Dally Case Prosecutors to Examine Notebook

Continuing to press hard in the Sherri Dally homicide investigation, prosecutors won a courtroom victory Friday when a judge gave them access to a notebook that could be used as evidence in the case.

Prosecutors, who said only that the notebook contains “relevant evidence,” were given a spiral-bound notebook belonging to Mary Oliver, the sister of Diana J. Haun.

Law enforcement officials have publicly named Haun, 35, as a suspect, and sources have confirmed that Dally’s husband, 36-year-old Michael Dally, is under investigation as well.

Dally and Haun were co-workers at an Oxnard grocery store.

Though Haun was jailed for four days earlier this month, neither she nor Michael Dally have been charged with any crimes.

Also Friday, Ventura Police Chief Richard Thomas commented publicly on the case for the first time, vowing to arrest the killer or killers and “that justice will ultimately be served.”

Acknowledging that the investigation has “generated a degree of anxiety as to the ultimate outcome of the investigation,” Thomas said in a letter to The Times that once the investigation is complete “the community will understand what has taken place.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin G. DeNoce would not discuss the contents of the notebook given to him Friday, but said the effort to get the latest piece of evidence in the case “was well worth it.”

Investigators with the Ventura Police Department and Ventura County district attorney’s office seized the notebook last week at Oliver’s Oxnard home.

But because prosecutors feared that the notebook may contain privileged attorney-client information, a court-appointed attorney was assigned to seal the notebook in a Manila envelope until Friday’s hearing.

“We wanted to proceed cautiously,” DeNoce said.

Because Oliver, a postal worker who was told of Friday’s hearing earlier this week, did not show up to court to protest the seizure of the notebook, Superior Court Judge Frederick A. Jones gave it to DeNoce after a brief hearing.

Haun’s public defender, Neil B. Quinn, attended the hearing and did not object to the ruling.

Oliver, reached Friday at the Port Hueneme home Haun shares with her mother, declined comment and pointed to a newly posted “no trespassing” sign at the house.

Haun’s mother also refused comment.

“I hate reporters,” she said.

“Because the public defender is representing her, even though charges have not been filed, this naturally raises the attorney-client privilege concern,” DeNoce said. Quinn declined comment.

The notebook was seized at Oliver’s Oxnard house June 18 about the same time investigators swooped into Haun’s Port Hueneme home and Dally’s Ventura home in search of more evidence.

It was at least the second time each home has been raided since the May 6 disappearance of Sherri Dally, a 35-year-old homemaker.

Haun and Dally also submitted to interviews at the Ventura Police Department last week and a judge ordered Haun to provide investigators with a sample of her handwriting.

Police say they believe Sherri Dally was abducted in a car rented in Haun’s name May 5 and returned with blood stains on May 7.

But Haun has maintained since Sherri Dally’s disappearance that she lost her identification and credit cards before the car was rented at the Oxnard Airport.

Volunteer searchers found Dally’s body June 1 in a ravine north of Ventura.

The coroner said Dally, the mother of two young sons, was beaten and stabbed to death.