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Judge in Womack case says prove justification for searchThis article was originally published in the the Amador Ledger Dispatch on July 11, 1999, and is reproduced here with its permission. By Diane Smith JACKSON—More county officials will be called next Friday, to a 9 a.m. hearing to determine the weight of evidence prosecutors had in pursuing felony charges against three defendants accused of illegally removing a gas tank. The evidentiary hearing, begun Thursday at 9 a.m., ran until nearly 5 p.m. and involved testimony from George Ryan, Western Title Company attorney and Ron Hall, chief local investigator from the Amador District Attorney's office who did the initial work leading up to a search and seizure at Robert Womack's house in October of 1998. Another surprise search followed in January 1999. Gary Clark, Amador Land Use Agency Director, whose environmental department was the lead agency in pursuing the investigation, also was questioned about his role and the county's administration of a state underground tank program under the State Water Resources Control Board. Clark deferred that expertise to county environmental official Bob Fourt who, he said, was hired for that purpose. Clark did relate his conversation "in March or April" when he said he discussed the service station demolition with Robert Womack. Clark said he referred Womack to the City of Jackson "for the demolition." He said he was not thinking about any gas tanks there since the station had been closed for years. During the hearing, Clark, Fourt and county environmental officer Michael Israel sat outside the courtroom where they had been requested to sit, awaiting their time to testify. Factual basis questionedOfficial probably cause information, necessary in getting judicial approval for a search warrant, was not based on fact and the scope of the warrant was overbroad, according to defense attorney Clyde Blackmon in his motion for a hearing on the evidence. He has challenged whether there was anything but innuendo from investigators presenting the magistrate with reasons for the unannounced, all-day search. Prosecuting the case is David Irey, San Joaquin County attorney, initially introduced into the case through the auspices of the state California attorneys association and by invitation of then county D.A. Steven Cilenti. Current District Attorney Todd Riebe has taken a back seat, literally, to Irey's administration of the prosecution's case against Womack, Mark Sherrill and Dave Mason III. At Thursday's standing-room-only session, he sat in the back of the room with other spectators. Ryan testimonyTitle officer George Ryan testified for most of the day with questions about the relevancy of KRL records and whether the business related at all to the gas tank removal or whether its inclusion was an overbroad stroke of the brush into a hazardous materials case. KRL is the Womack children's trust and was not involved in the tank removal. Nor was it the potential buyer of the former service station site, at 505 Sutter where the tank was removed, Ryan told the court. It appeared Irey was attempting to show cause for why KRL records were seized and not returned from search warrants. The October 1998 search is the issue at this point. Blackmon had attempted to question about events at the time of the search but was reminded by Stockton Judge John Cruikshank, who is sitting on the case in Amador Superior Court, that, at this point, it is the information leading to the search warrant that is being examined. Blackmon's request for an evidentiary hearing will take other turns into other areas of the case if the proceedings extend further. Robert Womack, it appears was attempting to help his son Roland Womack, a Jackson dentist, develop a parking area on a small piece of property next to his dental office. The property was conditionally sold, based on whether it could be used as a parking area, Ryan told the court and it was a Roland and Nadine Womack transaction, not a Robert Womack transaction. "I don't recall"Investigator Ron Hall did not do his job well, the defense team tried to point out. Hall was asked, if in his "white collar crime" investigation, had he attempted to even find out who were the principals in his investigation. He reported having talked to Ryan, having gone to the county recorders office to look at records and not knowing how to do it. He looked at some records he said and then left. But when questioned by Blackmon about whether he had gone back to access county records to ascertain deed and escrow information, he admitted he did not know how to use the microfiche machine used for later recorded entries by the county. "Did you ask for help? Blackmon asked. "Did you go back the next day?" Hall answered that he had gone back a second time but, for some reason, probably involving the pressure of other business, he did not access county records to determine who was KRL. He proceeded on the assumption it was a Robert Womack company. The prosecution is currently maintaining the same theory for pursuit of criminal charges against him. KRL is a legal trust for the adult Womack children. A number of transaction papers were reviewed at the hearing showing Roland and Nadine Womack's names as buyers, in escrow work on the Mason service station property. Prosecuting attorney Irey continued to defend the inclusion of KRL into the "conspiracy" charge. RepetitiousA question earlier from Irey on which gas station brought Blackmon to asking Ryan, "how many gas stations have you handled for KRL?" "None," confirmed Ryan, explaining again that the buyer was dentist Roland Womack. Judge Cruikshank held his head. "Sometimes I think I'm in Wonderland," he said "...and I'm Alice." Hall, considered a key witness in the evidence hearing, admitted he did not take very many notes during his investigation. In fact, he produced his investigatory notes, some 3-5 pages of hand-written (one side only) notes containing phone numbers and other abbreviated comments. "I don't recall," was the answer to many questions posed to Hall by the defense counsel. Blackmon asked Hall what direction he was given by Irey and Russell Moore in gathering evidence for further investigating and requesting a search warrant. Moore assumes controlMoore was the California Highway Patrol environmental crimes investigator who headed numerous search teams and also conducted the two-day excavation of property at the home of Luke Womack. Hall, lead investigator and a peace officer for 15 years, said that Irey and Moore had requested he speak with Ryan and look into the KRL Partnership. Hall said he had been on the case since August 1998 and had made a few attempts to identify the players in the investigation. Then on October 22, 1998, Moore became the lead investigator and he made no more attempts to determine the KRL identity. The first search was days later on Oct. 30. "Did Moore go to the recorder's office?" Blackmon asked. "I don't know. He made the decisions." Blackmon produced some of the title work in the possession of the investigators, which lists books, volumes and pages of the pertinent county records. He asked Hall to read the reference material aloud and again asked if Hall had used the references to access the "K's" or the "W's". Hall said he never got around to it before Moore took over. Irey cross examined: "Is this the most complex case in your 15 year career?" "Yes," Hall answered. "Is this the longest time on a case?" "Yes." Further questions along this line were determined "not related" by Judge Cruikshank, who reminded the issue was whether there was evidence enough for a search and whether the judge was mislead into approving a search warrant. Irey wanted to continue a certain line of questioning to which Cruikshank raised his voice. "Whether or not I make a ruling is not an invitation to debate!" Hall told the court he had only prepared language to support a search warrant on four occasions although he had served some 40 of them -- all narcotic offenses. In the search for the missing gas tank, an air search had also been conducted, Hall said. The removed tank was given away and then relocated, with the aid of a reward, according to Robert Womack. Hall acknowledged that it was important to find out who KRL was at least by the time the tank was found but he never completed his recorder's office investigation. Moore no doubt will be asked the same question this Friday. Defense attorneys are challenging the prosecution team to show cause for the first search warrant and the seizure of KRL records in what they call an overbroad search. If proof was not adequate to support the search and seizure, then the basis for the subsequent grand jury proceeding is removed. Copyright © 1999 Amador Ledger Dispatch |
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