Judge Urged Not to Move Dally-Haun Murder Trial

In a mammoth-sized motion that draws on case history and the musings of Mark Twain, Ventura County prosecutors have urged a judge to reject requests to move the murder trial of Michael Dally and Diana Haun to another county.

Dally, 36, and his girlfriend, Haun, who turns 36 today, are accused of planning and carrying out the brutal slaying of his 35-year-old wife, Sherri, last year.

Their high-profile case is set for trial in Ventura County Superior Court in June, but defense attorneys want it moved out of the county on the grounds that pretrial publicity has tainted the prospective jury pool.

In the first part of a voluminous motion filed Friday, prosecutors argue that a change of venue is unnecessary. And they cite numerous cases, locally and nationally, in which juries were impaneled and verdicts reached despite a deluge of media attention.

“Innumerable reported California cases have been tried in their original county which were far more notorious, sensational and highly publicized than this one,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris wrote.

Charles Manson, William Bonin, Richard Ramirez and John DeLorean--just to name a few--all were tried in the counties where their crimes were committed despite national media coverage, he said.

Moreover, Kossoris notes in his brief, coverage of the Dally-Haun case has not been pervasive enough to taint the jury pool in a county with more than 700,000 residents.

And although polling results show an 85% recognition rate of the case, Kossoris argues that people who have read or heard about it are still capable of reaching a fair verdict.

As a prelude to his lengthy motion, the prosecutor includes a humorous 1872 literary passage describing selection of a jury in which every educated person with knowledge of the case was dismissed, leaving a panel of ignorant bandits and drunkards.

“As suggested by Mark Twain, it should not be assumed that jurors of intelligence and character are necessarily unable to render a fair and impartial verdict merely because they have heard something and have some knowledge about a case,” Kossoris said.

But in separate motions filed earlier this month, defense attorneys contend that news reports of the case have improperly influenced prospective jurors and reduced the likelihood that their clients can get a fair trial in this county.

“This unrestrained publicity has caused the public to form negative prejudgments about the case and the defendants,” Deputy Public Defender Neil B. Quinn writes in his motion.

Defense attorneys specifically point to reports of Dally and Haun’s two-year love affair, references to their alleged involvement in Satanism and the “angelic” portrayal of Sherri Dally in feature stories and newspaper photos.

“This case, as indicated by the press, has all the trappings of a day time soap opera and a day time talk/gossip show all in one,” defense attorney James M. Farley, who is representing Dally, writes in his brief. “None of the details were lost on the Ventura County newspapers.

“Any jury picked from this county,” he continues, “will not be able to leave behind them the news speculation and sensationalism on evidence which may or may not be admissible during this trial.”

But to buoy their claims that pretrial publicity has not hampered the defendants’ fair-trial rights, prosecutors have presented Judge Frederick A. Jones with a detailed study of more than 400 potential jurors conducted by a UC San Diego professor this year.

In a report totaling more than 150 pages, Ebbe B. Ebbesen reports that of those surveyed, 85% recognized the Dally-Haun case from news reports, but 55% said they could not recall the facts of the case.

About 58% were willing to guess that Dally and Haun were guilty, although that number dropped to 20% when asked if they believed the pair were guilty of first-degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt--the legal standard for a conviction.

About 73% reported that if selected to serve on the jury, they could be fair and impartial and set aside what they have heard about the case.

A hearing on the motions is set to begin Thursday.