Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Judge denies prosecution’s request to postpone Stinson trial

This from C-J:

A Jefferson circuit judge on Tuesday denied a request from prosecutors for a continuance in the trial of former Pleasure Ridge Park football coach Jason Stinson, saying that both sides have long known that “barring something cataclysmic,” the trial would start this week.

The Commonwealth Attorney’s office sought the delay after Judge Susan Schultz Gibson barred about 1,500 pages of evidence late Monday, saying it had been turned over to defense attorneys too late.

“Things we need to make our case are being excluded,” Jon Heck, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney, told Gibson Tuesday. “… Do we want to do this quick or do we want to do this right?”

Stinson is charged with reckless homicide and wanton endangerment in the heat-stroke death of PRP sophomore lineman Max Gilpin after he collapsed at an Aug. 20, 2008, practice.

Heck told Gibson that the evidence being excluded contained important pediatric and prescription records for the 15-year-old, who died Aug. 23 after his body temperature reached 107 degrees.

But Gibson declined to revisit her ruling or allow a postponement, which Stinson’s attorneys had fought...

Turns out Stinson's attorney, Alex Dathorne, is a family hero of ours. A decade or so ago, Dathorne was a prosecutor in Lexington. We had an incident involving one of our daughters being stalked, along with other neighborhood children near Morton Middle School, by a 25-year old Iraqi national. At one point he held a knife to his throat and threatened to kill himself if our daughter didn't agree to become his girlfriend. In another instance, he offered one of the boys $50 for sex. Alex made him go bye bye for a year.

Now Dathorne appears to be kicking some prosecutorial butt in the Stinson trial.

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