I received an email that there will be a rally for Jaliek tomorrow, Sunday Jan 13th.  Here’s the information:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 1/11/08Elaine PersonFind Jaliek Task Force518-861-6262518-527-6868 celleperson@capital.net  

WHAT HAPPEN TO JALIEK RAINWALKER NEWS CONFERENCE 

On December 30, 2007, Doreathea Brace, a slightly built African American woman came out of church and was met on the street by Stephen Kerr, the adopted father of Jaliek Rainwalker.  Jaliek is the 12 year-old who disappeared from Greenwich, NY over ten weeks ago on November 1st.  Stephen Kerr was the last person to see Jaliek alive and has stated that he believes his adopted son ran away and joined a gang in Albany or is living with an African American family in a rural area. 

As Mr. Kerr attempted to hand her a reward flyer, she confronted him with angry allegations that it was he, who had harmed Jaliek.  It was all caught on tape and later shown on the news.  Doreathea has had many sleepless nights since that encounter and is driven to help find Jaliek.  She is also outraged at Mr. Kerr’s allegations about the Black community hiding this child. 

She has organized a news conference/rally scheduled for Sunday, January 13th at the Albany Housing Authority at 200 South Pearl Street in Albany at 3:00pm.  Doreathea has spent many hours passing out her own flyers advertising the event.  It reads, “Women, Mothers, all females of all Races.  Please come out.  Tell the authorities this young man has become a victim of foul play.  Come one, come ALL!!  Let’s STOP THE KILLING OF OUR CHILDREN!”

Jaliek’s case leaves me with many questions.  First to Stephen Kerr, if you have nothing to hide then you should be able to answer any and all questions thrown your way.  Why do you refuse to take a polygraph?  Why aren’t you in direct communication with law enforcement?  Why aren’t you actively searching for Jaliek?  Again, if you have nothing to hide then the truth cannot incriminate you.  To the mother, Jocelyn McDonald, you did take a polygraph.  Why haven’t we heard the results?  Is it true that your own parents doubt your husbands story?  Other questions I have: If you believe that Jaliek is with 3 teens in Albany, do you know who these teens are?  If so, why doesn’t anybody confront them?  Has law enforcement been made aware of this or did they find this out in yesterdays article?  How could a 12 year old boy who’s face has been on TV and in the newspapers not be seen by somebody …anybody in over a month?  If Jaliek did run away and hasn’t been seen do you think it’s for a reason?  Was living with the adoptive family so bad that a boy of 12 would want to fall off the face of the earth?  Or was living with a boy who has emotional issues too much for the adoptive parents to deal with?  Was it an accident?  Could it be that things got heated and out of control and someone snapped?  If it was an accident why not come forward to let Jaliek rest in peace.  Let others who cared about the boy grieve properly. 

I want to be wrong about what might have happened to Jaliek.  Someone please prove me wrong!

Police may turn to media for clues

Authorities set to subpoena stations for interviews with adoptive father of missing boy

By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer

GREENWICH — With the adoptive father of a missing 12-year-old boy refusing to speak with authorities, State Police are expected to subpoena local television stations to turn over interviews with him.

“We would like to review those tapes,” said Greenwich Police Chief George Bell on Sunday. Stephen Kerr, whose emotionally troubled adopted son, Jaliek Rainwalker, has been missing since Nov. 1, isn’t speaking with officials, Bell said.”I like to think that Jaliek is alive, and someone took him to parts unknown, but I don’t believe that happened,” said Bell. Without elaborating on what police are looking for, he said State Police investigators are expected to deliver subpoenas today for interviews with Kerr and other people connected to the case.

Kerr has not taken a police-requested lie detector test, though his wife, Jocelyn McDonald, has submitted to one.

Kerr was the last person reported to have seen the boy when he left him that evening at an empty home on Hill Street owned by Kerr’s father. The next morning, the boy was missing and a note was left that spoke of not wanting to be a bother to the family.

Bell said there is no evidence that the boy is in hiding somewhere, and searches involving 15 different law enforcement and volunteer groups have turned up no signs. “We have no reports of any break-ins for food or water, nothing about transportation being stolen.”

Bell said the search for Rainwalker was suspended this weekend because of the opening of deer season, but will resume today.

The Kerr family had decided to undo their adoption of Jaliek, who was prone to violent outbursts during the five years he lived with them in Cossayuna, Washington County.

Constitutional issues are raised when police turn to reporters for evidence in making cases, said Kelly McBride, ethics group leader for the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism organization.

“Journalists try to avoid becoming an arm of the criminal investigation, especially if something sounds like a fishing expedition,” said McBride.

A Supreme Court ruling found that journalists can be compelled to comply with subpoenas only if certain conditions are met.

First, the information must not be available to police in any other way, said McBride. Second, the information must show “direct evidence” of a crime. Finally, it must be “crucial” in the prosecution.

But an Albany lawyer and former assistant district attorney said it is a “good, basic investigative technique” for police to turn to media interviews in the hunt for evidence.

