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Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Larry David actually helps someone!
'Curb Your Enthusiasm' clears murder suspect
Tuesday, June 1, 2004
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- "Curb Your Enthusiasm," an HBO show known for its acerbic wit, accidentally helped deliver a happy ending to a man who had been charged with murder.
Juan Catalan spent 5 1/2 months in jail on murder charges before his attorney found video footage taken by the show at Dodger Stadium that backs up his client's claims of innocence.
Police arrested Catalan in August, alleging he killed Martha Puebla, 16, in the San Fernando Valley on May 12, 2003, because she had testified against his brother in another case.
Catalan insisted he and his 6-year-old daughter were watching the Los Angeles Dodgers lose to the Atlanta Braves, 11-4, minutes before Puebla was killed about 20 miles north of the stadium.
He said he had ticket stubs from the game and testimony from his family as to his whereabouts the night Puebla was killed. But police still believed he was responsible, saying they had a witness who placed Catalan at the scene of the slaying.
Catalan said he asked to take a lie detector test, but was refused.
Defense attorney Todd Melnik subpoenaed the Dodgers and Fox Networks, which owned the team then, to scan videotape of the televised baseball game and footage from its "Dodger Vision" cameras. Some of the videotapes showed where Catalan was sitting but Melnik couldn't make him out.
Clues on the cutting room floor
Melnik later learned that HBO had been at the stadium the night of the killing to tape an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," a comedy starring "Seinfeld" co-creator Larry David. The lawyer found what he was looking for in footage that had not made the final cut.
"I got to one of the scenes, and there is my client sitting in a corner of the frame eating a hot dog with his daughter," Melnik said. "I nearly jumped out of my chair and said, 'There he is!"'
The tapes had time codes that allowed Melnik to find out exactly when Catalan was at the ballpark. Melnik also obtained cell phone records that placed his client near the stadium later that night, about 20 minutes before the murder.
The attorney said it would have been impossible for Catalan to get out of the parking lot, change vehicles and clothing and play with his daughter as well as kill Puebla during that span.
Catalan, who could have faced the death penalty had he been convicted of murder, was released in January because a judge ruled there was no evidence to try him.
"To hear the words from the judge's mouth, I just broke down in tears," Catalan, 26, said Tuesday. "It was the happiest moment in my life."
Catalan, now raising his family and working with his father as a machinist, has submitted a claim against the city of Los Angeles, alleging false imprisonment, misconduct and defamation of character. Puebla's murder remains unsolved and the case against Catalan's brother, who is accused of being the driver in a drive-by shooting, is still pending.
Prosecutors and police did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday.
Other evidence also helped dismiss the case against Catalan, but the videotape "had extreme dramatic effect," Melnick said.
The show was hardly about the ballpark crowd that night. It focused on David hiring a prostitute, not for sex but to be a passenger in his car so he could travel in the carpool lane and escape traffic on his way to the stadium.
"Curb Your Enthusiasm" is a series on cable network HBO, whose parent company is Time Warner Inc. which also owns CNN.com.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
posted by Rabbi Jason A. Miller
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
An autistic boy's beautiful words about Rabbi Hillel
Each year Valley Beth Shalom’s Tikvah Program for children with special needs leads the congregation’s Friday night service. This year the theme was the teachings of the ancient sage, Hillel. My 11-year-old son, Jacob, has autism, and he contributed to the service by writing these profound words. I wanted to share his beautiful teachings with you. I am a very proud Abba!
B’virkat Shalom,
Rabbi Bradley Artson
Hillel
By Jacob Artson
Hillel was a great teacher of Torah. I love Hillel’s saying that you should never judge a person until you are in his or her shoes. I have often felt judged by people who look at me and think I am retarded because I can’t speak or move the way most people can. Hillel probably didn’t know anyone who had autism but his teachings are very meaningful to me because I love Torah just as he did, and it is very comforting to know that great Jews like Hillel have taught about me without even knowing me. I learn from him that I also need to be more patient with people and try to see their perspective before I make negative judgments about them.
The Torah helps me keep my hope and helps me keep working hard to be like other kids. I am very grateful to all of you for supporting my Hebrew School class so I can learn about how to be a good Jew and a person who earns respect.
Hillel is a wonderful role model for all people whether they have special needs or not. I have learned from Hillel that I can be a role model by living his teachings and that I am responsible for my behavior just like all typically developing people are responsible for the way they treat other people. I am very happy that I was born Jewish because this is a terrific way to live in the world as a partner with God and all of God’s creation.
posted by Rabbi Jason A. Miller
Sunday, June 06, 2004
Bill Davidson and his teams
Mr. Bill Davidson, the owner of international glass company
Guardian Industries
, could have three champions this year. He's the owner of the WNBA's defending champion
Detroit Shock
. The
Tampa Bay Lightning
, his NHL (hockey) franchise play Monday night for the Stanley Cup. His
Detroit Pistons
take on the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA (basketball) Finals.
Mr. Davidson is well known as a Jewish philantropist, donating millions of dollars to Israel institutions including the Technion University and the excavations next to the Western Wall. He is also the chief benefactor of the
Jewish Theological Seminary's William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education
, where I recently received a Masters Degree. What follows is yesterday's New York Times piece on Mr. Davidson.
