I’ve never done this kind of thing before and must admit that I have a lot of reservations about doing this now but I believe it should be done.
We live in an age today in which it is only too easy to post attacks against others on the internet and all too often these attacks are completely unfounded; intended to maliciously strike out at another. As a professional journalist I decided to look into this contemporary problem and found an infinite number of examples online. Most were pathetically superficial and of no substance; most likely written by juveniles momentarily motivated to strike out at a fellow classmate, or a BFF that had fallen out of grace.
Then I ran across one that stood out from the others. It was a blog devoted to attacking a death row inmate. What made it even more unusual was that it was written and posted by someone who works within the legal profession, which immediately raised a lot of ethical questions as it is one thing for a high school student impulsively trashing fellow student with mindless garbage but its another thing entirely for someone bound by ethical rules.
This particular blog caught my attention and I decided to look into the alleged “facts” with the intent to do a story. Unfortunately, my editor did not agree as he felt that the public would not be interested in whether a man on death row was being unfairly targeted for malicious attacks by anyone. In that context, I suppose he is right but I think it does make an interesting story if for no other reason but to explore and maybe even understand the dynamics of ulterior motives and how easily another can simply fabricate allegations against anyone and post it for all to see.
The blog that I came across was posted by Rosalie Bolin and it seeks to attack death row inmate Michael Lambrix. It is poorly written, but seems to provide specific information intended to discredit Lambrix even though he is already on Florida’s death row. So, what’s the point?
First I did an internet search on both Rosalie Bolin and Michael Lambrix and found numerous newspaper articles and websites containing information on both. In the following, I will now detail the search I did and the facts I uncovered as well as why this really is an interesting story that should be told. It illustrates just how easy it is to attack others online with completely unfounded accusations and how all too often the one making the accusations is actually the villain, not the victim.
A.) Who Are Rosalie Bolin and Michael Lambrix?
As stated above, Michael Lambrix is a prisoner on death row in Florida. A number of websites contain a wealth of information about him. In fact, I found a website maintained by an organization called “Southern Injustice” that is almost exclusively devoted to advocating Lambrix’s innocence. At least two other sites provide an extensive collection of articles and essays written by Lambrix or about him – “Doing Life on Death Row,” which provides a graphic account of Lambrix facing eminent execution and “Death Row Journals.”
Rosalie Bolin does not have any websites specifically about her but an internet search produced a wealth of newspaper articles that detail who she is and again that is a bizarre but interesting story in itself.
As more completely discussed below, Rosalie Bolin is the wife of another Florida death row inmate, Oscar Ray Bolin. She is also a “private investigator” who has worked in the legal community for many years. Records show that she is a partner in the privately owned company “Criminal Specialty Investigations, Inc.” located in Tampa, Florida and that through this company she contracts herself out to other lawyers and governmental agencies as a specialist in the area of investigating and developing evidence used to convince juries not to sentence convicted murders to death.
B.) Rosalie Bolin’s Attacks against Michael Lambrix
In the blog that Rosalie has put up and maintains exclusively for the purpose of maliciously attacking Michael Lambrix, Rosalie basically makes three arguments:
1.) That Michael Lambrix is “a liar” because apparently he wrote a series of articles that were subsequently posted “Bolin the Butcher” that “exposed” Rosalie Bolin as a manipulative “nut” who will do anything to help her condemned husband Oscar Ray Bolin;
2.) That nobody can believe that what Michael Lambrix wrote regarding her illicit relationships with prison employees because Lambrix also said he is innocent, and in Rosalie Bolin’s opinion anyone who would dare attack another death row inmate with allegations of being an informant cannot possibly be innocent, so (somehow) Lambrix must be lying.
3.) That Lambrix is “a liar” because he told the truth against another death row inmate, Douglas Jackson. Rosalie Bolin says that Lambrix had talked to a state attorney and testified against another death row inmate (Douglas Jackson).
First were the allegations Rosalie Bolin claims Lambrix originally made against her, which are now posted at “Bolin the Butcher BlogSpot.” The context if that website basically exposes Rosalie Bolin as the wife of a convicted and condemned serial killer, and how she has methodically manipulated prison officials to win favors for her husband. Most of the facts regarding Rosalie Bolin’s relationship with Oscar ray Bolin are actually taken directly from court records and various newspaper articles. As for the allegations of her forming an improper relationship with orison officials, according to the Florida Department if Correction’s Inspector General’s Office, these allegations were actually substantiated resulting in the FDOC transferring Oscar Ray Bolin from the death row unit at Union Correctional Institution to the maximum security death row unit at Florida State Prison. Rosalie Bolin has not provided any support for her claim that the series of articles written by Lambrix entitled “The Dark Side of Death Row” were false, nor could she do so as the FDOC files support these allegations and the Florida Attorney General’s Office provided state records to the Leon County Circuit Court in Lambrix v. McDonough that support what Lambrix wrote.
