OFFICER'S PRIVILEGE: THE COL. GEORGE MARECEK STORY

Allied Invasion

Jonathan "Jack" Idema

Despite his conviction, Marecek still had his supporters. Among them was a flamboyant and controversial former Green Beret named Jonathan Keith "Jack" Idema. Idema is a brash, hard charging and often abrasive man. He made headlines in 2004 when he was convicted in Afghanistan on a raft of charges after he was caught running what authorities described as a freelance prison for alleged supporters of the ousted Taliban government. He would prove to be a formidable figure in the third Marecek trial.

A freelance journalist when the mood struck him, Idema and his wife, Viktoria Running Wolf Idema, had teamed up with their old friend, veteran newsman Gary Scurka, and began probing the case, first for CBS news, and later, for their own outlet, a web site dubbed Point Blank News (PBN).

Gary Scurka

Among other things, the PBN team challenged testimony from Russell Preston, the Green Beret who had first tipped Marecek off when Viparet discovered the love letters between the Colonel and his cousin. It was PBN that first raised the question of whether or not Czech espionage agents had targeted Preston for recruitment, and whether that might have influenced his testimony. Preston denied the allegations. The defense had also raised questions about Preston's character, specifically alleging that Preston had been accused of assaulting women in Czechoslovakia, charges that were later dismissed by the military after the victims, had been urged by Hana to level the complaints in the first place, according to CBS.

Butch Hendrick

Idema and PBN also hired Butch Hendrick, a world-renowned expert and founder of RIPTIDE, a non-profit that consults with police on drowning cases. Using mannequins, Hendrick tested what had become the prosecution's theory - that Marecek had murdered Viparet around 5 p.m. on June 3 and dumped her body on the reedy sandbar only to "discover" it, some 20 hours later. Hendrick concluded that, because of tides and other facts, the prosecution's theory was impossible.

Finally, Idema and PBN located a jailed serial killer in Detroit, Michigan whom they contended, was the actual killer.

The PBN report, titled "The Colonel's Wife," was solid enough to win a National Press Club Award for in 2001. It was not, however, solid enough to sway the jury. Nor was the fact that Michael Marecek, who had testified against his father in his first trial, was not a witness for the defense. In 2001, after a six-day trial and three hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Marecek of second-degree murder, and again, he was sentenced to 30 years.