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11/21/2014
By Tom Marshall
Senior Advocate writer
Michael Dunn plans to appeal a recent decision by Montgomery County Circuit Judge Beth Maze overruling two motions to dismiss his sodomy conviction.
At a status hearing in the case last Friday, Dunn’s attorney, Matthew Robinson of Covington, briefly renewed his arguments for dismissal.
Maze rejected those arguments.
Robinson then announced plans to file a writ of prohibition asking the state Court of Appeals to reverse Maze’s previous ruling.
The writ brings movement in the case to a halt until the Court of Appeals rules on the case. Such a ruling could take several months, attorneys involved with the case said.
Maze planned to set new trial dates at last week’s hearing. Instead, she scheduled another status hearing for Feb. 13 in case the Court of Appeals has ruled by then.
Maze had overruled motions by Dunn alleging violations of his rights to speedy trial and freedom from double jeopardy.
The judge found that virtually every delay in the 2008 case occurred as result of the defense. Dunn was most recently scheduled to to have a retrial in September, but was delayed by his most recent motions.
As for double jeopardy, Dunn argued that since the seven charges in the indictment were identical it is impossible to differentiate on which ones he was convicted and acquitted.
Therefore, he argued, the indictment should be dismissed.
The Commonwealth Attorney’s Office noted that the identical charges were not a sufficiency of the evidence error and would not preclude a retrial.
Maze agreed.
Dunn was convicted in January 2010 of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy he had befriended on multiple occasions in 2007 and 2008.
A jury found him guilty of five of seven counts of first-degree sodomy and sentenced him to serve 50 years in prison.
Dunn remains lodged in the Montgomery County Regional Jail.
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