Sunday, May 31, 2009

The Case of the Disappearing Murder Case

On New Year's Eve, Nichole Hammond plunged to her death from a balcony at the Marriott World Center. Her boyfriend, Jonathan Justin Speegle was arrested in January and was granted a $50,000 bond by Judge Tim Shea, who also ordered GPS tracking (see Orlando Sentinel articles dated 1/24/09, 5/13/09, and 5/15/09).

In working on the Watchlist this week, we discovered that neither the case number (2009CF1037), nor the defendant can be located on the Orange County Clerk's website. Sometimes we run into "missing" cases when people have had their files sealed (which can only happen after the case has been closed out and judge grants a motion to do so). But this is a brand new case, and we were able to look it up and obtain a case number after his arrest on January 23, 2009.

I hope for Nichole's family's sake that this case hasn't fallen into a black hole.

9/9/09: This case is now visible on the Clerk's site.

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