PROVE IT
Comments by: Tre Benson
April 5, 2005
The man accused of orchestrating the desecration of 100 historic gravesites and ignoring the sanctity of Oakdale Cemetery sat in the defendant’s chair in courtroom 401 of the New Hanover County Courthouse today. Twenty-two year old Daniel Benson claims he was there the night the irreplaceable monuments to the many lives peacefully laid to rest long ago were desecrated. Mr. Benson says he was not the one that committed the devilish acts. Instead he claims that his co-defendants, the teenagers who will be tried at a later date, kicked and tugged and pushed and broke and smashed and ultimately destroyed these artifacts while he did his best to stop them. Bullshit! (please excuse my French)
That sort of tale of tales and shirking of responsibility may have worked on his mother and father a few times. It may have even worked on the courts prior to his sentencing a year ago for serious felony charges of using a computer to steal the identities and ruin the credit of those he defrauded in a complicated and elaborate scam committed back in 2003. The Judge gave him 5 months probation and no active time in prison for his 6 felony convictions. Convictions that stemmed from over 90 original felony charges.
The defense does not want you to hear about how Danny-boy went into a cemetery at Carolina Beach dressed in black. They are also a little ashamed that Mr. Benson was caught on tape buying 30 beers for his 15 year-old friends the night of the desecration. Michael Jackson. The defense also has to deal with the fact that the teenage girls sitting behind the defendant perhaps reminds the jury of Charlie Manson’s groupies as they sit there in their best Squeaky Fromme impersonation. I would have taken a picture or two of the tie-dye haired girls but I was afraid they were underage and that their silly loyalty today might in someway embarrass them later in life. I do wonder if they will all carve x’s in their foreheads when he is convicted. The jury might not hear about how Dan the man-child was arrested for setting up a boy for an old fashioned blindsiding when the boy was lured to a parking lot by a girl friend of Benson’s and got bonked on the head. The jury might never hear about how just prior to the trial, Devil Dan arranged to meet with witnesses to discuss strategy. This was brought to the attention of the Judge today.
Of course we know the defendant ‘s strategy, or at least we have seen enough “B” movies to have a good idea that he wants us all to believe it was the juveniles that committed the crime. Juveniles have their record expunged. Juveniles do not go to prison. Juveniles do not pay restitution. And the juveniles in this case have already confessed to their sins.
The prosecution has to prove that the 22 year old leader of the pack, or coven, whatever they are, literally had a hand in the crime. Apparently there is a line of confessed sinners wanting redemption bad enough to trade some punishment for the testimony that they witnessed their friend and molester tip a few grave markers over on his way for another fresh beer.
Nah but wait, he didn’t do it. The Wilmington Police Department’s phone rang off the hook immediately after the vandalism with people pointing their finger directly at him because he is a victim of a conspiracy. These teenaged children of the corn made him buy beer, made him move directly across the street from their high school, made him drive them around while his license was revoked for a DWI. And of course they made him go to the Cemetery and made him watch in disapproval as one historic relic after another was toppled and/or destroyed. Perhaps these conspiring 15 year-olds, these 5 foot nothing Columbinesque, gothic, devil worshipers, ensnared him in their plot to do whatever it is punks like that do. I’m sure he didn’t do it and Charles Manson didn’t kill Sharon Tate and Janet Jackson didn’t mean for her boob to pop out on national television, really.
However, Jon David, pitbull prosecutor representing the State sees it differently, as does Detective Lee Odham of the Wilmington Police Department who doggedly pursued every lead as he investigated this crime and interviewed witnesses and suspects to bring charges against Mr. Benson. Over the next day or so we will see why they think the defendant should be found guilty. And hopefully over the next 10 years or so at least one criminal will be learning the harsh lesson of responsibility.
Stay tuned, it ain’t over yet.

