Wamala gets 20-40 years

From "Wamala sentenced for repeated sexual assaults on girl" at the Nashua Telegraph:

A former Lowell (Mass.) High School math teacher and chess coach was sentenced Monday to 20-40 years in prison for repeatedly raping a young girl....

Prosecutors had urged an even stiffer sentence of 30-60 years in prison. Assistant County Attorney Patricia LaFrance recognized Wamala won't become eligible for parole unless he admits his guilt as part of the prison's sex-offender treatment program and thus may serve the maximum term, effectively a life sentence.

"If he chooses to step up and admit what he did, he has the chance to get out of prison before he dies," she said. "It's on him . . . the ball is in his hands."The victim, now 16, said though her life has improved since his arrest, Wamala had "ruined my life in a lot of different ways."

"There's nothing he can do to erase the past six years of my life. The damage is done," she said....

Wamala spoke at length before he was sentenced. Wamala said he agrees that a person found guilty of sexual assaults should be removed from society, but he said juries sometimes make mistakes and did so in his case.

Wamala said the girl had lied many times during her life, usually to cover up when she got into trouble. He spoke at length about instances when he said she lied about hitting another child in sixth grade, using a cell phone in school and sharing test answers with friends. Repeatedly, he remarked, "everything I have said can be verified by someone other than me."

"You have fooled people," he told her. "You know how to make yourself a victim, to appear as a victim."....

Wamala chess friends doubt verdict, prosecutor makes stupid chess joke

From "Ex-teacher convicted in rape case" at the Nashua Telegraph:

Wamala organized chess tournaments called the NorthEast Getaway, which drew ranked players from across the region.

Two of those chess players, Robert Feldstein and his wife, Debbie Rothman, traveled from New York City to watch the trial and support their friend Wamala.

The couple said even after the conviction that they do not believe the charges against their friend.

Rothman said she hopes the victim will eventually "come forward" and admit the allegations are not true.

From "Ex-teacher guilty of rape" at the Lowell Sun:

After the verdict, prosecutor Roger "Rusty" Chadwick said the verdict rewarded the victim for her courage in coming forward.

Prosecutors had suggested that Wamala had attempted to tamper with some of the witnesses to get them to change their testimony, but the youngest victim stood firm. And the jury, Chadwick said, was able to see the truth.

"Wamala, the so-called chess champion, just checkmated himself," Chadwick said.

Guilty

From "Wamala guilty on 11 counts of rape" at the Lowell Sun:

Former Lowell High School Math Department Chairman Severine Wamala was convicted this afternoon of 11 counts of felonious sexual assault against a then 15-year-old girl.

A Hillsborough County Superior Court cleared Wamala, 46, of Nashua, of one count of incest involving a 19-year-old girl.

Wamala showed little emotion as the verdict was read....

Wamala faces a maximum sentence of 10-20 years in state prison for each rape conviction, prosecutors said.

The sentencing was postponed for 30 to 45 days so the Probation Department can do a presentencing report.

No sentencing date was set.

From "Former Mass. high school teacher convicted of sexual assault charges" at The Boston Globe:

His main accuser was a 16-year-old girl. Several other charges involving two other women were dropped after the women recanted statements they made to police.

The teenager stood by her original statement, and prosecutors were allowed to introduce a "time capsule" she had made which showed the abuse had been going on for years.

"This girl showed remarkable poise and bravery in testifying against Wamala, who had been abusing her for years," said Patricia LaFrance, assistant county attorney.

Judge calls witness a liar, but still drops most charges

From "Judge allows rape witness testimony" at the Nashua Telegraph:

After declaring he was certain she had just committed perjury, a judge allowed prosecutors to call a witness who testified Severine Wamala never sexually assaulted her in any way.

Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Robert Lynn expressed frustration with the situation, saying he wished New Hampshire's rules of evidence allowed prosecutors to fully question a witness whom they believe is lying.

"I'm trying to follow the rules of evidence, but it is abundantly clear – there isn't the slightest doubt in my mind – that the witness's testimony we just heard is not candid," Lynn remarked after a hearing outside the presence of the jury.

