{"id":50664,"date":"2020-11-02T20:44:04","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T03:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tempers-flare-at-redwine-trial-over-background-checks-on-potential-jurors\/"},"modified":"2020-11-03T03:44:04","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T03:44:04","slug":"tempers-flare-at-redwine-trial-over-background-checks-on-potential-jurors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tempers-flare-at-redwine-trial-over-background-checks-on-potential-jurors\/","title":{"rendered":"Tempers flare at Redwine trial over background checks on potential jurors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Jury
Jury selection in the trial for Mark Redwine is expected to take seven days to sift through more than 2,600 people to serve on the 12-person jury. This photo was taken Aug. 15, 2017, during an advisement and bail hearing.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The trial for Mark Redwine experienced unexpected drama Friday when attorneys argued over background checks performed on potential jurors.<\/p>\n

Redwine\u2019s trial began Thursday with jury selection<\/a>, a process that is expected to take a week to sift through 2,625 people who were summoned to serve on the 12-person jury with two alternates in the highly publicized case.<\/p>\n

Redwine is accused of killing his 13-year-old son, Dylan, in 2012.<\/p>\n

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, potential jurors are being brought to the courthouse in waves throughout the day.<\/p>\n

At Friday\u2019s 8 a.m. session, Redwine\u2019s public defender, John Moran, raised concerns about a document with background histories of potential jurors he was just provided by prosecutors with the 6th Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

\"John
John Moran, a public defender representing Mark Redwine, during a court hearing Aug. 15, 2017, for Mark Redwine.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Moran said the document included \u201cextremely private information\u201d on 1,094 people who were called for jury duty, such as if the person had a history of child abuse, sex abuse, drug use or had attempted suicide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis rises to the level of outrageous governmental conduct,\u201d Moran said. \u201cIt is illegal for them to have taken this information in the first place \u2026 it is criminal, your honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moran also took issue that it remains unknown how long the District Attorney\u2019s Office had the document before providing it to the defense, which he said gave prosecutors an advantage in court.<\/p>\n

District Judge Jeffery Wilson ended the discussion Friday morning because it was in front of potential jurors. The court reconvened later, outside the presence of potential jurors.<\/p>\n

At that session, as Moran continued with concerns about the document, District Attorney Christian Champagne broke in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese allegations are so outrageous, and so over the top, I can\u2019t hold my tongue your honor,\u201d Champagne said.<\/p>\n

Wilson responded: \u201cWell, you\u2019re going to hold your tongue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"District
District Attorney Christian Champagne during a bail hearing Aug. 15, 2017, in Durango.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When it was his turn to speak, Champagne said the allegations made against the DA\u2019s Office were \u201cwild and reckless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo cast such an aspersion, I think it\u2019s unethical, I think Mr. Moran should be personally sanctioned,\u201d Champagne said. \u201cHe knows better, and \u2026 he\u2019s using this streaming platform to prejudice this community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jury selection is being streamed on a web-based platform.<\/p>\n

Champagne said the La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office, on its own accord and without request from the District Attorney\u2019s Office, conducted the background checks and compiled the document \u201cto be helpful in the jury selection process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were made aware of it, we immediately released (it to the defense),\u201d Champagne said.<\/p>\n

Champagne said the information in the background checks was taken from the \u201cRecord Management Services\u201d program, an internal record-keeping program within the Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong with anything that\u2019s happened by looking at these records and proactively giving it to the defense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Sixth
Sixth District Court Chief Judge Jeffrey R. Wilson, listens during a 2017 hearing for Mark Redwine at the La Plata County Courthouse.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Wilson called the whole matter a \u201cbig ado about next to nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re done for the day on this issue,\u201d he said. \u201cI just don\u2019t see it being an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the court hearing, Moran and Champagne engaged in a heated exchange.<\/p>\n

Moran asked Champagne to name the specific ethical violation he violated, in reference to Champagne\u2019s earlier claim that Moran was possibly in violation of the attorney ethics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m done, I have nothing to say to you. I don\u2019t want to hear you talk,\u201d Champagne responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollow the law,\u201d Moran quipped back.<\/p>\n

Christopher Mueller, a professor at the University of Colorado Law School, who has been teaching law for 50 years, said he\u2019s never heard of a sheriff\u2019s office taking it upon itself to compile background checks on potential jurors, let alone a list of more than 1,000 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s pretty extraordinary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In jury selection, both the prosecution and the defense are looking for people who may be sympathetic to their case, Mueller said. For example: If a juror is married to someone in law enforcement, perhaps that person is more likely to side with the prosecution.<\/p>\n

So, knowing as much as possible about potential jurors is incredibly important, Mueller said, and attorneys will even go so far as to pay private companies to look for as much information as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth sides would love to know about the history of anyone on the jury,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Still, Mueller said it\u2019s unusual for a sheriff\u2019s office to do its own research, and he questioned the exact contents of the information on the background checks, and whether it was more slanted to help the prosecution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the defense does have something powerful to complain about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The document is not available to the public. Sheriff Sean Smith referred all questions to La Plata County spokeswoman Megan Graham, who declined to comment about specifics of the situation, saying it could impact the trial.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, background checks on potential jurors are not illegal, Mueller said, and Friday\u2019s flare-up at trial was likely the defense trying to make noise and claim something was done wrong in the process to garner sympathy.<\/p>\n

Mueller said defense attorneys are always looking for ways to detract from a case or cause a mistrial, because the more expensive you can make it for prosecutors, the more likely you are to reach a favorable plea deal or compromise.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything a defense can do to throw a monkey wrench in a proceeding going forward, they\u2019re going to do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear if the issue in the Redwine trial will go any further. No formal motions were filed as of Friday afternoon. Champagne and Wilson both declined to comment.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attorneys engage in heated exchange<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1078,133,519,28,4531,29,4259],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-6th-judicial-district","tag-courts","tag-dylan-redwine","tag-headlines","tag-mark-redwine","tag-newsletter","tag-newsletter-sign-up"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50664"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}