WEDNESDAY APRIL 6, 2005

The first thing I noticed when I stepped into courtroom 401 today was the back of one of Daniel Benson's supporters' shirt. It looked to be the skeleton of the devil toasting a challis. I asked a friend of mine that knows about such matters and he claims it is a party flag. Perhaps it is the logo of Benson's house band "Stabbing Ground". The band would play at Benson's house located across the street from New Hanover High School to a group of beer soaked teens that responded to flyers passed out at the school. The parties acted like a bar charging admission and serving alcohol to underaged kids.
Speaking of music, the group appears to be into the punk scene but that would broadly paint the genre with an old fashion palate. These "punks" fall into a more common alternative counter culture that finds paganism and violence more to their liking than most punk wannabes you see in malls around America. You won't see fetish attire, they are Goth meets Johnny Rotten. It is home brewed and perhaps dangerous. ADA Jon David today asked about one of their favorite bands. I didn't catch the name because it was German but the prosecutor got an interpretation from a witness that claimed it meant "Put out the Jews." I don't believe that sat well with Mr. David The obvious targeting of the Hebrew Cemetery made for a possible Federal Hate Crime indictment and perhaps the defendants attorney knew that and tried to cut short testimony by Oakdale superintendent Kozen regarding the destruction with-in the separately owned historic cemetery. Who knows they also seemed to target the civil war veteran gravesites. Maybe they were against the Southern pride of the Confederacy. They also destroyed markers of children and most anything with crosses.
It was testified today that Benson and 2 or 4 others (depending on which witness was recalling the truth) returned back to the cemetery later that night to wreck more destruction. Maybe they returned to attack the Hebrew Cemetery, maybe they went back to cover the hate crime by turning over more stones. Maybe they just went back to roll around in the dirt of the dead and trip out on the last few hours of space time that the drugs took to wear off. Whatever the reason Daniel Benson was there.
I said drugs didn't I? No one mentioned drugs but one kid, a 15 year-old claims he drank beer prior to going to the Cemetery over at Dan Benson's house. He claimed he drank some wine that tasted "like crap" on the walk over to Oakdale from Dan's Dock Street house. He again claimed he drank another 10-12 beers while at the Cemetery and more after he left. This kid was all of 90 pounds. He and Dan and another kid ended the night downtown when a Wilmington Police Officer responding to an alarm at George's on Water Street downtown found them with 4 beers and called his mom. Basically he testified that he walked from Oakdale at 15th Street to Water Street after consuming about a case of beer in little more than 4 hours. A video tape of the beer purchase caught him stealing two bottles of wine at around 10:30 that night.
Also earlier that night many in the wrecking crew participated in the filming of a homemade zombie movie. The movie was said to be a senior class project for one of the kids involved in the destruction later that night.
All in all it was a group of 8-9 kids that went into Oakdale that night, 2 were girls, sisters, but the girls tired of the boys after a while and left before the destruction began, or so they say.
Also testified to today was that Daniel would sometimes spend the night at the homes of the teen boys. The parents were led to believe that he was a fellow student, 17 or 18 years of age instead of the age he actually was.
The term "Dan-Fan" came up in testimony. Dan-Fan means a person that worshiped Dan. All the kids said they admired him, looked up to him, but a Dan-Fan was more. They would do anything he said, "not like a slave" one said but more like "just a follower".
Apparently some of these kids have only come forward as of a week ago. You can imagine how difficult it must be for a Dan-Fan to go against his Svengali. But these kids got ostracized after den's arrest. Prior to the arrest he was bragging, showing pictures off of a website (I assume it was our website) of the destruction to anyone that would look and brag about how he was the King of the event, the Master of Ceremonies if you will. Now after he is arrested he is upset, go figure.
Prior to Benson's arrest we got a few piece of hate mail. One, I swear, said that they will never crack. Too smart for the Poe-lease I guess. Earlier tonight I got a few more emails, one that made me laugh myself into a near fatal coughing fit. I couldn't help but think now that the lottery seems a sure bet to pass, that perhaps more money can be used to educate these kids on the real world and its consequences.
I won't be able to attend court tomorrow, I would love nothing more than hear the jury foreman say the word "GUILTY" 10 or 12 times in a row but I have a commitment to help out some homeless folk at the shelter. Part of being older is following your commitments and being responsible to a community in need. I reject the notion that part of being young is the opposite. Hopefully the jury will think so too. Being young and foolish is no excuse.

