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[Music] for more than a year angry hateful letters were sent to a first grade school teacher in a small Mountain
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Village in Pennsylvania many were sexual in nature some threatened violence when scientists analyzed the
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letters they found evidence that the stalker knew a lot about the victim more than anyone could possibly imagine
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[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in 1993 some hate mail began to arrive at the cool ball Learning Center a public
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elementary school in the Pocono Mountains in eastern Pennsylvania the letters were unsigned
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and sent to the principal making serious allegations against a first grade reading teacher Joanne Chambers she had
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been teaching in the school district for the past 8 years Chambers brought pot into school and
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then showed it in the faculty room just like it was a big joke I thought it was just somebody a disgruntled employee
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I just wanted to know who it was and I thought it was a thing that you could you know sit down with that person talk
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it out and fix it soon letters were sent to Joanne Chambers herself at both home
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and at school I can get you in one try no one will ever prove it they may not think so but I'm smarter
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than all of you you stupid [ __ ] Joanne Chambers was popular with students and was an unlikely Target of a hate
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campaign she was married with a 10-year-old son and had no known enemies I can speak with uh Assurance about
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Joanne's teaching abilities uh she's highly recommended by uh other teachers
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in the district uh she was also highly respected by parents uh she was an outstanding teacher all her
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recommendations show that it appeared that someone had a grudge against her look in Chambers desk she seems to like
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Jack Daniels Chambers found the whiskey bottle in her desk drawer and said personal items were
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missing there were things missing from my drawers the picture of my child and myself and my friend and her daughter
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was taken from my desk the police suspected that a fellow teacher or School employee was sending the letters
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since they often alluded to activities going on inside the school one of the letters contained an interesting clue it
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was a snide reference to the school superintendent as Colonel clink a character in The Hogan's Heroes
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television series a teacher in the school was once overheard referring to the superintendent in this way her name
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was Paula Nori like Joanne Chambers noaki also taught first grade and had worked in the school district for 18
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years I was totally surprised I was positive that it wasn't anybody in the building that it could be explained in
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some other way the letters continued but soon there were other incidents the first was
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something Joanne Chambers found under her desk I went to start my lesson with my children and sat down at a chair and
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had a dress on and put my hand underneath to straighten the dress out and I was covered with
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feces and I couldn't even tell you what I felt like I felt sick to my stomach I felt I
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was like it was not happening it was like this could not happen just a few days later a hidden camera captured
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several teachers entering Joanne chambers's vacant classroom one removed Chambers coffee cup from her
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desk it was Paula Nori the photograph of Joanne Chambers stolen from her desk was pasted onto a
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nude picture photocopied and distributed throughout the schoolyard mailed to parents' homes and a copy was taped to
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the door of a local store there were phone calls to parents saying that I was a lesbian that um I had AIDS that you
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know that I shouldn't be teaching their children the FBI suggested that Joanne
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Chambers be given a lie detector test to validate her various claims Paula noaki
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also volunteered to take a lie detector test hoping to clear her name after suspicions arose from the colonel clink
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reference and the coffee cup incident one of the two failed on the most crucial question of
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[Music] all after 10 months of threatening letters x-rated pictures and hidden video surveillance police believed they
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had a break in the stalking case Joanne Chambers and Paula noroi both took lie detector tests about their
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knowledge of the threatening letters each was asked whether they were involved in making or sending any of the
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harassing letters one passed the other failed I was told that I fail my polygraph Paula Nori became the primary
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suspect I was very upset I I couldn't believe that it was making things worse
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instead of better Nori said she was video vide tape taking Joanne Chambers coffee cup because Chambers had asked
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Paula to get it for her the surveillance videotape shows that Joanne Chambers and
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Paula noroi were both in the classroom and left together just moments before Paula returned for the coffee
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cup police asked noaki if they could search her home and once again she voluntarily complied they took with them
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an old typewriter that we had they took um different kinds of paper and different envelopes the analysis of
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Nori's typewriter revealed that it was not the one used to type the threatening
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letters the paper and envelopes from noak's home did not match those used in
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the threatening letters either Nori's reputation as a by the book teacher and
