Mucho Moultrie
Status Hearing Updates
3:45pm: Adjournment. Full house today. NO continuance as of now. Xylene is OUT. May 5 evidentiary hearing is next order of business. Full recap coming.
2:50pm: Price, Ward, Zaborsky here. Defense team associates arrive. Schertler, Connolly too. Legal Times Mike Scarcella on site to cover.
2:45pm: Waiting outside the hearing room now. Members of Wone family arrived.
1:05pm: Sources indicate xylene may not make it to trial. Levels and concentration were ‘insignificant.’ We may know for certain in a couple hours.
12:30pm: All case watchers will be holding their breath today at today’s hearing, hoping no delays or continuance imperils the May 10 trial date. Of course the last minute government testing of Robert’s blood is an issue here.
Earlier this week the defense filed an extension for time to reply to the government’s motion that first alerted us to the xylene test results.
04/20/2010 Defendant’s Motion to Extend Time to File Response to Government’s Motion in Limine Filed: Attorney: CONNOLLY
Michael
David
Doug
Craig
I bet the trial date will be pushed back. There just seems to be too many outstanding pre-trial issues yet to be resolved. And the late-breaking development on the blood-test results — which is a very important new piece of evidence — gives the defendants a good argument that they need some more time to respond/prepare. I’m betting that the trial date will be pushed back by 6 weeks or more, depending on the judge’s summer schedule.
The finding of xylene is potentially so important that I could see the prosecution agreeing to an extension of the trial date. I wonder if they could condition an agreement on the defense countering the finding with experts, etc. rather than seeking to exclude, particulary given Connolly’s prior encouragement to “test away.”
I’m reminded of a judge I used to appear before who would grant discovery objections to allow parties to comply, but not to object.
Sorry — “discovery extensions.”
a couple of questions….
If the sample is used up, how could the defense do counter-testing?
Would the Innocence Act play in? (Or is only for death penalty cases?)
If the judge denies entry of the xylene test results, couldn’t they save it for the murder trial?
Did the trouple arrive together? Is Joe still fat, and is Dyl still tan? Is Tom still a fashion plate? Is Bernie still Bernie?
I didn’t see them arrive, but in the courtroom, again I was struck by how aloof Ward seemed – eyes focused straight ahead at nearly all times, never glancing about, not engaging with his co-defendants/poly-family. Not once.
By contrast, Price and Zab appeared relaxed and even animated; there was some interaction between those two.
I don’t know why, but that just seems unusual to me.
Dyl must be still pissed over the recent flap over his massage ads. He lied for those two bozoes, and then they chastised him for trying to make a living. The life of a concubine is never easy!
WOW – Xylene is OUT! Yikes! I am guessing that this was a studied decision of the prosecution – whether it was more important to have the trial in May or argue strongly for the Xylene and offering up much more time for the defense. Maybe he had some info that wasn’t all that good – as in the amount of Xylene could have been a byproduct of other things . . .
Maybe it’ll be IN for the murder trial! A girl can dream, can’t she?
Agree, CD. Might have mucked up the waters for THIS case anyway.
It’s probably for the best — the defense would have had a field day proposing myriad other ways in which Robert could have been exposed to Xylene or in which the sample could have been contaminated.