Porco Family Member Responds To Upstream.

Editor's Note: The following comment from a member of the Porco family was left on my blog. I am putting it here as a post so it will get the attention it deserves. The writer also has a blog at www.porcofactchecker.blogspot.com.

"For those of us who live in dread that Chris will get away with murder, your thoughts on his incarceration for his other crimes gives us hope he will be punished in some fashion. I just worry that since these crimes were against his father (who is deceased) and his mother, who will not press charges nor cooperate with law enforcement it will be difficult to get a indictment. Also, I am not sure if the statute of limitation comes into play on the 2002 burglary.
At the end of last week’s trial, Lori Shanks made the statement that the Prosecution is tearing our family apart… turning one member against another. Our extended family has never been closer! We agonize over Joan and her suffering: physically; mentally; and, emotionally. No one can feel more abandoned than she. And, yet no one in our family is more loved and anguished over than Joan. It is the defense who has separated Joan from us. In response to the accusation by Ms. Shanks that the Prosecution is damaging our family, I am compelled to tell all that it is the Defense team has done more to separate Joan from her family than you can imagine. Less than six months after Peter’s murder, an associate of K & S (against the wishes of her children and without regard for Mrs. Porco’s age and health) told Peter’s mother the gory details of her son’s long and tortuous death. This same lawyer then told Joan that Peter’s sister, Patty, was working with the police who were gathering evidence implicating Christopher in his father’s murder. As a result, Joan severed all ties with Patty, Peter’s sister, refusing to see or communicate with her. These lawyers so turned Joan against the Porco family members, that when Peter’s ashes were interred, Joan refused to allow ANY family members to attend the memorial service except, Johnathan and Christopher, her brother, John and his wife (with whom she lived), and the priest (her cousin) who conducted the service.
During her recovery, Joan’s doctors had asked us not to speak to Joan about the night of Nov. 15 on the outside chance that Joan might recover her OWN memories… and, those memories should not be tainted by information coming from conversations with us. Joan and Chris’ lawyers told us not to talk with Christopher about his father’s murder & his motherÂs nearly fatal injuries. Up until the time of the Pre-trial hearings, our family lived in a very surreal world. Whenever we were together with Joan or Christopher, the question of who did these horrific things to Joan and Peter was the “elephant” in the room that no one acknowledged or could speak freely about.We kept hoping that Kindlon and Shanks would call our family together and tell us how they were going to proceed with Chris’ defense. We thought that K&S had a handle on evidence supporting Chris’ alibi and claims of innocence which they would soon share with us. We were thirsting for some fact or truth upon which we all could hang our hopes/beliefs that Christopher was truly innocent. K & S treated our family (except for Joan and Chris) as the enemy. Family members were given orders to write letters appealing for the judge to grant bail; orders to anti up for the bail posting… but, there were never any words of encouragement from the defense team in regard to Chris’ innocence or the defense’s strategy. The Prosecution team, however, was more than willing to answer any and all of our family’s questions; share information and evidence with us; and, encourage us to become involved in the investigation. The defense team, on the other hand, did everything in their power to keep the Prosecution from questioning Joan, and to keep mounting evidence from reaching Joan. They told her the police were out to get Chris; that the Prosecution were liars, making up stories to prove Chris guilty. That a certain BPD detective had it “in” for Chris. Joan refused to cooperate with the police and their investigation on the advice of her attorneys. She signed whatever public letters her attorneys gave to her: First begging that her son be left alone; and then, berating the police for their persecution of Chris and their total lack of effort to bring the “real” attacker/s to justice. When the trial was to start, the defense team wanted to be sure they had full control of Joan, so they devised and executed a plan to make John and Barbara Balzano (Joan’s caregivers) leave Goshen and return to their home in Rochester. Joan then moved in with the defense team. They now control what Joan reads, hears, sees, and thinks. She is on call to be present whenever they need her for public displays of affection. Her love for her son has allowed the defense team to make her their pawn.So when Shanks talks to the media about what damage the Prosecution has done to our family… I become enraged at such unadulterated lying. I understand that it is K&S’s job to tear down the evidence against Chris and render it impotent. But, that job does not include publicly lying about our family’s unity and our relationship with the Prosecution. For most all of us, the Prosecution team members and the BPD are our heroes. In addition, I feel a special need to commend and thank Detective Bowdish. It was his quick thinking and questioning of Joan as she lay severely injured that stopped Chris from “getting away with murder” and attempted murder. I know that Det. Bowdish’s failure to administer the Miranda rights completely, word for word, will haunt him for the rest of his life. But, he should know, that for the rest of our lives, we will be forever grateful for his actions at the crime scene where (and when) Joan had a better grip on reality than she has today. "