The prosecution in the Wone case missed a deadline this month and are now asking a judge for a little extra time to file a response.
It remains unknown—publicly at least—why the March 13 deadline came and went with nary a peep on the docket from the prosecution. And the government's filing this week doesn’t shed any more light on what happened.
Glenn Kirschner, the chief prosecutor in the case against Joseph Price, Victor Zaborsky, and Dylan Ward—the men are charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and evidence tampering—filed a motion Tuesday asking for an extension of time to respond to a defense request for a bill of particulars. The defense lawyers say the motion should be considered conceded because the government failed to respond.
In the government's motion, Kirschner recites the timeline of the case, starting with August 2, 2006, when prosecutors say Wone was restrained, sexually assaulted, and fatally stabbed in the home of Price and Zaborsky near Dupont Circle. Nobody has been charged with murder in the case.
Kirschner said courts have discretion to grant more time “for cause.” There is nothing said about why the government did not respond in time to the defense motion, however.
The government, Kirschner wrote, plans to respond to the motion. He asked for a deadline of April 17—a week before a scheduled status conference before Superior Court Judge Frederick Weisberg. Kirschner said an extension of time does not harm the defendants and their counsel.
Defense lawyers David Schertler, Bernard Grimm, and Thomas Connolly this week filed a consolidated request demanding the government turn over additional discovery materials to the defense.
Among other things, the lawyers want all statements Price, Zaborsky, and Ward made to police in the hours after the murder. The lawyers say they’ve only been given portions of videotaped statements Price, Zaborsky, and Ward made to police. The men spoke for a combined 25 hours without counsel, according to court records.
Detectives, the defense lawyers say, honed in on the sexual orientation of Price, Zaborsky, and Ward, “concluding within hours of Mr. Wone’s death and without any basis that defendants must have sexually assaulted then killed Mr. Wone.”
The lawyers include in a footnote a statement a detective reportedly made to Price during the interrogation: “I got three homosexuals in the house and I got one straight guy. What’s he doing over there? What’s he doing over there!” The detective then puts himself on the side of Price, Zaborsky, and Ward. “I think we were all drinking wine, you know what’s going to happen tonight, you are coming to Jesus tonight, that’s what is going on tonight.”
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