Pathologist doubts suicide in California hanging death (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? A prominent forensic pathologist said a woman found hanged, bound and nude at the mansion of her wealthy boyfriend was less likely a victim of suicide, as police concluded, than of murder, and he urged a reopening of the case.

Dr. Cyril Wecht, a private consultant in high-profile investigations ranging from the Kennedy assassination to the death of Anna Nicole Smith, made a nationally televised appearance on Tuesday on the "Dr. Phil" show to render his opinion about the bizarre death of Rebecca Zahau.

Wecht performed a second, independent autopsy on Zahau's body last month at the request of relatives who have challenged the official determination of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and coroner that she took her own life.

Zahau's sister, Mary Zahau-Loehner, said on the show she firmly believed her sibling was murdered.

A lawyer and a private detective for the family who also spoke on the program cited clues they said police failed to thoroughly examine after Zahau's lifeless body was found dangling from a rope around her neck at the estate of her boyfriend, Jonah Shacknai, founder and CEO of the Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp.

Sheriff Bill Gore later issued a statement saying he had personally watched the two-part "Dr. Phil" segment on Zahau's death and determined that "no new information has been provided by this second autopsy." He added the case remained closed.

Zahau's death on July 13 came two days after Shacknai's 6-year-old son, Max, took a fatal fall down a staircase at the same oceanside mansion near San Diego. The boy, who was in Zahau's care at the time, died six days later from his injuries. Police determined the fall was an accident.

Homicide investigators themselves have said that the circumstances surrounding Zahau's death were baffling, but in the end ruled out foul play.

They concluded that Zahau, 32, had committed suicide after learning in a late-night telephone call that Max, then still hospitalized, had taken a turn for the worse.

Seeking to allay public skepticism, police released an unusual video reenactment of how investigators believe Zahau had tied up her own wrists and ankles, hands bound behind her back, before slipping a noose over around her neck and hurling herself off a second-story balcony.

Shacknai, whose company makes the wrinkle-filler Restylane and the acne treatment Solodyn, asked the California attorney general's office in September to review the case, but that was denied. Shacknai was never considered a suspect, police said.

LEANING AGAINST SUICIDE

Wecht agreed with the official autopsy finding that the cause of Zahau's death was asphyxiation by hanging, but said he strongly doubted she killed herself.

"While I am not prepared to unequivocally, with absolute scientific certainty, say that it was a homicide and that it was not a suicide, I lean very strongly toward it being a homicide, something involving foul play. And I lean very strongly against it being a suicide," he said.

Wecht said he was particularly troubled by findings in both autopsies that Zahau had suffered blows to the top of her head, indicated by four separate hemorrhages beneath the scalp.

He said such an injury pointed to the possibility that she was knocked unconscious with a blunt object and could explain why police said there was no sign of a struggle at the scene.

Wecht said he was also puzzled as to why Zahau's neck was not broken by the force of her fall from the balcony. He said the way in which Zahau would have had to tie herself up was possible, but implausible.

Appearing separately, private investigator Paul Ciolino said police apparently discounted reports from two Shacknai neighbors that a woman was heard screaming for help several hours before Zahau's death.

Sheriff Gore stood by his department's investigation, saying in his statement that guests on the "Dr. Phil" segment had "altered and misrepresented facts" in their critique.

"To date, neither our detectives nor the medical examiner's office have been presented with any new evidence from this examination," he said.

The host of the show, Phil McGraw, said Zahau's family reached out to him for help in reexamining the case.

Zahau's sister said her family wants an independent agency to probe Zahau's death, rather than the sheriff's department.

"We do not trust them anymore," she said.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111116/us_nm/us_crime_mansion_hanging

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Cain campaign assails accuser Bialek

The National Restaurant Association building in Washington, Monday, Nov. 7, 2011. Leaving little to the imagination, a Chicago-area woman on Monday accused Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain of making a crude sexual advance more than a decade ago when she was seeking his help finding a job. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

The National Restaurant Association building in Washington, Monday, Nov. 7, 2011. Leaving little to the imagination, a Chicago-area woman on Monday accused Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain of making a crude sexual advance more than a decade ago when she was seeking his help finding a job. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Sharon Bialek, a Chicago-area woman,waits to address a news conference at the Friars Club, Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, in New York. Bialek accused Republican presidential contender Herman Cain of making an unwanted sexual advance against her in 1997. She says she wants to provide "a face and a voice" to support other accusers who have so far remained anonymous. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

In this file photo taken Oct. 31, 2011, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain answers questions at the National Press Club in Washington about sexual harassment allegations. Sharon Bialek, a Chicago-area woman, accused Cain on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, of making an unwanted sexual advance against her in 1997. Cain's campaign instantly issued a denial. "All allegations of harassment against Mr. Cain are completely false," it said. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

ATLANTA (AP) ? Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain went on the offensive Tuesday against the only woman to publicly accuse him of inappropriate sexual behavior, the latest in a series of claims that have threatened his White House ambitions.

"Who is Sharon Bialek?" Cain's advisers asked in a statement that outlines the Chicago-area woman's "long and troubled history, from the courts to personal finances." Bialek on Monday accused Cain of behaving inappropriately when the two were alone more than a decade ago.

The statement from Cain's campaign included references to civil lawsuits in the Cook County Court system in Illinois allegedly relating to Bialek, and cited news reports of her involvement in a paternity case and a bankruptcy filing.

The statement, coming less than 24 hours after Bialek went public, presumably was an effort to make her appear less credible.

"In stark contrast to Mr. Cain's four decades spent climbing the corporate ladder rising to the level of CEO at multiple successful business enterprises, Ms. Bialek has taken a far different path," the campaign said.

