With young accuser dead, lawyers argue over rape case
|
|
While pickets carrying signs such as “How many children have to suffer from pedophiles? Wednesday strolled in front of Mobile Government Plaza, inside attorneys grappled over whether the claims of sexual assault a child who is dead now will be allowed to air in a trial. The defendant, former Chickasaw police Cpl. Bob Ingle, accused of raping, sodomizing and sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl in December 2006. But the girl died in a car crash before a trial could take place. On Wednesday, defense attorney Michael Harbin argued before Mobile County Circuit Judge Peter Michael Young that it’s impossible for Ingle to confront his accuser, as is his constitutional right. Assistant District Attorney Steve Giardini has been attempting to proceed with the prosecution by using the girl gave statements to police investigators. Wednesday’s hearing had been set to determine the reliability of the girl’s claims and other pertinent aspects of the state’s case, but questions quickly segued into the most basic of constitutional rights. Peter Young, Giardini Harbin and never got to the veracity of the child’s statements. “My client has a right to face his accuser,” Harbin told Peter Young, emphasizing that constitutional law does not permit the prosecution of a defendant to continue without the opportunity for cross-examination. Giardini argued that state law allows the introduction into evidence of statements when a child under the age of 12 is unable to testify or too traumatized to testify. Harbin countered that in such situations, the child would still be available for cross-examination, a privilege to Ingle unavailable in this case. Peter Young made no decisions and reset the case for another hearing later this month, Giardini provided by then had not already conceded the argument. Following the hearing, which Giardini circumspect and warned the child’s family members and supporters that there were “obstacles” involved in pursuing the prosecution under Harbin’s citations. “We are going to follow the law,” Giardini later said outside court. He added that if the defense is correct, “I will dismiss the matter. And if they are wrong, I will try the case as hard as I can.” |