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strict disciplinarian was in sharp contrast to Joanne Chambers lose and funloving classroom style the way the
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police saw it Paula was jealous of Joan chambers's unconventional teaching style
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and the popularity that she gained from that style uh Paul nakaki was more of a bu to book conservative teacher who
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favored traditional teaching methods whereas Joanne Chambers would show up in the classroom wearing jeans and a Mickey
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Mouse t-shirt and she would do things like stage water fights with the school administrators which uh the police
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believe angered Paul andachi and as the investigation continued so did the threatening letters letters went out to
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parents to parents saying that I was molesting their children I thought my career was gone I thought I was going to
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be in jail I thought I didn't know what was going to happen by the fall of 1994 the letters included death
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threats you die for her own protection Joanne Chambers was transferred to another
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school shortly after her transfer a box in pink wrapping paper was found at the front door of the
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school inside was a Barbie doll the throat slashed with a razor blade and covered with paint the color of blood
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the dress was identical to one often worn by Joanne Chambers the hair was cut and styled like Chambers as well I said
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goodbye to my husband like I wanted him to remember me saying goodbye I lived every day thinking that it was
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truly possible that it could be my last in November of 1994 Chambers said a car tried to run
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her off the highway she said she saw the face of the driver I go off the road I pull over I look she's looking
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right at me I will never forget that look now never I will never forget it she looked right at me she said the face
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she saw was a face she [Music] knew when Joanne chambers called police to report that a car forced her off the
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highway she said she recognized the face of the other driver I saw her she looked
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at me I'm I know that Paula noaki was driving that car Paula noaki denied the
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allegation but was arrested and charged with harassment stalking simple and aggravated assault making terroristic
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threats and recklessly endangering the life of Joanne Chambers over 100 counts in all I was finding out that I was
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charged with many many horrendous things I had never heard about before the school district suspended her from her
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teaching position with pay if convicted she could serve 5 years in jail after Nori's arrest the letters threats and
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mailings stopped noroi maintained her innocence and hired both an attorney and private investigator to help the
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investigator was a former state policeman and even he admitted that Paula's situation did not look good my
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first thought was well she's probably guilty it just looked overwhelming when
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you looked at the at at the whole complaint the FBI found some partial fingerprints on the threatening letters
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but they did not match Paula Nori's the defense team wanted to see if any DNA
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was present on the threatening letters the prosecutor would allow DNA testing by the defense only if the results were
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fully disclosed regardless of the outcome Paula's defense team wanted to make sure she understood the
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ramifications of such an agreement he asked would there be any possible reason that any of my DNA should be on any of
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it any possibility whatsoever and I I said no Paula if we do this testing and your DNA is found on these stamps or or
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envelope flaps your chance you're going to jail the cost of the DNA testing approximately
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$7,000 would have to be paid by by Paula oraki blood samples from both Paula and
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her husband were sent to a local DNA lab along with the threatening letters and the envelopes the amount of DNA that
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would wind up on the back of a stamp or an envelope flap depends on how hard you
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lick the envelope how much cells that you Shed from the inside of your mouth they're variables that it's hard to
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predict exactly what the value would be but it is there in some cases there's
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more DNA than others first scientists use steam to gently remove the stamps from the envelopes the back of each
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stamp and envelope flap was swabbed for epithelial cells which come from saliva DNA was found on the back of one
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set of stamps and on one envelope flap the number of cells recovered was so small that forensic scientists performed
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a process called polymerase Chain Reaction or PCR which amplifies or copies the DNA in those few cells to
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make enough for testing what we're looking for to see is how does um this DNA that we've extracted compare to
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somebody else's DNA now if the DNA is from a similar Source you'll get the
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same pattern of blue dots on a White Strip This is the genetic profile of the individual who licked the stamps when
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the DNA profile of pollen or rocki and and her husband were compared to the DNA from the back of the
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stamps there was no match for example Paul andar rocki has two dots here and um the DNA from the back of the Posta
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stamp only has one so therefore right away we can exclude paulen aroi with just this one genetic marker we looked
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at five different genetic markers and four out of five can exclude pollen rocki DNA was
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found and it did not match Paula and it did not match lenon which meant that someone licked that
