Associate Circuit Court Judge John LePage, who earlier allowed Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church leaders charged with felony sex crimes involving children out on bond with no restrictions about contact with children, has now ordered the prosecuting attorney's office to provide its evidence to the defense even before the preliminary hearing:
Under the order, Geeding's office must also present the names and last known addresses of any witnesses they plan to call as witnesses “at any hearing or trial, together with the written or recorded statements and existing memoranda, reporting and summarizing all or part of their oral statements.” The office must also provide any written or recorded statements made by the defendants, a list of all witnesses to the making, and a list of all witnesses to the acknowledgment of such statements and the last known addresses of such witnesses.
In a situation such as this, people who have indicated they left the compound to get away from the defendants will now have their addresses provided to the defendants. At some point, the information would had to have been provided to attorney Robert Evenson, who is defending Rev. Raymond Lambert, his wife, Patty Lambert, and her brothers (and his stepbrothers) Paul and Tom Epling, but that usually does not happen until a case has progressed a bit further, reporter John Ford's story indicates. With the preliminary hearing still nearly three weeks away, it will be interesting to see if the prospective witnesses receive any unexpected visitors.
That is very disturbing. I think the victims need to be protected...that's just crazy.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if I could let victims keep some of their things at my house and use my address as their last known address. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder people don't trust the system. The people running this show seem incompetent.