RedGage

 UPDATE: 9-4-15.  Ruff court records have been accessed and copied this week. Two days after the completion of the copied court records, In compliance with the Hawaii Freedom of Information Act, Codefore began to receive more Kauai PD reports from the Kauai Attorneys office. The information sent so far was earlier  denied by the PD.

UPDATE:  8-20-15 WHY WOULD SOMEONE WANT TO MURDER JOHN AND MICHELLE KLEIN??. [Michelle worked for Sunkist Growers Inc.  and her husband John L. Klein.  was an attorney. Both lived in California. On April 23, 2015 they were shot and nothing was taken from them.  They were found a short distance from a sightseers walking path.  Someone in Kauai knows why Michelle was in Kauai. Was she on assignment for Sunkist?  Was Mr. Klein representing someone or company in Kauai?  Someone knows there was a dispute or disagreement. Someone can leave an un-named comment or email codefore@aol.com.   Kauai PD says they have no leads.   BS. ]

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                                                          John and Michelle Klein

Sometimes you must take the bad in order to get some good out of a horrible situation A good in this story is that an admitted child rapist was put  in prison in 1993 and very well may stay there for the rest of his life.

The bad in this story is that even though a suspect who admitted to the rape of 4 year old Alicia Woolsey Ruf in Kauai in 1993 was arrested, Lacy’s  murderer was not arrested. The  guy who says he is the murder is Todd Schonlau and he  was not considered a suspect in “93.

1993 Kauai Prosecutor Jay Kimura

In 1993 during the initial investigation into the death ofAlicia Ruff (Lacy), Todd Schonlau diverted suspicion away from himself by making a phone call to the police and turning in his brother, Aaron Schonlau for the murder.  “When a seasoned police investigator hears someone turning  in his brother for a murder, this person not the brother generally goes to the top of the suspect list. ”  Todd Schonlau is also the person who took the police to the location of the body. The body was in a  place that no one else knew about but Todd Schonlau. He told investigators that his brother told him where the body was located. The police apparently did not think that this was suspicious.

Investigators know that usually  the only reason people would turn  in their blood is to keep them free from arrest.  Unfortunately in 1993 there were no seasoned police investigators employed by Kauai PD .  In fact, according to others, there were no accredited or properly trained police on the force either.

Another bad thing about this investigation  is that Todd Schonlau most likely will not be sought out and prosecuted for the murder of 4 year old Alicia Ruf.  Why….

The investigation that led to the arrest of Aaron Schonalu, who admitted to Benish that he sexually assaulted “Lacey” Ruf, was so bad and  so unconstitutional  that today it is being  covered up to keep the 1993 cops, and possibly the prosecutors out of jail or at the very least from some kind of civil litigation.  It’s being covered up because it seems that everyone involved is either a relative of the legal culprits or is politically beholding to them or their heirs as is explained by Anthony Sommer in his book “KPD Blue.”

Another good thing is that fate, circumstances and alcohol opened the door of information and allowed an old worn out police investigator to enter and  have a look around.

One night in 2011 Todd Schonlau who is the older brother of Aaron Schonau got drunk in Oregon and admitted to his then girlfriend that it was he who drowned Lacy Ruf after his brother Aaron had raped her in Kauai in 1993.  He gave her a detailed account of his actions including the statement that  it took him two attempts at weighing her body so that it stayed submerged. This is a detail that will haunt Mr. Schonlau and may someday put him in prison. (Assuming the Kauai PD is ever capable of conducting an unbiased competent investigation)

The police arrived and arrested Tiffany Kaneko, and charged her with assault.  As they were putting her in handcuffs and leading her to a police car for her trip to jail,  Todd  heard the police ask her why she assaulted him.  The rest is a matter of Kaneko’s arrest record.  Much later the district attorney was  obligated to release Kaneko because their victim (Todd) did not appear in court.Tiffany immediately called her friend Valerie Soto from jail and told her what had happened.