ERIC KOZEN OF OAKDALE

Eric Kozen, Superintendent of Oakdale Cemetery, spent the majority of the trial's time on the witness stand. The long, laborious and yet educational testimony took a detailed look at each and every monument that was disturbed by the defendant and his teenaged gang. Every grave yielded a tale, a story about the person laid to rest beneath the up-ended marker. I learned more than any tour guide, much less a history professor could have delivered in a lecture.

I just hope that the jury took notes.

I would have liked to have seen the courtroom packed with the families of those desecrated. I would have liked to have had the jury look into their faces and seen the disgust and anger in their eyes. But if you looked close enough you could see it in Eric's eyes. Certainly one could see it in his eyes when the defense attorney tried to out smart him with nit-picking questions about the cost of repairs. How do you repair something that is broken? How do you repair history?

I was honestly amazed that Eric knew nearly every single headstone by sight. He even identified the names of the stones in the background. He knew the condition, the weight, the year the stone was carved by memory and he definitely knew the value even if the defense attorney was trying to pin him down on its monetary value of repair. Again things like this can not be repaired to original form.

This testimony was a bit like the expert witness testimony in the OJ trial regarding the DNA, painstakingly boring to most. But towards the end, prosecutor Jon David said to Eric, "We are about done" and Eric turned to the jury and smiled dramatically, the jurors cracked up.

Eric Kozen and I first met the day after the vandalism. He was as fired up in court as he was then. He was asked about his dedication to seeing justice served and while under oath he testified that he wants nothing more than justice. In fact this weekend Oakdale opens its Cemetery to the Azalea Festival. Tours celebrating the Cemetery's 150 years of service to the City begin right away and yet the superintendent sits in court seeing this trial through to the end.

He has been the perfect representative for all those laid to rest at Oakdale and a fierce advocate for all the families of the loved ones whose peaceful sanctity was disturbed by this devilish act of violence.

HEARS TO YA !

