SandBoxBlogs: Aspen Daily News "Pivotal evidence hearing on Monday in bomb-threat case"

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Chad Abraham:
"The judge presiding over a man’s felony case involving an alleged bomb threat concerning a Belly Up concert urged the attorneys for both sides on Tuesday to come to an agreement on pretrial evidence issues.

Otherwise, public defender Tina Fang, representing Asa Robinson, 30, of Glenwood Springs, may call Aspen prosecutor Arnold Mordkin to testify about record-keeping matters in a motion-to-dismiss hearing set for Monday.

Custodians of evidence in the Aspen Police Department and the Aspen office of the 9th Judicial District Attorney may also be called to the stand. Judge Gail Nichols of Pitkin County District Court said that, in order for her to rule on the motion, she needs to rely on statements that are only made under oath unless Fang and Mordkin can agree on matters involving certain evidence.....

....Fang’s motion says the district attorney’s office didn’t turn over a copy of the interview until March 22, which the defense attorney says is another example of miscues involving pretrial evidence, or discovery, committed by the Aspen prosecutor’s office.

Nichols last summer sanctioned Mordkin for similar missteps in five cases, ordering that he could not use key evidence in a motor-vehicle theft case. Mordkin soon after filed to have the case dismissed, saying he could not expect a successful prosecution without that evidence.

But he and District Attorney Martin Beeson have appealed Nichols’ ruling to the Colorado Court of Appeals, where it is pending, and defended the Aspen office’s handling of discovery. Nichols’ ruling cites a handful of cases in which prosecutorial discovery errors were made out of the nearly 2,700 that the Aspen office handled between 2008 and 2011, meaning the vast majority of cases were handled correctly, the appeal says. Mordkin has also said in court motions that his office and evidence custodians of the local law enforcement agencies have rectified the issues that led to the mistakes.

But for the latest alleged infraction, Nichols “should make it clear that the blame rests with [Mordkin] and his office — alone,” Fang wrote. Dismissing Robinson’s case is the only way the court can be assured that its authority to enforce procedural rules will be respected, the motion says......"
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