A trial for alleged kidnapper Robert Joe Harrison Jr. will go ahead as scheduled on Sept. 20 following the failure of efforts by his attorney to have evidence in the case suppressed.
Fifth District Judge Robert Elgee also denied a motion filed by public defender Kevin Cassidy to have the trial's location changed to another county on the grounds that pretrial publicity had made a fair trial in Blaine County impossible.
Harrison, 50, is charged with second-degree kidnapping for allegedly enticing a then-9-year-old boy into his truck and driving him to his apartment in West Ketchum. He is free on a $20,000 bond and living near Walla Walla, Wash.
In court in Hailey on Wednesday, Cassidy contended that Ketchum police had improperly conducted a photo lineup with the boy during which he identified Harrison as the perpetrator. Cassidy asked Elgee to exclude the identification, as well as an in-person identification that the boy had made during a previous court hearing.
Cassidy pointed out that in the six-photo lineup, Harrison's photo was the only one with a date stamped on it—that of April 11, one day before the lineup was conducted. He contended that the date made it obvious that the man in the photo had just been arrested.
Cassidy also objected to the fact that Harrison's photo had been taken from his driver's license, rather than from the alleged victim's description of him.
While on the stand Wednesday, Ketchum Detective Scott Manning acknowledged that the department did not have specific procedures for conducting photo lineups.
Elgee acknowledged that the date should not have been on Harrison's photo, but questioned whether the boy would even have noticed it. He ruled the identification to be "reliable," particularly since the boy had seen Harrison a second time after the alleged abduction.
Cassidy also asked the court to suppress evidence gathered from a search of Harrison's apartment. He contended that Harrison's consent to search should be ruled invalid since he was intoxicated at the time of his arrest.
"He gave his consent to search while severely intoxicated and handcuffed, while surrounded by police," Cassidy said.
Elgee said he was not aware of any cases that had invalidated searches based on a suspect's intoxication.
"Otherwise the police would have to sober up anyone who was intoxicated to search their home," he said.
Addressing the issue of pretrial publicity, Cassidy pointed out that law enforcement officials had made negative statements about Harrison that would not be addressed at trial.
"These individuals have used the press to try this case," Cassidy said.
Elgee agreed that there had been pretrial publicity, and acknowledged that some information, once it becomes public, cannot be corrected during a trial. However, he said, he doubted that many prospective jurors would remember most details of what they had read, and suspected that many local residents had read anything at all about the case.
"I cannot say that at this point today that pretrial publicity has impermissibly tainted the impartiality of the jurors," he said.
Elgee denied Cassidy's motion to change venue without prejudice, meaning that he is free to raise the issue again.
