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The photo that could disprove woman's Marathon bombing claim
By adamg on Thu, 05/07/2015 - 1:39pm
Leigh in lower left, in brown jacket.
A photo taken by a frequent UHub contributor right after the Boston Marathon bombings shows a Jamaica Plain woman who claimed brain injuries from being just 10 feet from the second blast looking rather unlike somebody close enough to the explosions to have been hurt, WCVB reports.
Arturo Gossage posted this photo the day of the bombings showing somebody who appears to be Joanna Leigh of Jamaica Plain, wearing an unscathed brown leather jacket and kneeling on the ground as she talks to a man being treated by EMTs (see it larger).
A Suffolk County grand jury indicted Leigh in March on charges she defrauded not just the One Fund but people who gave her contributions on their own. She charges she was indicted as payback for complaining about what she said was an inadequate payment from the fund.
Photo copyright Arturo Gossage. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.
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Comments
Hell of a blast
The poor woman was blown all the way over to Newbury Street. Luckily for her, Indiana Jones was there to help.
you mean like the other three casualties?
There are multiple people there being treated/looked at by BostonEMS; none of them appear visibly injured, either, yet BostonEMS seems to be giving them plenty of attention. What's with the disbelief? It's a 3 minute walk from the second bombing site.
You do realize that if you can be close to a bomb blast and not get hit by shrapnel or the heat of the explosion, but still suffer damage from the pressure wave? In fact, there are military weapons designed to do just exactly that - injure people from the pressure wave on the torso.
I wasn't aware that cameras were tricorders...
Read the article
I believe she's lying because she's a liar.
Too Late
Apparently Mola Ram already ripped out her heart (and brains). I hope she gets treatment.
You can't tell from a photo whether someone had hearing loss
Surely one or both sides will call her audiologist as a witness, and we can find out for sure?
There isn't really that much
There isn't really that much you can tell from that picture, she could have an open headwound on the other side for all we can see.
Not trying to defend a potential defrauder though
No open head wound
Remember, her whole argument is that she suffered an internal injury that didn't become apparent until well after the bombing, and that the One Fund was being grossly unfair to people like her.
So the question is whether somebody who was standing just 10 feet from the second explosion would have clothes and hair that really look none the worse for wear.
disorientation
How close do you have to be to get a concussion? I wonder if she misunderestimated due to the concussion from the bomb and possibly resulting trauma.
There's also
the fact that she said she was knocked unconscious by the blast. If you're within 10' AND you are knocked unconscious, it seems quite suspicious to have, you know, zero evidence of that on your clothing...
So greedy, heartless, and stupid
Kinda hard to believe someone would be so greedy and stupid. She's probably right that this is only coming about because she complained. Not in retribution, but because someone read her complaint and decided to investigate further whereupon they learned how bogus her claim was.
It's like going back to a bank you robbed the following day and asking to see the manager to complain that the teller you held up only gave $20s and not the $50s that your note requested.
It's the type of injury that
It's the type of injury that's key - a TBI, which she is claiming, can mean a lifetime of injuries which can't be discerned with the naked eye and require a lot of testing - and basically lifelong recovery and medical expenses, which means more $$ for her. She could also claim lost wages, "emotional" damage, psych treatment, rehab and therapy, etc. And not as readily apparent an injury as say a skin wound or superficial burn. A TBI is thus sort of the perfect fraudulent injury because it relies on her testimony and emotional experience of it rather than the physical and medical proof from x-rays, etc. (I used to work in personal injury law and I could tell you stories of the mallingerers we came across).
That's not to say that TBIs
That's not to say that TBIs aren't real - they are Very real - but just that if you were going to fraudulently claim an injury, it would be the perfect one to claim.
she claims to have a Phd
I wonder if her degrees can be verified. Washington Post actually did a legit story on her "injuries" in 2013.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/brain-injured-woma...
Apparently not
One of the Channel 5 reports says two of the universities on her CV claim to have no record of her.
Her CV
Oh and here is her CV. All her "degrees" appear to be in Psychology. Oh lord. She's quite a piece of work.
http://www.joannaleigh.com/cv.html
what is it about the marathon attacks and internet armchairs?
Reddit amateur detectives famously did a massive circlejerk clusterfudge when they wrongly accused some person of being involved in the attacks.
Now we have a bunch of people goofing off at work (or unemployed) who are criticizing on other web sites some potentially injured person, from a photo.
Can we use this internet thing to elevate the thinking, instead of sinking deeper and deeper into idiocy?
Well, in this case the Reddit amateur detectives
are relying on the fact that the DA is bringing charges against this woman, and are making an assumption that the case they have against her is a wee bit stronger than one photo that a random person took.
If she is innocent, I hope it plays out that way.
If not, shame on her, and throw the book at her.
Reading the washington post article, if you don't think it sounds fishy then you have a pretty weak BS detector.
You'll excuse me....
I'm having a hard time picking myself up off of the floor on that one. This woman is undeserving of any speculation as to her innocence. She's guilty.
That's GUILTY for those who don't know what a real scam artist looks like.
Speculation deserved
You missed the best part. The anon is commenting on an internet forum on the innocence of the woman, noting the wrongness of commenting on an internet forum on the guilt of the woman.
Not to affect my chances at jury duty, but she has been charged with a crime, and this photo does not help her case. I won't say she is guilty, but it looks like it.
Point of reference for time and
location. Doesn't prove or disprove the DA's claim or her assertions of injury. I say we hire Ted Wells and get a definitive answer.
Not even a good reference
for time and location. After all, the photo shows her back, NOT her face.
aren't we all experts?!
Sounds like everyone commenting is a self acclaimed bomb / head trauma expert. Unless you've served overseas in the military or a Doctor who specializes in head trauma.. your opinion means squat.
Not defending this woman, but everyone is very quick to write her off with their high horse knowledge of what happened. Let the experts weigh in, complain about Deflategate or something else.
Posters are not claiming to be medical experts.
Though many do have working BS meters.