Prosecutor Deters cleared in Wogenstahl's case

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Deters cleared of wrongdoing in Wogenstahl death case:


Dan Horn reports here in the Cincinnati Enquirer that Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters has been cleared of wrongdoing in the trial of Ohio death row inmate Jeffrey Wogenstahl.

Excerpt:
Convicted child killer Jeffrey Wogenstahl got a fair trial despite his claims that Hamilton County prosecutors hid evidence, lied about witnesses and misled the jury, a federal magistrate ruled Friday.

...U.S. District Court Magistrate Michael Merz sided with prosecutors in a 184-page decision that rejected all of Wogenstahl’s claims.

The magistrate said prosecutors may have made some mistakes during the trial, but none of those potential errors is egregious enough to justify throwing out Wogenstahl’s guilty verdict or his death sentence.

...“There’s serious reason for concern,” said Greg Meyers, one of Wogenstahl’s lawyers. He said he would ask a federal judge to reverse Merz’s decision.

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Judge clears Deters in death case

BY DAN HORN | [e-mail]

Convicted child killer Jeffrey Wogenstahl got a fair trial despite his claims that Hamilton County prosecutors hid evidence, lied about witnesses and misled the jury, a federal magistrate ruled Friday.

Wogenstahl, who is on Ohio’s death row, accused Prosecutor Joe Deters and others of misconduct during his trial in 1993 for the murder of 10-year-old Amber Garrett.

Deters denied the allegations and said Wogenstahl was lying to stave off his own execution.

U.S. District Court Magistrate Michael Merz sided with prosecutors in a 184-page decision that rejected all of Wogenstahl’s claims.

The magistrate said prosecutors may have made some mistakes during the trial, but none of those potential errors is egregious enough to justify throwing out Wogenstahl’s guilty verdict or his death sentence.

“There was an enormous amount of evidence of Mr. Wogenstahl’s guilt introduced at trial,” Merz wrote.

The ruling is the latest in a long legal fight over the fairness of Wogenstahl’s trial, one of the biggest murder cases in Hamilton County in the early 1990s.
Deters said the magistrate’s decision shows Wogenstahl’s claims are based on his desire to avoid lethal injection – and not on the facts.

“These are the games that they play,” Deters said. “They will do or say anything to prevent the sentence from being carried out.”

In an unusual move, Merz held an evidentiary hearing in 2005 that required Deters and his assistant prosecutors to testify about their handling of Wogenstahl’s case.
Wogenstahl accused the prosecutors of a wide range of misconduct, including withholding evidence from his lawyers and tainting the jury with inflammatory comments.

His lawyers said prosecutors also failed to share information about Eric Horn, who was baby-sitting Garrett the night she disappeared. Wogenstahl claimed he went to the house that night to buy marijuana from Horn and not to abduct Garrett.

A police officer said he told Deters that Horn had been arrested before for selling marijuana, but the arrest information was never shared with defense lawyers. Deters said he did not recall being told of Horn’s drug arrest.

“There’s serious reason for concern,” said Greg Meyers, one of Wogenstahl’s lawyers. He said he would ask a federal judge to reverse Merz’s decision.

Deters said the evidence against Wogenstahl is strong. He said a DNA test requested by Wogenstahl after his trial found that a speck of blood in his car matched Garrett’s DNA.