BeeSting

Corby drug claims "spite"Michelle Cazzulino
February 12, 2007 11:00pm
Article from: Font size: + -
Send this article: Print Email

THE sister of convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby has angrily denied claims by her former friend that she had tried to entice her to Bali to smuggle drugs, describing the allegation as "completely outrageous".

Mercedes Corby last night said that Queensland woman Jodi Power's claims had been motivated by spite and had potentially jeopardised her sister's last chance at freedom.

She is now planning legal action against the Seven Network and Today Tonight, which aired the claims in a paid interview.

"Schapelle is in her final appeal and for Jodi to come out and lie like this is just low," Mercedes said.

"If there was even a shred of truth in these claims, why wouldn't she have gone straight to the police instead of going on national TV and getting paid for it?"

During the interview, Ms Power also claimed to have seen a vacuum-sealed bag in the Corby home that was later used by Schapelle to transport marijuana to Bali.

"I know when I was 19, 20, I wasn't allowed to have a beer at her house but I was allowed to smoke a joint," she said.

"(Mercedes) just asked if I would ever do it, if I would ever take drugs over and I said 'no, like I've got two kids and I wouldn't do that' and she went on to tell me that she had actually taken them over before."

Ms Power agreed to test her claims by allowing Today Tonight to film her taking a polygraph test.

The report said she failed her first attempt but passed two subsequent tests.

Speaking from her Bali home, an emotional Mercedes last night dismissed those results as "nonsense" and offered to sit a lie detector test herself.

"Jodi has got a personal vendetta against me and what she doesn't realise is what her lies are doing to Schapelle. My sister is sitting in jail here for 20 years for something she didn't do," she said.

Last night, Ms Power's husband Michael Ripley, from the Gold Coast, denied his wife's claims.

"I still believe Schapelle is completely innocent," he said.

"Jodi has always had a tendency to come to her own conclusions about things – and those conclusions are quite often wrong – but she still maintains that she's right, even when the proof that she's not is staring her in the face."

Kathryn Bonella, the author of Schapelle's autobiography, My Story, defended her book against Ms Power's claim she was never included in it, despite being a lifelong friend of the Corby family.

"Schapelle talks about Jodi Power in the book, but didn't want to name her," she said.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/s...61-952,00.html

I'm glad Jodi's husband has denied the story too. People are likely to think, "Well, she would, wouldn't she?" if Mercedes alone was the only one saying it wasn't true.

Above all I'm gobsmacked at what kind of person this Jodi Powers must be!Assuming for the sake of argument that everything she claims is true, couldn't she have waited until the end of Schapelle's judicial review to go public? No matter how hard up for cash she is and irrespective of whether she's being truthful or not, it's absolutely despicable to do this now.

BeeSting

... and I hope against hope that Mercedes does take "legal action" and sue Today Tonight (and Jodi) for slander. It's very, very important IMO for Schapelle sake that the family "answer" an accusation as serious as this. Unfortunately any lawyer would tell them that sue-ing will result in Jodi's claims getting more publicity, but still, there's not only Schapelle's judicial review at stake, but a moral imperative involved.

I mean, I can believe that Jodi smoked pot with Mercedes - God knows pot is easy to find when you're a teenager; I don't like pot but as Schapelle writes in her book, "everybody knows somebody who does". If anything it's quite hard to avoid! But the rest of Jodi's story sounds very hard to believe. And believe it or not, I don't just say this because I believe Schapelle to be innocent.

uluru

One cannot go around just making unsubstantiated claims of serious criminality, which drug smuggling and assisting in growing drugs in commercial quantities are....without proof.
Make a claim...produce a photo...fair enough.
But you can't go babbling out on national TV serious allegations without proof....and any TV station which airs such babblings should be sued by any aggrieved party/ies for slander....or else it will just be open slather...people will be able to go on TV and say anything they like about anyone else...without any proof whatsoever.

Her allegations are "hearsay evidence", which, last time I looked were inadmissable in a court of law.
They should be inadmissable on national TV too.

Channel 7 has been highly irresponsible in screening this "expose" and should be punished....severely.

