PHOTO BY J. MILES CARY
Former Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner
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Motion supporting the release of documents in Judge Baumgartner investigation to defendants in Christian-Newsom slayings
The quartet of defendants convicted in the January 2007 torture-slaying of a Knox County couple should have access to what other defendants and the public so far cannot — whatever secrets a probe of former Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner revealed, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Knox County Assistant District Attorney General Leland Price filed a motion Wednesday stating that he would not object to the release of the entire Tennessee Bureau of Investigation file on Baumgartner to the four defendants convicted in the slayings of Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23.
Although Special Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood opined at a hearing in June that the defendants — ringleader Lemaricus Davidson and cohorts Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas and Vanessa Coleman — should get a chance to review the file, Price's motion indicates he only made a portion of that file available to their respective defense teams.
It's not clear from his motion whether the state had resisted a release of the entire file. But Price says the state now, at least, has no objection to its release so long as it is kept under wraps from the public.
The motion comes just one day after a motion in a separate case handled by Baumgartner suggested unidentified members of Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols' office may have been witnesses in the TBI probe. If that's true, it raises a question of what those prosecutors knew, when they knew it and whether they should have brought it to the attention of the Court of the Judiciary, which polices judges.
John Gill, special counsel to Nichols, has declined comment.
Baumgartner came under probe in the late fall of 2010. The investigation became public in January after Baumgartner abruptly stepped down from the bench, and the News Sentinel confirmed the TBI investigation. Baumgartner in March pleaded guilty to official misconduct, admitting buying hundreds of prescription painkillers from a felon under his legal thumb.
A later hearing involving that felon spurred allegations Baumgartner also sought pills for Deena Castleman, a former defendant in the drug court program Baumgartner founded, and even supplied cash to post her bail. What little has been made public about the results of the TBI probe shows Baumgartner was actively engaged in buying and abusing pills while presiding over several high-profile trials, including the Christian-Newsom case.
TBI's files are exempt from the state's Open Records Act, and Price is careful in his motion to preserve that exemption, noting that the original file remains solely in the custody of the TBI. He is asking Blackwood to keep any copy under seal.
Defense attorney Gregory P. Isaacs is asking Knox County Criminal Court Judge Mary Beth Leibowitz to order the file turned over to his client, Jayson Bailey, who is seeking a new trial in a child rape case over which Baumgartner presided.
Blackwood granted Baumgartner judicial diversion, a move that keeps him out of jail, offers a chance for a clean record and ensures he will still collect his pension.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/au...-former-judge/