PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - A judge declined a request by prosecutors to recuse herself for questioning the veracity of the state’s evidence in open court when she set bail for a man who’d been jailed for 27 years for killing a teen.
The defense accused the state of maligning the judge’s integrity and shopping for judges after the key witness recanted her testimony and the judge allowed Tony Sanborn to be released on bail.
“It would be contrary to the interest of justice for the court to allow the state to game the system in search of a more sympathetic judge,” defense attorney Amy Fairfield wrote in a legal brief.
Justice Joyce Wheeler rejected the request to recuse herself in a closed-door conference with attorneys Tuesday.
“We accept her ruling and are prepared to move forward,” said Tim Feeley, spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
The state made the unusual request based on her comments at the bail hearing that contributed to a public perception that Wheeler had already decided in favor of Sanborn, he said.
The state’s sole witness who put Sanborn at the crime scene told the judge that her testimony was coerced, that she wasn’t anywhere near the crime scene and that she had vision problems.
Afterward, Wheeler said she wouldn’t want to “go forward based on her testimony.” She also said, “This is only a bail hearing so I cannot apologize to you, Mr. Sanborn, at this time. All I can say is that there’s a reasonable likelihood that you will succeed on the petition, and I am going to set bail.”
Tony Sanborn, now 44, was accused of fatally slashing his girlfriend, 16-year-old Jessica Briggs, and dumping her body in Portland Harbor.
The defense contends police zeroed in on street kids, including Briggs’ then-16-year-old boyfriend, Sanborn, while failing to look at other possible suspects in the heavily trafficked waterfront.
Further evidentiary hearings are scheduled for the coming months.
Fairfield declined to comment Tuesday, but she blasted prosecutors in her court filing, saying the state should be “roundly condemned for resorting to unwarranted accusations” against the judge.
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