Photo by The Associated Press

From "Many assault charges tossed" at the Nashua Telegraph:

The judge in the trial of a former Lowell, Mass., high school teacher accused of sexually assaulting three young women dismissed many of the charges in the case Tuesday, ruling that prosecutors hadn’t produced enough evidence for the jury to even consider them....

Two of the three women later recanted ... and testified during Wamala’s trial that police pressured them into making false accusations. The third, a 16-year-old, testified that Wamala had sex with her at least once a month during an 11-month span in 2005 and 2006.

Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Robert Lynn dismissed many of the charges against Wamala after prosecutors finished presenting evidence Tuesday. Jurors still must consider aggravated felonious sexual assault charges involving the 16-year-old, and one lesser felony sexual assault charge involving a 19-year-old woman, Lynn ruled....

Lawyers for both sides expect to make their closing arguments after prosecutors finish questioning Wamala on Wednesday morning, and jurors may begin deliberating soon afterward...

Judge doubts credibility of victim's recantation

From "Woman testifies sex acts with ex-teacher never happened" at the Nashua Telegraph:

A 24-year-old Lowell, Mass., woman swore to tell the truth, and then testified Friday that Severine Wamala never touched her....

"It never happened," she said.

Later Friday afternoon, however, jurors watched a videotape in which the same woman told Nashua Police Detective Michael Moushegian that Wamala had sexually assaulted her on the very first day she arrived in the United States from her native Uganda, and repeatedly afterward in Lowell and later in Nashua....

She testified that Wamala never did anything more than hug her to show affection, and she falsely accused him of rape because Moushegian badgered and intimidated her into saying so....

When Assistant County Attorney Patricia LaFrance asked the woman to recount what she had told Moushegian during an interview last year, the woman said repeatedly that she couldn’t remember details of what she said about the alleged abuse....

At one point, however, when LaFrance asked the woman where Wamala had assaulted her, she answered, "in the bathroom."

Wamala’s lawyers immediately interrupted with an objection and LaFrance was unable to immediately follow up.

Judge Robert Lynn later mentioned the incident while discussing with lawyers what other evidence ought to be allowed and made clear (while the jury was out of the room) that he thought the woman was lying.

“It would be obvious to anyone that not only was her credibility severely impeached,” Lynn said, then added, the woman’s answer to the question suggested something did happen between her and Wamala in a bathroom.

"...a man who must be obeyed...."

From "Teen tells of alleged rapes by teacher" at the Lowell Sun:

Wamala was a strict disciplinarian, the girl testified, who demanded obedience and put signs up in his bathroom warning that defiance won't be tolerated.

"This is a case about a man who must be obeyed," prosecutor Roger "Rusty" Chadwick said.

The girl testified that once a month, after her chess tournaments, Wamala only needed to give her "a look" with his eyes and she knew to go to his room either later that night or early the next morning.

Here is more coverage of the first day of the trial from the Nashua Telegraph:

In their opening arguments, the two attorneys touched on Wamala’s Ugandan heritage and his success in New England. [Wamala's public defender, Anthony] Sculimbrene started his argument with a slow recounting of why Wamala wanted to flee violent Uganda, including having to walk by a dead body left to rot on the ground.

Wamala, who wore a suit and sat at a table taking notes and listening, stood to shake Sculimbrene’s hand after his opening statement.

Prosecutors called the youngest of the three women, now 16, as their first witness. The girl testified matter-of-factly that Wamala raped her at least once a month during an 11-month span in 2005 and 2006, often around the time of chess tournaments in which they were both involved....

Sculimbrene began to question the girl before the trial broke off for the day, and focused on her academic achievement and chess skills, apparently trying to lay the ground for an argument that she is clever enough to orchestrate a campaign of false allegations.

