Word count: 880 | Reading time: 4 min read
Pretzel Logic
Ever since the summer, when attorney Fred Ambrose called to pitch me an incredible story about a cover-up in the Kimberly Ernest homicide, I have been running into my editor’s office, shaking my head in disbelief. Repeating the same refrain.
“Hey, David, just when I thought this story couldn’t get any more bizarre… “
Sometime in November—when I decided to go ahead with a story, a consuming endeavor that drove my family and co-workers bonkers—the trips to my editor’s office increased in frequency. They began to occur almost hourly—on some days, every few minutes. It got to the point where I had only to poke my head into Dave’s office and smile and he knew that another phone call had yielded another mother lode of strangeness.
The calls came and went. Every answer raised new questions. A story was written.
But the end of the story really wasn’t the end of The Story.
The death of Kimberly Ernest was only the beginning.
Sometime in the middle of January, after the story was published and the whirl of calls had died down, the phone rang again with news of another tragedy.
On January 15, Kelly Juhas, her three-year-old daughter Alyssa and another passenger were killed in a fiery car wreck when her 1987 Mercury Cougar veered across several lanes of traffic and was struck by a pickup.
Alyssa’s father, Richard Wise, was not allowed to attend the funeral.
Acquitted of killing Kimberly, Wise was in jail for a wide array of convictions. He and the also-acquitted Herbie Haak are still awaiting disposition of their $75 million lawsuit against the city and the cops for the pain of being falsely accused.
“It’s just been one unfortunate thing after another,” says Wise family attorney Sam Malat.
Malat should know. Last week, he was one of seven Wise associates sued by Jay Lambert in two separate lawsuits.
Lambert sued on behalf of his son John—the man Ambrose accused of being “the individual actually responsible for” killing Kimberly Ernest.
In a separate filing Jay Lambert also sued on behalf of his wife Barbara—for the pain and suffering of John’s being falsely accused.
Leonard Wise—Richie’s father—is also a defendant. So are private investigators Stephen Stouffer and Tyree “Skip” Thomas.
Two others, an attorney associated with Malat and Malat’s office manager, were also named as defendants.
“We are reserving comment,” said the normally unreserved Malat on Monday. “The motions to dismiss will be filed at the end of this week.”
As usual, Ambrose and his associates weren’t saying much, opting not to return yet another in a steady stream of phone calls seeking comment.
As it turns out, Sam Malat and the boys may not have to worry too much about one of the lawsuits filed against them. Monday afternoon, I got another call.
John Lambert, flamboyant crackhead hustler and son of two superachieving parents, died of an apparent drug overdose just five days after filing his lawsuit.
Lambert met his fate in Room 50 of the Hallmark Hotel on Rte. 130 in lovely Cinnaminson, NJ. Recently released from prison, where he was serving time for a parole violation, Lambert was staying at the Hallmark with his lover. At 12:42 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 1, rescue squads received a call to rush to the hotel. Lambert was removed from the hotel room—still breathing—and taken to Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Cherry Hill, where he died later that day. Details are sketchy. Cinnaminson Police Lt. Michael Burns says that it could take a month before a cause of death is determined.
“It’s under investigation,” says Burns, knowing full well that the ultimate determination of what killed John Lambert is a very big deal to those who want to know if he killed Kimberly Ernest.
Jay seems to be doing okay. He is obviously very upset, him and his wife,” says family attorney Jake Griffin, who represented John in many a legal scrape.
“Damn,” says attorney Malat, upon hearing the news. “Damn. I don’t even know what to say. I feel bad for Jay. This is going to be the third child of someone who has died in this case.”
For a moment, Malat waxes philosophical.
“You ever see that list of Clinton’s 54 friends and contacts who have died?” he asks. “I never used to believe in conspiracies before. Now I am suspicious of everything.”
The wax quickly wears off.
“With the knowledge of John Lambert’s untimely demise, there are additional grounds for dismissal,” says Malat. “I would have rather litigated the case than have to deal with this.”
The Kimberly Ernest story is still far from over. “Something we will need to obtain is the DNA evidence from [Lambert] and do it quickly,” says Malat, prying open yet another can of legal nightcrawlers in the attempt to prove Lambert killed Ernest.
Despite Malat’s sense of urgency, there are no quick answers to the question of whether he can remove necessary bodily material from John Lambert’s corpse.
“I doubt that it will occur,” says Jake Griffin, adding that it is no shock Malat and Ambrose would ask for some blood.
“Coming from those attorneys, I am not surprised at all,” says Griffin. “I am sure that they are at a desperate stage right now.”
