Taylor Behl Judge Issues Gag Order

It was reported last week that police were seeking a gag order on Grand Jury testimony in the Taylor Behl investigation. Most likely given the wide press coverage, prosecutors are sensitive to jeopardizing the case by leaks. It's a balance between the public's right and desire to know, versus the need for a successful prosecution. Hard to argue with anything if it helps put the perpetrator away - and hopefully down, after 12+ years of appeals, of course.

Shame, I doubt Taylor Behl had that luxury.

RICHMOND, Va. A Richmond judge has signed a gag order on witnesses who testify before a grand jury hearing evidence in the death of college student Taylor Behl.

Grand jury proceedings are secret, but witnesses called before the panel typically are NOT prohibited from discussing their testimony after appearing.

The Richmond Times Dispatch reports that the order signed yesterday by Judge Margaret Spencer legally binds the witnesses called before the panel.

h/t Cindi

Comments

[bull]

Article in Hampton paper was interesting where Taylor's roomate said “But I know she didn’t want to stay there long.” Several people have said something along these lines. Seems as if Taylor wasn't curious anymore - and that probably led to her demise.

Gag order seems to be for the kids more than LE. They are trying to keep the kids, Ben's circle, from talking to each other through the press and other mediums. Think LE will prosecute Fawley as an obsessed, obsessive (made this one up but sound really clinical).

[p]

Bull - thank, I'm glad I'm not missing anything at websleuths.

Yes, I do read Cino's LJ. I do recall him saying Huff is objective. I went back to follow the link you spoke of, but it took me nowhere. Perhaps at that point in time, October 9, Huff was still objective about Ben.

[Cosmic Mojo]

yeah, and Channel 8 was getting a too few many links, so Monroe wanted to get super tough about the consequences if any of his staff linked.

Not that channel 8's leaks were always correct.
They're too willing to air anything without any verification.
yesterday they showed a 'reinactment' of the trucker who pulled a girl out of her car in Augusta County. Ugh. V. unprofessional. Not journalism.

[bull]

I can still get Huff's stuff for some reason - though it appears he does all his writing for CrimeLibrary now. Below is the what Cino linked to - doesn't sound too objective to me, which I thought Cino's LJ post was odd. My apologies for taking up so much space and to those who have read this already.

Interests..."Shallow Graves..."

They found her body in a shallow grave, near your ex-girlfriend's house.

The ex, she wasn't a porn star, as you so badly wanted the world to believe, but a witty and bright-eyed intellectual, a nerdy girl, a free spirit. She must have smelled it on you, that stench of real death always just beneath your own skull, that hollowness you never could never quite fill, and that's why she broke whatever agreements you supposedly had and just got the hell away from you. People who are really alive inside, like her, like Taylor Behl, they always run from your kind eventually, Ben.

What was it, Ben? Could you only keep up the affable, good-hearted Ben act so long before Skulz came through? Or was Skulz the act, and darkevilgoth the real deal?

Taylor came to your place that night, perhaps, smelling of the cool night, of sweat, and a cigarette just smoked outside.

She was curious about you, and perhaps now her curiosity was satisfied. But you still saw the pretty girl climbing in your bunk back in February. And even while you'd taken Taylor to your favorite spots in April you still had more to show her.

You had a plan, Ben.

It came to you in early August, didn't it? Around the time you made those strange blogspot sites about that ex you wanted the world to think of as a porn star. That was your first volley across her bow, wasn't it, Ben? She was going to a certain convention -- you registered to go. She smelled you, Ben, knew you were on her trail, and they wouldn't let you in.

A complex plan, Ben, and the curious girl was your tool... because in your mind, you'd been everyone else's tool, right? Poor Ben Fawley, poor Skulz. Still looked 17, still thought 17, dismayed by the world expecting you to be 38.

So you put it together, then, Ben. Your ex's place in Mathews, where you photographed the John Deere, where you walked the country roads, where you perhaps not all that long ago developed your interest in "shallow graves."

In some way, the night of September 5, Taylor presented you with the perfect moment, in your mind, to put your final plan into effect.

The story would be that the psycho ex's friends kidnapped you, but you had no idea what was going on. That would explain any soil samples on your clothing perhaps matching the Mathews property... because you didn't know where those mysterious 3 or 4 guys were taking you, right? You had to walk on a mysterious dirt road to get out, hence the match.

Then, eventually, when they found Taylor there by the barn, you could say, 'look, that's what happened that night. They framed me, poor Ben Fawley. I'm always alone, though, always left in the cold. Of course, I'll take the fall.'

Because it appears that to you, Ben Fawley, you never did anything wrong. Too bad the world couldn't quit screwing you over, isn't it?

You figured people would buy that, Ben?

