|
|
|
Womack hearing resumes WednesdayThis article was originally published in the the Amador Ledger Dispatch on August 13, 1999, and is reproduced here with its permission. JACKSON—An evidentiary hearing judge will resume Wednesday, Aug. 18, at 9 a.m. to determine whether search warrant information was accurate and sufficient to have supported an all-day search and seizure of records at the Robert Womack home in 1998. The question Judge John Cruikshank continues to address concerns whether the search warrants were legally issued or whether the Amador Superior Court Judge Susan Harlan was misled into signing the instruments. Womack and others were indicted by a special grand jury on charges stemming from the May 1998 removal of a gas tank from a former service station site in Jackson. A motion to suppress the information seized in the Oct. 30, 1998, search is still not completely resolved, but it was agreed at a hearing last month to delete KRL Partnership records from the court consideration of the felony counts against Robert Womack and Mark Sherrill. Currently the case against Sherrill is on hold while the court decides the legality of the Womack search warrant. The next session should see the evidence narrowed to testimony surrounding the alleged illegality of removing the gas tank. Last month, Judge John Cruikshank said it was obvious from the video and from defendant Robert Womack himself, that the gas tank, central to the proceedings, had been pulled from 505 Sutter in Jackson. "So why search the records of KRL?", Cruikshank said. Prosecuting attorney David Irey told the judge that KRL's address was the same as the Ridge Road Home address of Robert Womack. The adult children of Robert Womack make up the KRL Partnership. The judge agreed to a motion by defense attorney Clyde Blackmon to suppress KRL documents from the proceedings. Defense and prosecution attorneys were to collaborate on removing KRL-seized paperwork, which makes up about 95 percent of the discovery and exhibits in the case. Blackmon estimated there are some 800 pages dealing with the KRL but only one simple file folder labeled "service station" belonging to Robert and June Womack. Currently the court is considering the October 1998 search. Another all-day search was conducted at the Womack home in January 1999. Copyright © 1999 Amador Ledger Dispatch |
|
| Masthead |
E-mail, Postal, Phone and Fax Contact Information |
|
the
Bureaucracy