Lying For Death Ray Pt 3 – New lies: now a doctor is responsible for Ray’s crimes!

I really don’t expect journalists to understand complicated details of difficult court cases. But I do expect them to exercise caution when interviewing convicted criminals about the crimes they committed. This is especially important in Ray’s case, as it was the media who gave him a platform for softball, self promotional interviews. Four deaths later, and they are still queuing up for round five. Three homicide convictions hasn’t convinced any of them that maybe they should be a little more careful before jumping into bed with him.

The previous post dealt with so new lies about the death of Colleen Conaway. Lizzie Crocker interviewed Ray and asked him about it — good move for a journalist… but didn’t consider the possibility that his might be a lie — really, a bit dumb, given she already knows about the multiple homicide convictions.

I am going through her article in detail, partly demonstrate how quickly this crook can send a journalist off the rails. If you simply take dictation from this fellow like Lizzie Crocker has done, he will play you for a fool, and use you to blame the victims and insult the dead.

Crocker’s article continues:

Towards the end of [fake documentary] Enlighten Us, we see Ray admitting responsibility for the sweat lodge deaths while lecturing a small group of people.

Oh do we now. Really? In fact, what we see is Ray denying responsibility for it, and Crocker helping him.

“The case that ensued set legal precedent,” he stresses, remarking that it was “the first time in the history of America that consenting adults participated willfully in a legal activity… An accident occurred, and it was prosecuted as a crime.”

Like I said. But because Ray used the word responsible, and Crocker is taking dictation rather working as a journalist, she writes what he says, not what he does. Basic journalistic failure.

After this qualification, he says: “Doesn’t matter. I am responsible.”

Thus he denies responsibility for the crimes of which he was convicted, while simultaneously claiming to be taking responsibility. The parole board noted that he showed no remorse for his crimes, and this statement confirms their perception. He doesn’t think he did anything wrong. And he is trying to go down exactly the same path, again with the gullible, gushing help of an indifferent and incompetent media.

(Video compilation by Salty Droid)

Crocker’s stenography continues.

–Ray echoed this sentiment during our conversation, though not without qualifications suggesting he wasn’t the only one who screwed up. There was a doctor in the sweat lodge, he said.

Apparently there was a doctor in the heat tent, but this person was a paying participant and as incapacitated as everyone else. That Ray blames this person for his crimes is one of the most risible and stupid things I’ve heard from him. I also recall that there was a doctor at Ray’s 2008 fake sweat lodge (a year before the deadly 2009 one), and he had some interesting testimony, that was, sadly, not allowed in to appear as evidence in the trial. He reported that he had “witnessed life-threatening trauma after the sweat lodge ceremony”.

In other words, Ray clearly had a history of endangering lives of his customers.

“But it was on my watch. It was my activity. It was my event. Ultimate responsibility rests on the CEO of any company, whether it’s BP or Enron. That’s a heavy cross to bear and I still don’t take it lightly to this day. I think frequently, ‘What could I have done differently?’ I own the fact that things were missed, but I wish they hadn’t been. I wish I knew that something was going horribly wrong.”

Again, this “tragic accident” scenario that Crocker constantly pushes for him throughout this article is the argument that failed in court. And had the jury been allowed to hear of life threatening prior events, they would probably have convicted him of manslaughter. But for spiritual teachers with a gullible press, the court of public opinion is much easier.

And as for Ray’s “I wish I had known something was horribly wrong” argument, Crocker should ask him why he didn’t try that in court. (His legal team initially used it for the media after Ray was first charged, but they dropped as soon as they read the initial witness testimony from police interviews — where numerous people said Ray knew and refused to act.)

In the film, a participant in the ceremony said she’d alerted Ray that a woman, Liz Neuman, was having trouble breathing (she was declared dead once she reached the hospital), when Ray snapped back: “Liz has done this before.”

In fact, Liz Neuman died nine days later. Real journalists correct that kind of detail and print a note acknowledging it at the end of the article. But obviously, if Ms Crocker were to correct all the factual errors, the errata list would turn into an encyclopedia.

Did the other woman’s concerns not indicate that something was horribly wrong?

“I do remember saying that Liz had done this many times before and she knew what she was doing, and I truly believed that,” Ray conceded, though he insisted the same participant who alerted him testified in the trial that Neuman “said she didn’t need to go.”

Again, this was all sorted out in court. There are very many, perfectly clear reasons why the jury decided the deaths were caused by Ray’s negligence.

He said he was on the other side of the lodge from where the two other participants who died were sitting. The doctor, however, “was sitting right next to them.”

And that is complete and utter bullshit. Ms Crocker, are you not aware that you were interviewing a convicted criminal?

“It’s incredibly sad, and here’s what exacerbates the sadness: Everyone was so emotionally high going into the exercise because it had been a tough week and they’d had some really great breakthroughs. I’ve told myself more times than I can count: If I had just ended the retreat then, life would have been so much different. Three people I really cared about would still be here, possibly.

Possibly. Even admitting that much is more than Ray’s narcissism can tolerate. “If only I had have stopped cooking people before they actually died, maybe, just maybe they would still be alive. Possibly.”

“But life is hard. It kicks you hard. You can’t continue to live in the ‘What if?’ You have to ask yourself how you’re going to learn and grow from the experience. That’s my great wish for everyone.”

How is “everyone” — or indeed anyone at all going to learn this from Ray, when Ray hasn’t even begun to learn it himself? All he has done is remain in denial. Even jail time hasn’t sobered him up. He pretended Colleen’s death didn’t happened. He told a police investigator that the fire keeper was in charge of his fake sweat lodge. And so has it continued ever since.

Ray then told me a story from the Baghavad Gita, the ancient Hindu text which he read several times in prison, about Arduna and Krishna.

Oh, that is nice of Ray to tell you a story — and nice of you, Ms Crocker to confirm him in his role as teacher of lessons he hasn’t learned himself, and pass them on to your readers. Maybe some of them will attend a seminar by him….. He’s like that, and he might thank  you for it….

But Ray is about to start talking about killing people, the implications are too revealing and too sickening to look into right now.

…

Still more to come

Posted by Yakaru