Wamala trial begins

"Sex assaults trial begins in Nashua" - Union Leader

"Math teacher's rape trial opens" - Nashua Telegraph

"Prosecutor to attack credibility of hesitant witnesses' testimony" - Lowell Sun

"...one of the strangest cases that I've been involved with"

From "Victims' recanting may cloud rape trial" at the Nashua Telegraph:

The credibility of witnesses promises to be an unusually complicated issue in the trial of a city man[,Severine Wamala,] charged with raping three women, which is scheduled to begin this morning in Hillsborough County Superior Court....

Lawyers began picking jurors late Tuesday morning ... and opening statements were scheduled for this morning....

In a more recent twist, prosecutors learned last month two of the three women have recanted their allegations and claim police intimidated them into making false statements against Wamala.

"This is one of the strangest cases that I've been involved with," First Assistant County Attorney Roger Chadwick remarked during a pretrial hearing Tuesday.

Prosecutors have suggested Wamala pressured the women to change their testimony, and they hope to cite recorded phone calls from the county jail and other evidence to support that claim....

According to Chadwick, the one victim who stands by her statement to police received an anonymous e-mail urging her not to testify against Wamala. Prosecutors believe – but can't prove – the message was sent by one of the other women on Wamala's behalf, Chadwick said.

Prosecutors aren't sure what the two women will say in testimony, but if their statements differ from what they told police, Chadwick said prosecutors will try to show the recantation is a lie. Prosecutors hope to cite a diary entry, allegedly written by one of the women, which Chadwick said matched her statement to police.

Prosecutors also said Wamala asked a relative, Fred Kosolo of Marlborough, Mass., to tell "the girls" to testify they remained clothed when they slept in his bed, and that he slept on the couch.

"We have clear evidence," that Wamala attempted to tamper with witnesses, Chadwick said.

Wamala's lawyers argue there is no evidence Kosolo passed such comments along to anyone, and it's not clear Wamala was referring to the women in the case at hand, because he never mentioned them by name.

"If it was such great evidence, why haven't they charged him with witness tampering?" one of Wamala's lawyers, public defender Anthony Sculimbrene asked. "They haven't because they can not prove it, and if they can't prove it, they can't use it."

"Chess community" sought to intimidate Wamala witness

From the Nashua Telegraph:

The trial of a city man, [Severine Wamala], charged with raping three women was delayed Monday after prosecutors learned that two of the three women appear to have backed away from previous statements to police....

Judge Bernard Hampsey said he postponed the trial until Sept. 4 over the "strenuous objections" of Wamala and his lawyers. The trial had been scheduled to start Monday morning in Hillsborough County Superior Court.

On Monday, however, Wamala’s lawyers presented information to prosecutors stating that two of the three alleged victims, who together account for 12 of the 34 charges against Wamala, told an investigator last year police pressured them into making statements during the interviews in which they reported the alleged rapes.

The women’s interviews with police were recorded, and police found other evidence, including a diary, to corroborate their statements, prosecutors have said....

It’s not clear to what extent, if any, the women have changed their statements, but both women assured Hampsey they are willing to testify truthfully and without any help from court-appointed lawyers.

Prosecutors had suggested the women risked incriminating themselves on false report charges if they recanted their statements to police, and also said there is evidence hinting they may have tried to persuade the third woman not to testify against Wamala.

So far at least, the third woman continues to cooperate with prosecutors, however....

Here's more from the Lowell Sun:

Prosecutor Rusty Chadwick sought the postponement so that the judge could conduct a hearing to see if any of the alleged victims' testimony may violate their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Specifically, Chadwick said that two of the older alleged victims gave tape-recorded statements to the Nashua police on Sept. 12, 2006, indicating Wamala had raped them. One even has a diary in which she made note of it.

Two months later, the two women gave statements to the public defender's office suggesting they had been "intimidated by police to give those statements."...

In the incident of alleged witness tampering, Chadwick said the youngest alleged victim received an anonymous letter and e-mail in February from the "chess community" in which she was urged to drop the charges against Wamala, a highly respected chess champion, or she would be responsible for his death.

Chadwick suggested the handwriting in the letter seemed to be consistent with one of the other victims and one of them could have forwarded the e-mail to the younger victim.

Although the two older alleged victims were assigned court-appointed lawyers to explain to them the allegations, neither victim would cooperate.

