Court denies motion to sever in corrupt activities case

Judge Rocky Coss denied a defendant's motion to sever in an engaging in a pattern of corrupt activities case and said that a new attorney will have to be appointed for a co-defendant in the case because the number of defendants indicted has exhausted the local defense attorney pool.  

      There were 11 defendants in the case who were indicted in August, along with real estate and bank accounts, on 173 counts by a grand jury in Highland County Common Pleas Court. The indictment was a result of a continuing investigation into alleged patterns of corrupt activity involving a drug pipeline law enforcement says is responsible for bringing heroin into Highland County via Greenfield. Tesse Everhart, Jennifer Forsha, Roderick Croy, April Elliot, Frank Parr and Bradley Rickman have pleaded guilty to charges from the indictment.  

      Co-defendants Thomas Peters, Donna Gillam, Greg Smith and Quentin Binegar appeared for pretrial hearings Wednesday. They are scheduled to stand trial Nov. 28, with co-defendants Stephanie Ford. 

      On Wednesday in Highland County Common Pleas Court, an attorney for Gillam, George Katchmer, argued on a motion sever, saying that the 73 counts that Peters is facing will prejudice the jury against his client.  

      Katchmer said that the indictment against Peters ranges in time from October 2010 to August 2011 and that Gillam's 17 counts in the indictment is only from June 2011 to July 2011, and it would be prejudicial to "lump her in when she has a very small segment of the case" because the jury would have a hard time separating Gillam's case from Peters.  

      Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins said that "the evidence is very interlocking," that it is alleged that Gillam transported drugs for Peters, and that testimony from law enforcement, confidential informants, BCI (Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation) analysts and co-defendants will be the same if there are two trials.  

      "Multiple trials do not make sense in this case," Collins said. "The jury will have no trouble making the distinction." 

      Collins said that the motion to sever that had been argued was "a generic motion" because the defense was not specific in what issues there may be for grounds to sever. Additionally, Collins said that for the sake of judicial economy and the county's scarce resources, the cases should remain together.  

      Coss denied the motion to sever. He also reminded Katchmer that local court rules requires that any plea agreements be completed two weeks prior to the trial date, which would give them a Nov. 14 deadline.  

      The attorney for Thomas Peters, Daniel O'Brien, told the court that he intended to file a motion to sever but asked that the court extend the filing deadline for defense motions to Nov. 9.  

      The state objected to the request, saying, "We believe he has had plenty of time to file them. (O'Brien) has been retained on the case before even the indictment." 

      Coss said that he would move the filing deadline to Nov. 9.  

      O'Brien said that he would be filing a motion to sever because the indictment contains "some tricky wording. In my 50 years, I've never seen wording where instead of saying Joe Blow committed a crime, you say his crime was committed through someone else."   

      The state said that it has completed discovery in the case, but the defense has not. O'Brien said that he is still going through evidence with his client and had to show his client a video in evidence, which was "something my client hasn't even seen."  

      Both Katchmer and O'Brien asked that the court entertain a request to continue the Nov. 28 trial or work around scheduling issues. Katchmer said that within the past 24 hours, he was informed by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that he has arguments scheduled for the morning of Nov. 30. O'Brien said that he needed to be with family on Nov. 28 due to a medical issue and would ask that the trial be delayed 48 hours.  

      Coss told Katchmer to inform the court of appeals that the Highland County court date had been scheduled and to see if they would reschedule, and if not the local court would try to accommodate the matter.  

      A final pretrial has been scheduled for Nov. 22.   

      Co-defendant Greg Smith appeared with attorney Zachary Corbin of the public defender's office out of Brown County. The court had appointed Corbin last week after Smith's attorney Bill Armintrout had to withdraw, citing a conflict of interest. Armintrout told the court that he had represented one of the witnesses in the case.  

      Coss told Smith that according to statutes, there was going to be an issue because Smith was facing second-degree felony charges and higher, and Corbin had been an attorney for less than two years. However, Corbin has an associate who is qualified to represent Smith on the charges, and he will ask if he can take the case. Coss said that due to the delay, Smith will likely have to have a continuance on the Nov. 28 trial date.  

      "With so many defendants in the case, there is not a big enough pool of (local attorneys)," Coss said. "I've had to cast a wider net."  

      Co-defendant Quentin Binegar also appeared Wednesday with his attorney Susan Zurface Daniels. She said that discovery is completed, and that she does not anticipate any pretrial motions. She asked for a status hearing to be scheduled prior to trial. Coss set a hearing date for Nov. 22 . 

      In a separate case, Michael D. Long, of Dayton, was sentenced to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty on drug trafficking charges. 

      Long appeared in Court Wednesday with his attorney Charles Slicer. Long pleaded guilty to three counts of trafficking in drugs and one count of possession of drugs. The court noted that Long had previously served three prior prison terms on similar charges and has five drug convictions.