Skakel’s prosecutors want case moved out of Stamford

By J.A. Johnson Jr.
Staff Writer

Where Michael Skakel will be tried for the 1975 murder of Greenwich teenager Martha Moxley remains undecided, as a judge yesterday reserved judgment after hearing arguments for holding the trial in Stamford or Bridgeport.

Judge John Kavanewsky Jr. said in state Superior Court in Stamford that he will issue a written decision before Skakel's April 18 probable cause hearing, in which a judge will determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant Skakel's case going to trial.

The state's attorney's office in Bridgeport has requested the case be transferred to that city because that is where felonies throughout Fairfield Country were prosecuted before the creation of the Stamford-Norwalk Judicial District in October 1981. Skakel was charged with the murder in January 2000.

Senior Assistant State's Attorney Susan Gill yesterday argued that Skakel's case has a history of being prosecuted in Bridgeport, because it was in that city's Fairfield County Courthouse where the grand jury, beginning in 1998, met for 18 months while investigating the murder.

"Parts of this case have already been adjudicated at the Bridgeport courthouse," including open-court proceedings pertaining to confidentiality matters and similar issues concerning the grand jury investigation of the Moxley murder, Gill told the judge.

But Skakel's attorney, Michael Sherman of Stamford, argued that under state law, the only valid reason for requesting a change of venue is when the defendant's right to a fair trial may have been compromised by pretrial publicity. Sherman alerted Kavanewsky to the statute, which states that cases may be transferred to another judicial district only with the consent of both the prosecution and defendant.

"Well, we don't agree," Sherman told the judge.

After the 40-minute hearing, Sherman said he believes the prosecution wants the venue change because of convenience.

"It would be artificial to transfer the case to the state's attorney's back yard just so they don't have to battle the traffic on I-95," Sherman said after the hearing.

During the hearing, Sherman noted that a state Superior Court judge has designated the Stamford courthouse as the site of the trial.

Sherman said while he believes Skakel would receive a fair trial no matter where it is held, he believes his client would be more likely to be judged by a jury of his peers if tried in Stamford.

In her Jan. 31 ruling that transferred Skakel's case from juvenile to adult court, Judge Maureen Dennis stated that the Stamford courthouse "is the most appropriate venue at this time, in that the murder of Martha Moxley was committed in the town of Greenwich, which falls within the judicial district of Stamford-Norwalk."

Skakel originally was arraigned as a juvenile because he was 15 when Moxley was murdered in the Belle Haven section of Greenwich.

In cross-examining the state's only witness, Steven Weiss, at yesterday's hearing, Sherman elicited testimony that the practice of transferring cases involving crimes committed before October 1981 had been an unwritten rule, rather than a state law or codified policy.

Weiss, the supervisory assistant state's attorney in Stamford, was chief court clerk when the Stamford-Norwalk Judicial District was created. Weiss said he and Stamford State's Attorney Eugene Callahan met to discuss how to handle cases involving crimes committed in the former Fairfield district but for which arrests were made in the newly created Stamford-Norwalk district.

"The rule we came up with, if the offense was committed before October 1981, that case would go to Bridgeport if the arrest was made after October 1981," Weiss testified under examination by Gill.

"But that rule is not written down?" Sherman said.

"No," Weiss replied.

"Is there a memo (explaining the rule)?" Sherman said.

"I don't think so," Weiss answered.

Under that rule, Weiss testified, four to seven cases were transferred from Stamford to Bridgeport. He said all of those transfers occurred within six months of the creation of the Stamford-Norwalk Judicial District.

When asked whether he could name the transferred cases, Weiss replied, "I cannot recall."