Hello All!

I don't know what I am doing on here....but I've got to get the word out, so I'm just posting this hoping someone who can help me will see it!!With all the Trayvon Martin outcry, I am taking the opportunity to expose what I think is corruption in the justice system.  The justice system is certainly not working for it's victims, but someone is lucky to get away with murder!

My son, Alex Teehee, was murdered in July of 2008.  We got the call around midnight that our son was the victim of a hit and run, and they were taking him to the hospital. When we got to the hospital, Alex was clinging to life with serious brain injuries. As we waited and prayed outside the ER, the nurse brought us his belongings, and we noticed new messages on his cell phone. When we played those messages, what we thought was an accident became an intentional act, murder! Alex received two profanity laced death threats, just two hours prior to being struck down by a 2 ton vehicle. And a third voicemail placing the caller at the scene. Alex never heard these voicemails, they were new on his phone, and the call logs received later showed he never called his voicemail.  :-(

With these voicemails, we immediately contacted the Florida Highway Patrol to come to the hospital and retrieve them. The trooper who listened to the threats shared with us that this needed to be in the hands of another agency, this was too much for them, with their limited resources, etc.  We still felt certain that this caller, a stored contact in our son's phone, would immediately be arrested.

Well, as you probably can tell, that was not the case.  Alex's murder investigation continued on, and to this day, no one has been charged with his murder! Three boys had a part in killing my son. The FHP and the Medical Examiner ruled this as a vehicle/pedestrian homicide.  The FHP findings were an intentional hit and run. When you put the word intentional in front of hit and run, it no longer becomes a hit and run! It becomes murder!

With all the evidence, we were certain an arrest and prosecution would be coming. We were told there would be arrests within two weeks. That never happened. There were two kids that walked with Alex to meet these boys. There were kids that gave directions to the death threat caller. There was a witness in his backyard.  He described what he heard and saw, and identified the vehicle. There was crime scene evidence. There were physical injuries. A motive was uncovered. There were the death threats. There was the call placing the boys at the scene. There was another death threat left on Alex's girlfriends phone, "your boy is done" by the same caller. There was a witness at the home of the suspects' when they returned that night. There was even an ADMISSION by one of the boys, that the driver intentionally struck Alex!

But...when the Don Mason, Asst St Atty for Charlotte County, got his hands on the case, after four long months, he changed everything! He went against the expert reports, the FHP & ME, and decided to say my son fell from a car before having time to seatbelt himself in!  He ignored all the evidence!! Everything! He made the crime scene recreation impossible! What he says happened is impossible! The FHP stands behind us on their findings!

Why did the Asst St Atty do this?  We asked him, and he just shook his head. He told us if we did not like it, he would walk away, as he got up from his seat and started acting like he was walking to the door. We asked him about Alex's injuries, and how could this make sense? He had no answers. We ask him about the admission by one of the boys, and he said it was coerced. That was his opinion. The FHP tells us they had an expert analyst look at it, and that it was in no way coerced. He told us that nobody wanted our case, and that we should feel lucky that he took it. I told him I wanted to know the truth, which I felt I already knew, and that I was going to hire my own experts. He said for me to go ahead, but if I found out anything different, he did not want to know.

Well, of course I found out different. Common sense is all you need to know that the Asst State Atty's version of the "accident" was impossible. I hired a bio-mechanical engineer who went over ever stitch of evidence, the autopsy, and recreated the scene and told me that Alex was most certainly struck by their vehicle, but also that he firmly believed Alex was severely beaten with a blunt object about the head before he was struck. That explains the witness in his backyard hearing a confrontation, before he saw a boy run back to the vehicle, and then after the vehicle took off, he heard it hit something. He ran to his front yard and saw the vehicle regain control from crossing the other side of the road into the grass. He was unable to see our son lying in the road, left behind for dead. 

For about the first 9 months of the investigation, we thought there were only two boys involved in the murder of our son. Then we were told of a third boy. Why did they not tell us before? We had a teen daughter that could have put herself at risk if she were to ever be around this boy and not know. We later found out that this boy's mother and brother worked for the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office,  a 10+year dispatcher and a deputy. Red flags came up.  Was this why it was an accident?  

A year and a half later, the prosecutor issues an arrest warrant for the driver of the car with the charges of vehicular homicide (non-intent) and manslaughter. He did not charge the boy with the death threats or the other boy, who was seen running back to the vehicle. We were frustrated with these charges. He promised more, but never produced anything. When I presented him with our expert reports, he agreed with everything, and told us he was going to drop the charges and refile them as murder. Of course, that never happened. He lied. And that certainly wasn't the first time. He was dishonest about many things.

