Letter to the Editor: Newspaper, prosecution were unfair in case

Editor:

Last Tuesday and Wednesday my husband and I were at the Hill County Courthouse in support of our daughter, the defendant, who was served papers for taking money from her grandmother-in-law who lived at Eagles Manor. Our daughter had been helping the grandmother-in-law with grocery shopping, banking issues and doctor appointments. This case was started a year ago in June 2014.

The case was to go to trial Jan. 27, 28 and 29. We met that day and there were more important trials, so ours got bumped. Then we were scheduled to go to trial April 15, 16 and 17, and were bumped again. All the while, we were paying  our attorney. The defendant had bail restrictions that included a curfew the whole time this was going on, from June 2014 to present. She couldn't leave the house before 6 a.m. and had to be home by 10 p.m. and could not leave the county without permission from the prosecution, and if he denied her going, she had to go before the judge. Her son was in sporting activities and left the county for games. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

Finally, June 2, we had our trial date. The jury was selected that morning and the prosecutors began their case after lunch.  

That day, the grandmother-in-law, Adult Protective Services and bank employees took the stand.

Adult Protective Services went through the bank statements and discussed “suspicious charges” that she turned over to the Havre Police Department. That afternoon, the Havre Daily News was at the trial and placed the trial information on the front page of the paper.

On Wednesday, the defendant took the stand for two-and-a-half hours explaining more than 40 charges from the bank statement including the “suspicious charges.” She explained every charge except maybe four or five. The Havre Daily News never showed up at all Wednesday when the defendant was on the stand.

Then the defendant’s good friend, mother-in-law and husband took the stand. The case went to the jury at 4:15 p.m. Wednesday and came back at 6:15 p.m. with a not-guilty verdict. The Havre Daily News, on Thursday’s edition, stated the not-guilty verdict, but the rest of the article was the same as Wednesday’s — nothing about the defendant’s testimony.

The case has gone on for way too long and was not covered in a decent way.

A person is considered innocent until proven guilty, and that was not the case in this situation.

We spent many thousands of dollars over a very stupid and definitely not-needed trial. If people would have done a better job investigating, it would have never gone to trial.

Kathy and Gary Glock

Havre