Next, Rosalie Bolin’s claims attack Lambrix as “a liar” because of his pled assertion of innocence is not only bizarre, but without any merit, The fact is that Lambrix is the only death row inmate in the county who has his entire case posted online for anyone to examine at the Southern Injustice website. Recently lawyers representing Lambrix have filed an “Initial Brief” with the Florida Supreme Court in Lambrix v. State that details the evidence supporting Lambrix’s pled of innocence and clearly provides independent evidentiary support for his claim of innocence. This “Initial Brief” is accessible online at the Southern Injustice website.
Rosalie Bolin’s claim that Lambrix is “a liar” because no innocent person would make allegations against another death row inmate is at the very least bizarre. It simply makes no sense. Under the twisted logic employed by Rosalie Bolin, it would then stand to reason that since her own allegations against Lambrix clearly are not true, then her own husband Oscar Ray Bolin surely must be guilty of the numerous rapes and torture murders of the young women he is accused of killing. But then Rosalie Bolin never said her husband is innocent.
Last, Rosalie Bolin claims that Lambrix is “a liar” because in early 1990 he was subpoenaed to testify against another death row inmate, Douglas Jackson. Rosalie Bolin specifically claims that Lambrix had talked with a state attorney then subsequently testified in court against Douglas Jackson, which she claims made Lambrix “a snitch and a liar.” Even though she makes no allegation that his sworn testimony was false.
But then again, Rosalie Bolin’s accusation itself is clearly false. According to the Broward County Court records in Douglas Jackson’s case, Lambrix never testified against Jackson at all. In fact, Assistant State Attorney Jack Coyle specifically instructed the judge that the state has involuntarily subpoenaed Lambrix after Lambrix refused to even talk to their investigator and that once Lambrix was brought before the court in Broward County, Lambrix specifically instructed the court that he (Lambrix) had no knowledge of the Jackson case and under no circumstances would he (Lambrix) testify against Jackson.
Quite simply, there is no truth to Rosalie Bolin’s malicious allegation that Lambrix has ever given information to any state attorney in any criminal case, and clearly Lambrix never testified against anyone. In her blog Rosalie Bolin said that she would support these allegations with actual court documents, but surprisingly, she never did because she knew that her allegations were completely false.
What is even more troubling is that according to the FDOC Inspector General’s Office, they terminated the majority of Rosalie Bolin’s “legal visits” with death row inmates other than her husband because Rosalie Bolin was using these “legal visits” to improperly distribute copies of theses false allegations to other inmates in the hopes that by falsely accusing Lambrix of being a “snitch” the other death row inmates would physically assault and even kill Lambrix. Apparently, Rosalie Bolin is cut out of the same cloth as her cold blooded killer serial rapist husband “Bolin the Butcher.”
C.) Just who is Rosalie Bolin?
This is where the story really gets interesting. When I conducted my internet search on Rosalie Bolin, what I discovered really blew me away! The following summary of who Rosalie Bolin is can be fully substantiated by court records and newspaper articles. These also expose Rosalie for who she is and her virtual absence of ethical constraint itself explains why she would so maliciously attack Michael Lambrix. Rosalie Bolin is clearly a very disturbed and mentally deranged individual incapable of moral conscience or ethical constraint. How someone such as Rosalie Bolin can make a career in our judicial system is beyond belief.
To begin this part of the story, as previously stated “Rosalie Bolin is actually the wife of death row inmate Oscar Ray Bolin, a convicted serial rapist who tortured and killed “countless” young woman before being convicted of three case and sent to Florida’s death row, where he has now remained for almost twenty years. This is detailed on the “Bolin the Butcher BlogSpot.”
According to court records and newspaper articles Oscar Ray Bolin worked as a truck driver and carnival worker across the United States, during which time he would kidnap, torture, rape, and then kill the young women. In Florida alone, the authorities had sufficient evidence to convict and condemn Oscar Bolin in three Tampa Bay area cases. Many other jurisdictions are still waiting for an opportunity to put Oscar Bolin on trial for rape murders committed elsewhere.
Even before Oscar Ray Bolin came to Florida he was known to be a “sexual predator” and even previously convicted of raping women in another state. It was only by chance that the authorities in the Tampa Bay are in Florida learned of a string of violent rapes and torturous murders of young women that led them to arrest “Bolin the Butcher” and charge him with capital murder.
When Oscar Ray Bolin was arrested in Hillsborough County and charged with numerous counts of sexual battery and murder, at the time Rosalie Bolin, then known as Rosalie Martinez, the wife of a well known criminal defense lawyer by the name of Victor D. Martinez, worked in the local “public defender’s office” as an investigator.
Rosalie Martinez was the quintessential suburban soccer mom; the last person anyone would have thought would fall for a cold blooded serial killer and give up her whole life to be his wife. To those outside looking in, it appeared that Rosalie had it all – a beautiful house in an upscale Tampa community, a 20 year marriage to a prominent attorney, and four daughters who attended the local Catholic high school, where the younger daughters played for the soccer team while their mother sat in the stands cheering them on.
It seemed like a perfectly charmed life, one that most other women would be openly envious of. But beyond this shiny too perfect surface lurked dark secrets that came out only in whispers behind the Martinez’s backs. Rosalie Martinez was not a happy wife. There were allegations that her husband Victor had a secret, twisted sex life if his own, often frequenting adult theatres and paid prostitutes, and even forcing his wife Rosalie to take part in acts of bizarre and twisted sex.
