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| Judge rules against evidence suppression in Michael Dunn case |
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7/15/2009
By Tom Marshall
Senior Advocate writer
A judge has ruled against suppression of a crucial piece of evidence in the Michael Dunn child sodomy case.
The Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office will be able to present evidence related to a condom found on Dunn’s property prior to his arrest under the ruling filed July 6 by Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge William Mains.
The 14-year-old boy who made the allegations reportedly directed authorities to a field behind Dunn’s house where they found a used condom that led to his arrest in December.
Dunn, 39, is charged with seven counts of first-degree sodomy. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Dunn’s attorney, Alex Rowady of Winchester, sought to have the evidence withheld arguing that the seizure of the condom without a search warrant constituted a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search or seizure.
Mains disagreed.
“Said motion is denied,” he wrote in his order. “The Fourth Amendment only protects the curtilage (the immediate surrounding area) of a house. The condom seized was in an open field well outside defendant’s curtilage. There was no reasonable expectation of privacy in this area.”
Mains cited the 1987 case of U.S. vs. Dunn and Commonwealth vs. Murray from 2004 as case law in support of his ruling.
The Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office successfully argued that a warrant wasn’t necessary under the circumstances in which it was found—namely in an open field off Bell Farm Road.
Dunn is scheduled to go on trial Nov. 30-Dec. 2.
Last month Mains found Dunn competent to stand trial after a psychologist from the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center testified that Dunn admitted faking an April suicide attempt at the Montgomery County Regional Jail.
Dunn, according to the psychologist, reportedly faked the suicide so he could be transported to a hospital for treatment of a skin condition that was keeping him awake at night.
Mains also ruled that Dunn could be held criminally responsible if found guilty of the allegations based on the psychologist’s testimony.
Dunn was also involved in a fatal shooting in February 2008 involving Robert G. “Greg” Rudd, 46. A grand jury found that Dunn acted in self defense when he shot Rudd to death during a dispute in Jeffersonville.
Dunn also faces charges that he reportedly filed incomplete firearms training while serving as a concealed weapons instructor.
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