| Author |
 Replies: 69 / Views: 6,191 |
|
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1590 Posts |
I cringe when I read someone being accused of being a thief, without that person having been convicted. There are Slander Laws in this country. I was a Detective for 12 years. There is a reason we NEVER call anyone a criminal until they are convicted.
And I will say this about criminal cases in general; more than once I have been involved with a case where all the circumstantial evidence pointed towards one specific person; and the conclusions were wrong. One involved a murder suspect that we had actually arrested and was being arraigned....when the "victim" walked in the Courtroom...yes you can have a murder investigation without a body. At least on person was executed for a murder where it was discovered years later that the victim was alive and well.
So......can we not accuse people of crimes we have no PROOF they committed?
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
 13014 Posts |
Donk at this point they would probably have to sell them just to try and attempt to recover the investigative costs and still probably fall short.
Jmk thats a very good point. We can assume he did it, but we cant actually prove it. His family having the coins doesn't help his case, but you are right we dont know for sure that they have benefited or almost benefited from anything more than good luck
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
12437 Posts |
Quote:
There are Slander Laws in this country Do those laws apply to dead people? All parties to an alleged theft have been dead for several decades so a conviction is impossible, speculation and supposition is all that exists. As for the fate of the coins, I am of the opinion that they should be disbursed to numismatic museums throughout the US for collectors to enjoy in perpetuity. |
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
I never used the word "thief" when talking about Switt. He admittedly sold some of the coins and admittedly had some of them (even though he said he had sold them all and didn't remember who he purchased them from) so he was admittedly acquiring and selling stolen property. I believe he was a business man that didn't care if he had to step into a grey area to make a buck, as long as he made it
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1590 Posts |
You know I don't know if you can sue someone for slandering your ancestors? Good question. On the other hand calling someone "The family of a thief" might be libeling the living family rather than the dead person. I know you didn't Bryan. But others did. Setting out the case is fun and informative. Actually coming to a conclusion, and stating it as fact, that could ruin the good name of a family...not so good. If they could show for instance that their families business suffered because of unproven libels and slanders...I don't know...I'm not an Attorney....Lol, I would love to hear an opinion from a practicing Lawyer. In any event slander or not, calling someone criminal, when it hasn't been proved is, in my opinion, bad etiquette; at the least. And this has been a friendly forum which has a surprising number of younger more impressionable members. Just my Two Cents. |
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
I definitely understand your concerns about the members of the Forum and appreciate you looking out for their best interest. We have had to edit posts about this very topic or even lock them in the past because both sides are so passionate about how they feel about this subject. I don't try to persuade anyone to think either way, I just try to give my point of view of how I feel about it (even though I admittedly do struggle with it at times) and leave it open for discussion for whomever to agree or disagree with my opinion. In the end it is not our decision to make on what will happen with the coins, right now its the courts decision and then the winners of the case to decide after that
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Agreed with Bryan. We unfortunately have no say.
To me at least one of the things that makes this such an interesting subject is that there really is no wrong answer. Theres just so many ways this issue can be looked at and every single one of those ways has their own valid arguments. I find myself going back and forth a lot and sometimes even changing what I think as I type out a response.
Of course the fact that we will never actually know what happened for real or how many really are out there definitely adds to the allure
|
|
Rest in Peace
United States
2668 Posts |
Sometimes the U.S. government is wrong.
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Just found another interesting fact about the 7.5 million dollar double eagle. It was stored in the vaults in the WTC and was moved to fort knox just weeks before the terrible attacks on 9-11.
Also while the coin was not slabbed by PCGS their graders were given the chance to look at it and gave it an MS-65 grade
|
|
Valued Member
United States
227 Posts |
Quote:
basebal21: Donk at this point they would probably have to sell them just to try and attempt to recover the investigative costs and still probably fall short. True, but even more reason why what they did was really dumb (according to the MSNBC article). They kinda deserve it because let's face it they got greedy and really ambitious: they wanted to clear the coins for public auction because they knew they would get more money that way. So they rolled the dice in order to fight an uphill battle (an expensive one) instead of taking what probably would have been at least a few million under the table. I understand high risk high reward but come on, this isn't a battle that you can reasonably expect to win. |
|
Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Donk I'm sure they thought they had a good chance after the other one, but it was definitely a big risk. I still think they didnt come forward with all of them they have.
I know JMK doesn't want to accuse anyone who wasnt proven to have taken them and I agree, but for the sake of argument lets say he did take the coins, after seeing how easy it was to swap I have a hard time believing it was only a one time thing.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3640 Posts |
Thanks again Mr. Roosevelt. It's all your fault anyway. Been going downhill ever since. Think I'm going to melt all of my roo's.  Ugly dimes anyway. Also, would not even surprise me that the Ten are just knockoffs. |
|
Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Quote:
Also, would not even surprise me that the Ten
are just knockoffs. I do believe mint officials verified them as real, so if they were knockoffs I need the name and number of the person who made them  |
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
yeah they were authenticated. The family actually sent the coins to the government for authenticated and when they called them in to let them know their findings thats when they told them they were real but wasn't getting them back. They told them they had already sent them to Fort Knox Quote:
Just found another interesting fact about the 7.5 million dollar double eagle. It was stored in the vaults in the WTC and was moved to fort knox just weeks before the terrible attacks on 9-11. The webpage I posted on page 2 gave that information about the coin |
|
Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Bryan must have missed that part on your link. Seems like just about everything interesting that could have happened to that coin did
|
| |
Replies: 69 / Views: 6,191 |
First Page
Previous Page
Posted 06/20/2012 7:37 pm
