pry bar into the house. A short time later, a local locksmith arrived at the scene, and was directed inside by the police. He stayed only minutes before leaving, giving no indication of what he had been summoned to open, or whether he was successful.

Police emerged from the house around 5:25 p.m. carrying about a half-dozen brown paper bags of possible evidence that they loaded into one of their vehicles before driving away.

Spokesmen for State Police and for the Bristol district attorney’s office each declined to comment on the activity at Hernandez’s home, including whether a search warrant had been executed.

Hernandez’s lawyer, Michael Fee, who arrived at the house about two hours after police, remained in the house after the officers departed for a brief time.

The Bristol district attorney’s office has declined to comment on the current status of the investigation but repeated on Saturday that any major development in the case — including a warrant, arrest, or charges — would be publicly announced....

Media members have maintained a lengthy vigil over the past week, with cameras perpetually pointed in the direction of the house on Ronald C. Meyer Drive....

Nothing better to do, huh?

Shortly before 10 a.m. Saturday, a news helicopter appeared. Cars continued to pass by the house in Westwood Estates, a neighborhood home to several other current and former New England Patriots players, to check out the scene and take photos on their cellphones.

Around lunchtime, a young woman came out of the house, retrieved some papers from a car in the driveway and brought them back into the house. A little while later she left in a silver Nissan with another woman, and returned soon after.

Shortly after 7 Saturday night, Hernandez approached the door and looked out at the crowd of reporters and curious onlookers.

Then he walked away. 

I think I am going to do that with this story.

--more--"

Still silent on the cellphone, security system, and cleaners. I don't understand it. ESPN reported it. 

UPDATE: Media presence at Hernandez’s home continues 

And the hero of the day is some 10-year-old gopher going for doughnuts and coffee for the reporters?