Schuler, 33, is accused of allegedly having sexual relations with the students on five different occasions at her Cobblestone Lane home in Springboro last year. She originally entered a plea of not guilty, but Common Pleas Judge Robert Peeler approved a plea change this week to not guilty by reason of insanity. Schuler’s attorneys contend the students took advantage of her and since she was impaired, she was helpless to stop it.
Prosecutors, using new rules of evidence, have been withholding videotaped interviews with the young men who are the alleged victims, from the defense. During a hearing on Thursday regarding the nondisclosure, Assistant Prosecutor Teresa Hiett started out defending their decision.
“This case has received an exorbitant amount of publicity,” she said. “Everyone in Mason and county were trying to find out who these boys were. There was even a website in Cincinnati devoted to titillating ‘Who is it?’, ‘Who is it?’ At the time we initially filed this, the state was and still is very protective of these five victims. The families do not want these boys’ names out in the media.”
She said she turned over transcripts of the interviews which she thought should be sufficient. She said however, she would turn over the tapes if ordered.
Charlie M. Rittgers told the court there is no legal basis for withholding the tapes and they need them for the trial, to cross examine the boys. His reasoning was outlined in depth in a court filing.
“There is information in the recorded interviews that cannot be learned or discovered from reading the transcripts,” he wrote. “The witness’ demeanor, the forcefulness of their voices or in the interviewer’s voice, the impact of the witness’ parents being present during the interview... are just a few of the many examples of information not discernible from simply reading the transcripts.”
New rules of evidence require that a judge other than the jurist presiding over the case must rule on any nondisclosure disputes, to avoid the appearance of partiality if too much pretrial information is disclosed at a hearing. Common Pleas Judge James Flannery was scheduled to hear arguments over the nondisclosure matter. Peeler was miffed with Hiett for not notifying the court that there was no longer a need for the hearing, because she agreed to release the tapes.
“I don’t want to have to schedule another hearing, set aside another hour of court time and get another judge involved, just to be told ‘all I want is for you to order me to do it’,” he said. “If you are supposed to turn the documents over, turn the documents over.”
The new rules of evidence were adopted a year ago, in an effort to expand disclosure of evidence. Cleveland attorney Ian Friedman was the principal drafter of the rules. He says the rules are working.
“Overall it’s a dramatic change,” he said. “There may some practices in smaller jurisdictions that are still holding out, but overall the state has changed and adapted very well. The rule is helping all parties as it was designed to.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.
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