Thursday, March 11, 2021
As part of a long-term trend of credit union consolidation and expansion, an increasing number of banks and savings associations have been acquired by credit unions over the past 10 years. Most of the banks and thrifts acquired by credit unions have been small, with total assets of around $300 million or less, and the great majority of such transactions in the past five years have involved bank targets with assets of between $100 million and $300 million. The number of such transactions peaked at 16 in 2019 before falling (with all other financial institution merger activity) in 2020; however, many analysts and the financial press expect that larger credit unions will continue to be expansionary and that the pace of credit union-bank deals may well accelerate in 2021 and 2022.
but did it point to the real killer? as for the so-called jackpot evidence, the cash purchase of the nike sneakers and baseball bat and gloves, who knows who bought those, said the defense, but it wasn t ernie. anyway, those nike sneakers were a size 12 and ernie wore a 9 1/2 or 10. proves he didn t do it, right? and on that point the prosecution had only this. he is very proficient at misinformation and disinformation, and i think that he intentionally bought shoes that were too large for him. ernie scherer took the stand himself, sat up there for the better part of seven days, confident, often smiling, and claiming it was his lifestyle the prosecution put on trial. he s a human. he made mistakes like everybody else does. that doesn t make him a monster. would he convince the jury?
so that was just kind of a shot in the dark? absolutely. and there it was. a nike outlet store in primm, nevada just yards away from the gas station where ernie used a credit card to fill his tank, and very close to the mcdonald s where he used plastic to buy a burger. this was maybe 12 hours before the murders. possible hitch? ernie did not use a credit card at this or any other nike store that day. so maybe he didn t buy a baseball bat to use on his parents. unless. did he use cash in an effort to hide a purchase at nike? one of the d.a. s investigators asked nike to check purchase records for march 7th, 2008. and as they say in vegas, jackpot. at 11:38 a.m., just before ernie used his credit card at the mcdonald s and the gas station, there was a cash purchase at the nike outlet.
mcdonald s and the gas station, there was a cash purchase at the nike outlet. one pair of size 12 nike impact tomahawk sneakers, a ripken youth baseball fat and junior match soccer gloves. i m thinking even the most skeptical jury in the world has to realize, put it all together, the book has just finished, that s the ending of the book. in january 2011 the alameda county prosecutor told jurors ernest scherer iii was a narcissistic sociopath who savagely murdered his parents in cold blood. he is sheer evil. he thinks he s smarter than everybody. heavily in debt and desperate for minute, ernie s house of cards was collapsing before his very eyes, said the prosecutor, and so he killed his parents for the money, for his inheritance. even ernie s own family unanimously turned against him, including ernest scherer sr.,