Thursday, July 9, 2015

Bulletin: Keith Kutska;; Wisconsin; (Tom Monfils murder case); His ex-wife testifies that 2 key witnesses lied - and an expert witness testifies that " "from the standpoint that I'm aware of that no trial lawyer sought help from an expert pathologist, my judgment is that would make them deficient." Hearing put over to July 22; Green Bay Press Gazette;

"Two key witnesses in the state's Tom Monfils murder case lied on the witness stand 20 years ago, the ex-wife of key defendant Keith Kutska testified Wednesday. Ardis Kutska was the fifth and last witnesses to testify in the first of three days of hearings to determine if Keith Kutska will have a new trial. Kutska, 64, and four others are serving life sentences for Monfils' death. Monfils, 35, was found in 1992 in a pulp vat at the former James River mill with a 50-pound weight tied to his neck. Kutska is serving his life term in Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage. He is arguing his 1995 conviction was unfair because evidence suggesting that Monfils may have committed suicide wasn't presented at his trial in Brown County Circuit Court.........Defense lawyers also called Madison lawyer Stephen Glynn as an expert witness. Glynn testified that any lawyer who failed to get an expert forensic pathologist to review Young's findings was deficient. Special prosecutor Larry Lasee, who was co-prosecutor in the original trial, asked whether that deficiency label must therefore be applied to the nearly 20 lawyers who represented all of the defendants at the trial and all subsequent appeals over the last 20 years. In addition to Kutska, Michael Hirn, 55, Dale Basten, 74, Michael Johnson, 67, Rey Moore, 68, and Michael Piaskowski, 66, were convicted in a single trial of conspiring to murder Monfils. Piaskowski was released from prison in 2001 when a federal appeals judge ruled there was insufficient evidence against him. Glynn said he hadn't reviewed the work of all the lawyers in the case, but "from the standpoint that I'm aware of that no trial lawyer sought help from an expert pathologist, my judgment is that would make them deficient." Retired Outagamie County Judge James Bayorgeon, who heard the original case, is presiding over Kutska's hearing, which is expected to run through Friday. The hearing will resume for a day on July 22 to accommodate the schedule of retired detective Randy Winkler, who was unavailable to testify this week."
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/local/2015/07/08/expert-cause-tom-monfils-death-unclear/29862945/