Were Taylor's eyes still open? Did your pulse race, or stay steady?

Here you were, screaming at the world that you were a very bad man, for so long, and most people just thought you were crazy, aimless Ben.

Don't say it was the bipolar disorder, man. A bipolar person couldn't have held that story together the next day. A bipolar person would have confessed, eventually, and made a damn good stab, perhaps, at killing themselves in rage and grief. Bipolar people are usually a greater danger to themselves than anyone else.

A semi-functional psychopath, on the other hand, who had a talent for camouflaging himself in a way that permitted him to delve into some of his morbid interests so that he seemed somehow "normal" -- for a certain segment of society -- that guy could float whatever lies he needed to keep himself free. He wouldn't know that his inability to grasp the pain and suffering of others was not the norm. A guy like that might be essentially okay most of the time... but since he needed stronger thrills than other people, he might have a history of petty crime related to thrill-seeking; like, I don't know, petty theft, boosting cars, arson, perhaps?

Until, maybe, his rage at one woman drove him to use another in the most horrible way possible.

The pretty ex with the bright laughing eyes in some of the milder photos you made didn't deserve that, if that was your plan, Ben. All she wanted was to get the hell away from you. She probably sensed the void and it chilled her. She had the advantage over Taylor, perhaps, of a little more well-tuned radar. Your mask, perhaps, didn't slip with Taylor until you wanted it to.

Taylor Behl never had a chance. The only mistake she really made in the end was being "curious" about a man named Skulz. Who even listed in one of his Livejournal profiles, under interests, "shallow graves."

[Cosmic Mojo]

a few too many LEAK...if any of his staff LEAKED
ack, I should proof

[absynth_minded]

Nancy Grace irks me, but she, like most of us, was scupted by the traumatic events in her life. I personally can't stand her show or that she is biased beyond being biased, but I do understand why she is the way she is.

As for this case, there is just not much left for me to say. I've covered every angle from a behavioral science aspect and even provided some hard medical facts to support my observations.

At the end of the day, it is what it is. (This has increasingly become my favorite way to say there is no longer sense in questioning what few of us will ever be able to understand.)

[Cosmic Mojo]

yes, I found that story a little too much.
Too speculative, too gymicky.
I think since H. got a gig w/Crime Library (who's factchecking sucks) it sorta went to his head and he's gone over the top with creative license.

I can see Huff's stuff, but since I can't post anymore, I don't bother going.

[Cosmic Mojo]

>>Nancy Grace irks me, but she, like most of us, was scupted by the traumatic events in her life. I personally can't stand her show or that she is biased beyond being biased, but I do understand why she is the way she is.
Posted by: absynth_minded | Oct 19, 2005 11:24:50 AM

Back to 'need to know'.
I was taught to do one's best and not make excuses.
I was taught to keep intimate facts private.
I don't need to know about Nancy's past, if it's so tramatic, why not keep it private? Why wave it around to get more attention and viewers and ratings? tacky

[bull]

Agreed, but LE cannot say it is what is it. They have to make a jury understand why Fawley did what he did to get a capital conviction, which I believe they will seek. Similar to prosecution of Manson - they used "the family" and their observations to explain what it was.

[bull]

Well, I guess they can say it is what is it - but they cannot say it sounding any lowercase than I do. Mind working even slower than my two typing fingers. Probably meant to say "it is what it is".

[mmy]

bull: what's the locals section?

[bull]

On Websleuths they set aside an area where the locals could tell the general populance about locations, etc. Last I looked, there were about three posters - died very quickly (again, last I looked).

[Cosmic Mojo]

I was gonna go to that locals page on websleuths to give some objective facts about Richmond (I'm a native), but they don't accept free email addresses, yahoo, or hotmail.

poo. I didn't want to play with them anyway.

[LG]

Agreed, Huff's entry (above) is far from objective. However, I believe that particular entry was from October 6. The day Taylor's body was found. He admits that his emotions drove his entry that day. He is a writer, with a creative and analytical mind. Until then, he remained fairly objective, considering the circumstances.

[joeb]

Thanks Rick. I try. Also wanted to say about the photo of Taylor at Belle Isle where she is smiling through some concrete hole. She is smiling at the camera and to make a pretty picture. I doubt she is smiling at Ben. Ben just took the picture.
For a real interesting comparison look at Taylor's pictures and then look at Erin's pictures. Erin is 5 years older and much more than that wiser. I think it is clear Erin could see right through Ben. In fact she played him. And it drove him nuts for a female to toy with him and not the other way around.
Ben's anger at Erin is what started this whole ball rolling. And yes I think placing the body near her parents property was an attempt to frame Erin for the death. Maybe when he was choking Taylor he was pretending it was Erin.