Green Hill School employee Everett Fairchild’s sexual assault case was again dismissed in Lewis County District Court Monday.
After hearing arguments on both sides of a motion to reconsider his dismissal of the case last month, District Court Judge R.W. Buzzard declared again that the “nature and timing” of key motions by the prosecution prejudiced the defense and stripped Fairchild’s right to a speedy trial.
In his argument to the court, Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher — who represented the state for the first time in this case because another deputy prosecutor was “too close to the case” — said a substantial injustice had resulted from the dismissal.
“People charged with crimes have to have their day in court, and so does the court itself,” Meagher said.
Buzzard said he agreed that an injustice had occurred, but that the burden was on the state’s shoulders.
“The state has made no showing of misrepresentation, fraud or misconduct by the defense,” Buzzard said. “The motion for reconsideration is denied.”
Lewis County Prosecutor Michael Golden plans to appeal that decision.
Golden said he will file a motion requesting that a Superior Court judge review Buzzard’s decision, an action he said his office doesn’t take very often.
“But on this one, the materials we filed tell the tale,” Golden said. “We gave this judge an opportunity to review his position, and he chose not to. Hopefully another judge will see (the case) in the same light as the state.”
Golden said key factors in the original dismissal were two witnesses who said they were unavailable because of the prosecution’s forced continuance of the trial. In the motion to reconsider, the prosecutor’s office details reasons why the two may have been available, contrary to the defense’s claims.
But defense attorney Jonathan Meyer said those allegations were false. He said both witnesses knew of the trial and were ready to testify. One of the witnesses, he said, had been served a subpoena but told prosecutors otherwise because he thought the document wasn’t officially served to him.
In court Monday, Meagher requested that one of those witnesses testify as part of his argument for reconsideration. Buzzard denied that request.
Both Meagher and Fairchild denied further comment after the hearing.
Fairchild, 48, was suspected of sexual assault after his alleged victim and Green Hill School co-worker Christy Reed told detectives that he showed her his genitalia and groped her on multiple occasions.
Andy Campbell: (360) 807-8208
Mamasaid
Oh my goodness, Golden, don't you think it is time to put on your big boy pants and admit you didn't do your job? The Fairchild case is pretty cut and dry when you look at the legal documents involved. You have taken money and time away from the people who need it the most. How many children in this county have deadbeat parents who refuse to support and provide for their children? How many of these cases are you aggressively pursuing. When was the last time you took a look at the "cold cases" in this county of the people who have been murdered and their cases still remain unsolved. Do your job for a change!!!
cdc
I am hearing more and more of this sort of behavior out of the prosecutor's office. No evidence, but where there is smoke....
crazytrain
Golden's office messed up again, big shocker to me! When is the public going to stand up against their office's continual waste of taxpayers money while they scramble around filing appeal's on issues that have been settled. How many more thousands of tax dollars is their office going to waste while trying to cover their mismanagement of cases. When is it going to stop??? the biggest drain on our county's budget is when we placed Golden into his position. Hasn't his actions and the actions of those in his office embarrassed this county enough. I sure hope the taxpayers learn that he needs to be removed from office. I noticed that the budget stated that the Prosecutors office would be losing 1.5 positions due to the budget constraints...Why don't we take Golden and O'Rourke out of the office to cover this gap. But other readers can decide which one of these "drains" is only worth the .5. I think the records clearly reflects that this office is out of control! I say ENOUGH!!
Karma
Oh Andy can you ever get it right....the state prosecutors office falsified documents based on hearsay and twisted the statements to try and save face with their gross mismanagement of this case. Golden you take the prize...because with your appeals you are building more case law that will again hold your office accountable for your continual mismanagment of cases. The victim in this cause was very familiar with the Fairchilds and as the documents show was even in their hottub without clothes, as well as MANY other occasions of being overtly flirtacious with Mr. Fairchild. I applaud the prosecutors for their further attempts to exhaust their budget on a political gamehunt against McConnell & Meyers. By the time this appeal process exhausts itself, the county will have a new prosecutor in office and will have wasted thousands of taxpayers dollars on case that should have never been filed in the first place. Maybe Andy, you need to keep digging into the Green Hill matter to get to the "real" issues of injustice and mismanagement that are occuring at a stagerrin rate. Also a side note, if the prosecutors office would have spent a 10th of the amount of time, that they have put into this motion and "actually" interviewed the defenses witnesses, let alone their own NONE of this would have happened as the defense was ready to go to trial, yet the prosecution had not even started reviewing the case. Only when they were held accountable, did it trigger their response in the 11th hour.