Life at home was not the fairytale it may have seemed and those who were familiar with the truth, were not surprised to hear how she had abruptly left her husband and abandoned her four minor daughters and married a convicted serial killer; Oscar Ray Bolin.
Rosalie Martinez met Oscar Bolin when he was in the Hillsborough County jail awaiting trial on numerous counts of rape and murder of young women. The state was seeking the death penalty and Rosalie was assigned as an investigator working with the public defender’s office. It was her responsibility to conduct a thorough investigation into Oscar ray Bolin’s own background so that evidence could be developed that might convince the jury to spare his life once convicted of capital murder.
During this time Oscar Ray Bolin had a girlfriend, who according to court records he manipulated into helping him attempt as escape by convincing her to kidnap the county sheriff’s own family then holding them hostage until the sheriff released him from custody. The police learned of this escape plan and arrested the young woman who subsequently confessed to the plan and later testified against Oscar Ray Bolin.
Suddenly this psychopathic serial killer needed a new puppet to do his calling and in walked Rosalie Martinez. It wasn’t long after that, that Rosalie Martinez’s visits with Oscar Ray Bolin became more frequent and she became all but obsessed with fighting for his freedom. However, as an employee of the local public defender’s office, she was using taxpayer money to fund her fight for her new “soul mate.” According to articles published in the Tampa Tribune, she was then fired from the public defender’s office for misusing their funds to finance her own campaign to win his freedom. Rosalie also legally divorced her husband, Victor D. Martinez.
Despite her best efforts, Oscar Ray Bolin was convicted then condemned to death, in at least three brutal rape & torture murders. In a court hearing held just before Oscar Ray Bolin was sentenced was about to be transferred to Florida’s death row – a bizarre and unexpected courtroom hearing, Rosalie Martinez legally married Oscar Ray Bolin and became Rosalie Bolin. In an interview with the local Tampa Tribune, Rosalie Bolin proudly announced that she had at last found her “soul mate.”
For almost 20 years now Rosalie Bolin has become the driving force behind the legal challenges to win her condemned husband’s freedom. Through the years Oscar Ray Bolin’s convictions have been repeatedly thrown out only to have him again convicted and sentenced to death. Oscar Ray Bolin remains on death row today.
To facilitate her tireless campaign to win her husband’s freedom, Rosalie Bolin has established her own private investigation company (“Criminal Specialty Investigations, Inc.”) in Tampa, Florida. Working out of that small office, Rosalie Bolin contracts herself and other “associates” in capital murder cases in both Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, as well as to lawyers representing death sentenced prisoners through the state funded office “Commission on Capital Cases,” known more commonly as “registry” counsel.
An examination of administrative records in these agencies shows that in recent years Rosalie Bolin has charged taxpayers almost half of a million dollars, systematically double –billing these agencies for the same hours and expenses as other cases. Much of this taxpayer money has then been used to pay the lawyers retained to represent her husband, as well as various other questionable expenses.
Incredibly, the State of Florida has no oversight to prevent lawyers and investigators from systematically defrauding the legal system. Comparing administrative records from cases Rosalie Bolin was contracted to by the circuit courts in Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties during the past five years it has become clear that Rosalie Bolin is systematically defrauding the system; committing grand theft at a massive scale.
Here is how she worked it, by being contracted to represent numerous clients in different jurisdictions Rosalie Bolin regularly bills the same hours and expenses to multiple cases. Since these agencies do not compare each other’s records, they have no way of knowing what she is doing.
These records do show that for at least the last five years Rosalie Bolin has made trips from Tampa to Starke, Florida (where death row is located) almost weekly. During these trips she will “visit” first with her legal clients, subsequently billing each client for the total expenses of the trip mileage, as well as the motel and food bills then the next day she will visit her condemned husband at the prison.
Although systematically committing felony fraud is in itself contemptible, what really makes what she is doing morally reprehensible is that in each of these cases the legal system has limits on how much money can be spent in each capital cases for investigations. This means that by systematically defrauding the system she is taking money away from these clients, effectively depriving them of any meaningful opportunity to have their own cases fully investigated as once she has exhausted the limits if what the legal system allows. Then no further money will be made available for investigations.
D.) Conclusion
I would strongly encourage anyone to independently look into Rosalie Bolin and her history of unquestionable misconduct. Her malicious and unfounded attacks against Michael Lambrix are what originally compelled me to look into the facts and there is simply no truth to her allegations.
I personally have no interest in either Michael Lambrix or Rosalie Bolin. However, upon investigating the allegations made by Rosalie Bolin in the “blog” she has posted and maintains to attack Michael Lambrix, I find it unbelievable that someone such as Rosalie Bolin would be allowed to work in the legal system, and that our judicial system itself apparently remains conveniently blind to systematic fraud by those who will exploit and manipulate the system for their own gain – even stealing the money allocated to provide a legal defense for those who maybe innocent.
