September 9, 2011 in Idaho

ISP concludes Rice did not lie in road rage death

The Idaho State Police says its top accident reconstruction expert did not lie on the witness stand in a fatal road rage case that sent a Hayden man to prison for 25 years, even though the Idaho Supreme Court indicated the police official did give false testimony.

ISP officials today released results of their internal investigation into testimony provided by Cpl. Fred Rice, a 28-year agency veteran. Rice was put on paid administrative leave in June after the Supreme Court suggested he perjured himself in the second-degree murder case of Jonathan Wade Ellington, 50.

The justices overturned and ordered a new trial for Ellington, who was convicted for running over a woman during a New Year’s Day 2006 encounter on a Kootenai County highway.

“The investigation is now complete and utilizing all the information available to me I have determined that Master Corporal Rice did not lie during any of the testimony in question,” Colonel G. Jerry Russell said today in a prepared statement.

Russell said his conclusion is based on information Supreme Court justices reviewed “as well as additional facts they did not have to make their decision. I want to reiterate that the ISP internal investigation provided me with additional facts concerning this matter that the justices were not aware of at the time of their decision.”

Ellington was serving a 25-year prison sentence when the court overturned his convictions in May because of what justices said was false testimony by Rice, as well prosecutorial misconduct.

Rice has been on paid administrative leave pending an internal investigation. Russell said Rice “will shortly be back to serving Idaho with ISP in a full duty capacity.”

He also stated, “It is my responsibility as the ISP Colonel to ensure our standards are being met and hold those employees accountable when they fail to do so. It is also my responsibility to stand behind our employees when they did not error so both our employees and the citizens of Idaho can continue to have confidence in their Idaho State Police.”

Russell refused to answer questions on his statement today.

Ellington faces a second trial, set to begin in November, on aggravated assault and second-degree murder charges for the death of Vonette Lee Larsen, 41. Larsen was run over by Ellington after a chase north of Coeur d’Alene that included her husband, Joel Larsen, firing a rifle at Ellington before the fatal incident.

The state Supreme Court ruled Rice offered false testimony about average perception and reaction times, as well as the use of crash debris to determine a point of impact, that contradicted his testimony in previous cases. Had jurors known of the contradiction, they “would have been presented with a very different picture of what was already a very close case,” according to the ruling.

The ruling says it is “impossible to believe there was any truth to the testimony of Cpl. Rice.”

Ellington’s lawyer, Kootenai County deputy public defender Anne Taylor, has asked for his client’s charges to be dismissed because of double jeopardy, saying a new trial “would be the result of outrageous government conduct and therefore would violate Mr. Ellington’s due process rights under the Idaho and Federal Constitution.”

Prosecutors said during the first trial that Ellington purposely rammed a car driven by Larsen’s daughters because he was angry at them for pursuing him, and then ran over Vonette Larsen. Defense attorneys, however, said when Ellington hit Vonette Larsen, he was fleeing for his life after the pursuit and after being shot at by her husband, Joel Larsen.

Nine comments on this story so far. Add yours!

Squid on September 09 at 1:41 p.m.
And the cancer spreads. More incentive for misconduct, because there are no consequences.
R24 on September 09 at 1:48 p.m.
@Squid There’s really no reason to make negative comments about things when you don’t have all the information on the matter. Leave it to the people in the know.
Squid on September 09 at 1:56 p.m.
You mean, like the Supreme Court?
Squid on September 09 at 2:03 p.m.
Are you the R24 refrigerant, sent in to cool things down when it gets hot, or the R24 insulation, sent in to keep the bad weather out? Either way… good name.
Charlie on September 09 at 2:52 p.m.
Why didn’t somebody outside ISP do the audit on Cpl. Rices testimony? Seems to be like SPD giving itself a clean bill of health on the Zehm case, just sayin.
PlanB on September 09 at 3:13 p.m.
Good one ISP. Great investigation. Another shining moment for law enforcement.
I really don’t know enough to say if Ellington is guilty or not, but you can’t convict someone when the “experts” aren’t consistent and have no real evidence to back up their testimony. Being a 28 year veteran in law enforcement doesn’t make Rice anything. Does he have an engineering degree? Is he educated in physics and vehicle dynamics?
Diana on September 09 at 3:18 p.m.
Didn’t see this one coming.
SpokaneLiberal on September 09 at 4:18 p.m.
So they think clearing a guy who the Supreme Court said was a liar will re-establish faith in the ISP? Oh yes and it is based on “new” evidence that only the investigator but not the Highest Court in Idaho has access to. What is this evidence? Its a secret.
A plain reading of his two testimonies are in direct contradiction. No new evidence can lead to any conclusion other than one of the two times he lied to secure a conviction.
No wonder we have lost faith in law enforcement.
dkerns on September 09 at 7:02 p.m.
Why can’t people just accept that the police investigated the police, found that the police were clean and told the police so.
What’s wrong with people???