Why CEO Shacknai's Letter on Death of Girlfriend Is a Strategic Masterstroke
Medicis (MRX) CEO Jonah Shacknai's open letter to the California state attorney general asking her to review the death of his girlfriend, Rebecca Zahau Nalepa, is a strategic masterstroke for three reasons:
- It's the act of an innocent man -- what criminal would invite further law enforcement attention?
- It supports what the Zahau family wants, a new probe of the case.
- And it draws attention away from the other major news break in the case: the release of search warrant documents for Shacknai's home and various cellphone records .
The warrants, and other documents, contain some potentially explosive material. On the day of Zahau's death, one detective concluded the crime was a homicide. And a polygraph test given to Jonah's brother Adam, the only person on the property when Rebecca was found hanging nude and bound from a balcony, produced an ambiguous result. Detectives changed their mind about the homicide upon further investigation, and the polygrapher nonetheless concluded that he "felt Adam was being truthful during the examination."
Blame the lawyer
Shacknai's letter to the AG is both heartfelt and calculated. He begs Kamala Harris to deliver "closure" on the deaths of Rebecca and, his 6-year-old son, Max, who fell down a flight of stairs at the Coronado, Calif., mansion two days earlier in July. He cites "the unrelenting and often vicious speculation and innuendo in certain media outlets" despite the San Diego Sheriff's Department conclusion that Rebecca committed suicide after learning that Max, who had been in her care when he fell, would die.
And he pins some of the blame for that on the Zahau family, which has employed the media-friendly attorney Anne Bremner (pictured) to push its belief that Rebecca was killed (Bremner is one of those lawyers who lists her TV appearances on her web site):
... given the undeniably strange circumstances, Rebecca's family and others continue to have questions. Certain media outlets have recklessly exploited those questions for ratings, which in turn has fueled broader skepticism in the investigation and resulted in additional pain to those who already have suffered enough through these awful events.The tide may be turning in Shacknai's favor. Despite a relentless army of anonymous online comment board trolls pushing the line that Rebecca's death was a murder, no evidence has emerged pointing to a third party in the case.
The letter, and a potential AG review, would be the icing on the cake -- and proof that Shacknai's small army of advisers have earned their keep.
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