[Vision2020] The High road

[Ted Moffett]

Bruce et. al.

Thanks for this information you describe below, with your links to more
info.  Abuse of power by law enforcement or the legal profession to the
extent alleged in the information you posted, is an attack upon the
fundamental integrity of our system of justice.  As it has been said, when
the law becomes a law breaker, there is no law.

I'm glad there are those in the legal profession such as you acting as
watchdogs!

Ted Moffett


On 4/21/07, jeanlivingston <jeanlivingston at turbonet.com> wrote:
>
> For an article on something much closer to home that involves either
> prosecutorial misconduct or police misconduct or both, in an Idaho murder
> case that appears to be yet another instance of the conviction of an
> innocent man, see the following news story from today's papers, also
> reprinted below my signature.
>
>
> http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/ID_ASHTON_MURDER_IDOL-?SITE=IDMOS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
>
> I have also provided a link to the stunning oral argument in which a panel
> of the US Court of appeals for the Ninth Circuit, including the brilliant,
> conservative, United States Court of Appeals Judge for the Ninth Circuit,
> Judge Alexander Kozinski, takes the Idaho Deputy Attorney General to task
> for even appealing the federal district judge's decision that a likely
> innocent man was convicted based on evidence altered by the State.  The case
> is Grube v. Blades.  If you go to the following link on the Ninth Circuit
> web site:
>
> http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/media.nsf/Media+Search?OpenForm&Seq=1
>
> and then plug in the case number:  06-35132
>
> you will be taken to a tape of the oral argument which took place on
> Thursday April 12, 2007.
>
> In the Grube v Blades argument, Judge Kozinski references the Duke
> lacrosse case and the NC Attorney General's determination of innocence in
> that case one day earlier.  Judge Kozinski also tells the Idaho
> Deputy Attorney General, arguing on behalf of the State, to inform Attorney
> General Wasden that Wasden's credibility in all cases from Idaho
> was diminished in the Ninth Circuit for even pursuing th! e case, and that
> if the Idaho Attorney General did not "do the right thing" and dismiss the
> appeal within one week, an opinion would be issued and the Ninth
> Circuit would "pull no punches."
>
> In today's papers, wire service articles announced that the Idaho Attorney
> General dismissed the appeal of the Grube case, though the State is
> insisting on putting Mr. Grube through another trial, rather than
> investigate the apparently criminal activity of those who altered the
> evidence in a way that hid the apparent involvement of the more likely
> suspect in the murder, one of the police themselves.
>
> Idaho Federal District Judge Winmill's thoughtful and detailed opinion
> granting a new trial in Grube v. Klauser, no. 1:01-cv-00357-BLW, may be
> found here:
>
> http://www.id.uscourts.gov/dc_decisions.htm
>
> but registration is required to obtain the 59 page opinion.  I will be
> happy to provide a pdf copy off-list to any that are interested in reading
> it.
>
> Bruce Livingston
>
>  Apr 20, 9:12 PM EDT
>
>
>
> *Idaho AG: Grube should be retried in '83 slaying
>
> *
>
>   IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) -- Th! e state attorney general's office says a
> man convicted in the 1983 slaying of a 15-year-old girl, but set free on
> bond after a judge found problems with the original prosecution, should be
> retried.
>
>
>
> Rauland J. Grube was convicted of first-degree murder in 7th District
> Court and sentenced to life in prison in 1991 in the slaying of Amy Hossner.
>
>
>
>
> In June 1983, the girl was found dead in her bed from a shotgun blast
> fired through the window of her basement bedroom in Ashton in eastern Idaho.
>
>
>
>
> In 2006, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ordered that Grube be
> released or get a new trial after Winmill determined investigators had
> withheld a key witness at trial and that police logs had been tampered with.
>
>
>
>
> The attorney general's office appealed the order for a new trial, but was
> rebuked earlier this week by another federal judge.
>
>  Alex Kozinsky, who serves on a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit
> Court of Appeals in Seattle, said Grube would likely be acquitted if he were
> tried again.  Kozinsky also said that Idaho Attorney General Lawrence
> Wasden might instead consider prosecuting the people who handed in tainted
> evidence "instead of holding onto a conviction that is incredibly thin on
> the facts and undermined by just unspeakable misconduct."
>
>
>
> Wasden's office disagreed.  "We have carefully reviewed the entire case!
> and determined the proper course of action is to retry Rauland Grube," Bob
> Cooper, Wasden's spokesman, told the Post Register on Thursday.
>
>
>
> Grube has been free on $250,000 bond and has lived in eastern Idaho since
> the spring of 2006.
>
>
>
> "Now that the case has been remanded back, my client is entitled to the
> presumption of innocence that every citizen enjoys," said Grube's attorney,
> Greg Moeller of Rexburg.  "A retrial! will be quite different from the
> first trial, given the suppressed evidence we now possess and the new
> scientific evidence now available. We are prepared to vigorously defend
> him."
>
>
>
> In 1991, prosecutors focused on forensic analysis of lead shotgun pellets
> in Hossner's body that were compared with pellets in shells found in Grube's
> garage.  Prosecutors also said a mark on a shotgun barrel was made when it
> hit the window frame of Hossner's bedroom after being fired.  Winmill said
> the ballistic evidence has since been disavowed by the FBI.
>
>
>
> Grube's appeal focused in part on evidence that a key witness had not been
> disclosed to defense lawyers.
>
>
>
> In 1994, Lynn Gifford approached defense lawyers and told them he had
> informed investigators in 1991 that he had reported seeing a local police
> officer - an early suspect in the crime - driving a patrol car within a few
> blocks of the Hossner home about 2:30 a.m. on the night of the slaying.  None
> of what Gifford told defense lawyers had been disclosed by prosecutors, so
> Grube filed a request for a new trial because of that alleged denial of due
> process and because Gifford's information led to the discovery tha! t Ashton
> police logs for the night of the slaying appeared to have been altered.  "Not
> only were they altered, they were altered by the police, including the one
> who was the other suspect," Moeller told The Associated Press on Friday.
>
>
>
> According to Winmill's 2006 ruling concerning the police logs, "police
> officers actually manufactured false evidence and submitted it to Grube's
> attorneys as true evidence."  Those alterations, Winmill said, included
> changing the number of miles traveled and inserting a false time on the log
> at a later date.
>
>
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