Valerie, being of a sober suspicious mind, googled the name Todd Schonlau and up popped an internet hit.  The book “Closed Eyes” written by detective JD Benish.  Todd and Aaron Schonlau had a whole chapter devoted to them because they lived a few blocks from another child victim, Tracy Neef who was also sexually assaulted and murdered in 1984, 9 years earlier. Prior to his retirement in 1993 Benish had been interested in Aaron Schonlau  when doing a cold case investigation into the Neef murder.  He actually had the occasion to interview Todd Schonlau in 1993 after  his brfother Aaron had been arrested in Hawaii.  He was very suspicious of Todd’s involvement in the Hawaii murder when he heard Todd tell him how he turned in his brother. He was sufficiently suspicious that he called the Kauai Police department and conveyed his suspicions.  In 1993 during the time of the murder investigation they were not interested in what a detective from Colorado had to say about their homicide.  Their sentiment toward new information about this murder have not changed.

In 2011 Benish, who had since  retired and was  living on a sailing vessel in San Diego received an email from Kaneko’s girlfriend (Soto) who told him what was going on in Oregon between Kaneko and Todd Schonlau.  He was keenly interested in what Soto had to say. Later after Tiffany Kaneko was released from jail Benish spoke with her on the telephone and via emails and she verified what Soto told him ,  what her arrest documents said and what Todd Schonlau had said to her.

Benish telephoned the Kauai police department again and was told they were not interested. He also emailed the Thornton Police Department about the information he had because the Tracy Neef case was their case and Benish was retired.  Todd Schonlau who was an admitted murderer and grew up in Thornton but he did not receive a response from the Thornton PD. After the blog was published Codefore began to receive comments.  Some of these comments were from relatives or friends of the 4 year old Alicia Ruf.

Codefore reported that Benish spent  months corresponding with Aaron Schonlau who is serving a life imprisonment term in a private penitentiary in Arizona.  The reason for communicating with Aaron was to get his take on his brother’s claim that it was he, not Aaron who actually killed little Alicia Woolsey Ruf.

On February 11th, 2013 Codefore posted  a page about Tiffany Kaneko Val Soto, Aaron and Todd Schonalu.   You can read the whole blog at http://codeforeblog.com/?p=1307.

After the blog was written Codefore began to receive comments.  Some of these comments were from relatives or friends of the 4 year old Alicia Ruf.

Codefore reported that Benish spent  months corresponding with Aaron Schonlau who is serving a life imprisonment term in a private penitentiary in Arizona.  The reason for communicating with Aaron was to get his take on his brother’s claim that it was he, not Aaron who actually killed little Alicia Woolsey Ruf.

Benish said that the result of the extensive written conversations with Aaron Schonlau do not give cause to believe that Aaron’s brother Todd was lying when he claimed it was he that caused the drowning of Alicia Ruf.  Aaron said that had no idea how little Alicia Ruf ended up in 40 feet of Pacific Ocean water.

If that’s the case why, asked Benish, is Aaron in prison for this murder and not his brother Todd.

The answer to this question is in questions.

Benish contacted  witnesses who were at the crime scene at the time of the murder of Alicia Woolsey Ruf.  He spoke  with little Alicia’s father, mother, step mother and the person who actually recovered the submerged body of poor Alicia Ruf.  The witness who said he was the diver that recovered the body said that the police never contacted him nor questioned him.  Benish said that it was difficult to believe what these witnesses told him about the police investigation.

In January 2015 Codefore Publishing requested a copy of the police report containing the investigation into the murder of Alicia Woolsey Ruf by filing a “Freedom of Information Request” with the Kauai Freedom of Information office.  The electronic files did not arrive until March of 2015. There were some emails back and forth between Benish and Kauai  about the lack of requested documents and the unreasonable redactions of the documents that were provided.  Although the police reports were not complete and heavily redacted, Benish says that the individual police reports presented a picture of one of the most inept, amateurish, incomplete and inaccurate reports that he has  ever had the misfortune to read.The whole issue then became a legal question. Benish said he does not understand how a conviction of Murder against Aaron Schonlau was possible based on the  investigation reports supplied to Codefore by the Kauai Freedom of Information office.   A partial copy of the transcribed interview with Aaron reveals the following information.  1. Aaron Schonlau requested an attorney numerous times.  Despite this, extensive questioning continued.  2. Aron Schonlau did not admit to drowning Alicia Woolsey Ruf.   The answer to the question as to how Aaron Schonlau was convicted lives in Aaron Schonlaus jail cell.

