# Surely You Jest, Mr. Geragos!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surely-you-jest-mr-geragos/248472
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [June 3, 2004, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surely-you-jest-mr-geragos/248472 "2004-06-03T16:58:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surely-you-jest-mr-geragos/248472/41 "2004-06-05T18:19:33Z")
you have an independant source of income? your creditors wouldn’t mind you not paying bills?
At this point, I have a certain amount of sick leave etc. built up, so when there was a temporary health emergency w/my family, I was able to be there. But, when I was much younger, about his age, I only had a small amount of leave time available.
A friend of committed suicide in their family car. Yes, his spouse and kids were eligible for Social Security Benefits, the life insurance he had from work etc, but you know what? none of that was going to come soon enough to pay her house payment, car note, heating bill etc. so yes, she went back to work w/in a few days **plus** had to make arrangments to get the car cleaned and sold.
---
### Author:  [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surely-you-jest-mr-geragos/248472/42 "2004-06-05T18:22:23Z")
This is from memory, so I could be totally off-base. But I recall that the trip to and from the bay / lake / whatever would have taken almost all the time that he was gone away from home. Who would travel for an hour or so round trip for 10 minutes of fishing?
Guilty as hell IMO.
---
### Author:  [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surely-you-jest-mr-geragos/248472/43 "2004-06-05T18:47:58Z")
he may very well be guilty. All I know is that the evidence that’s been leaked to the press doesn’t impress me at all, doesn’t even rise to the level of “probably he did it” let alone “beyond a reasonable doubt”.
and things like trumpeting about finding a **single hair** in his boat makes me even less impressed (ie, ‘that’s the best you can do?’ hair evidence isn’t very compelling in the first place when you’re talking about two people who live together - hell my former boss (who never so much as touched me) had my hair on him when he went home (his wife found it).
---
### Author:  [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2004, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surely-you-jest-mr-geragos/248472/44 "2004-06-05T21:08:29Z")
> [@](#):
>
> you have an independant source of income? your creditors wouldn’t mind you not paying bills?
No independent source of income here. And I could give a rat’s ass about my creditors. Paying my mortgage would be the last thing on my mind. As would eating. But I wouldn’t care. Because, and here’s the key, my spouse and kid were MISSING.
Your friend’s case is entirely different. Her spouse was dead and there was nothing she could do to bring him back. She had other children that needed to be taken care of. Peterson didn’t have other children. He purportedly didn’t _know_ what happened to her, so you’d think he’d be wild with grief. His entire life just walked out the door one day and disappeared into thin air and his priority is to go to work, toss his wedding pictures in the trash, and repeatedly call his sweetie-on-the-side?
Either he’s guilty as sin or he’s the stupidest mother-fucker to walk the planet.
---
### Author:  [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2004, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surely-you-jest-mr-geragos/248472/45 "2004-06-05T22:20:12Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#):
>
> Either he’s guilty as sin or he’s the stupidest mother-fucker to walk the planet.
Or he just maybe reacts differently than you.
I don’t always react to sad situations the same way each time even just myself. Sometimes I throw myself into work, other times I cry, other times I’ve cracked jokes. I’d hope that when people saw me laughing w/my brother at our dad’s bedside they weren’t sitting back assuming that we were murdering him. My sister, on the other hand, left town and went back home to be on vacation from her job (teacher), going boating, gardening and the like. I didn’t assume that meant she cared less than our brother & me (who were taking time off work and staying 2000 miles away from our families).
Just 'cause he was (apparently) concerned also about his bills, keeping his house, keeping his job etc, doesn’t mean that he didn’t care about her disappearance. The wedding photos - I’ve not heard that, haven’t seen a link to it, but w/o further details I wouldn’t say that was evidence that he murdered them.
---
### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2004, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surely-you-jest-mr-geragos/248472/46 "2004-06-05T22:35:05Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#):
>
> Wring, if my spouse and child turned up missing, I wouldn’t be at work. Would you?
I have neither wife nor child, but I could quite easily see myself doing this. The police are looking for her. There’s nothing I can do to help find them at this point. Sitting around the house doing nothing but worry would drive me crazy, so I can very easily see myself trying to do something routine (such as go to work) just so I have something to do to take my mind off the worry.