NEW YORK TIMES (June 5, 2004)
2 Teams, 2 Leagues, 2 Finalists: One Owner
By JOE LAPOINTE
TAMPA, Fla., June 4 — So which sport is Bill Davidson's favorite: hockey or basketball?
He owns the N.H.L.'s Tampa Bay Lightning, which is playing in the Stanley Cup finals against the Calgary Flames. He also owns the Detroit Pistons, who begin the N.B.A. finals against the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night.
If Davidson had to choose a sport, which would it be?
"I don't want to answer that question," Davidson said as he sat in a luxury suite at the St. Pete Times Forum during Game 5 of the Lightning's game against Calgary on Thursday night. Casually dressed, he watched Calgary win, 3-2, in overtime, giving the Flames a 3-2 advantage in the four-of-seven-game series.
Game 6 is Saturday night in Calgary, and if the Lightning wins, the series returns to Tampa for Game 7 on Monday. Davidson, 81, also plans to attend the Pistons' opener against the Lakers on Sunday. He sat courtside during some Pistons games this spring at the Palace of Auburn Hills, with a television monitor at his feet to keep track of his hockey team.
"I try to work it out whatever way I can," Davidson said in a friendly but brief interview during the first intermission Thursday night.
Pistons Coach Larry Brown occasionally wore a Red Wings jersey before Calgary eliminated them from the playoffs, but he has switched to a Lightning jersey in honor of the man who signs his paychecks. During one of the intermissions Thursday night, Hooper, the Pistons' mascot, took a ride on the Zamboni as it resurfaced the ice. Hooper carried the N.B.A. Eastern Conference trophy and held a sign promoting the N.B.A. finals.
Davidson bought the Pistons 30 years ago, 25 years before he invested in the N.H.L. Like the Lightning, the Pistons were an underperforming franchise that Davidson and his staff built into an elite club.
The Pistons won N.B.A. titles in 1989 and '90. Davidson's group built the Palace, which opened in 1988. Its design was revolutionary at the time; it had luxury suites on three levels, an idea that intensified the gentrification of seating in sports stadiums. His management style with his teams is to delegate authority and interfere little.
Davidson, a graduate of the University of Michigan and Wayne State University law school, also owns the Detroit Shock, the defending W.N.B.A. champion. His company, Palace Sports and Entertainment, promotes concerts in Michigan and in Florida; Forbes magazine has estimated Davidson's net worth at $1.9 billion.
Although he is perceived in Detroit as primarily a basketball man, Davidson said he used to watch games at Olympia Stadium, accompanied by his uncle, when the Red Wings were a relatively new business.
"I started going even before Gordie Howe," he said. "I remember Gordie Howe's first game. I remember Ted Lindsay's first game. I grew up right in the heart of the city."
Davidson, who established himself in the glass business with Guardian Industries, is one of three N.H.L. owners who grew up in Detroit and bought franchises after success in other businesses. Mike Ilitch, who owns a pizza chain, bought the Red Wings in 1982, and Peter Karmanos built a computer business before buying the Carolina Hurricanes in 1994.
Davidson operates a 21,500-seat arena in the same market as Ilitch's Red Wings and used to own a minor league team that played there. Markets like Los Angeles and New York support more than one team, but does Davidson think Detroit can support two?
"I think so because of the geographics," Davidson said, alluding to the area's proximity to Canada. But he said he was unsure if it would ever happen in the region.
He was more specific about the mood surrounding the N.H.L.'s anticipated collective-bargaining crisis. There could be a lockout next season if there is no new deal with the N.H.L. Players Association. Davidson said he was not optimistic.
"I'm convinced there will be a lockout, and quite a lengthy one," he said.
Although Davidson said he was not sure if he would buy into the N.H.L. again, his top aides for the Lightning, Tom Wilson and Ron Campbell, have said that the team would not lose money this season if it reached the finals. The Lightning has had three sold-out home games. Palace Sports and Entertainment also owns the arena and uses it for concerts and other events.
In recent years, there has been speculation around the N.H.L. that Davidson would not mind selling the Lightning, but Wilson recently said: "We're not shopping it. We're enjoying it."
posted by Rabbi Jason A. Miller
The Most Yiddish Blog You've Ever Seen
I met Steven I. Weiss at the JTS event honoring Rabbi Ismar Schorsch for 18 years as chancellor of the Seminary. He is the creator and writer for the Forward's blog "Fiddish." It makes for great reading... check it out!
FIDDISH
posted by Rabbi Jason A. Miller
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About
Rabbi Jason Miller
is the Associate Director of the
University of Michigan Hillel Foundation
. He is a Conservative Rabbi ordained by
The Jewish Theological Seminary
with a master's degree from the Davidson School of Jewish Education. Rabbi Jason Miller has also worked at
Camp Ramah
for several summers and taught at many
synagogues
across the country. He is the director of
Adat Shalom Synagogue
's SYNergy program for Shabbat enhancement and is a visiting assistant professor at
Michigan State University
.
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Ohio has a new Subway!
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John Paintsil and his Israeli Pride
Torah on Tap and the Hillel Rabbinate Requirement
On the President of Israel's snub of the Reform Chief Rabbi
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Keeping me in your prayers
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But they don't say "Please" in Israel
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