Talkback radio won't allow callers to make unsubstantiated allegations on air...for fear of defending defamation lawsuits in the Supreme court.
It must be NO different for TV stations.

uluru

It's now 5.50am AEDT in Sydney.

Alan Jones on radio.... 2gb 873AM in Sydney...or you can listen live on the net by downloading free software from the station.....

www.2gb.com

just announced....para: "You'd have to be brain dead to believe that Schapelle Corby put a large bag of drugs in the outside of her bag and smuggled it to Bali ...just checking it in like you do at the counter."

He announced he'll be talking with Mercedes live on air "later in the show"...ie: sometime between now and 10am..

uluru

It's on the radio now...Mercedes talking.

AJ: "Let's just talk our way thru these allegations:

"Did you ask J P if she would ever take marijuana overseas?"

M: "Never, that's a lie."

AJ: "Did you tell JP that you'd taken small amounts of marijuana into Bali?"

M: "Never."..."I'm not a drug smuggler."

AJ: "Did you once ask if she'd like to come to your father's place because you had to water his marijuana plants?"

M: "No...never.... because he doesn't have marijuana plants, he never had marijuana plants."

AJ: "She said that when she was 19 or 20 you couldn't have a beer at the Corby house but you could smoke a joint."

M: That's just stupid...it's not true...she's a liar.

AJ: "They showed us photos of you appearing to smoke marijuana, is that the case.?"

M: "Well, I would've been about 17 yrs old and I did have the occasional puff...but I'm not a drug user and haven't had a puff for many many years."

.................................................. .................

M: "My sister is innocent ...she's just sitting here." [in the squalid cell, with the heat and stench, feral animals and discrimination in the womens section....until she's nearly 50 years old...no chance for a baby or any sort of life]..

AJ then detailed all the emails Mercedes has sent to CH 7....and the phonecalls she's made to them...over the last SIX WEEKS trying to contact TDT over the interview...which was recorded in early DEC.

She HAS been available to them.

M said Schapelle is doing "OK".

BeeSting

Very well said Uluru.
Btw in case anybody thinks polygraph tests are infallible ~ I know of several examples of people "passing" polygraphs and later being busted lying. To name just one example, remember a few years back when some old guy claimed he found Azaria Chamberlain's body in the jaws of a dingo he shot?"A Current Affair" got him to take a polygraph too. He passed with flying colours. Subsequently the guy's story was proven a total crock and ACA were left looking almost as ridiculous as Ray Martin's hair piece.

Clearly Today Tonight went the same route; it's a juicy story and it was in their interests to run with it but they needed something to cover themselves. (Classic defense the media use in any libel suit is that they believed an allegation to be the truth.)
Seeing Jodi failed the first polygraph, I'm more than a little suspicious about the second.
I'm not saying Channel 7 rigged a polygraph, but did they make the second test a little easier, the questions a little more broad? You know what I mean. It's not hard to imagine.

I admit if Mercedes agrees to do one for a TV show and passes I'll be singing a different song. But polygraph tests, tabloid tv style, are simply unreliable.

I note the question on the Channel 9 "Today" poll this morning is "Do you believe the latest allegations about the Corby family?"
As lame as those poll's are, you can go to ninemsn to vote if you want.

BeeSting

Thanks so much uluru ~ the "audio" is screwed on this computer so I can't hear what she's saying.

I just saw Kathryn Bonella interviewed on Channel 9 saying the story is a lie, Jodie Powers is more or less mentally unbalanced and that Mercedes is 100 percent willing to take a polygraph to refute her every allegation (although MC doesn't deny smoking pot in her youth.)

sturuomo

Who the hell is Kathryn Bonella?

possum

You're kidding me right... if you're so well informed - I mean in your posts you seem to claim that you are fairly knowledgeable in regards to Schapelle and the Corby's - surely you'd know who Kathryn Bonella is...

No...

OK

Kathryn Bonella is the author of Schapelle Cory's book "My Story"... perhaps you should read it. You'd be astounded by the revelations it holds... and possibly you wouldn't be so negative about Schapelle's family.

It is great to see you support Schapelle but her family are very important to her and her well-being... please accept them (warts and all) also and refrain from making offensive remarks about them.

possum

BeeSting

Co-author/ghost writer of Schapelle's autobiography.