Wednesday 10 March 2010

To Compel or Not to Compel

Defendants Motion to Compel Discovery; Gov’t Replies: “Talk to the Hand”

It must be getting closer to May.  Hardly a day passes without another shower of paper in the Robert Wone Case.

On Monday things got off to a big, fat 172-page start with the defense’s motion to compel outstanding discovery.   If it seems like we’ve been here before, that’s because we have.

True to past form, the defendant’s main complaint is again that the government has not complied with court orders to produce discoverable material to the defense.  Their concerns are many.

To start, they are concerned about that hair and fiber analysis done by the government’s expert Douglas Deedrick, and that they don’t have his methodology so as to be able to challenge it.

On the finger print issue, they claim that an unidentified palm print was found in the room where Robert’s body was discovered by the defendants.  They want to know where it was found in the room, and testing that was done on it.  They have requested this information on numerous occasions.  It gets interesting here because the defense is claiming the government said it did not belong to the defendants or Robert Wone.  However, the government says in its own filing that defendant Victor Zaborsky can not be ruled out.

More compelling reading, after the jump.

The defense also wants to know the status of the remainder of the biological samples such as heart blood, urine, bile, vitreous, liver, brain and gastric samples.

They’re particularly harsh on the government’s treatment of the radio runs, and they claim that prosecution reluctance on this particular item is “contrary’ to the established practice of the United States Attorney’s office.  The radio runs include communications of the EMT’s who transported Robert’s body to George Washington hospital.  They are important to the case because if it is disclosed that Robert was subjected to life saving interventions then this could offer a medical explanation for the puncture wounds.

We also learn that the defense has not seen the unredacted portion of notes from one of the police officer’s on scene.  The officer in question appears to be Diane Durham, who surprisingly heard a different story from Joe about where Robert’s body was found.

Most interestingly, we learn that in 2007 Detectives Bryan Waid and Danny Whalen went to the Swann Street residence and talked to Dylan Ward without counsel present.  The defense is demanding any notes from that discussion be turned over.

On Tuesday, the government shot back with an 85 page filing articulating why they are opposed to turning over further discovery, chiefly of which is that they have met all their obligations pursuant to Rule 16 (a) (1) (E).

Then they filed an additional discovery document, maybe because they didn’t want to get on the bad side of Judge Lynn Liebowitz at Friday’s status hearing.

It filled out many of the questions that defendants were requesting about expert witness disclosures.  They intend to have Dr. John Yosaitis testify about succinyolcholine and IM injections.  Even though nothing has been found yet, it looks like the government is pushing forward on the paralytic drug angle through expert testimony.

Another interesting tidbit is James Plant, the government’s S&M expert.  While not exactly possessing a C.V. in bondage, we learn that Plant has led many S&M groups, has extensive experience with S&M practices and has attended many popular S&M events such as DC’s Mid-Atlantic Leather weekend.

They also disclose that they intend to introduce photographs of “certain defendants” using the S&M apparatus to show their familiarity with the tools of the trade.  Not just one or two photos, but upward of 23.  No wonder they need Mr. Plant’s services.

Let’s hope nobody’s hair was messed up when these photos were taken.  We wouldn’t want anyone to get a bad impression.

-posted by David

Here is the link to the Scribd document:

View this document on Scribd

[Via http://whomurderedrobertwone.com]

No comments:

Post a Comment