We took our reports to his boss, Stephen Russell, the State Attorney for the 20th Judicial Circuit of Florida.  From our meeting, we could tell he knew little about the case. He hardly listened to us, he was hostile and defensive, and stood behind his prosecutor. At the time of this meeting, only days before trial was set to begin, our daughter was in the front room waiting to join the meeting, when she overheard a woman answering the phones for the State Atty's Office. After answering, the woman said "Alex Teehee? tee-hee hee hee ha ha...I hope we get lucky today! Isn't that an awful thing to say?"   Now why on Earth would someone mock a murder victim's last name like that?? And why would it be awful for the justice system to get lucky?? Wouldn't that be a good thing?

It ended up that it didn't matter what charges were filed, whether he changed it into an accident or not. The Asst State Atty dropped the charges the day before trial!! We heard them tell the defendant, the murderer, that he was getting his ankle bracelet off today, before we even knew they were dropping the charges!  The prosecutor used an excuse that I've been told by many experts was lame. He said he was unable to subpoena the other two boys involved, to place the defendant as the driver of his own car.  Yet witnesses place the other two boys in other positions. How could he not serve them subpoenas?? One was on probation! The other was from law enforcement family! Our prosecutor was allowing him to "pick up" his subpoena at the Justice Center, and he never showed, of course.  Our prosecutor was not out for justice. He began calling the other two suspects witnesses as the trial approached. But the defense attorney always referred to them as what they were, co-conspirators. Someone who leaves death threats is not a witness.  The prosecutor then told us that he was going to take a break from the case, and have a fresh set of eyes review everything.  This was 1 1/2 years ago, and he has not spoke to us since. He does not respond to emails or phone calls. He will not answer our questions, nor any media questions.

We have since consulted with two additional Medical Examiners, which both agree Alex was struck by a vehicle. They agree that the massive injuries sustained could not be from falling from a car. We have a retired homicide detective who supports us and claims this is felony murder, no doubt. 

We feel that Alex lost his rights the minute he took his last breath. We believe this Asst State Attorney is corrupt, and is protecting his own. The boy who has ties to Charlotte County law enforcement was questioned by Charlotte County, not by the FHP, the lead investigators of the case. From the start, we were concerned with the magnitude of this case being too much for the State Troopers.  We wanted a major crimes unit, with experience, manpower, and equipment, to assist, as delays were already happening. We asked for a meeting with Sheriff Cameron of Charlotte County, to beg for assistance, before we knew of the involvement of his own personnel's son and brother! When we arrived at that meeting, there was one unannounced participant there, the Asst State Attorney! He did all the talking, and that is when he announced our son was not murdered, that he fell from their car!  Does that raise an eyebrow?

With this "conflict of interest" to put it politely, we feel we will never get justice as long as it stays in the hands of this prosecutor. We are pleading for Governor Scott to appoint an independent prosecutor and investigative agency. He says he does not have that power. We don't believe that. Criminals can request their trials to be moved, for conflicts of interest, or other reasons they may feel a fair trial would be hindered. But the victim cannot. There will be no trial, because this murder got turned into an accident, and dropped. Please help us get this into the hands of an honest person, and see that justice is served, and the truth prevails.

There just cannot be free passes to murder! Alex had a family. He was an only son, an only brother. He was a father! He had custody of his two little boys, ages 3 and 2 at the time of his death. He was only 20 years old! He did not deserve this! We all suffer without him. And knowing that he is not getting the dignity and respect that he deserves of the justice system, it's almost too much to bear.

Another thing that is a big injustice.  Alex was not these boys first victim!! Two months prior to killing Alex, these same three boys beat and robbed a teen, sending him to the hospital with facial fractures. He knew his attackers, and filed charges. Local law enforcement did not make arrests.  Then our son became their victim. He was not so lucky though. He did not survive. Law enforcement, realizing it was the same ones involved in another assault, acted and arrested the boys soon after Alex was killed. BUT they did not arrest the boy with law enforcement ties. The excuse they gave the victim was that he was too far from the scene to be charged.  He was on the balcony acting as a lookout while the boy who placed the death threats to my son, beat the victim!  The victim could see him, and named him in the assault!  Law enforcement did not act swift enough with this incident. Our son could possibly have been spared! At least give him his rights now! Put his murderers away! Hold them responsible for what they did!

No one wants to face this.  Please help us! We need someone to speak up for us! Trayvon was able to get a voice, Alex needs one too! And others need protected! They are putting society at risk, leaving these boys free, as society was at risk after their first crime, leaving Alex vulnerable. Alex is gone now! Please help us!

I can document everything I am stating. It is in Discovery.

With hope for a change, with hope for justice,

Carol Teehee & family

North Port, Florida