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those stamps and it wasn't Leonard Paul we thought it was going to blow apart
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the whole case we thought we thought we were done now armed with the DNA profile of
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the stalker The Manhunt had just [Music] begun when DNA testing of the stamps and
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envelope flap did not match Paula or rocky or her husband the defense team went one step further they wanted to
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find the individual whose DNA was on the threatening letters if Paula didn't do
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it there's only one other person that could have done it because there's only
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one other person that knew the circumstances of all these letters that knew everything that was going on that
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was joyan Chambers was it possible that the El alleged victim wrote the threatening
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letters and mailed them to herself the defense uncovered some information which pointed in that very
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Direction police in the neighboring town of Carbondale Pennsylvania told defense
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investigators the chambers had a history of reporting suspicious incidents from burglaries to fires they said every
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crime that she's been a victim of is has some weirdnesses attached to it and just off the top of their heads
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they started relating different uh crimes as supposedly she's been a victim of when Anderson researched chambers's
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employment history he learned the chambers reported similar threatening letters and also reported finding feces
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on her classroom chair while in another school district years earlier to find out if it was Joan and Chambers DNA on
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the threatening letters Jim Anderson needed her DNA profile for that he looked in her trash once trash is placed
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at the curbside the owner gives up all legal rights to what's inside one plastic drinking
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straw one used looks like toilet tissue plastic straws used tissues and a cotton swab
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with ear wax all items with possible genetic material were sent to the DNA lab for testing Dr lion walner
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identified two different DNA profiles from the mucus saliva and ear wax samples from the chambers's trash the
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DNA from the uh one of the household members was similar to the uh DNA on the back of the stamps and the envelope with
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these DNA results the defense team demanded that all charges against Paul and or rocky be dropped the prosecution
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fused and Joanne Chambers provided a blood sample for further DNA testing once again Joan Chambers blood DNA
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matched the DNA from the stamps and the envelope flap you can see how all five genetic markers line up perfectly
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between the DNA of Joanne Chambers and the DNA from the back of the postage stamps the odds of someone in the random
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US population having the same combination of five genotypes tested was one in [Music]
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[Music] the circumstantial evidence against Paula nocki including the coffee cup
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incident and the colonel clink reference in one of the threatening letters for the defense teachers from Joanne
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Chambers former School District testified that she made similar claims of harassment years earlier but it was
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the DNA evidence that stunned most courtroom observers the DNA was definitely the bombshell
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um to hear that uh Joan Chambers saliva was found on the stamps of one of the the threatening letters and the flap of
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another envelope it was just unbelievable but on the witness stand under oath Joanne Chambers had an
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explanation she said the prosecutor left her alone with the evidence and the stamps fell off one of the envelopes she
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said she licked the stamps to reattach them and when that didn't work used a glue stick at the very least she
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showed poor judgment and at the most she tampered with uh important evidence Dr lton walner testified that she saw no
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glue stick residue on the stamps when she removed them for DNA testing as a lifelong stamp collector she has
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experienced distinguishing glue stick residue from regular stamp adhesive I know gum from knowing stamps and it
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would looked to me just like the gum on recent US stamps and it's smooth and
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glistening and looked just like that there was no outward evidence that a glue stick had been used the trial
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lasted 5 days and it took the jury less than 2 hours to reach a verdict they found Paula nor Rocky not
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guilty reaction after the verdict was the most amazing thing I've ever seen the alleged victim was being treated as
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the defendant and the defendant was being treated as the victim in the hallway jurors sought out Paula
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nari and hugged her and told her how much they loved her while Joan Chambers left the courthouse uh virtually ignored
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Joanne Chambers denies that she created the campaign of threats against her I could never ever do this stuff to myself
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I don't think that I could be functioning in a world as a parent as a teacher as a wife
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if I were that sick to do that to myself I think julan Chambers did it to herself
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yes I think she sent the Barbie doll I think uh this was all a stage for jilan I hope the lesson that people
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could learn from this is that you really are supposed to be innocent until proven
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guilty and you aren't supposed to be guilty until proven innocent I've never
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seen anything like this and if I cover cases for another 40 years I think I'll
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give you that same answer still [Music] War [Music] [Applause] [Music]