Sorrell's April 2 Press Conference

One wonders whether Sorrell's Tuesday, April second, 2002 press was postponed a day to avoid the connotations of April first. As it was he smirked and mocked friends of Woody in attendence upon the shock of their learning his determination that the killing was 'legally justified'.

The purpose of the press conference was to announce the findings of the 4-month 'investigation': and release the Woodward Shooting Report . The report was covered in the The Brattleboro Reformer, The Rutland Herald, The Hartford Courant, The Burlington Free Press, and other outlets; and the reaction to his findings at the press conference was covered in the The Brattleboro Reformer, The Rutland Herald, and the The Burlington Free Press. There has been precious little in the way of critical analysis of the report in the press.

There were spontaneous protests when people walked into the room and picked up copies of the report to see on page 2 the conclusion the the shooting was "legally justified." Protests included accusations made to Sorrell's face that he is a liar. That claim can be evaluated by comparing statements Sorrell made during the conference against the evidence.

Sorrell said "[eyewitnesses] said Woody was in a highly psychotic state." In fact the closest phrase he cites from any of the witnesses is that Woody was "clearly psychotic," a description contradicted by other eyewitnesses. Sorrell emphatically asserted that Woody's behavior 'escalated' before the arrival of the police. This contradicts both the statements of Tommy Thomas and officer Holbrook.

An attendee of the press conference contributed this detailed account.

We immediately discrened omissions and biases in Sorrell's report. We would document the abundant misrepresentations and distortions in the report in the following months. We would later discover deeper layers of deception and fraud in the report, and expose them in various documents, described in this guide.