STORY: "Montana Innocence Project pursuing new trial for Stevensville woman," by reporter Dillon Kato, published by The Missoulian on October 29, 2016.
GIST: "It’s been a busy year for the Montana Innocence Project. Richard Raugust, who faced life in prison for the 1997 murder of a Trout Creek man, was released late last year through work by the nonprofit, which focuses on exonerating prisoners they believe are innocent. Rather than retry him, the Sanders County Attorney’s Office dismissed the case last month, making Raugust a free man.
Last
fall, the cases of Robert Wilkes, convicted of shaking his 3-month-old
child to death, and Cody Marble, convicted in the 2002 rape of a boy in
juvenile detention, were sent back to district court by the Montana
Supreme Court for further review. And
the Innocence Project played a supporting role in the homicide case of
Barry Beach, who was granted clemency by Governor Steve Bullock last
November. Now, the Innocence
Project is readying for its next court fight: getting a new trial for
Katie Irene Garding, the Stevensville woman sentenced to 40 years in
prison after being convicted of the New Year’s Day 2008 vehicular
homicide of Bronson Parsons in East Missoula..........Parsons,
25, had been walking along Montana Highway 200 with his roommate when a
vehicle swerved to the side of the road, killing him. Both Garding and
her ex-boyfriend James Bordeaux had been drinking that day, and were on the road that night, but since the incident she has denied hitting anything. Almost
a year after the incident, a Missoula County jail inmate said Garding
had gone to his house the day Parsons was killed to have him repair a
broken fog lamp on her car, saying she hit a deer. No
charges were filed in the case until Bordeaux, who was also in custody
at the Missoula County jail, said Garding had hit something that night.
In exchange for testimony at her trial, Bordeaux was given a plea
agreement for a five-year suspended sentence on his burglary charge,
according to the Innocence Project’s court filings. The
Montana Innocence Project has put forth newly developed crash
reconstructions and expert testimony as evidence it believes the court
needs to consider in deciding whether to overturn Garding’s conviction.
It contends the evidence shows in part that her SUV should have
sustained more damage from such an impact, and that Parsons’ injuries
would more likely have been caused by another vehicle. The
petition also argues prosecutors violated a court order to provide all
evidence to the defense, and that Garding received ineffective counsel
from her public defense attorney, Jennifer Streano, who did not conduct a
crash reconstruction to refute the prosecution's narrative. In
June, Deputy County Attorney Jennifer Clark wrote the response brief
for the state, disputing the Montana Innocence Project's three primary
claims. Clark said the
prosecution did not attempt to hide evidence in the case – specifically
the X-rays done on Parsons' body – adding that those X-rays were in the
possession of the Montana State Crime Lab, which her office doesn’t
control. The X-rays, she said, were also referenced in the reports by
expert witnesses, and Garding’s defense would have known about them and
could have asked for them if necessary. Larry
Mansch of the Montana Innocence Project, in a reply brief issued in
September, disagreed, saying the crime lab falls under the control of
the Montana Department of Justice and should have fully complied with a
court order to produce evidence in the case. Mansch and his agency
believe their expert witness would have reached different conclusions
and offered different testimony had he seen the X-rays.
Clark also denied a claim that Streano's defense was deficient."........Both
sides have asked for a hearing so a Missoula County District Court
judge can make a ruling on whether Garding deserves a new trial. No date
for such a hearing has been set."
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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/