Kauai PD Chief Perry

Aaron Schonlau says that he accepted a plea offer from the district attorney’s office and based upon the advice of his court appointed lawyer Arther K. Trask Jr. who has a history of professional suspensions.  Aaron agreed to plea to 2nd degree murder and in r Return the additional charges of rape and abduction would be dropped from the initial Murder charge  and his sentence would allow the possibility of  an eventual parole.  Aaron said he was scared and didn’t want the death penalty or spend the rest of his life in prison for something he did not do. He said he took the lesser of two evils. After 22 years he regrets this decision.  The Kauai PD and prosecutor’s office finished with a murder conviction under their belt.  Little did they know that many years later their incompetent accomplishment would be under scrutiny.

Soon after Codefore Publishing filed the freedom of information request JD Benish received a telephone call from a person who said he was a special investigator for the Kauai District Attorney’s office.  His name was John Burgess. Burgess said that he was instructed to look into the Alicia Murder file.  Burgess is a retired policeman from Everett Washington.  Everett is a small town north of Seattle.

Kauai Prosecuging Atty. Justin Kollar

Benish spoke with him and sent him most of the files and phone recorded conversations that he had been collecting since 2011.  Codefore has since learned that some of the Kauai witnesses contacted by JD Benish had been later contacted by Burgess.  Burgess apparently had not asked any investigative questions but instead  had been seeking out the witnesses and discrediting Benish  as an author who is trying to make money on the tragic murder and that he should not be taken seriously.   Specifically he contacted Timmy Woolsey, Alicia’s father.

According to Benish, “The  whole situation is indicative of some kind of a cover-up.”  The Kauai PD had done such a poor investigation that they put the wrong person in prison for the wrong crime and the person who in all likelihood committed the murder of Alicia Ruf is free from suspicion all these years and is  bragging about his accomplishment in Hawaii.

Benish said that what he saw was an incomplete compilation of severely redacted reports.  He said that even though they were redacted, there was enough information there to question the arrest of Aaron Schonlau and more than enough information to ask for a an investigation of Federal violations and later a cover up of the violations of Aaron Schonlau’s constitutional rights.  He argues that the Federal Constitutional violations would be difficult to miss by any competent District or prosecuting Attorney prior to criminal court action yet Aaron was offered a plea knowing that the case against him would most likely be thrown out of court. This brings the question of the culpability of the Judge that handled the case.

Mayor Bernard Carvalho.

The Kauai District attorney and police are in a quandary because now, after the fact, to look for, arrest and seek prosecution of Todd Schonlau would expose  the incompetence,  illegal and unconstitutional actions of both agencies during the  1993 initial investigation and subsequent prosecution that put Aaron Schonlau in jail for the child’s murder and not the rape.

On April, 15,2015 Benish received a telephone call from Alicia’s father, Timmy Woolsey.  Mr. Woolsey said that the Kauai PD had been harassing him, and had recently arrested him.  He said that he thought that they were doing this because he had been communicating with Benish about the incompetence in the police department.  Benish said that Mr. Woolsey was upset.  On April 17th 2015 Mr. Woolsey reported that the State of Hawaii had dropped all charges against him.

Lacey with her daddy Timmy Woolsey

Mr.  Woolsey and Benish are not the only people who believe that the Kauai PD is incompetent and even corrupt.  Anthony Sommer believes this too.  Mr. Sommer is a veteran of almost four decades as a reporter for major metropolitan daily newspapers and covered Kauai for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.   In his book, “KPD Blue” he begins with “A Decade of Racism, Sexism and Political Corruption in (and all around) the Kauai Police Department.

Kauai mayor Bernard Carvalho did not respond to messages from Codefore.