Tuesday, January 17, 2006

ONGOING COVERAGE: GROENE INVESTIGATION

Prosecutor says Shasta shouldn't face Duncan

Douglas wants Duncan out of courtroom if she testifies

Taryn Brodwater
Staff writer
January 12, 2006

Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas is asking that Shasta Groene be allowed to testify against Joseph Duncan without facing the accused killer in a courtroom.

The girl, now 9, is the lone survivor of an attack last May in which her mother, 13-year-old brother and her mother's boyfriend were bludgeoned to death. She allegedly was taken from the scene by Duncan, along with her brother, Dylan, and held at a remote Montana campsite for weeks.

Federal charges for the kidnapping of the youngest Groene children and for 9-year-old Dylan's death have yet to be filed against Duncan. The Idaho U.S. Attorney's office has said Duncan may face several felony charges related to the crimes, including production of child pornography.

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Douglas' request that Shasta Groene be spared the trauma of testifying in front of her alleged captor was one of several motions the prosecutor filed in the past week. The prosecutor filed the motions directly with 1st District Judge Fred Gibler in Shoshone County and not with the district court's records department, in what he said was an attempt to "keep things low key."

"I'm trying not to turn everything I do into a headline," Douglas said Wednesday.

The five motions that Douglas filed were made part of the public record following a formal request The Spokesman-Review sent the judge. Following the release, Douglas said he filed the motions with the judge simply as a matter of convenience.

"It's customary when you have an out-of-town judge presiding on a case to file with the judge's out-of-town chambers to give earliest notification to the judge," Douglas said Wednesday, adding that next Tuesday's deadline for pretrial motions made time of the essence.

The trial is set to begin April 4.

Douglas declined to comment on the motions he filed, saying that "for the time being they are just going to have to speak for themselves." Public Defender John Adams also declined to comment, saying that his office planned to file responses to Douglas' motions next week.

Douglas is asking, in separate motions, that the court allow individual questioning of prospective jurors and allow the jury to visit the white cinderblock home in Wolf Lodge where the bodies of Brenda Groene, Slade Groene and Mark McKenzie were discovered.

The prosecutor also filed a motion to compel discovery, saying that Duncan's public defenders haven't disclosed the names of witnesses and expert witnesses or provided facts or information that expert witnesses may use to form their opinions.

Douglas also moved to introduce, under seal, evidence of other crimes or acts Duncan may have committed. If the judge agrees, the information would not be made public. According to the Idaho Rules of Evidence, evidence of prior crimes is not admissible if used to show that the accused may have acted in a similar manner in the case at hand.

But the information may be admissible if used to establish a motive or show that the suspect had the intent or opportunity to commit a crime. The rules say the prosecution must notify the defendant's attorneys well ahead of trial that it intends to introduce the evidence at trial.

According to the motion Douglas filed, Adams agreed in a telephone conversation that he would not object to the prosecutor's motion to introduce the evidence under seal.

Hearings on the motions Douglas filed have yet to be scheduled.