For all updates on the Jerod Green trial, click this link.
12/10/2012 update: Jerod Green’s trial began today. Opening arguments for both sides were heard.
A Pennsylvania judge refused Jerod Green’s request to suppress evidence in Green’s murder trial. The request was based on Green’s allegations that Monongalia County Sheriff ’s Department Sgt. Todd May caused the crash that took May’s life. Green’s attorney, John Bongivengo, alleged that May intentionally rammed Green’s truck, which he said constituted unjustified deadly force. As such, Bongivengo said that all evidence obtained after the crash should be thrown out.
The allegation, however, contradicts a Monongalia County sheriff deputy’s testimony that he saw Green drive directly into May’s patrol vehicle, which was parked in the median of Interstate 79, just inside the Pennsylvania border according to the Dominion Post. Greene County Judge William Nalitz dismissed Bongivengo’s argument in an order this week. He also made several other rulings in the case — denying a defense-made motion to dismiss homicide-related charges because of a lack of evidence, and agreeing to allow the commonwealth to present evidence regarding Green’s five DUI convictions from Oklahoma.
Green, 35, of Morgantown, is awaiting trial on charges of murder of a law enforcement officer, homicide by vehicle while DUI, and criminal homicide, among others, for the Feb. 18 crash that killed May, a 10-year veteran of the sheriff ’s department. Police in Pennsylvania and West Virginia accused Green of driving drunk, fleeing a crash on Easton Hill, driving away from officers who pulled him over on W.Va. 100, and leading police on a chase across the state line that ended when he hit May’s patrol vehicle.
In the order, Nalitz refused Bongivengo’s motion for dismissal based on his claims that the Commonwealth failed to present enough evidence to show that Green intentionally and recklessly caused the crash that killed May. The judge also refused Bongivengo’s request to throw out a charge of murder of a law enforcement officer based on Bongivengo’s claim that, since May was in Pennsylvania when the crash occurred, he was not acting as an officer. In other issues, Nalitz said he wants more information from Bongivengo on his motion to suppress evidence because of alleged defects in search warrants obtained by Pennsylvania State Police. He said he won’t address the part of the motion pertaining to warrants obtained in West Virginia because that is out of his jurisdiction.
Submitted by the Robinette Legal Group, PLLC, West Virginia Workplace Injury/Wrongful Death Lawyers. Free books — Call us today: 304-594-1800 for your free copy of Righting the Wrong: WV Serious Injury Guide; Collision Care: WV Auto Injury Guide; or Beside Still Waters: WV Fatal Injury Guide for Families.