Lacking facts, it appears that the authorities set out to manufacture a case against Jovanovic in the media, through a series of sensationalistic leaks that created a hysteria, followed by a call for other victims to come forward.
"Because he was so prepared for this and carried it off so smoothly, we believe there are other victims," Fairstein said. (NY Post, 12/8/96).
...the official acknowledged that they had no evidence of additional crimes and urged anyone with information related to this case or others to come forward. (NY Times, 12/8/96).
Two more women have stepped forward to say they were attacked by alleged cyber-sex fiend Oliver Jovanovic, The Post has learned (NY Post, 12/9/96).
By midweek the cyber angle was fairly played out - especially after the two new victims the Post unearthed on Monday evaporated... (New York magazine, 12/23/96).
By creating an atmosphere of hysteria, then having the utter irresponsibility to issue an open call for other "victims" to come forward, officials have opened the door to further false accusations:"At least six women have told authorities they had horrifying encounterswith Oliver Jovanovic in which the alleged cybersex fiend evokedmass-murderer Jeffrey Dahmer, The Post has learned. None of the other women has said they were attacked" (NY Post, 12/10/96). Who are these anonymous women? Did they actually speak to Jovanovic? Colleagues, friends and acquaintances that actually knew Jovanovic personally speak very highly of him:
Jennifer Stern, a neighbor, said Jovanovic, whom she's known for six years, was a quiet, gifted research assistant who never gave her any cause for alarm. "He's a doll. I would have a really hard time imagining Oliver doing anything along the lines of these accusations," Stern said. "His girlfriend said very positive things about him as well - she never said anything negative." (NY Post, 12/7/96)
Vincent Racaniello, the director of the graduate program in Microbiology: "He was the most mild mannered and sweet guy." (NY Times, 12/8/96)
Alan Dove, a fellow graduate student: "The more I hear about this story the more completely out of character it seems for Oliver. He was intelligent, came to parties regularly, didn't drink, had a good sense of humor and was perfectly functional." (Daily News, 12/9/96)
The next step taken in the media by the authorities was a pervasive attempt to smear Jovanovic's character by leaking a series of sensationalistic but utterly false accounts to the media, which unfortunately did little fact checking on their own. This ranged from unprofessional comments such as: "He's just a weirdo," one senior investigator said (NY Post, 12/8/96) to far more disturbing, false and pernicious accounts, including repeated attempts to link Jovanovic with Jeffrey Dahmer, suggesting that he often spoke about Dahmer and owned books and photographs of Dahmer, when none of this was in fact true:
"There have been other calls coming in from women who have had contact with him on e-mail," the source said. "They all contain similar themes of Dahmer-like dismemberment and burning." (NY Post, 12/10/96). Did any of these women actually exist? They apparantly vanished into thin air.
Law enforcement officials were seeking Jovanovic's ex-girlfriends to ask them about his bizarre habits (NY Post, 12/11/96). Disregarding the obvious smear, it seems that ex-girlfriends that have anything positive to say about Jovanovic, or did not think he had bizarre habits, are of no interest to law enforcement officials.
Ms. Fairstein said the police obtained a warrant and searched Mr. Jovanovic's apartment yesterday and found tape and "instruments of torture" of the kind described by the victim (NY Times, 12/7/96). Having tape in one's house is not exactly surprising. However, no "instruments of torture" of any sort were found by the police. That claim is an outright lie.
Ms. Fairstein also said that they found literature on Mr. Dahmer, who was slain in prison by another inmate, and seized Mr. Jovanovic's computer and books containing pictures of corpses and hermaphrodites (NY Times, 12/7/96). In fact, Mr. Jovanovic did not own literature on Dahmer. Only a single book was taken by the police, and that was an art book containing photographs by Joel-Peter Witkin, released around the time of Witkin's recent exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum.
"Apparently this guy has a very warped video collection, including titles devoted to sexual deviation," said one law enforcement source (Daily News, 12/11/96). In fact, Mr. Jovanovic's video collection had no titles devoted to sexual deviation. The 14 videos confiscated by the police appear to include Le Femme Nikita, Ghost in the Shell, Meet the Feebles, Fallen Angel, Supernatural Beast City, As Tears Go By, El Topo, Chinese Ghost Story II and Days of Guns and Roses. A common theme appears to be that the videos confiscated by the police had a female character on the jacket.
Jovanovic's family has an impressive set of credentials - his mother is a first violinist for the NYC Ballet, his father the director of the prestigious Dalton Chess Academy, and his brother a brilliant multimedia software entrepreneur, none with the slightest history of trouble with the law, or any criminal record. Despite this, the DA's office and police launched an attack on Jovanovic's mother, falsely accusing her of interfering with the search and threatening her with arrest:
Fairstein said that cops arriving at his apartment "found that his mother had barricaded herself inside and tried to prevent the police from entering." (NY Post, 12/7/96). In fact, Jovanovic's mother was present when officers arrived on the advice of her counsel and admitted the officers as soon as they showed their search warrant. There was never any attempt at a barricade. That a figure in a position such as Linda Fairstein should feel free to lie like this is appalling. Fairstein also made threats to arrest Jovanovic's mother, possibly trying to keep her from appearing at her son's arraignment.
A source said that the mother told stunned cops: "I've always told him that women were bad, and that he should stay away from them!" "She sounded just like Norman Bates' mother", the source said (NY Post, 12/7/96). Mrs. Jovanovic made no such statement. The report is an outright lie, obviously intended to smear both the family and Oliver Jovanovic.
If you don't think the authorities would lie, see reports (such as the one in NY Times of 1/5/97) on the growing scandal of NYC police officers lying, perjuring themselves and presenting tainted evidence in thousands of cases.
Throughout the initial phases of this case, the authorities have exhibited a total disregard for facts, and have misused their position of public trust to have Jovanovic declared guilty in the media. We are deeply disturbed by this.
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