3. A week after Terese’s death, Mary and Shane met with RSO Detectives Brinkman, Antonaidis and Sgt. Rush and informed them that Wesley admitted to them that he had instructed his wife and Bishop Arnell to wash blood splatter from the walls while Mary was away from the residence informing her son of his sister’s death. Shane also revealed that Wesley seemed to know alarming details about the death scene, although in sworn statements he declared he had never entered the room where the death occurred. They also provided information on an additional potential suspect. Det. Brinkman informed the Stewarts that he still believed Terese had killed herself because she had been “5150’d” (involuntary psychiatric admission to a hospital) in 1990. He did not budge from this opinion, even though Mary explained that she and Terese’s treatment director, Rocky Hill, had initiated the hold because of a drug relapse, not because she was suicidal, and that Terese was released from the hospital 5 hours after admission.

4. In the ensuing months after Terese’s death, the Stewarts met in person a second time with detectives and their commanding officer, Captain Rick Sayer (who was later promoted to Deputy Chief, and is currently running for Sheriff of Riverside County), as well as had several telephonic contacts to provide additional information and to request further investigation, but the Sheriff’s office took no further action. According to Ms. Stewart, Brinkman and Sayer were increasingly demeaning and condescending during these contacts. PI Jim Stice, then a Riverside Sheriff’s Deputy, indicated that Capt. Sayer directed his staff at roll calls more than once to notify him if anyone received a call from Ms. Stewart, claiming that Mary was a “nut who wouldn’t go away.”

5. In September, 1992, John and Lynn Wesley forcibly took control of Ms. Stewart’s computer rental company, Giant Computer. Mary’s attorney contacted RSO, provided them with paperwork proving that Mary was the incorporator, CEO, major investor, and personal leaseholder on the premises, and asked Deputy Hintergardt to evict the Wesleys. Hintergardt was instructed by Capt. Sayer to stay out of the matter. In October, the Wesleys began removing Giant’s property from the premises without Mary’s consent, and her attorney advised her to call 911. Deputy Gillogly responded to the location, but instead of preventing the illegal removal of Giant assets, he instructed the President of the Corporation, Bob Brazeau, Giant’s security guard Jim Hoskins, and Giant’s Training Director, Bonnie Blevins to leave the premises or be arrested. He instructed them to stop “harassing the Wesleys”, and cited Mary for making a false emergency call, stating that if RSO ever received another call from her regarding Giant issues, she would be arrested. Forced to defend herself in court against the “false emergency call” charge, Mary’s public defender informed her that the DA’s office and RSO wanted to make certain that Mary never again harassed them. When Mary demanded a jury trial on the charge, the DA dropped the charges.

6. In the summer of 1993, Captain Sayer told Ms. Stewart that if her private investigator concluded that Terese had been murdered, he would reopen the investigation and assign a new detective. In May of 1994, Mary and her private investigators Pat and Mike Sullivan met with Capt. Sayer, Brinkman and Antonaidis to provide information, including their assessment that Terese was a homicide victim. The officers agreed to question John Wesley and get his fingerprints to ascertain if Wesley had a criminal record under an alias, but RSO did not fulfill this commitment, nor the one Captain Sayer made to reopen the investigation.

7. In September 1994, Mary appealed directly to the Riverside County Sheriff, Cois Byrd, for assistance. He appointed Detective Eric Spidle, who Byrd claimed was independent of the Southwest station commanded by Capt. Sayer, to “review” the case.  Spidle’s “thorough reevaluation” of the case concluded there was no reason to believe the death was not suicide, claiming that since the death scene didn’t look like a suicide, it must be suicide. Byrd suggested that someone murdering Terese, but wanting to make it look like suicide, would not put the gun and casing where they were found. He defended his twisted logic by stating that since, in a suicide, no one would expect for the gun and casing to land where they did, it must be a suicide. After meeting with Det. Spidle, PI Sullivan advised Ms. Stewart that “The Riverside Sheriff’s Office doesn’t like you; they think you’re a troublemaker. Spidle wasn’t interested in anything I had to say. He was there to defend the department.” Spidle also told Sullivan that he and Capt. Sayer were patrol partners in the past. So much for someone independent of Southwest station investigating Mary’s claims!

8. In February 2001, DA Investigator Martin Silva targeted Mary Stewart as the primary suspect in Terese’s murder, based on statements made by John Wesley about Ms. Stewart which had been ruled slanderous in civil court. According to Mary, Silva told her “Either you killed her, or it was suicide. In these cases, we just want to get closure.” Mary took this to mean that if she accepted Terese’s death as a suicide, Silva would not pursue her as a murder suspect. On February 28, 2001, Silva arrived at Mary’s residence late at night, alone, asking for files she had mentioned in an interview with him earlier that day. After she gave him the information he sought, he remained to question her extensively about her sex life. A month later, he returned with four male officers and executed a search warrant on her vehicle and premises. During the search, the officers prevented Ms. Stewart from phoning her attorney, demanding she remain seated or be handcuffed. Considering the fact that Mary had been cooperative throughout Silva’s investigation, even answering his demeaning questions about her sexuality, and had provided him every file and document he requested, Mary believed Silva’s search and seizure was designed to intimidate her, rather than an honest attempt to collect evidence that she had committed murder.

9. In a May 2001 meeting with Ms. Stewart, her attorneys, private investigator, and DA Investigator Silva, D.A. Michael Soccio announced that he’d read none of the Investigative Package provided by Stewart’s investigators. Yet he supported and authorized Silva’s Search Warrant affidavit against Mary, which was based largely on Wesley’s unsubstantiated, slanderous claims about Mary’s relationship with her daughter.

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