Plus, if I had been cheating on my wife, and she found out about it, and one day I get up and she’s gone, my first thought wouldn’t be “My God! She’s been kidnapped!” It would be, “Shit, I guess she left me. Can’t say I blame her.”
Or maybe he’s just a cold-hearted, unfeeling bastard. That still doesn’t make him a murderer.
---
### Author:  [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2004, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surely-you-jest-mr-geragos/248472/47 "2004-06-05T22:53:31Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> That and, you know, free press being necessary for democracy. Transparency good, secret trials bad and all that.
You’re not really that dumb, are you? You can have a gag on a case and still have a “free” press. To popularize a murder/kidnapping before ANYTHING is known, and to accuse someone BEFORE A TRIAL is even set, having family members on local TV and radio programs professing his guilt before her body is found, having local radio shows spewing bullshit and conspiracy theories is ridiculous. It’s honestly flat-out unacceptable. Hell, they even had 2 fucking feel-good movies of the week long before the trial even began.
That’s a whole lotta speculation and bullshit, don’t you think? I think they’ve done the case, the state and the families a disservice the way they’ve handled this.
Sam
---
### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surely-you-jest-mr-geragos/248472/48 "2004-06-06T02:48:06Z")
> [@ralph124c](#):
>
> What I was trying to say:I accept that Mr. Geragos has the duty to defend his client…this is an adverserial system, and he is being well paid for his efforts. What I DON’T understand…he (Geragos) can say that his client is not guilty. He can attack the evidence. But I don’t understand how he is allowed to insult the jurors intelligence with wild theories of his own, like the “Laci was killed by Satanists” bullshit. He has no proof, and no evidence…why should he be allowed to shoot his mouth off?
> By the way, is Geragos doing this “pro bono”? Peterson’s parents can’t be all that wealthy…I assume Geragos bills at \>$500.00/hour.
What should he say?
“Yeah he fucking did it but you guys can’t _prove_ he did it.”
---
### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surely-you-jest-mr-geragos/248472/49 "2004-06-06T10:52:47Z")
> [@GaWd](#):
>
> You’re not really that dumb, are you?
Fuck off and pay attention to what you said.
> [@](#):
>
> You can have a gag on a case and still have a “free” press. To popularize a murder/kidnapping before ANYTHING is known, and to accuse someone BEFORE A TRIAL is even set, having family members on local TV and radio programs professing his guilt before her body is found, having local radio shows spewing bullshit and conspiracy theories is ridiculous.
Yes, it is, although I don’t see the movies being related to the press. You said “this case and cases like this should be kept on gag as soon as they happen.” That’s a whole shitload of cases, and that system doesn’t work unless it’s done on a case-by-case basis. You seem to suggest there should be a presumption to gag stories, which is also a bad idea.
> [@](#):
>
> Of course the media outlets dying for a blood story would never go for that, but that’s another topic completely.
Of course, gag orders are given by judges, so the media outlets’ opinion wouldn’t make the least bit of fucking difference if the judge decided to issue a gag order.
> [@](#):
>
> That’s a whole lotta speculation and bullshit, don’t you think?
Obviously.
> [@](#):
>
> I think they’ve done the case, the state and the families a disservice the way they’ve handled this.
I wouldn’t argue with that. It’s issuing gag orders on an entire class of crimes to keep the news from reporting them that I have a problem with.
---
### Author:  [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surely-you-jest-mr-geragos/248472/50 "2004-06-06T11:02:33Z")
IIRC, gag orders only apply to parties to the case. The media can still say whatever they hell they want to about it. They just can’t get it from the horse’s mouth. The judge can’t gag them. Sometimes I wish the judge could, thought.
---
### Author:  [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surely-you-jest-mr-geragos/248472/51 "2004-06-06T18:11:36Z")
Just a note-
I wasn’t necessarily implying that a gag order be placed by the judge on a case, though I know that’s the most direct way for the parties involved to be silenced. I think what I want is for the media to police themselves(HA!), and to reign their love of blood in.
Sam
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surely-you-jest-mr-geragos/248472.md?page=2)