By Carol Robinson
al.com
ONEONTA, Ala. — A Blount County judge has denied a request for a gag order in the case of two former jailers charged with murder in the death of an inmate.
Joseph Evans, 26, and Liletzy Valdez-Carbajal, 19, are charged with murder and first-degree assault of an inmate in the death of former inmate Arthur P. Morse .
Morse, a 23-year-old old who was being held in the jail on a DUI charge, died in February after authorities alleged the jailers repeatedly hit him with stun gun.
According to ALEA, Morse was at the jail when he began to have a medical event. He was taken to UAB St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham where he died on Feb. 6 .
Court documents allege that Evans and Valdez-Carbajal “assaulted Arthur Paul Morse by repeatedly dry stunning (him) with a Taser with the intent to cause (the inmate) physical injury during a time that (Morse) was unable to stand or walk unassisted due to diabetic Ketoacidois.”
The suspects went before Blount County Judge Gregory Reid earlier this month an Aniah’s Law hearing, where they were granted $75,000 bond each.
“In this case, we had someone (the victim) demonstrate for four days a medical need that included throwing up what was characterized by at least one of the guards as something that looked like dip and on another occasion, throwing up something that was a dark fluid on the cell floor,” Gilliland said during the proceeding.
Not only did Evans ignore the medical needs of Morse, he also punished the victim for urinating on himself and not being to stand, walk or eat, prosecutors said.
That punishment, Gilliland said, included making the ill inmate mop the booking area, putting him in a restraint chair and using a stun gun on him multiple times.
The prosecutor said Valdez-Carbajal “actually participated in an assault of an individual who was no threat to her.”
The prosecutor said those events showed a pattern of punishing the inmate.
Following that hearing, Evans’ attorneys – J. Robert Bentley and Dave Mattson – filed a motion for a gag order in the case.
“The proceedings in this case have received widespread publicity, much of which has been inaccurate, false, speculative and inflammatory,” the defense attorneys wrote
Bentley and Mattson said the Supreme Court has recognized that prejudicial pretrial publicity can jeopardize a criminal defendant’s right to a fair trial by an impartial jury.
District Attorney Pamela Casey , in her response to the motion, said a gag order would be redundant and unnecessary because the issue is already covered under the Alabama Rules of Professional Conduct.
“The state has not and does not intend to release anything to the media or public that is not already public record or a part of court documentation,” Casey wrote.
“While the state does not disagree this case has received widespread publicity,” she wrote, “this Honorable Court is not in a position to prevent parties not associated with these proceedings from fabricating stories and allegations from what is pubic record.”
Reid agreed with Casey that the Alabama Rules of Professional Conduct already cover the issue.
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