"The pressure I got from the state. ... I want to keep my distance. I don't want to be threatened anymore," one of the alleged victims told the judge.

The other simply said, "All I'm here to do is to tell the truth."

Neither woman would reveal whether they might recant their allegations against Wamala, but Hamsey said that was a problem the prosecution would have to deal with.

By the way, I plan to e-mail the Lowell Sun to let them know that their characterization of Severine as "a highly respected chess champion" is not accurate. Regarding his chess activities prior to his arrest, it would be better to refer to him as "a highly respected chess organizer."

Wamala trial set to begin next week; witness tampering alleged

From the Nashua Telegraph:

A former Lowell, Mass., math teacher is scheduled to stand trial next week on charges that he raped three women, a prosecutor said Friday....

Wamala, his lawyers and prosecutors met Friday with Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge William Groff and agreed to go to trial immediately after picking a jury Aug. 20, Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Patricia LaFrance said....

Prosecutors filed another motion Friday, accusing Wamala of trying to improperly influence witnesses in the case, LaFrance said. LaFrance refused to discuss details of the motion or allegations, but said the motion was titled, "State’s motion to admit evidence of defendant’s attempts to tamper with witnesses."

It’s not clear whether prosecutors believe Wamala tried to contact the alleged victims or other witnesses in the case.

Wamala accusations contained in 4-year old "time capsule"

The Severine Wamala saga has taken another fascinating twist. According to the Lowell Sun, one of Wamala's accusers backed up her story to police by producing a letter detailing the accusations which she included four years previously in a sixth grade "time capsule" project:

As her sixth-grade "time capsule" project, the then-11-year-old girl wrote her most painful secret in a letter, folded it and placed it in a sealed envelope that she kept hidden in her room.

"There is something surprising about me that people wouldn't know," the young girl wrote in the letter described by Nashua police Officer Scott Ciszek.

She was having sex, she wrote, with a man no one would have suspected.

The letter was written four years before the police would knock on Severine Wamala's door in Nashua after the girl, now 15, confided her secret....

The girl showed police the letter that she had written in the sixth grade, because "she didn't want us to think this was a false accusation she brought up in the heat of the moment,'' [Nashua Detective Jonathan] Lehto testified....

Read "Police: Girl's letter discloses sexual abuse" from the Lowell (MA) Sun.

Wamala seeks support for speedy trial

Disclaimer: Here at BCC Weblog, we have covered the news regarding the Wamala case since the story originally broke. For the record, it is important to note that neither the Boylston Chess Foundation, Boylston Chess Club nor Boylston Chess Club Weblog has taken any position on the guilt or innocence of Mr. Wamala in this matter.

Severine Wamala sent a letter to the Boylston Chess Foundation expressing his desire for a speedy trial, and his wish that people go to his hearing tomorrow to support his cause of stopping further postponements and getting on with the trial. Out of respect for his plea, we present below his letter to the BCF dated June 11, 2007:

Dear Boylston Chess Foundation Friends:

Today marks exactly nine months since my arrest on 9/11/2006. I have been held in jail at $1,000,000 cash bail for a crime or crimes I did not commit.

All along I have claimed my innocence and I am innocent. I have asked the court to bring me to trial so that I can be vindicated. My trial has been continued twice, first from March 2007 to June 2007 and now the June 2007 trial has also been continued.

In every instance I have asserted my right to a speedy trial, but the court has continued the case against my own objection and my lawyer's objections. I will be again in court on 6/25/07 for motions.

I should not be held in jail indefinitely without a trial. This is United States that is "supposed" to have a fair justice system NOT some third world country where people are kept in jail indefinitely without a trial.

Clearly the Hillsborough County and State of New Hampshire are violating those fundamental conceptions of justice which lie at the base of the American civil and political institutions, and which define the community's sense of fair play and decency on which the great American Constitution was founded.

My Constitutional rights are being violated. The sixth and fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States and Article 14 Part 1 of the New Hampshire Constitution guarantee the right to speedy trial. Nine months have passed by. No trial yet.

