[svlug] Hans Reiser charged, pleads innocent, seeks speedy trial

[Rick Moen]

I wrote:

> > Now it's quite possible that Hans is innocent and his wife just ran
> > off to Russia.  
> 
> Or that someone else murdered her.  An estranged husband makes a dandy
> diversion.

There was a recent (bizarre) bit of news related to the Reiser case.  See:
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2007/05/reiser
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/05/bizzare_turn_in.html

Much past speculation in the matter of estranged wife Nina Reiser's
disappearance has centred around Nina's recent boyfriend (and former
Hans Reiser friend) Sean Sturgeon, who was alleged to have a rather
violent lifestyle and to be heavily involved in sadomasochism.  

Last week, Sean Sturgeon confessed, to unstated law enforcement
officials, his commission of eight unrelated murders (and possibly nine,
if that victim didn't survive).  According to Hans Reiser's father Ramon
Reiser, Sturgeon said he committed those murders as "retaliation" for
abuse of him during his childhood.  Sturgeon denies committing any
crimes against Nina Reiser, however.  Sturgeon has not yet been arrested
or charged.

Alameda Superior Court Judge Don Clay ordered (via a sealed order) both
attorney teams in the Hans Reiser case, this past Monday, to say nothing
more in public about Sturgeon and his confessions.  However, defending
counsel is quite certain to bring the matter up at trial.


The first actual day of Hans Reiser's murder trial, for jury selection,
will be this coming Monday.[0]  I'm reasonably confident that the case
will be heard in René C. Davidson Courthouse, 1225 Fallon Street near
12th / Oak Streets, Oakland, as that's where felony cases for the
northern part of Alameda County are heard.  (The court's calendar is
unavailable online.)

Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Paul Hora is assigned to
prosecute the case for the County.  Noted defence attorney William
DuBois will head defence.  

Hans has now been kept in county jail for seven months -- Judge Julie
Conger having ruled on March 9th that the case needed to go to trial
within 90 days.  (Seven months is what your Sixth Amendment right to a
"speedy trial"[1] means, apparently.)  None of the news reporting has 
bothered to clarify what the exact charges are, but a reasonable guess 
is that Hans has been accused of one count of murder in the second
degree.

Prosecution's primary (and maybe sole) physical evidence, judging by
preliminary hearings in front of Judge Conger, appears to be trace
amounts ("small drops") of blood found in Hans Reiser and his mother's
house and in Hans Reiser's Honda CRX, which DNA testing found to be
compatible with Nina Reiser's DNA.  Circumstantial evidence included
Hans Reiser purchasing two books about police conduct of murder
investigations after he was grilled by police as a suspect and was being
trailed around town by police cars, and the unexplained disappearance of
the front passenger seat of Hans Reiser's car.  No body has ever been
found.

County district attorneys outlined for Conger a theory whereby Hans
murdered Nina at his house and removed the body while the children were
elsewhere in the house.  However, Hans's eight-year-old son Rory Reiser
testified before his removal by his mother's family to Russia (in
violation of court order) that he saw his mother get in her car and
leave the Reiser residence alive.  Conger said she found the DAs' theory
utterly unconvincing, but that Hans's behaviour was sufficiently
suspicious to justify not dismissing charges, and that, even if Hans
Reiser isn't responsible his wife's murder, he may know who killed her.


[0] From my first attempt to serve on a criminal jury, I remember that
jury selection for a felony case typically takes 2-3 days.

[1] Actually:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment06/02.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Speedy_trial