Haun Pleads Not Guilty as Dally Goes to Grand Jury

As grocery clerk Diana J. Haun pleaded not guilty Monday to the slaying of Ventura homemaker Sherri Dally, the victim’s husband appeared briefly before a grand jury investigating the May homicide, but was dismissed after asking for an attorney.

Haun, 35, appearing relaxed in a blue jail smock and even smiling twice, maintained her innocence to charges of kidnapping and first-degree murder under special circumstances of premeditation and lying in wait, which would allow her to be put to death if convicted.

As a phalanx of television and print photographers focused on the pale Haun at an early morning arraignment, she stood quietly, speaking only to her lawyers. Arrested Thursday after a three-month Ventura police investigation, the Port Hueneme woman was ordered held in County Jail without bail.

Meanwhile, in a courthouse chamber two floors above, Michael Dally, the victim’s husband and Haun’s longtime lover, slipped out of the closed grand jury session only 20 minutes after he had arrived at 9:15 a.m., asking to meet with a lawyer about his rights.

“They advised him he had a right to an attorney, and he said he wanted one,” said Ventura lawyer James Farley, who has defended numerous local murder suspects and who said he is now acting as Dally’s legal advisor. “I’m not his lawyer, he’s not charged with a crime. I’m just advising him at this time.”

Dally is subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury Friday, and Farley said he thinks Dally will be able to answer every question. The lawyer said he does not expect Dally to invoke his Fifth Amendment constitutional protection against self-incrimination.

“As far as I can tell, there isn’t any evidence against him,” Farley said. “There’s a lot of suspicion, but suspicion is a bucket with a hole in it. He can answer every question they ask him if it doesn’t tend to incriminate him, and I don’t see how it can.”

Farley said Dally did not refuse to answer questions Monday morning, instead asking for a lawyer before prosecutors could question him about his wife’s death. With reporters quizzing a silent Dally in a courthouse hallway, a prosecutor escorted the Oxnard grocery clerk to meet with Farley.

Because the public defender’s office represents Haun and could not represent Dally because of a conflict of interest, Farley could be appointed as Dally’s lawyer if charges are eventually filed against the suspect and he cannot afford to pay for his own defense.

Sherri Dally, a 35-year-old homemaker and day-care center operator, was abducted May 6 from the parking lot of a Ventura department store. Her skeletal body--skull bludgeoned and upper torso stabbed repeatedly--was found by a search party of friends June 1 in a ravine north of Ventura.

Following Haun’s arrest last week, a police spokesman said investigators believe at least one other suspect was involved in the crime. And Michael Dally remains a suspect, the spokesman confirmed.

“The police tell us they have not eliminated Mr. Dally as a suspect, and I’m sure they’re going to be looking to see if there’s something there [in grand jury testimony],” Farley said. “But I don’t think they’re going to find zip.”

Dally, 36, a grocery clerk who worked with Haun for 2 1/2 years at a Vons in Oxnard, was one of several witnesses called before the grand jury Monday. Prosecutors hope to present enough evidence over the next two weeks so jurors will indict Haun, sending the case directly to trial in Superior Court without a preliminary hearing.

Ventura County prosecutors routinely seek grand jury indictments in murder cases after initially filing charges in criminal complaints, because that avoids lengthy preliminary hearings and prevents defense attorneys from cross-examining witnesses or getting an early preview of evidence against their clients.

Haun’s main lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Neil Quinn, kept the time pressure on the district attorney Monday by getting Municipal Judge John Smiley to set a preliminary hearing for the earliest possible date, Aug. 19.

If no indictment is issued by then, the preliminary hearing would begin.

“Any time there’s a proceeding done behind closed doors . . . a lawyer gets very nervous,” Quinn said, noting that grand jury indictments in criminal cases at one point were prohibited by the courts.

Judge Smiley also set a hearing for Thursday on a motion Quinn said he is preparing to force examination of the way Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury is conducting his grand jury inquiry of Haun.

“We want to make sure the proper procedures are followed,” Quinn said.

Bradbury was apparently involved with Monday’s grand jury session. He personally wheeled a cart of binders and file folders into the chamber.

Fearful of more pretrial publicity in a high-profile case and not wanting to comment on secret grand jury proceedings, the district attorney’s office refused comment on all of Monday’s developments.

Quinn argued unsuccessfully against allowing cameras in the courtroom during the arraignment, and he said after the hearing that one of the defense’s options is to try to get the Haun trial moved out of Ventura County.

That would likely force Bradbury off the case, the prosecutor’s assistants have said.

If the case stays here, Bradbury is expected to return to the courtroom for the first time in more than a decade to prosecute Haun.

Times correspondent Scott Steepleton contributed to this story.