As a concerned citizen, I am kindly asking you and anyone you know (pass along the information at chess) who stands for justice to come to Nashua N.H. Superior Court on 6/25/2007 at 1:00 p.m. in support of justice.

I am hopeful that if a lot of people show up, the Court will feel the pressure to get my case to trial. If you recall, I organized chess in New England for six years, spent over half a million dollars, subsidized hotel rooms for players to stay overnight and when water ran out I physically went to hotel kitchens, lifted containers and filled the ones in the tournament room. I always try to meet people's needs. The need at hand is justice. Imagine if this was you detained for nine months for something you did not do or it was a member of your family or a loved one.

In case law, United States V. Marion 404 U.S. 307(1971) the Supreme Court articulated the concerns underlying the right to a speedy trial. It stated, "...arrest is a public act that may seriously interfere with the defendant's liberty, ... and that may disrupt his employment, drain his financial resources, curtail his associations, subject him to public obloquy and create anxiety in him, his family and friends." This is what I have been experiencing the last nine months. Please do something for justice's sake.

I will state it again, all I am asking for is to be brought to trial. Come to Nashua N.H. Superior Court on 6/25/07 at 1:00 p.m. (30 Spring Street). Your presence should make a difference.

Yours in search of justice,
Severine Wamala

Hearing Monday on Wamala defense motions

From "Ex-teacher seeks gag order in rape case" at the Nashua Telegraph:

A former Lowell (Mass.) High School math teacher accused of raping three young women has asked the court to gag prosecutors, police and other officials from talking about the case.

Severine Wamala, 46, of 22 Danforth Road, Apt. 22, faces 34 felony sexual-assault charges, each punishable by up to 10 to 20 years in prison. He has been jailed since his arrest in September, unable to post $1 million bail.

Police charge Wamala repeatedly raped three young women, ranging in age from their teens to early 20s, while living in Nashua over the past year....

Wamala has denied the assault charges, and his lawyers also have filed motions arguing statements he made to detectives should not be allowed as evidence against him. A hearing on the various motions is scheduled Monday in Hillsborough County Superior Court....

Wamala’s lawyers argue the high-profile nature of the case creates an unusual risk of prejudicial publicity, and in a motion filed Wednesday, they ask the court to issue a “gag order” barring themselves and anyone else involved in the case from discussing it publicly....

Wamala’s lawyers also have filed a second motion arguing to suppress statements, including alleged admissions, Wamala made while speaking with detectives about the charges. Wamala previously had argued that detectives taunted him, calling him names including “pig,” “perv,” “faggot” and “nigger,” though prosecutors and police dispute those claims.

Wamala’s second motion argues that detectives questioned him at length after holding him for more than two hours, without reading him his Miranda rights, and also led him to believe they would let him go if he confessed to the charges.

Prosecutors have yet to file any response to the gag request or second suppression motion, and it’s not clear whether the court will consider those matters in the upcoming hearing, which was scheduled to deal with Wamala’s earlier motion to suppress statements.

Wamala trial delayed

From "District may vet workers more fully" at The Boston Globe (bold italics are mine):

Job candidates and volunteers in the Lowell school system may soon have to undergo a national criminal background check before they are hired.

The policy change is being considered by school and law-enforcement officials as a way to address concerns about the system already in place....

Concerns about background checks were prompted by the arrest last September of Severine E. Wamala, a math teacher at the high school. Wamala, 45, a Uganda native, was arrested on charges of sexually molesting three young women, ranging in ages from 15 to 23, in New Hampshire.

At his arraignment in Nashua, Wamala pleaded not guilty to 24 charges of aggravated felonious sexual assault and 11 charges of incest. The alleged assaults did not involve students from Lowell High School, where Wamala also organized the chess club. He is being held on $1 million bail in Manchester.

His trial had been scheduled to convene this month, but has been delayed, according to Patricia LaFrance, assistant county attorney for the Hillsborough County Attorney's office. At the time of his arrest, Wamala was living in Nashua. He moved there after living in Lowell.

