Aida Leisenring
After 24 years of telling police that he didn’t kill his spouse, Cal Harris is taking motion towards regulation enforcement and rising his efforts to search out Michele Anne Harris, who disappeared on the morning of September 11, 2001, in New York. His attorneys, Bruce Barket and Aida Leisenring, who’re representing Cal in two civil fits towards regulation enforcement, solely inform In Contact what he hopes to perform by providing a $100,000 reward for info on his lacking partner.
“The hope is to get well Michelle’s stays,” Barket tells In Contact Investigates’ Kristin Thorne. “The police and the district lawyer have spent shut to twenty years, perhaps extra like 25, looking Cal’s property. My understanding is that they had been looking his property or areas close to it once more throughout the final yr, and naturally, they by no means discovered her as a result of they’re merely wanting within the mistaken place.”
Michele’s minivan was discovered on the finish of her lengthy driveway with the keys nonetheless within the ignition on September 12, 2001 — the day after the September 11 assaults. Cal, who had been in the midst of a divorce from Michele on the time of her disappearance, turned the No. 1 suspect within the case.
Cal, who has maintained his innocence, was charged with second-degree homicide and convicted in 2007 regardless of Michele nonetheless being lacking. Nonetheless, on the morning after his conviction, a witness claimed to have seen Michele outdoors their household residence on the morning of her disappearance. He was retried and convicted a second time in 2009.
After he served three and a half years in jail out of his 25-year-to-life sentence, Cal’s conviction was overturned on attraction. He was let loose on bail in 2012 and went to a 3rd trial in 2015, however a mistrial was declared after jurors couldn’t attain a unanimous verdict. A fourth trial occurred in 2016, the place Cal was lastly acquitted.
Barket tells In Contact that Cal and his authorized staff are hopeful they will discover info that can assist them observe down Michele, who’s believed to be lifeless.
Bruce Barkett
“Given the knowledge that we have now and our means to nonetheless subpoena witnesses for one or each of those trials, we predict {that a} reward at this cut-off date will bear some fruit. We predict that folks … we all know that folks have some info, and we’re hopeful that they are going to, not out of the goodness of their coronary heart, however for $100,000, present that info to us,” Barket says.
As for the civil fits towards regulation enforcement, Leisenring says that the “general goal of those actions is for [Cal] to obtain compensation for on a regular basis, all of the emotional misery that he suffered over the course of 15 years, being wrongfully accused, but in addition not having a good battle.”
“We imagine the prosecution and the police investigation was geared solely in the direction of him, and so they didn’t tackle leads that clearly led to different people as being the final individuals to see Michele Harris,” she continues, noting that Cal being “prosecuted for 15 years” regardless of being acquitted created a “stigma” round him.
The Harris youngsters, who stood by Cal throughout his convictions and by no means believed he was concerned of their mom’s disappearance, had been additionally affected.
“We simply heard from considered one of his daughters that so far, regardless that it appears hopeless, she nonetheless generally catches sight of a person that resembles her mother, and he or she wonders, and that’s by no means going away. It’s like a lifetime cliffhanger for every a kind of people,” Leisenring provides.
Barket says there are “two people in Texas” whom he hopes will come ahead with info relating to Michele’s disappearance. Moreover, Cal’s authorized staff believes Michele’s stays could also be positioned someplace in New York State.
When you have info that can lead on to the stays of Michele Harris, name 888-644-0889, or go to findmicheleharris.com. The reward is $100,000.
