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A defense expert who says he found anomalies in FBI recordings of murder-for-hire suspect Edgar Steele will not be able to testify remotely from his tropical vacation, a judge ruled this morning.
Reporter Meghann Cuniff writes about public safety news from the Inland Northwest and beyond.
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Tyllim on May 03 at 4:49 p.m.
I am curious as to why the expert couldn’t be allowed to testify over video feed, an occurrence that is becoming common in trials across the country. The Ukrainian women’s testimony was handled as such for the prosecution (or so I believe), so why not allow the same courtesy to the Defense? Does anyone know the Judge’s reason for changing his mind?
monamontgomery on May 21 at 10:45 a.m.
Why do you think the judge changed his mind? What probably happened is that the defense asked the judge if it was okay with the judge to let the expert testify remotely and the judge said, “It’s okay with me.” Then the prosecution said, “It’s not okay with us” and made a motion, quoting the law and the judge had to rule in favor of the prosecution. The law states that you can only have remote testimony for good cause with safeguards. There were safeguards with Loginovna in the form of a U.S. Attorney being right there to identify her. Also, there was good cause with Loginova because she had subpoenaed and refused to come to the USA (which was her right since the USA had no jurisdiction over her), There was no good cause in the case of Papcun because he was a USA citizen and furthermore, had not been subpoenaed. Also, there was no safeguard in Bora Bora to identify Papcun. I am guess that the prosecution raised these points and judge was forced to rule in favor of the prosecution once the motion was filed with the court.