Wednesday, March 31, 2004
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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 |
| Watson to Fayette: stop gossiping about my kids By JOHN MUNFORD Despite being convicted for murdering his wife, Beverley, Jim Watson maintains his innocence and has taken to the Internet to plead his case. With the help of family and friends, Watson has published www.jimwatsonframed.com. The site contains allegations that numerous witnesses who testified in the Fulton County murder trial against him lied to secure the conviction. The case is on appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court. But Watson wants Fayette residents in particular to know he is innocent. “The main thing is my two children still have to live down there,” Watson said Monday in a phone interview from the Fulton County Jail. “I know people are looking at them and talking behind their backs. If they want to talk about me, fine. But we want the public to know the lies that were told.” Watson also said he wanted to publish the Web site to clear up misconceptions that Beverley was a “trashy” woman because she stayed with him through what was portrayed as a tumultuous marriage. “She never would have stayed in our marriage if she was being abused,” Watson said. “She wasn’t trashy. She was a classy woman.... There was never any abuse. I never hit Beverley. My children know it and my family knows it.” Beverley Watson’s remains were found in a wooded area in south Fulton County in 1999, over two years after she disappeared from the couple’s south Fayette home following an argument with her husband. Jim Watson, who told police his wife left the house and never returned, was convicted of murdering her in 2002 by a Fulton County jury. Watson’s Web site reveals a claim that Beverley might have been abducted that evening in January 1997 by police officers who Jim Watson was investigating for being involved in trafficking drugs. Watson claims the investigation was not official as he undertook it privately while working as a part-time narcotics officer for the Riverdale Police Department, where he came into contact with the confidential informant who said two officers were trafficking drugs. Watson said his attorneys were forbidden by the court from bringing that information forward at his murder trial. The couple’s two children were not at home the night Beverley Watson disappeared. Jim Watson admitted to arguing with his wife before her disappearance after detectives noticed he was wearing makeup to cover scratches on his face. Watson testified those scratches occurred when Beverley threw her keys at him. Prosecutors alleged the scratches were made by Beverley Watson as she fought in vain for her life. The Web site details several times where witnesses’ testimony in the case conflicted with previous statements they made or reports made by law enforcement, Watson said. In particular, one witness who testified that she saw Jim Watson put a gun to his wife’s head originally told police that she was told that incident happened, Watson said. Several of Beverley Watson’s friends were allowed to testify under a special Georgia law that she told them if she ever turned up dead that her husband killed her. They also testified about instances where Watson threatened her with a gun and told her she could never call the police to report him because he was friends with all Fayette County officers. A new U.S. Supreme Court ruling, however, indicates such testimony is inappropriate because the defendant can’t cross-examine the person who originally made the statement, Watson’s attorneys have said. All the information on the Web site came from transcripts of testimony in the trial and from law enforcement reports and witness statements collected by detectives, Watson said. He has been reviewing the material and writing up the information for the Web site, sending it to family members who typed it up for publication. Daughter Ashley is running the family’s locksmith business, with her father’s help via phone several times a day. She also has been busy preparing the web site information. Son Todd is in the eighth grade, plays baseball and lives nearby with a relative, and Watson says he manages to talk to Todd at least once a day. Watson is hopeful his appeal will result in a new trial, partially so the alleged inconsistencies in testimony and witnesses previous statements can be addressed. His attorneys did not address those discrepancies in part “because we had filed for a speedy trial and we only had four months to prepare.” “I’m just waiting for the Supreme Court,” Watson said. “We feel pretty confident.”
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