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Boat-Crash Trial Likely to Stay Put

August 26, 2008 - PORTLAND -- When Peter DeTroy was defending a murder suspect in Rockland in the mid-1970s, he asked the judge to move the trial out of Knox County because of the wave of publicity surrounding the case.

Most of the first 80 citizens brought in for the jury pool had strong negative opinions about the defendant. So the judge ordered court officers to bring in more people off the street, DeTroy said.

"I didn't think we could find a jury that would be impartial," the Portland lawyer said. "The judge said, 'I bet I can,' and he was right."

His client was convicted, but DeTroy felt the man received a fair hearing in Rockland, and he respected the judge's decision.

It's one example of how difficult it is for a defense lawyer to get a trial moved to another county in Maine, using the argument that sensational media coverage has irreversibly tainted the jury pool.

And lawyers say it's even more difficult to get those motions granted in Cumberland County than in the state's rural counties. That's because the relatively large population usually makes it easier to find unbiased jurors.

"It does happen. And there are sometimes very good reasons for that to happen," DeTroy said. But "those are long-shot motions."

Boston lawyers J. Albert Johnson and George Hassett, along with Portland lawyer Neale Duffett, are the latest defense team in Maine to make the attempt. Last month they filed a motion that asks Justice Robert Crowley to move the manslaughter trial of Robert LaPointe out of Cumberland County Superior Court.

LaPointe, 39, of Medway, Mass., faces manslaughter and other charges stemming from a fatal boat crash on Aug. 11, 2007, on Long Lake in Harrison. Prosecutors say LaPointe was legally drunk and going too fast when his 32-foot Sunsation Dominator ran over a 14-foot boat. Terry Raye Trott of Naples and Suzanne Groetzinger of Berwick were killed.

LaPointe's attorneys are expected to argue at trial that the blood test given to LaPointe was not reliable and that Trott was operating his boat without lights.

LaPointe's attorneys say media coverage of the crash and the ensuing criminal and civil cases have created a "climate of hostility" toward their client. They presented Crowley dozens of pages of press reports, ranging from Portland Press Herald articles to a feature story that appeared in Portland Magazine.

The trial, which could last two weeks or longer, is scheduled to begin Sept. 8, barring a last-minute plea deal.

At a court hearing this month, Crowley said he will wait to make a decision about whether to move the trial until the lawyers on both sides begin questioning the pool of potential jurors. At that point, Crowley said, he will be able to review all of the pretrial media coverage, and he'll gauge its impact on potential jurors.

DeTroy and other longtime Portland lawyers cannot recall a trial – at least during the past few decades – having been moved out of Cumberland County Superior Court based on a change of venue request.

"It's very unusual to move a case without at least trying to find a jury," said Joel Vincent, who began representing clients in criminal cases in 1987. "There have been some high-profile cases, but I don't remember any of them being moved."

Thomas Humphrey, chief justice of Maine's superior courts, said change of venue requests are not granted often. Judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers usually find enough impartial citizens during jury selection, he said.

There is a common misunderstanding among the public that a potential juror will be ruled out simply for having read newspaper articles or having seen television reports about the case, the chief justice said.

Instead, the standard is whether that person has formed an opinion about the defendant's innocence or guilt. People with opinions are weeded out. But citizens who tell the judge they can be impartial – even if they have knowledge about the charges – can still make the cut.

"It's not an exact science," Humphrey said of the judge's decision to move a trial or keep it in the county where the charges originated.

Another factor that has probably kept down the number of cases that have been moved from Cumberland County, Humphrey and DeTroy said, is the area's population. It's generally easier to find a pool of impartial jurors in Portland, they said, than in sparsely populated areas such as Dover-Foxcroft.

There are several examples of trials changing venue from rural Maine counties in the past few decades.

In 1999, Superior Court Justice Margaret Kravchuk granted the defense's motion to move the manslaughter trial of Thomas St. Yves out of Washington County. St. Yves was accused of causing the death of his infant daughter and hiding her body in a cardboard box.

At the court in Calais, most of the potential jurors had opinions about the case, and some said they knew one or more of the parties involved. The trial was moved to Sagadahoc County, where St. Yves was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Michael Thompson's trial for the beating, stabbing and robbery of an elderly Canadian tourist was moved from Somerset County to Piscataquis County in 1997. As part of his motion, Thompson's attorney, Dale Thistle of Newport, argued that a newspaper article published on the eve of the trial was "inflammatory and prejudicial."

Thompson was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison, when Kravchuk applied a rarely used law allowing her to double the maximum sentence because of the heinous nature of the crime.

Earlier this year, Superior Court Justice Joseph Jabar granted a motion filed by Augusta lawyer Walt McKee, moving a trial from Somerset County to Kennebec County. The state Attorney General's Office did not oppose the move.

McKee represented former Skowhegan police officer Deane Tracy. Tracy and his wife, Sarah Tracy, were charged with marking a bill of sale for a Mercedes-Benz "paid in full" when they allegedly still owed $2,500.

Sarah Tracy had been in the news for a felony theft conviction in 2004, stemming from the embezzlement of more than $30,000 from a nonprofit housing agency. McKee argued that the couple could not get a fair trial in Somerset County. The trial is scheduled for this fall, but McKee no longer represents Tracy.

Justice Crowley also has approved at least one change of venue motion before. In 1994, he agreed that the attempted murder trial of Jonathan M. Johnson should be heard outside of Franklin County because of pretrial publicity.

Johnson, of Jay, was accused of trying to set off a bomb in his father's car. He eventually pleaded guilty in Androscoggin County Superior Court and was sentenced to a year in jail for reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon.

By TREVOR MAXWELL, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, August 25, 2008


Lakes: Long Lake
Regions: Sebago


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