Megan Martzen: Mistrial aftermath; Babysitter had been charged with murdering a 17-month old child. Next hearing set for March 28, 2013. Reedley Exponent;

STORY: "Martzen hearing postponed," by reporter Jodie Reyna, published in the Reedley Exponent on March 7, 2013.

GIST:  "A court hearing on the future of the Megan Martzen murder case was postponed on Thursday, March 7, until March 28. Prosecutor Jeff Dupras said on Thursday that he hadn't had time to give the case the attention it deserves because he's been in another trial that just concluded. Dupras also said he hadn't had time to talk with defense attorney Jeff Hammerschmidt. The big question is whether the Fresno County District  Attorney's Office intends to retry Martzen on murder charges in connection with the February 2009 death of 17-month-old Ella Van Leeuwen. Martzen's first trial ended on Feb. 14 with a mistrial because the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. The jury voted 10-2 for not guilty on the charge of murder, 8-4 for not guilty on the charge of child abuse causing death and 6-6 on an involuntary manslaughter charge. At that time, Dupras said the DA's Office intended to retry the case. Whether that is still the DA's intention is not known. Repeated calls from The Exponent to the DA's Office in the last week have not been returned.

The entire story can be found at 

http://www.reedleyexponent.com/articles/2013/03/07/news/doc5138be844943f560771509.txt

See previous post: "Report on mistrial probes meaning of jury's verdict."

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2013/02/megan-martzen-report-on-mistrial-probes.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.