Ahem... Dan? Dann-n-n-n-nnnny! He must be out sick or something.
Anyway trial went on today without Daniel Benson being present. I got there late so I didn't hear the explanation or information as to his whereabouts. I guess I am just like the jury, in the dark.
You know I know better but for the sake of a lengthy trial and the costs associated with it I'd rather not say at this time to jeopardize anything.
26 felony charges, 74 misdemeanors must not be enough, looking to go double or nothing?
Speaking of double or nothing I heard ... nah I'll wait.
So I rushed to court this afternoon, nearly tripping over my feet when I saw the flag still waving like a wounded unattended and ignored soldier of war that is flying over the New Hanover County Law Enforcement Center so disrespectfully flown during Azalea Festival. I was rushing to catch the tail end of Detective Odham's testimony. Odham is the man that broke this case. Even David Collins the defense attorney said so in court today.
On the stand the Detective spoke of how he carefully took from the scene of the crime a wine bottle that was stolen earlier that night from the Food Lion. Odham had obtained a video tape of one of the 15 year olds that accompanied Dan Benson stealing the wine as Benson purchased the beer for the fun that night. The bottle provided the evidence that the kid that stole the bottle was in Oakdale at the location all hell broke loose that night. Odham took the barcode from the broken bottle of Yellow Tail back to the Food Lion and had them scan it to determine that it was indeed the exact same bottle that the 15 year old stole that night. I am sure that a 15 year old Dan Fan broke under pressure when presented with this type of evidence and shortly after puked up his accomplices. Dan being the principle figure.
The State rested following Odham's testimony and a motion was made to dismiss the charges because the State failed to prove that family members of the desecrated markers minded that the graves were disturbed. In fact he suggested that for all we know the families gave those that wrecked the historic gravesites permission to do so and the crime is merely a crime of trespassing. This desperate motion was quickly dismissed.
The five women and seven men (plus one alternate) sat attentively as Jon David did his thing, talked directly to them, comforted them, thanked them and never once insulted their intelligence as he delivered his closing. "Buried beneath a mountain of evidence in this cemetery desecration" was his opening. He spoke truthfully about how he usually tries murder cases and in doing so 100 or so times in his career he has found that he "speaks for the dead" very similar to what he is doing in court this week, speaking for the 100 dead people that can't say how they were wronged so violently. He is speaking for the dead who have laid in peace under magnificent mighty oaks in the oldest and most historic cemetery in Wilmington. Again he said the defendant was "buried by the evidence" as to drive home the point that 4 teens that were with him that night said he did it in the court over past two days.
At one point, a funny interruption that took those following, ADA David's every word, by shock was when the defense attorney's phone rang in a singsongy bell tone reminding one of church bells. After the embarrassed attorney Collins fumbled to find and stop the phone from disturbing the court Jon David didn't miss a beat as he picked the momentum back up by saying "For whom the bell tolls? It tolls for Daniel Benson."
Collins followed by admitting to the jury that he was nervous and apologized and asked that they wouldn't hold it against his client. He brought up that at the very worst the jury could only find his client guilty of 16 felonies because 10 of the felony charges were estimated to be $1,000 and quiet possibly could be less than $1,000. Nervousness I suppose. Danny.... dan-n-nn-n-nnny!
I was beginning to see where the defense was headed when Collins brought up not trusting the State's witnesses. After all they were the same scum of the earth as his client was. But then the wheels fell off when talking about the others. He said that his client was the only one that insisted from the beginning and throughout that he was innocent, in fact he said that his client was the "only one here today that has claimed innocence" and motioned his arm behind him as if to point to the absent Mr. Benson. Ahem... Danny... Dan-n--n-n-nn-ny!!!!!!
All-in-all it was entertaining yet a bit pitiful to see a man sweat like that under pressure. "You get what you pay for" one spectator said during Collins' final statement. Yes, Collins is no Johnny Cochran but the late Mr. Cochran never had to defend a ghost.
The jury was excused for the night around 4:30 and it gave me time to get back to my chores. Tomorrow morning the jury will retire to deliberate and fill out the 100 forms that will each have a block to check that will say guilt or not guilty. That will take some time to do, I doubt that the time to decide which block to check will take that long but they will have to do it 100 times over.
Let's hope the forms are simple and that they are allowed to use the ditto symbol so we can all talk about this at lunch.
I'm buying!

I received an email from a Tre Fan that attempted to correct my comment about the "devil party flag" attached to the back of one of the Dan Fans in the courtroom. The email said that the flag was the Jolly Roger Pirate's flag. Above is both the Jolly Roger flag and Blackbeard the Pirate's flag. One shows a skull and crossbones the other shows what appears to me to be a devil with a cocktail stabbing a heart with a spear. The flag sewn to the back of the Dan Fan was neither, it was a devil party flag.

