Gordon Lee trial ends in mistrial
Straight from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund:
The case against Gordon Lee took another in an ongoing series of bizarre turns this afternoon when statements made by State prosecutor John Tully during opening arguments led to a mistrial.
Lee and his legal team, paid for by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, appeared in court this morning for jury selection and returned in the afternoon to begin the actual trial. Before the jury was brought in to begin the trial, lead counsel Alan Begner argued an oral motion in limine asking the judge to instruct prosecutors that they could not admit statements from their witnesses alluding to Lee’s character and previous legal actions Lee has been party to. Prosecutors assured the court that they had instructed their witnesses not to address Lee’s previous conviction for selling adult comics to an adult. Then during opening statements in front of the jury, prosecutor Tully said witnesses will testify that Gordon was defensive and that Gordon had told police, “I’ve been through this before,” a clear reversal of his earlier statement to the judge that prosecutors would not be entering such statements into the record.
When Tully made his statement, defense counsel stared at each other in disbelief before Begner leapt up to demand a mistrial. Judge Larry Salmon put his head in his hands and called a 15 minute recess.
Upon returning to the courtroom, as a result of Tully’s statement, Salmon declared a mistrial, because the statements alluding to the prior incident contaminated the jury beyond repair for a fair trial.
“This is a victory, but we wish it was over,” said CBLDF lead counsel Alan Begner. “We believe that prosecutors induced this mistrial on purpose, because we had a jury that looked more defense oriented. We’re prepared to quickly file a motion to argue that no new trial should be scheduled because this mistrial was intentional and constitutes prosecutorial misconduct.”
Begner adds, “Time and again we’ve been here and have been told to go home because of the prosecutors’ actions. Meanwhile, it’s Gordon who suffers. It’s been three years since this case began, and for three years Gordon has had this hanging over his head. Today his good name is still not cleared.”
Lee’s trial comes after three years of legal action arising from the Halloween 2004 distribution of Alternative Comics #2, a Free Comic Book Day sampler which featured an excerpt from the critically acclaimed graphic novel The Salon that depicted Pablo Picasso in the nude, and was allegedly handed to a minor. The CBLDF has spent over $80,000 on Lee’s defense since taking the case in early 2005, and expects costs to reach six figures by the end of the trial. The case has been ready for trial three times – the first, in April of 2006, when prosecutors dismissed and re-filed the charges because their facts were wrong; the second last August when the judge’s illness led to a rescheduling; and today when statements made by the prosecutor led to a mistrial. To date the Fund has spent over $80,000 on the defense.
“Never in the Fund’s history have we seen prosecutorial conduct of this nature,” says CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein. “We’re dumbfounded by prosecutors assuring the court that they weren’t going to do something, and then doing exactly that thing five minutes later. Every step of the way they have been adding further expense to Lee’s defense, first by changing their facts, then by entering new indictment after new indictment, and today by contaminating the jury. Nobody, especially a small retailer, can bear this kind of expense on their own. Today’s action is clear evidence of why the Fund needs to be around to protect comics.”
The next step for the case is uncertain, but could see trial again in 2008.
Man, I really hope that the CBLDF goes after the state for attorney fees. No, the case isn’t quite there yet, but this has gone beyond ridiculous and is heading for bugfuck.
Repeating a post i made to Peter David's Blog:The Gordon Lee case is disgusting and infuriating.The Ed Kramer case (in metro Atlanta's Gwinnett County) is horrifying. It is now seven years since Ed was arrested. He was crippled while in custody – as a result, he says, and i believe, of a beating by jailers. He has not yet been brought to trial.People in the Atlanta fan community – people who at the least owe Ed personal gratitude for past actions – have smeared him in public forums in the most rabidly foaming language i have seen in some time. I came under the same sort of attack – from someone i once considered a friend – accusing me of support for pederasty if not the deed itself, and was informed that my name had been submitted to the Gwinnett County DA's office for investigation. My crime? I said in an online forum that it didn't sound as if the DA had a particularly strong case against Ed.It has reached the point that Congressman Bob Barr (hardly a bleeding-heart liberal) filed, this August past, an amicus curiae brief, the text of which can be found at the Ed Kramer Defense Fund site (where accounts of the whole sordid affair may also be found).From the days of Frederic Wertham's witch hunt, and still today, and so long as comics and other media fandoms are seen as being refuges for fringe loonies, powerless and essentially disenfranchised, they have been and will remain targets for prosecutors and politicians looking for notoriety and hot-button issues to advance their own persons and/or agendas.
Kramer's case is not really the same, but yes, I think it's time to let him go. The case was shaky to start with and there's been no additional evidence.
I seem to have lost the link to the Ed Kramer defense site in my comment – it's http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DefenseFund/message…
Well, this isn't QUITE the good news we'd hoped for, but it does allow for the powers-that-be to gracefully back away from their insane assault on Lee and on the Constitution.The latter of which is quite in vogue these days.