A Boulder County judge on Tuesday declined to let a defense attorney in a , calling them an irrelevant “worm can.”
Prosecutors announced in September that Michael Clark, 50, in the 1994 killing of Boulder city employee Marty Grisham after his 2012 murder conviction was overturned in April. Clark’s conviction was the first to be overturned because of faulty DNA evidence connected to a statewide scandal. The case is set for a May jury trial.
After serving more than 12 years of a life prison sentence, while prosecutors considered whether the case against him should continue. Clark has maintained his innocence.
Adam Frank, Clark’s attorney, seeking records from the first 48 hours of the unsolved Ramsey investigation and information about CBI policies related to DNA testing this month. Frank said the Ramsey records could demonstrate that the Boulder Police Department at the time was “woefully incompetent,” according to court documents.
Boulder District Court Chief Judge Nancy W. Salomone called the Ramsey records a “worm can” during a Tuesday hearing in the case. Salomone said the records were irrelevant, and the jury shouldn’t see them.
“The jury would, very likely, because of the degree of public exposure of that case, be very interested in information that it might gather about that homicide,” Salomone said. “The court doesn’t believe that … there’s much, if any relevant evidence.”
The Boulder County District Attorney’s Office had asked the court to deny all 12 subpoenas.
Salomone also denied a request for information about DNA tests in all cases that were returned invalid or undetermined from August 2009 to August 2011. The judge called the request “burdensome and difficult” because CBI would need to review many cases.
In September, CBI’s new director, Armando Saldate III, told Fox31 in an interview that he does not believe any innocent people are in jail as a result of evidence that was mishandled by now-former CBI scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods. Clark’s defense team asked to see every record about Clark’s case that Saldate reviewed before giving that statement.
Karen Lorenz, a lawyer with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, said in court that the director did not review any records from Clark’s case before giving that interview.
Woods was charged in January with 102 felonies connected to widespread misconduct during DNA testing over her 29-year career with CBI. Her case is pending.
Lawyers and Salomone are expected to discuss whether some or all motions in Clark’s case should be sealed once filed. Assistant DA Kenneth Kupfner said he plans to ask Salomone to order that motions be reviewed before being made available to the public.
Kupfner said he wants to avoid letting the public litigate the case using press coverage.
Frank, Clark’s lawyer, said the public deserves court documents. He separately asked that CBI be ordered not to say that there are no innocent people in jail as a result of Woods’ misconduct. That order could also involve preventing the DA’s office and the defense from making public statements while the case is pending.
Salomone said she wants to talk about public statements and information during a future hearing.
Clark is scheduled for a review hearing on Dec. 4.