PENALTY PHASE POSTPONED

Daniel Benson was convicted by jury today on all 100 charges that the District Attorneys Office brought against him. All 100 can you believe it? Benson was of course convicted in absentia. Sometime early Thursday morning it was reported that Benson cut off his house arrest monitor and disappeared into the early morning darkness. Some have speculated that Benson had made a suicide pack with one of his friends to prove his innocence. I wonder what song they will be listening to if they go thru with it. Perhaps it will be one of Anton LaVey's cheesy records, one of which lists the following compositions:
1. Satan Takes a Holiday--written in 1917 by bandleader Larry Clinton. Arranged for Hammond Novacord. Originally used as background music for "magic acts and midnight spook shows".
2. Answer Me--A German love song from 1953 by Gerhard Winkler and Fred Rauch, with a translation by Carl Sigman. Vocal by A. LaVey.
3. The Whirling Dervish--Written in 1938 by Harry Warren and Al Dubin for the film Garden of the Moon.
4. Chloe, or the Song of the Swamp--Written by Gus Kahn and Neil Moret in 1927. This is a tale of lost love told from the perspective of the abandoned one. Vocal by N. Bougas.
5. Thine Alone--Bombastic version of a 1917 piece by Victor Herbert and Henry Blossom, for stage show, called Eileen.
6. Golden Earrings--Written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans for the film of the same name, starring Marlene Dietrich. Vocal by A. LaVey, credited as "The Tipsy Gypsy".
7. The More I See You--Written by Harry Warden with words by Mack Gordon. Vocal by N. Bougas.
8. Band Organ Medley
* Money in my Clothes--A 1934 song written by Irving Kahal and Sammy Fain.
* Taboo--1941 piece by M. Lecuona.
* Giovanni--Standard Band Organ Waltz composer and date unknown
* Yankee Rose--by Abe Frankel and Sidney Holden, written in 1926.9. Hello, Central, Give Me No Man's Land--Written by Sam L. Lewis, Joe Young, and Jean Schwartz about a young boy trying to use the telephone to talk to his Daddy who's been killed in the war. Vocal by A. LaVey
10. Blue Prelude--1933 suicide song by Gordon Jenkins and Joe Bishop. Vocal by B. Barton.
11. Softly, As In a Morning Sunrise--By Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II, for the 1928 operetta, "The New Moon". A song about love's betrayal. Vocal by N. Bougas.
12. Honolulu Baby--Written by T. Marvin Hatley in 1933 as background music for the Laurel and Hardy comedy, Sons of the Desert. Vocal by A. LaVey.
13. Variations on the Mooche--Written by Duke Ellington and Irving Mills, 1928 and favored by exotic dancers.
14. Here Lies Love---Suicide song written by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger for the 1933 film, The Big Broadcast. Vocal by N. Bougas.
15. Dixie---Written by Daniel Emmett in 1860. Vocal by N. Bougas.
16. If You Were the Only Girl in the World--By Nat D. Ayer and Clifford Gray, 1916. Vocal by A. LaVey.
17. Satan Takes a Holiday (reprise)--Vocal treatment of title tack by Blanche Barton.
18. Satanis Theme---Written in 1968 by LaVey for the film, Satanis.

The information for the track listings were lifted, at times verbatim, from the liner notes for the CD

Most likely it will be something equally as cheesy such as Blink 182's "Adam song"... yawn.

My guess is that he will soon spend the 15 grand he's got stashed away and end up getting his nipple twisted by a real hardcore and make that last phone call home for a Western Union delivery that will of course be delivered by a US Marshall.

Perhaps he is making a road film, a travel log of his being on the run. Documenting all the people that are helping him, like an idiot bragging about what a desperado he has become. Just like he didn't expect to be ratted out about Oakdale, my bet is on his same level of incompetence not only getting his butt back where it belongs but those friends of his losing their freedom as well for assisting him. Poor judgment will get ya in trouble every time.

§ 14-266. Persuading inmates to escape.
It shall be unlawful for any parent, guardian, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, or any person whatsoever to persuade or induce to leave, carry away, or accompany from any State institution, except with the permission of the superintendent or other person next in authority, any boy or girl, man or woman, who has been legally committed or admitted under suspended sentence to said institution by juvenile, recorder's, superior or any other court of competent jurisdiction.(1935, c. 307, s. 1; 1937, c. 189, s. 1.)
§ 14-267. Harboring fugitives.
It shall be unlawful for any person to harbor, conceal, or give succor to, any known fugitive from any institution whose inmates are committed by court or are admitted under suspended sentence.(1935, c. 307, s. 2; 1937, c. 189, s. 2.)

Remember he had a suspended sentence last year for his 6 felony convictions. The sentence was suspended with a condition that he abide by the guidelines set forth during his 5 year probation. That means that anyone that aids his escape from justice will also be punished. I have been told that if someone receives a phone call from Mr. Benson and is asked by authorities if they spoke with Benson and the person lies and the lie can be proved by phone records or a witness then that person is concealing Benson from justice.

See ya soon D. et al.

UPDATE

Daniel Benson was captured in New York City hanging outside a West Village gay bar with a beer in his hand. He was returned to Wilmington and received a 4 year prison sentence.

Have fun at Camp Freshmeat beeatch!