No material from convicted killer Shellye Stark's former lawyer's files will go to prosecutors seeking a murder conviction against her married boyfriend  because the material could be critical to Stark's appeal, a judge ruled today.

Spokane County Superior Judge Ellen Kalama Clark dodged a legal debate posed by state appeals lawyer Gregory Link and Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Larry Haskell when she declined to quash a subpoena that she herself had granted two weeks ago.

Instead of addressing the legality of the subpoena, she said she was quashing the subpoena because she'd seen the materials and had decided they couldn't be used.

In her decision June 22, Clark had said she would sort through Russell Bradshaw's files to see if there was information pertaining to Moore and private investigator Ted Pulver, the key witness in the case against Moore. Neither Haskell nor LInks has seen the material.

"I have an advantage over you gentlemen," Clark said to Haskell and Links Thursday. "I have that infomation."

By deeming all of the material too sensitive to Stark's case to disclose, Clark avoided a legal debate about, essentially, a decision she'd already made -  whether material in one defendant's case could be used in another's.

She told the attorneys of her decisions after the debate because, "I wanted to hear what you had to say." (Read a blog post about the legal filings here.)

Haskell said he believe the state's case against Moore,  who's accused of helping Stark with a plot to kill her husband, then of concocting a sordid tale of abuse to dupe police into thinking the killing was in self defense.

"It's not helpful, but it is what it is," Haskell said. "I think he still have a case."

Moore, who was arrested in Orange County April 27 in a story you can can read here, appeared in court with Link (Stark's appellate attorney), and Moore's public defender, Jeff Compton.

"Excellent job," Moore told the lawyers after the hearing.

His trial is set for Oct. 26. 

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