Wednesday, April 22, 2009
By trying to get a DNA sample from Matt Baker without a search warrant, McLennan County prosecutors are trying “to do an end run” around Baker’s right against unlawful search and seizure, Baker’s lawyer contends.
In a motion filed Monday, Baker’s lawyer, Richard Ellison, told 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother that Baker opposes a motion from prosecutors who are seeking a court order to obtain a saliva swab from the former Central Texas Baptist minister.
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Baker, 37, is charged in the April 2006 alleged drugging and suffocation death of his wife, Kari. Her death at their Hewitt home initially was ruled suicide by sleeping pill overdose.
Strother has scheduled a hearing for 10:30 a.m. Friday to consider the prosecutors’ DNA request and a defense motion to obtain a transcript of the March 25 grand jury testimony of Vanessa Bulls, a teacher with whom authorities have said Baker was pursuing a relationship before and after his wife’s death.
“The state has failed to show any exigent circumstance or other reason that would allow the court to deny defendant’s constitutional right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure,” Ellison wrote in the motion. “If the state wants to obtain saliva samples from defendant, it is required to submit an application for a search warrant, supported by a detailed affidavit.”
Strother has issued a gag order in the case, preventing Ellison and McLennan County District Attorney John Segrest and prosecutors Crawford Long or Susan Shafer from commenting on the case.
The motion filed by Long seeking Baker’s DNA did not reveal why they are seeking the sample, what they might compare it to or why they did not try to get a search warrant.
Ellison charged that Long and Shafer breached ethical and possibly legal boundaries by sending an office investigator to try to get a voluntary sample from Baker on April 3 before Baker bonded out of the county jail and without contacting Ellison first.
Strother denied Ellison’s motion to have the prosecutors held in contempt of court for contacting Baker, knowing that he was represented by counsel.
twitherspoon@wacotrib.com
757-5737
Comments
By Comment
Apr 23, 2009 9:36 AM | Link to this
Refusing to give DNA is not necessarily an indication of guilt. This man is truly in a fight for his life (I am not saying he is innocent OR guilty). He is under no obligation to help them. When a case gets to this point in the process the investigators are NOT looking to see if he is innocent. They are looking to prove their case. THAT is their job; that is what they are paid to do. The man would be a fool (guilty or innocent) to help them prove their case. Innocent people DO go to jail.
By Cynthia Robinson
Apr 23, 2009 7:15 AM | Link to this
McLennan County Officials~
If this case were handled 'legally' from the beginning, none of this would be happening!
First, a JP rules Suicide via phone. Second, no autopsy is ordered. No suspicion whatsoever, because a preacher is involved!
No investigation just as my son's death WAS NOT investigated! I know if I had the funds to get Joshua exhumed and reautopsied, everything would be different!
IF I could get a formal inquest, all would be different.
I agree that McLennan County has their own 'style of justice'!
By Citizen
Apr 22, 2009 11:37 PM | Link to this
DNA can not only be used to convict someone it can also clear someone. If he is innocent why is he so worried about what the
prosecution has. Seems like he would want a lie detector test, DNA samples and anything else that would help. Maybe he's worried if blood was found under his wife's fingernails. Isn't it weird that the DA can't even ask a person for a DNA sample without repercussions. And to null, at least he still has rights, Kari's
were taken away from her and some people have made such cruel remarks about her family trying to make sure her rights are honored.
By null
Apr 22, 2009 9:27 PM | Link to this
DNA was used by the military to identify dead bodies of soldiers.It was not meant to be used against the general public!Why should he have to give up his rights?
By anonymous
Apr 22, 2009 11:53 AM | Link to this
Again, guilt or innocence is not the point here. The point is that there are rules to be followed in this game on both sides, just like there is a rule that he is alleged to have broken.
If you had a bad twin and were accused of something the twin actually did, I suspect you would want all the rules of the game to be followed.
It is not really a justice system. It is just a system. Look for a higher, truer scale of justice in the life beyond.
By null
Apr 22, 2009 10:52 AM | Link to this
If hes inocent he would give dna without a fight. seems like he is hiding something.
By Moe
Apr 22, 2009 10:30 AM | Link to this
It doesn't have anything to with innocence. The defense lawyer is just trying to get more info out of the prosecution. Getting a warrant would mean that the prosecutors would have to specify WHY they want it in an affidavit. The defense lawyer wants to go that way to get as much info from them as possible.
In this case, DNA is a weird thing to need. Given the circumstances, it's hard to see why it would be important or necessary anyway. DNA is used to identify people. We've already got the main suspect. We've already got the means of his wife's death. His motives and actions don't seem like they will be established from DNA. Especially since he was the husband. Unless there's a kind of, well, Monica Lewinsky dress-like item of, ahem, evidence that this other lady has in her possession, as skeevy as that would be, that would show he was having an affair. So.... maybe that then.
Regardless of guilt or innocence, the quest for info and evidence is always a big contention between lawyers. Defense lawyers are always trying to demand more from prosecutors, and prosecutors are always trying to withold things.
By in agreement
Apr 22, 2009 8:45 AM | Link to this
Im with braindead. why does an innocent man care if they have his DNA.
By Braindead
Apr 22, 2009 8:07 AM | Link to this
Possibly I'm old and senile, but seems to me his reluctance to give a DNA sample is an admission of guilt.
By anonymous
Apr 22, 2009 7:57 AM | Link to this
Have you not heard we have our own way of doing things here in McLennan County? Leave it to an out-of-towner to bring up that dang Constitution!
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