The defense attorney for alleged ‘Craigslist killer’ Philip Markoff accused the district attorney’s office in Suffolk County Superior Court Tuesday of inappropriately leaking information to the media, suggesting their actions ‘tainted’ the grand jury process.
Markoff’s attorney John Salsberg argued that releasing information to the media and the ensuing exposure of ‘extraneous information’ to the grand jury interfered with Thursday’s seven-count indictment, which charged Markoff, a Boston University School of Medicine second-year student, with the April 14 murder of a 25-year-old New York masseuse he allegedly met on Craigslist.
Judge Frank Gaziano has not yet decided whether he will allow Salsberg’s motion, which requests the examination of the grand jury process, as well as the district attorney’s office’s written response to nine questions regarding the prosecutors’ efforts to ensure jurors were not receiving confidential information.
‘Will Mr. Markoff have the opportunity to have a selection of jurors who haven’t been exposed to this publicity?’ Salsberg asked in court.
Salsberg filed a total of four motions Tuesday, including a motion to bar public access to the prosecution’s list of evidence against Markoff, which Gaziano dismissed. Gaziano did allow Salsberg’s motion to preserve evidence, which would ensure that no evidence is destroyed or discarded, and also allowed a motion to prevent Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley from filing a case summary to the court.
Markoff, 23, who waived his right to appear at the hearing, faces charges of first-degree murder in the killing of Julissa Brisman at the Boston Marriott Copley Place Hotel, and the April 10 armed robbery and kidnapping of 29-year-old Trisha Leffler at the Westin Copley Place. He is also charged in an arrest warrant with attempting to rob a prostitute April 16 at a Warwick, R.I. hotel.
In response to Salsberg’s accusations, Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Edmond Zabin said the district attorney’s office did not share any such information with the press, despite some anonymous sources, who discussed the case in the media, suggesting otherwise. Zabin said those sources were incorrect.
Zabin said ‘no steps were taken’ to prevent the grand jurors from accessing news, but pointed out that the required precautions taken for grand jurors and trial jurors are different. Grand jurors determine if there is enough probable cause against a defendant to move to trial; whereas, trial jurors determine if the defendant is guilty.
‘[There’s] no way to prevent the grand jury from reading the newspaper,’ Zabin said. ‘No practical way of telling them not to read media reports.’
Markoff’s trial is scheduled to begin in June 2010. Three more pretrial hearings are set for August and December of this year, and May 2010.
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