View Single Post
Old September 2nd, 2011 #1
Paulavt
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 17
Default Knox prosecutors may have been 'witnesses' against ex-judge Baumgartner

August 3, 2011

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/au...inst-ex-judge/

A motion filed Tuesday alleges state prosecutors may have been witnesses to misconduct by former Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner before a probe of his illegal pill-buying ended.

Editor's note: Defense attorneys in the Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom case have until Sept. 8 to file motions for new trials. The date was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.

Defense attorney Gregory P. Isaacs filed a motion Tuesday on behalf of convicted child rapist Jayson Bailey seeking a copy of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation file of Baumgartner.

Isaacs argues that state prosecutors should have no say on whether the file is released as part of Bailey's bid for a new trial because they played a role in the probe.

"Upon information and belief, members of the Knox County District Attorney's staff may be potential witnesses of conduct contained in the TBI investigative file," Isaacs wrote.

John Gill, special counsel to Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols, declined comment Tuesday.

Although Isaacs did not elaborate, Special Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood saw something in that file he believed should be brought to the attention of the defenders for four suspects convicted in the January 2007 torture-slayings of Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23. At a hearing earlier this year, he ordered the file turned over to those attorneys.

Prosecutors Leland Price and TaKisha Fitzgerald had an eagle eye view of the judge during three separate out-of-town trips for jury selection in that case.

Isaacs contends that if lawyers for convicted killer Lemaricus Davidson and his cohorts in the Chipman Street slayings of Christian and Newsom have a right to review what the TBI file might show about Baumgartner's activities to see if there are grounds to seek new trials, so, too, should Bailey.

Bailey was convicted in April 2010 of raping his stepdaughter. He vehemently denied the charges as did his wife. Baumgartner presided over the trial and sentenced him to 38 years in prison. Isaacs did not defend the case at trial but has since been hired to mount a bid for a new trial. Criminal Court Judge Mary Beth Leibowitz has taken over the Bailey case in the wake of Baumgartner's March confession to official misconduct for buying prescription painkillers from a felon on probation in his court.

TBI files are exempt from the state's open records law, so it is unknown whether the agency confined its probe to Baumgartner's drug-buying or also looked into any allegations of illegal or improper conduct beyond that. The News Sentinel learned the agency did include in its probe an examination of Baumgartner's relationship with Deena Castleman, who was a defendant in a separate drug court program the former judge founded.

Blackwood has given defense attorneys for Davidson, now on death row in the Christian and Newsom killings, and co-defendants Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas and Vanessa Coleman a Sept. 8 deadline to decide if they will use anything in the TBI file to argue the four were denied their right to a fair trial.

Isaacs filed his motion for the file in Leibowitz's court, leaving a decision on the release of the file to her. Blackwood, who granted Baumgartner judicial diversion, is presiding over the Chipman Street slaying cases.


A child molester filed a motion against this judge.

http://www.documentcloud.org/documen...ng-a-copy.html