Prue Appeal
- Details
- Created on Tuesday, 11 November 2014 20:26
- Written by Yolanda Liang
Around the NEK -- Today, Allen Prue, 32, made a motion of appeal to the Vermont State Supreme Court requesting a new trial. He was convicted of conspiracy to murder and attempted kidnapping last month and the first degree murder of Melissa Jenkins.
Prue claims Honorable Judge Robert Bent made an error when he did not let Doctor Phillip Kinsler testify about his psychiatric evaluation of Allen Prue's wife and co-defendant Patricia Prue, 35.
Allen Prue's Defense Attorney Robert Katims argued that Kinsler's testimony would support his theory that Patricia was the one killed Jenkins and Allen was not involved.
Katims has argued that it would be difficult to name Kinsler as a witness before the deadline of April 15 because he didn't receive the report until after the deadline.
According to the Caledonian Record, Katims wrote down that "the report contained information that both Allen Prue and his counsel could not have possible known otherwise, and the time frame of its delivery made it impossible to disclose him as a witness by the expert disclosure deadline of April 15, 2014."
"The exclusion of this crucial evidence violated the defendant's rights, hereby making a new trial necessary in the interests of justice," wrote Katims.
Local Defense Attorney David Sleigh, who is not involved in the case, was surprised at Bent's rejection.
"You know, you have a constitutional right to a fair trial, and one of the critical aspects of that is your ability to call witness in your favor and by denying a defendant the right to call such a critical witness, one that his lawyer mentioned in his opening statement," said Sleigh, "you know, creates problems for the integrity of the process as a whole and so that when you get to the end, when you get to a verdict, you want a proceeding that's bullet proof in a way, not subject to attack or review."
Bent wrote in his October ruling that there are factors other than the April 15 deadline involved in his decision to not allow Kinsler to testify. The state's own expert examination of Patricia Prue's mental status by a separate psychiatrist Dr. Robert E. Linder is ongoing and is not due to be completed until Dec.5.
"Allowing Dr.Kinsler to express which cannot be tested is unfair and the prejudice to the State as well as the potential for jury confusion is simply too great to allow," wrote Bent.
Bent also concerned about whether Kinsler's testimony could provide enough evidence to convince a jury that Patricia Prue killed Jenkins by herself, who suffering from the Multiple Personality Disorder know clinically as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).
He wrote that, "the court is cautioned that given the subject matter of Dr. Kinsler's opinion and the general inability to test his opinions regarding the applicability of DID to specific factual scenario, the distinct possibility exists that Dr. Kinsler's opinion would be regarded as only a hypothesis by the trier of fact or preliminary the court."
Caledonia County State's Attorney Lisa Warren said she will oppose Prue's motion for a new trial and if an appeal is grated, it will go to the high court after Prue is sentenced.