Martin said Wamala had undergone a CORI background check for the Lowell job, but it did not reveal the fact that he had been arrested previously in New Hampshire on other charges. Martin did not have details of those charges.

The information had not been relayed to Lowell officials at the time of Wamala's hire, said Martin, who explained that the district learned of his record only after his arrest in connection with the assaults.

Wamala was hired as a substitute math teacher in 2003 and promoted to a full-time teacher in 2004. A year later, he was promoted to mathematics department chairman.

Wamala claims police verbal abuse, racism

From the Boston Herald:

NASHUA, N.H. - A former Lowell High School math teacher claims city detectives called him racist, derogatory names while urging him to admit to sexually assaulting three young women.

Prosecutors and police dispute the claims made by Severine Wamala, 45, of Nashua.

Wamala faces 34 felony sexual assault charges, each of which carries up to 10 to 20 years in prison. He has been jailed since his arrest in September, unable to post $1 million bail.

Police charge Wamala repeatedly raped three young women, ranging in age from their teens to early 20s, in Nashua over the past year. Lowell police also are investigating allegations of additional assaults, police have said.

Wamala's lawyer, public defender Scott Rankin, made the allegations in a motion filed earlier this month, seeking to suppress statements Wamala made during the interview.

If they were actually used, such words would land detectives in trouble, Detective Capt. Scott Howe, supervisor of the detectives division, said Tuesday. "That is not and would never be tolerated by the Nashua Police Department," he said.

"We intend to call as many people as we can to say that that didn't happen," said Patricia LaFrance, assistant Hillsborough County attorney. "The defendant makes some assertions, and we're obviously going to respond to them. It will be up to the judge to decide what was or wasn't said."

A hearing on the matter is scheduled March 12 in Hillsborough County Superior Court.

Detectives Robert Page and Jonathan Lehto questioned Wamala after one of the women reported the alleged assaults in September, Rankin's motion said. Wamala claims Lehto told him he would be allowed to go home if he admitted to having sex with the women, and showed Wamala a letter one of them had written, in which she stated that Wamala had raped her. Wamala claims the detectives became increasingly hostile as he persisted in denying the allegations and began yelling at him.

Police recorded only "a small portion" of their interview with Wamala, LaFrance said.
The state Supreme Court has ruled that recordings of a defendant's confessions or statements can't be used as evidence unless police record the whole interview, starting when police read defendants their rights.

Wamala argues that detectives questioned him at length without advising him of his constitutional rights to remain silent and consult a lawyer. Once they read him his Miranda rights, Wamala requested a lawyer and the interview ended, Rankin's motion states.

Casting Call

Who will be playing Severine Wamala in the made-for-TV movie?

Wamala indicted on 34 counts

From The Lowell Sun:

Former Lowell High School Math Department Chairman Severine Wamala has been indicted by a grand jury on 34 counts of felony sexual-assault charges involving three women.

Wamala, 45, was scheduled to be arraigned this morning [ed: December 1st] in Hillsborough County Superior Court in Nashua. He is currently being held in the Manchester House of Correction on $1 million cash bail.

Wamala was arrested Sept. 12 and charged with 30 counts of rape and incest after three young women, ranging in age from their teens to early 20s, accused him of sexually assaulting some of them over a period of seven years.

One set of charges involve a 15-year-old girl who accuses Wamala of raping her at least twice a month from October 2005 to August 2006....

Wamala is currently on paid administrative leave, but that status will change to unpaid leave with his indictment....

A skilled chess player, Wamala coached the LHS chess team and boosted its membership from 10 members to 150. The team has done well at tournaments, and Wamala's own children are nationally ranked players....

From The Nashua Telegraph:

Wamala was indicted last week on 34 felony sexual assault charges, including 23 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault. Each of the 34 charges carries a maximum of 10 to 20 years in prison....

Most of the charges against Wamala involve a 15-year-old girl. Wamala is charged with raping the girl at least twice a month from October 2005 through August. He also is charged with raping two older women, each repeatedly.

Related Post: Severine Speaks

Searching for BCC Weblog

Sorry, but this post does not star Ben Kingsley as Bruce Pandolfini....

