A long day in court

We began at 8:30 and didn't finish until almost 6:00. Mostly, the time was spent in listening to the prosecutor's lumbering and disorganized cross examination of our expert witnesses. 

The best news came at the end the of the day when our attorney told us he is "thrilled" with where we are.

The prosecutor has tried to divert attention from the issues that we have raised, but we all hope the judge sees through this ploy.

Our forensics expert, a retired detective who used to supervise internal affairs, strongly criticized the treatment of evidence in Todd's case. Called it unprofessional and inexcusable in the strongest terms. At the end of the day, an investigator from the State Attorney General's Office admitted that the knife alleged by the state to have been the murder weapon had been altered while in police custody, and he just didn't know how that could have happened. 

Our legal expert also testified that had the jury been able to hear the full medical story, they'd likely have reached another verdict. The deputy in charge of Todd today, told Todd the this witness was doing a "really good job" for him. We agree with the police on that point!

We expect another full day tomorrow. And the hearing may continue on Thursday.

By the way, today is our granddaughter Maya's 11th birthday. Son Joel's girlfriend, K8t, showed her a good time in Colorado Springs while the rest of the family was at the hearing. Everyone is pulling together and we can't begin to express the gratitude we have for the support we've received from so many wonderful people. 



Throughout the day tomorrow, I'll provide updates on Twitter (http://twitter.com/bnewmiller) and on Facebook (http://facebook.com/newmiller).

Hard Questions for the El Paso County Colorado DA

Although the scope of Todd's 35c hearing, which begins in a few hours, is narrowly focused on on constitutional issues, the citizens of Colorado Springs deserve to know how the DA's Office so badly botched the investigation of a tragic killing. Here are a couple questions I'm sure the DA doesn't want to address:

1. Why did Prosecutor Amy Mullaney rush to cut a deal with Brad Orgill--the only person seen fighting with victim Anthony Madril? Madril, according to witnesses entered into the fight enthusiastically, fought fiercely, and emerged covered in blood and saying, "I just got stabbed." Mullaney cut a deal with Orgill: He would get a few hours of community service in exchange for saying that Todd confessed. The deal was struck before the physical evidence had all been sent to the state crime lab for testing, and long before the Metro Crime Lab did a crime scene analysis.
2. Why did prosecutors let Orgill get away with violating his plea bargain? Only a few months after Mullaney struck the deal with Orgill, a nineteen-year-old woman accused Orgill of rape. Orgill claimed the sex was consensual, and, despite physical evidence, the case never went anywhere. During the investigation, however, Orgill admitted to giving his underage accuser alcohol--a clear violation of his plea agreement, which in addition to community service required that he keep his nose clean. That is, that he commit no infraction more serious than a four-point traffic ticket.

The questions asked here won't be a part of the current hearing because the law sometimes works in curious ways. They are, as Paul Harvey might have said, "The rest of the story."

A day in court--finally

For a long time, I've been silent on this blog. Not because I'd nothing to say, but because we've been working hard behind scenes to advance Todd's case on the legal front. Now, after four and a half years of unjust incarceration, Todd arrived on the eve of a court hearing where we will make our plea that his original trial was deeply flawed and profoundly unfair.

We pray that the judge, who will hear this care, Judge John McMullen, will listen with wisdom and decide rightly that Todd's conviction should be vacated.

Judge McMullen has blocked off three days for the hearing, which begins tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. in the El Paso County Courthouse, Room W450.

As the hearing proceeds, I'll post updates. The blog entries won't come until the end of the day, but as I'm able to, I'll tweet throughout the day during any recesses. You can follow those tweets at http://twitter.com/bnewmiller. They'll also be echoed to my Facebook page, http://facebook.com/newmiller.

Finally, a great big thank you to the many people who have supported Todd and our family throughout the nightmare of his wrongful conviction.