Donna Adelson's latest attempt to remove judge from murder trial rejected by 1st DCA
Donna Adelson struck out again in her attempt to have Leon Circuit Judge Stephen Everett booted from her trial.
On Friday, May 9, a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal rejected Adelson's latest attempt to remove Everett, denying her request for a writ of prohibition.
Her attorneys, Jackie Fulford and Josh Zelman of Tallahassee, filed motions under seal last month with the trial court asking that Everett be disqualified and replaced with a different judge. After Everett denied the motions, Adelson appealed to the 1st DCA.
Adelson, 75, is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation in the 2014 contract killing of her former son-in-law, Dan Markel. The Florida State law professor was fatally shot at his Betton Hills home in the midst of a bitter court battle with his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, the defendant's daughter.
Her attempts to remove Everett stem from a more recent and still shadowy criminal investigation into allegations involving her and her attorneys. The details of that probe remain under seal — but a few of them surfaced in the appellate court's three-page opinion.
Adelson claimed Everett engaged in improper ex parte communications with the state by reviewing search and seizure warrant applications involving her husband Harvey Adelson's cell phone records and a wiretap of his cell phone. She asserted that as a result, she had a 'reasonable fear' that she wouldn't receive a fair and impartial trial.
But the appellate judges rejected that. The opinion was written by Judge Robert E. Long Jr., with Judges Lori S. Rowe and Ross L. Bilbrey concurring.
'These claims are meritless and facially insufficient,' their opinion says.
The more recent Adelson investigation came to light during an April 30 hearing. Assistant State Attorney Sarah Kathryn Dugan said prosecutors got a 'lead' last fall that led to new evidence in the form of phone conversations that were secretly recorded in February.
She said that while the investigation ended — apparently without any new charges filed — the state intended to use one or two of the conversations at trial.
Zelman said the state intercepted and monitored privileged attorney-client communications. He also said that the allegations that sparked the probe, which came from an informant of some kind, proved 'false.'
Outside the courtroom, Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman declined to reveal any other details about the most recent investigation. However, she disagreed with the defense's characterization of the information used to justify wiretaps.
'My position is that it's not false,' Cappleman said.
The latest investigation came up again Friday, May 9, during another short hearing before Everett, with Adelson appearing by Zoom.
The hearing involved a defense motion to conduct depositions of three key state witnesses, Sgt. Chris Corbitt of Tallahassee Police Department, FBI agent Pat Sanford and Robert Adelson, the defendant's estranged oldest son.
Fulford said the defense was 'stuck' with depositions taken by previous counsel and that the defense wants to depose all three about the murder investigation. The defense also wants to question Corbitt and Sanford about the latest probe.
'In light of the new investigation, specifically as to Mr. Corbitt, the action that he took and the representations that he made in the new investigation certainly call into question what he did in the old investigation in a very material way,' Fulford said. 'Because those representations that were made to your honor and another judge in this case are false, and warrants were issued based on false information.'
Cappleman objected to re-deposing witnesses about the chief murder investigation but indicated she was fine for 'something new.'
Everett ruled that witnesses who were previously deposed may be deposed again. He also said if there are topics that cover new information, the defense is free to depose and instructed the parties to coordinate the depositions.
Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Donna Adelson's latest attempt to remove judge from murder trial rejected
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