New Venue Sought in Trial of Dally, Haun

The upcoming murder trial of Michael Dally and Diana Haun should be moved out of Ventura County because of a continuing “media circus” that has already turned it into the most publicized case in recent years, defense attorneys argued Friday.

A formal motion to have the trial transferred to a different jurisdiction was filed late Friday, although the brief had been expected for months.

If Superior Court Judge Frederick A. Jones grants the request, it would mark the first time in nearly two decades that a trial has been moved outside the county because of publicity surrounding the case, court officials said.

“The Haun-Dally case has been the subject of a degree of publicity that is nearly unprecedented in Ventura County,” Deputy Public Defender Neil B. Quinn writes in the 28-page motion, accompanied by a thick stack of newspaper articles about the case.

Quinn, who represents Haun, argues that such reports have tainted the prospective jury pool and reduced the likelihood that his client can get a fair trial in Ventura County.

Quinn requests that the jury be sequestered during what is expected to be a lengthy trial if Jones finds that a change of venue is not necessary.

“The law regarding change of venue recognized that some cases so inflame the passions of the communities in which they occur that there is no hope that a fair trial can be had within that community,” Quinn writes.

He supports his claim by citing the results of a jury survey conducted in January that found that 90% of those questioned had read or heard about the case. And he points to a separate prosecution survey that found most people thought Haun was “definitely or probably” guilty of murder.

In concluding his brief, Quinn states that another factor for Jones to consider in weighing a change of venue is the sudden prominence of the victim and the accused.

Dally and Haun had no status in the community before the slaying, the motion said. But since Sherri Dally’s abduction in May 1996, Quinn states, the defendants have gained notoriety “as liars, adulterers, Satanist, conspirators, backstabbers, home wreckers and killers.”

Dally, 36, and Haun, 35, are accused of plotting and carrying out the brutal slaying of Dally’s 35-year-old wife, Sherri. Prosecutors have accused Haun of abducting Sherri Dally last spring and killing her as part of a plan concocted with Michael Dally, with whom Haun was having an affair.

The pair are charged with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy, plus a special-circumstance allegation that Sherri Dally’s slaying was committed for financial gain. Both would face the death penalty if convicted.

In a confidential survey of prospective jurors conducted in January, defense attorneys found that 454 people had read or heard about the case, while 44 had not.

The majority of respondents said they learned about the case from newspaper and television reports, while others said they heard about it from radio broadcasts and friends.

Recognition of specific details varied, according to the survey. For instance, 88% said they heard about a Target store being involved. Two witnesses told the grand jury last year that they saw Sherri Dally abducted from the parking lot of a Ventura Target store on May 6.

About 81% of those responding to the defense survey reported hearing about the discovery of Sherri Dally’s body, 76% recognized reports of a “love triangle” and 57% knew about adultery being connected to the case, the survey results show.

In addition to the public defender’s findings, Quinn cites statistics compiled by prosecutors who conducted their own survey this year.

According to the defense motion, those findings show that 85% of those surveyed had read or heard about the case. That differs slightly from the 90% recognition rate reported in Quinn’s survey results.

The prosecutors’ questionnaire also found that “widespread knowledge” of the case had caused some respondents to form opinions about the guilt or innocence of the accused.

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Of the approximately 435 people polled, 262 stated that based upon what they knew of the case, Haun was “definitely or probably” guilty. Another 168 said they did not know whether she was guilty. Not one person surveyed said she was “probably or definitely” not guilty.

As a result, Quinn concludes, his client’s only chance for a fair trial lies in moving it to another jurisdiction.

“A change of venue is the only practical way to ensure that when Diana Haun is on trial for her life, it is in front of a jury who has not already tried her, found her guilty, and sentenced her to death based on pretrial publicity,” Quinn writes.

Dally’s defense team has been putting together its own motion and statistics about the pretrial media coverage. Quinn said that motion is forthcoming.

Prosecutors, who could not be reached for comment late Friday, are expected to file a response before a May 1 hearing on the subject.

Earlier this week, prosecutors and defense attorneys informed Jones that they may need three days to conduct a full hearing on the issue. Both sides plan to call experts to testify about pretrial publicity and its perceived impact on criminal cases.

In addition to the formal surveys cited in Quinn’s motion, defense attorneys have gathered statistics about the number and type of stories reported by local news organizations since Sherri Dally’s disappearance nearly a year ago.

Front page articles appeared more than 100 times in The Times and the Ventura County Star, the motion said. KVEN-AM (1450) had 103 news stories about the case between May and December of last year. And at least eight regional television networks have aired reports on the case, the motion states.

Changes of venue are exceedingly rare in Ventura County. There have only been about half a dozen change of venue motions granted for Ventura County cases in the last 30 years, sources said.

The most recent change of venue occurred in 1979 when defense attorneys successfully moved the murder trial of Theodore Frank to Orange County. Frank was convicted of the brutal kidnap-murder of 2 1/2-year-old Amy Sue Seitz.

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The child was abducted from the frontyard of her baby-sitter’s home in Camarillo, raped, tortured and mutilated with locking pliers before being strangled to death. Frank was eventually sentenced to death.

But Frank’s sentence was overturned six years later, and a new penalty trial was held in 1987. Again an Orange County jury recommended a death sentence.

In 1978 and 1979, the murder trials of Ruben Torres and Johnny Lopez were moved to Los Angeles County. The pair, along with Tony Matson, were accused of savagely attacking a teenage couple--raping the girl and killing the boy--in the fields near Channel Islands High School in Oxnard.

In separate trials, Torres and Lopez were convicted of murder and Matson, who was a juvenile at the time, was tried in Orange County a few years later.

In 1976, Paul Skyhorse Durant and Richard Mohawk were accused of slaying cab driver George Aird, whose mutilated body was found near an American Indian Movement camp in Box Canyon near Simi Valley. The murder trial was moved to Los Angeles County and lasted one year. It ended in an acquittal in early 1978.

More recently, defense attorneys tried to move the 1994 murder trial of Mark Scott Thorton, the Thousand Oaks man convicted of killing Westlake nurse Kellie O’Sullivan. Surveys before the trial indicated an 85% recognition rate, yet the trial was not relocated.

Times staff writer Scott Hadly contributed to this story.