Cain has vowed to "set the record straight" at a news conference Tuesday afternoon in Phoenix.

"There is not an ounce of truth to all these allegations" and the graphic account from Bialek is "totally fabricated," the Georgia businessman told late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.

Bialek stood by her accusation when questioned Tuesday morning in the wake of Cain's denial, saying in a nationally broadcast interview that she had "nothing to gain" by coming forward. She said "it's not about me. I'm not running for president."

With the controversy now stretching into its second week, Cain was reversing his position from just a few days ago when he told reporters he was done answering questions about the issue.

"I'm going to talk about it," Cain said, adding "we are taking this head on."

That was before Bialek went on national television Monday and put a name and a face to what had, until then, been at least three anonymous sexual harassment allegations against Cain. Bialek's accusations ? that Cain groped her in a car after she asked for his help finding a job ? spun his unorthodox campaign into an uncertain new territory.

An upstart in the presidential race, Cain shot to the top of public opinion polls and emerged, however temporarily, in surveys as the main conservative challenger to Mitt Romney. Tea party activists and conservatives unenthused with the former Massachusetts governor have flocked to Cain's tell-it-like-it-is style and self-styled outsider image in recent weeks.

There were, however, growing signs of unease in conservative circles as, one by one, a handful of women claimed Cain acted inappropriately toward them while the head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.

"He deserves a fair chance. But that doesn't mean he gets a pass. These are not anonymous allegations anymore unfortunately," said New Hampshire conservative activist Jennifer Horn, who last week had condemned media coverage of the allegations against Cain. "He does need to take another step and answer a few more questions."

"Oh," exclaimed South Carolina GOP Chairman Chad Connelly when told details from Bialek's news conference. He said character issues matter in a state where the last governor tearfully confessed an affair and the current governor faced unproven allegations from two men that she had affairs. "Our voters care about moral attitude," Connelly said. "Character does matter."

Still, Cain backers remained solidly behind the former pizza company executive. They pointed to the presence of Gloria Allred ? a high-profile attorney with Democratic ties ? alongside Bialek at Monday's news conference in New York as proof that the latest claim was a partisan smear.

"The fact that she's involved removes all credibility," Georgia Christian Coalition president Jerry Luquire said. "If he says he didn't do anything then I believe him."

Bialek said Tuesday she had no financial motivation to come forward, wasn't offered a job and wasn't being asked by Allred to pay a legal fee.

"I'm just doing this because it's the right thing to do," she said in one interview. Bialek said she waited so long to come forward because "I was embarrassed ... and I just kind of wanted it to go away."

Asked about Cain's characterization of her charges as a "total fabrication," Bialek stood her ground. "I wanted to give him a platform to come clean, to tell the truth," she said. "I was trying to be nice about it and it just didn't work."

Bialek is the fourth woman to say that Cain engaged in inappropriate behavior during his time at the helm of the restaurant group.

At least two women who worked there at the time filed sexual harassment complaints.

A third woman told The Associated Press last week that she considered filing a workplace complaint against Cain over what she deemed sexually suggestive remarks and gestures that included a private invitation to his corporate apartment. And a former pollster for the restaurant association has said he witnessed yet another episode involving a different woman.

Bialek said Monday that Cain, an acquaintance, made a sexual advance in mid-July 1997, when she had traveled to Washington to have dinner with him in hopes he could help her find work or get her job back at the restaurant association. She had been fired from a job in the group's education arm.

The two met in Washington, she said, and after dinner were in a car for what she thought was a ride to an office building.

"Instead of going into the offices he suddenly reached over and he put his hand on my leg, under my skirt toward my genitals," she said. "He also pushed my head toward his crotch."

She said she asked Cain what he was doing and recalled he replied, "You said you want a job, right?"

None of Cain's other accusers has provided details as graphic as Bialek's account. But Joel Bennett, an attorney who represents one of them, said her details were "similar in nature" to what his client encountered.

In his only public appearance of the day, Cain told Kimmel during the late-night interview that he got angry and disgusted as he watched Bialek and Allred. He said his wife didn't watch it but that he called her immediately afterward.

Minutes after Bialek's news conference, the Cain camp flatly denied the charges.

"Mr. Cain has never harassed anyone," spokesman J.D. Gordon said in a statement. Aides insisted that the newest allegation changed nothing and said Cain would move forward with his plans to attend a private speech in Phoenix on Tuesday and a debate Wednesday night in Michigan.

"We are staying on message and talking about the issues," Gordon told The Associated Press.

As if to prove the point, the Cain campaign released a new web video ? targeting voters in the lead-off caucus state of Iowa ? highlighting what it says are excessive federal regulations on farmers that are driving up costs for consumers.

But, behind the scenes, the campaign appeared to hunker down in damage-control mode; voicemails for Gordon and campaign manager Mark Block were full by mid-afternoon. Later Monday, the campaign announced Cain's Phoenix news conference.

Aides made it clear he would fight the allegations, casting them as baseless and seeking to undermine the credibility of Bialek and her attorney.

"The questions the media should be asking are who's paying for Gloria Allred's fee, how did Ms. Bialek get introduced to Ms. Allred, and was she paid to come forward with these false accusations or was she promised employment?" a campaign statement said.

Allred has said Bialek approached her and that her client received no compensation for stepping forward.

Bialek appeared in interviews Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America," CBS' "The Early Show," NBC's "Today" show and CNN.

____

Associated Press writers Steve Peoples in New Hampshire and Jim Davenport in South Carolina contributed to this report

____

Follow Shannon McCaffrey at www.twitter.com/smccaffrey13

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-11-08-Cain/id-0cd3efa625c44bc49d81086e9cb3e85f

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