November 13th marked the two year anniversary of this blog. As a result, I now have access to quite a bit of data on visitors, referrers, and search terms. Today, I thought I might share the search related information.

As the blog's content has continued to grow and its page rank increased, more and more visitors have arrived through search engine queries. During the first year or so search engines accounted for less than 15% of visitors; more recently, the number is definitely above 25%. For the full two years, searches account for 23.3% of visitors with known referrals.

The top 5 or so search terms that lead surfers to BCC Weblog bring few surprises, but as you continue down the list interesting insights emerge as to what attracts visitors here. Here are the top 25 search terms for this blog over the past two years:

1. chess (19.0%) - I bet this came as a shock!


2. club (3.5%) - No surprise.


3. boylston (3.0%) - ditto


4. blog (2.7%) - ditto


5. and (2.5%)


6. the (2.3%)


7. beauty (1.3%) - Finally things get more interesting. Beauty and the Geek first made these pages when the show's production company called the club looking for "chess geeks" to try out for the show. Then, as you may recall, one of the show's contestants -- Joe Block -- was introduced as a chess champion and chess was included in several episodes. Well it turns out that a mediocre FOX reality series has much broader appeal than chess to the point where it can become a major driver of visitors to a chess blog.


8. geek (1.3%) - See "beauty"


9. bcc (1.0%) - Surprised this wasn't higher?


10. erikson (0.9%) - I have one post which includes a picture of a statue of Leif Erikson. I never realized he was so popular.


11. tricks (0.8%) - The blog gets a lot of searches for "chess tricks." They must be disappointed when they click on the link in this post.


12. pastrami (0.8%) - Maybe Philadelphia should have renamed their team the Pastrami. Masterminds is nowhere to be found in the list.


13. wamala (0.7%) - Given that this story broke only a couple of months ago, it is amazing how quickly it has shot up the list.


14. leif (0.7%) - See "erikson"


15. boston (0.7%) - People searching for "chess club boston" often find their way here.


16. severine (0.6%) - See "wamala"


17. blogs (0.6%) - Not much to say here.


18. rules (0.6%) - Many people search for "rules and regulations of chess." I'm sure they are not particularly happy when they get this.


19. weblog (0.5%) - Just goes to prove that "blog" is more popular than "weblog."


20. knights (0.4%) - Mostly "Knights Errant", but the chess piece itself generates some traffic.


21. regulations (0.4%) - See "rules"


22. krasik (0.4%) - Either he's the most popular member of the Boston Blitz or this is how he usually linked to the blog during the 2005 season. You decide.


23. dedijer (0.4%) - Everyone likes to look at a pretty face.


24. lief (0.4%) - A lot of people have trouble spelling the Viking explorer's first name.


25. sanja (0.4%) - See "dedijer"
    

Before the storm

Severine Wamala watches his son play at the 2004 Herb Healy Open

Severine Speaks

The Lowell Sun has published a rather lengthy letter which Severine Wamala sent to Sun court reporter Lisa Redmond. Here are a couple of excerpts:

What happened to innocent until proven guilty? America was founded on the premise of innocent until proven guilty. Those who are criticizing Dr. (Karla Brooks) Baehr and Lowell High School for hiring me need to get facts straight.

Being arrested does not mean one committed a crime. One can be arrested for a number of reasons. False charges is one of them. Thirteen years ago as claimed in the newspapers I was arrested numerous times for false charges. During the period 1992 to 1994, my ex-girlfriend filed 36 false charges in nine different Massachusetts courts....

This is for those who don't know me. I have never assaulted anyone sexually or otherwise. My record at Lowell High School for four years stands clean. Also my record in New England for six years as a premier chess organizer in hotels where there are a lot girls stands clean. I believe that all the girls that stand for the truth will come in full force to my defense. I am an innocent man falsely accused....

Read Severine Wamala's entire letter.

Update (10/31): The entire letter is no longer available online. In its place is an article by Lisa Redmond based on the letter's contents.

Related Post: Wamala waives probable cause hearing