“When law enforcement can’t interview someone, it is all the more important that they look for statements given to third parties,” said Paul DerOhannesian. “What you are looking for are any inconsistencies with other witnesses and known facts, as well as consistencies. Also any admissions as to when they were with a particular person, or at a particular place.”

Finally, police also examine interviews for signs of “any consciousness of guilt” by a potential suspect, he said.

Locally, media interviews with potential suspects were part of cases involving Donald Bent, who murdered his wife, Joan, and stuffed her body into the trunk of her car in 1986, and Michael Craver, who strangled his wife, Mary Ann, in 1990.

However, in New York, only interviews that have been broadcast or published can be obtained through a subpoena, DerOhannesian said. “Getting the outtakes would be very difficult,” he said.

Steve Baboulis, vice president and general manager of WNYT Ch. 13, said the station’s policy is to release only what has been broadcast. “But I would not jump to that conclusion until we see what the subpoena says,” he said.

Robert Furlong, general manager of CBS 6, declined comment.

Food starts off as being not just a source of life but an expression of love. At the heart of almost every culture, hospitality is shown by feeding people. And a celebration or a time of grief wouldn't be complete without food.

Using food for reasons other than for simple sustenance is a normal part of life. It becomes a problem when food becomes so closely linked with feelings that the two overlap and become one. The foundation for this starts in childhood: "When I was good I got a cookie;" "On summer nights we went to the lake to get ice cream;" "Sitting at the kitchen table eating bologna sandwiches and chips was the only time I had with my mother;" "When I misbehaved dessert was withheld."

Food was transformed from a simple source of nutrition to a reward, a diversion, a punishment, a love object, a friend. Once that happened, food became a way to control your emotions and to deal with your feelings of powerlessness.

Excerpt from Shrink Yourself reprinted with the permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright 2007 by Roger Gould

Why Do You Eat?

When you've installed food as a preferred way to cope, you stop developing new ways to deal with stress, your weight becomes increasingly difficult to control, and ultimately you end up reinforcing your feelings of powerlessness.

In simple terms, when something happens to bother you (such as a person ignoring you), it makes you feel bad, and you suddenly have the uncontrollable urge to eat.

Then, when you eat more than you know you should, it's always followed by regret, self-hatred and extra pounds.

For many of you, the moment when something bothers you overlaps with the moment when you suddenly have the uncontrollable urge to eat. For instance, my patient Gloria, a married woman who is 33-years-old and 30 pounds overweight, told me about an eating episode that occurred after an argument with her husband.

I asked her why she chose to eat to deal with how she was feeling. She responded, "What other choice did I have?"

In the next half hour of the session, we developed six other things that she could've done instead of eating.

For example, she could have taken responsibility for her part of the argument or done something to relax, like going for a walk or taking a bath, to buy herself some time to think things through and clarify her feelings.

Why You Eat When You're Bothered

I was struck over the years by how many people were similar to Gloria. Something happened, and they felt that there wasn't any other choice but to deal with what happened by eating.

By choosing food, they totally relinquished their ability to solve problems and deal with their lives in a mature and empowered way. The only way to recover that power is to pause long enough to determine what other options you have besides eating when something in life troubles you.

Even though it may not be obvious that something happened that bothered you, if you suddenly find yourself starving when you know you've just eaten, you can logically suspect that you've been emotionally triggered in some way.

Extensive research has shown that you're not really starving in those moments. It's almost always emotional hunger that drives you: a fight with a spouse, an uncomfortable work situation, a lull in your work day, a needy parent or child, your life, your future, your past. It's something that sets off a brief episode of powerlessness.

This book is really about finding the space between when something has affected you and your sudden urge to eat (which is not real hunger), and then exploring what goes on in your mind when you have that uncontrollable urge.

Up until now, the emotions and issues that fuel the urge to eat have been operating behind the scenes, sabotaging all of your good intentions.

Food Protects You From Bad Feelings

Why has food become the thing that you consistently turn to when feelings triggered by people or events feel unbearable?

Food serves two very effective purposes. First, it helps you avoid feelings. I call the desire to avoid emotions the "feeling phobia." Also, food gives you a way to replace bad feelings with the pleasurable experience of eating. I call the pleasurable experience that food provides the "food trance."

In short, eating protects you from the feelings that you don't want to feel. If your feelings open the door to your interior world, then eating slams the door shut.

It keeps you functioning on a surface level, and although you feel powerless to control what and how much you eat, at least you don't have to focus on the deeper things that really make you feel powerless (including failed relationships, unsatisfying careers, and difficult children).

Many people report to me that as they're approaching their goal weight they often sabotage themselves and all of their efforts. They wonder why that is. It doesn't seem to make any sense. In fact, you may be able to relate to that experience.

The answer, time and again, proves to be simple: if you didn't have your weight to think about you might have to think about what's really bothering you, and that's very frightening, because I know that you feel powerless to change the things that really bother you.

You've made what I call the "unexamined powerlessness conclusion." It's a conclusion that you're powerless over your feelings and the circumstances in your life that the feelings point toward, so you might as well eat.

For more information on Dr. Roger Gould or Shrink Yourself, visit www.shrinkyourself.com.