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Sunday, November 01, 2009

Ind. Courts - "Change of venue shifts Indy trial to Valparaiso" [Updated]

James D. Wolf, Jr. reports today in the Gary Post Tribune:

VALPARAISO -- Visitors to the Porter County Courthouse this week will find Indianapolis law enforcement officers added to Porter County Sheriff's police security, and Indianapolis television crews outside the building.

Those will be the most obvious differences as the county hosts the trial of a man accused of shooting an Indianapolis police officer.

The trial of Brian Reese, 37, received the change of venue because of extensive media coverage in Marion County.

Superior Court Judge Lisa Borges, the prosecutors and defense attorneys will all come from Marion County, and they will choose Porter County residents as jurors Monday.

The assumption is that Porter County residents have not been tainted by publicity from coverage of the attempted murder charge.

The trial is expected to last into next week and will take place in Superior Court on the second floor of the courthouse in Valparaiso.

Judge Mary Harper, who usually presides over that courtroom, will be gone for the week.

The trial should cost Porter County little more than inconvenience.

Under Indiana law, the county where the charges were filed is required to cover change-of-venue costs.

That includes transportation and boarding of the witnesses and the defendant, cost of prosecution and legal proceedings and cost of increased security.

"Each agency is paying its share for its presentation of the case," said Mario Massillamany, the Marion County prosecutor's spokesman.

He expects to be on hand Monday to work out media access to the courtroom, which will be limited by media passes.

From the Indianapolis Star's "Behind Closed Doors" column today:
Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi's trial calendar has been full after a nearly four-year dry spell.

This month, the Republican tried his first case since winning a second term as prosecutor in 2006.

He spent two weeks in a courtroom as part of a team that won convictions on all counts against Desmond Turner in the Hamilton Avenue slayings of seven people. A judge also granted Brizzi's request for a life sentence without parole.

In the coming week, Brizzi will flex his prosecutorial muscles again, this time at the trial of Brian Reese, which has been moved to Porter County because of publicity.

Reese is charged with attempted murder in the near-fatal wounding in July 2008 of Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer Jason Fishburn during a foot chase.
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Brizzi last participated in a trial in December 2005. He has planned on others since then, he says. But as luck would have it, all have ended in guilty pleas.

There will be another reunion, of sorts, at the Reese trial. Marion Superior Court Judge Lisa Borges, a senior adviser to Brizzi during his first term, will preside over the trial.

"I better watch my P's and Q's," Brizzi said last week during a news briefing on the trial. Then again, he said, "I had to watch my P's and Q's when she was my chief of staff."

[Updated 11-2-09] Jon Murray has a long story on the upcoming trial in today's Indianapolis Star. The headline: "Intent to kill officer is the question as trial starts: Jury will be picked in Valparaiso to hear Fishburn shooting case."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 1, 2009 06:00 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts