An Observance, not a Celebration

Today is Bill’s and my 41st wedding anniversary. It’s an observance, not a celebration. Just as our 60th birthdays, our 40th anniversary, Joel’s 25th birthday, and holidays. Todd was charged with murder on his beloved sister’s (and our beloved daughter’s) 35th birthday. We mark time by the many nightmares we’ve faced since Brad Orgill decided to fight with Anthony Madril and set Todd up to serve his prison time. Yet, we know that Brad couldn’t have accomplished this without a system that allowed it and where numerous individuals decided that their careers and getting a conviction were more important than justice. Today, I offer the following letter I sent to Judge Martinez following Todd’s sentencing:

June 5, 2006


Honorable Judge Martinez:

You know me as Todd’s mother, but today I am writing to you not only as Todd’s mother, but as a therapist and citizen who is greatly concerned about the out-of-hand dismissals of the serious crimes of which Brad Orgill has been involved.

Prior to beginning Todd’s sentencing, the court reviewed a rape allegation case filed against Brad which was subsequently dropped. Consistent with confidentiality concerns, I do not know the name of the person who reported the most recent sexual assault, and I certainly respect that. However, please remember that this is now the second person who has reported a sexual assault by Brad Orgill. Statistically, more than half of sexual assaults go unreported, so given his history, one might anticipate that there could be other victims. The first assault, in 1998, resulted in Brad losing his position as a Residential Assistant at UCCS. He was not prosecuted in that case because the assault happened in Mexico. However, as you may recall, these records were subpoenaed from UCCS and were provided to our defense attorneys at the hearing to reset the date of sentencing.

Regarding the latest sexual assault allegation in July, 2005, as a therapist, it is unacceptable to me that the police department would place a pretext telephone call to an alleged rape victim. I called the Sex Crimes telephone line and was told that it is not standard practice for the police to make such telephone calls to persons who call to report a rape, for obvious reasons. It leads to the question, of course, as to why an exception was made in this case. What is also troubling, is the information that apparently the person reporting the assault is underage and told police that Brad provided alcohol to her, for which he was also not charged. Once again, someone in the legal system made the decision to not prosecute Brad, presumably for the benefit of his testimony against Todd. The little I know of the case certainly suggests that the person making these allegations is young, (under 21) and has been described as emotionally unstable. She, therefore, may actually be an at-risk person requiring additional protection against sexual predators who could take advantage of her vulnerable state. The sexual activity Brad and this young person engaged in certainly does not reflect an emotionally healthy relationship of mutual respect and caring, but one where the young sexual partner possessed unequal power and status. *

I am also writing to inform you of another investigation involving Brad that either is not in his record or was not released to our defense attorneys. Several months before Anthony Madril’s murder, Brad frantically called our house one Sunday evening to ask for the name of an attorney he might call. It seems that homicide detectives were at his door investigating an internet child pornography purchase on Brad’s credit card. Brad, of course, asserts that it must have been a previous business partner who made this purchase on his credit card.* *It is most disconcerting that nothing appears in his record about this investigation, suggesting that either the information wasn’t provided to the defense, the investigation was not completed, or that somehow this record disappeared. This certainly represents a failure of the system, either by way of incompetence or by way of deliberate cover-up.

Finally, I would like to call your attention to another fact that emerged from Todd’s case. I believe Brad’s behavior demonstrates that he clearly knew what happened to Anthony Madril and decided to set Todd up as the primary suspect from the night of Anthony Madril’s death. As you will recall from Brad’s testimony at trial, Brad is the person who questions Todd about the knife Todd used to stab the tire, even though he denies hearing the statement about stabbing the tire that Todd made in Joel’s jeep. Brad is the one who convinces Todd to burn his shirt when Todd clearly does not want to do it, which Brad burns along with Brad’s own shirt and pants, and then Brad provides Todd with one of Brad’s own shirts to wear. And, it is not just any shirt. Brad gives Todd a shirt that has human blood on the back of the neck and the back of the right sleeve.

This is the only article of clothing the District Attorney choose to provide DNA testing for on any of the clothing worn by Todd, despite the fact that it was clearly not Todd’s own clothing. (We had to send Todd’s clothing out of state for DNA testing at our own expense, and then pay experts to travel from California, to prove it was Todd’s own blood on the clothes he was wearing the night of Anthony’s death.) The DNA from the human blood on Brad’s shirt did not match any of the DNA collected from the persons involved in the events of the evening of November 20, 2004. It certainly leads to questions concerning Brad’s motivation for providing that particular shirt to Todd. Was it just a coincidence, that from all the shirts in his closet, Brad chose this particular shirt, a shirt with human blood on it, to give to Todd, or was this another attempt to set Todd up as the primary suspect? And, what about the shirt? Whose blood might this be? Is there another Brad victim out there somewhere? Why did the sheriff’s department and the District Attorney’s office not pursue an investigation involving the unidentified human blood on the shirt that Brad gave Todd to wear? Incidentally, the shirt had a Good Will tag on it, so Brad might assert that he bought the shirt with stains. Logically, it does not make sense that Good Will would sell a shirt with visible stains, or that someone would buy a shirt with visible stains. It does speak to the fact that Brad always has a way to try to cover his tracks, though. And it certainly seems unusual to have blood on the inside collar on the back of the neck and the back of the right sleeve. In fact, it seems downright creepy.

Brad’s history now includes involvement in two sexual assault allegations, a murder, child pornography purchased on the internet using Brad’s credit card, and some unanswered questions about blood stains on the shirt he gave Todd to wear. Brad’s pattern of behavior includes far too many victims. He exhibits a true antisocial profile, with no history of expressing regret, only of shifting the blame to others. His friends will tell you that he typically chooses very young sexual partners, which together with sexual assault allegations and his interest in child pornography, paints a very troubling picture. So far, he has always been successful at shifting the blame to the victims or to his friends for his antisocial behavior, and the legal system has facilitated his criminal activity through complicity. However, I believe this information should be documented, because if the past is a predictor of the future, one would expect his name to come up in the system again. Unless, of course, he utilizes better methods of cover-up and the system continues in its failure to document and prosecute his criminal activity.

Your Honor, I’m sending this information to you because I suspect you are the only person who doesn’t have an interest in burying this information even deeper, and I do believe that someone in a position of public trust needs to be aware of these issues.

Respectfully,

Gloria Newmiller, M.A., LMFT

*Although physical evidence supporting her charge of sodomy was collected at Memorial Hospital, this young lady was charged with "false reporting."

**Todd was still working with Brad at the time. The day after detectives came to investigate Brad for purchasing child pornography on the internet, Brad replaced all of the hard drives on his computers.