Here's a Case that appears to highlight the current viewpoint of many of our prosecutors. Tyler Sanchez; a mentally disabled young man, was charged and prosecuted for sexual assault on an 8 year old girl. While the nature of this crime is reprehensible and especially heinous; the obviously wrongful prosecution of Tyler Sanchez by Douglas County Chief Deputy District Attorney John Topolnicki was no less criminal. Three years after DNA evidence excluded Tyler as a perpetrator of the crime; in addition to zero physical or factual evidence linking him to the crime, the D.A.'s office was forced to stop their charade when it became apparent the Judge was going to dismiss the case. In a vain attempt to save face and show compassion, the Douglas County District Attorney's office finally relented and dropped the charges against Mr. Sanchez before the Judge could throw out the case.
After spending untold tens of thousands of Taxpayer Dollars and years of wasted Court time, Douglas County Chief Deputy District Attorney John Topolnicki has allowed the true perpetrator of this heinous crime to remain at large. Once the Prosecutors had their sights on Mr. Sanchez, why continue investigating when finding the real perpetrator would only prove they were wrong. Never mind the true pursuit of Justice and the Oath to uphold it the Prosecutors swore.
Here are some Links to this story:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/30843914/detail.html
http://kdvr.com/2012/04/04/disabled-young-man-cleared-3-years-after-sexual-assault-arrest/
http://www.9news.com/rss/story.aspx?storyid=261071
Defense Attorney Iris Eytan remained steadfast in her conviction to defend Tyler and was right to be critical of the Prosecutors' handling of the case.
Here's an excerpt from the Denver Channel 7 story on this case: ""As for
the lack of DNA evidence, Topolnicki said, "the analysis eliminated the
defendant as a contributor to the (DNA) mixture, but did not exonerate
him as the perpetrator of the crime. There are a variety of innocent
explanations that would explain family members or unknown others as
contributors" to the mixture of DNA found on the child's underwear. The defense attorney scoffed at the prosecutor's assertion. "It's
the first case in history where DNA doesn't count," Eytan said. "So DNA
only counts when it convicts somebody, but it doesn't count when it
exonerates somebody. "Meanwhile, Topolnicki blamed defense
attorneys for dragging out the case, saying they objected to some
prosecution requests for evaluations of Sanchez. "If these evaluations had been done sooner, the case would have been resolved sooner," the prosecutor said. Eytan
fired back, saying, "It's offensive that the prosecution that was
prosecuting an innocent person for three years would blame the defense
for making this last this long." She said Sanchez's family has had
to spend money on attorneys and private investigators along with paying
$380 a month for a mandated GPS tracking-device that Sanchez had to
wear on his ankle for 2½ years. Ultimately, Eytan said, law enforcement officials have so far failed to find the man who really attacked the young girl. "How about letting the real guy who committed this offense go off because they were so focused on Tyler?" she said.""
Unfortunately; it appears the mindset of the D.A.'s office in this case was "Any Defendant will do" and "A Defendant in the hand is worth two in the bush".
Respectfully,
Bond Squad Bail Bonds
http://www.bondsquadbailbonds.com
