Prosecutor for Gillean subpoenaed

CONWAY - An attorney for Jack Gillean, a former University of Central Arkansas chief of staff who is awaiting trial on felony charges, has subpoenaed an unlikely pretrial witness: the chief deputy prosecutor who is handling the case.

A subpoena filed with the Faulkner County circuit clerk’s office instructs Troy Braswell to appear in Circuit Court at 1 p.m. May 10, the date of Gillean’s next pretrial hearing. That is when the court is expected to hear arguments on various motions filed by Gillean’s team of three attorneys: Nicki Nicolo, Sam Perroni and Timothy Dudley.

Gillean, 56, is charged with four felonies, including three counts of commercial burglary.

Nicolo, who issued the subpoena filed April 10, did not return a phone message seeking comment Wednesday.

But Dudley said the subpoena was not filed by mistake and said it would probably be discussed during the May 10 hearing. Dudley declined to comment on what led to the subpoena.

Perroni, however, said later that the subpoena related to a previous defense motion seeking to move the trial from Faulkner County to rural Van Buren County because of pretrial publicity - a motion the prosecution opposes.

“We haven’t asked for anybody to be removed from this case at this time,” Perroni added.

In February, defense attorneys seeking the change of venue contended the prosecutor’s office had violated Rule 3.8 of the Arkansas Rules of Professional Conduct, which says in part that a prosecutor should refrain from making “extrajudicial comments that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused and exercise reasonable care to prevent” investigators and other personnel helping with the case from making such statements.

In a response filed in court, Braswell wrote, “The State …disputes the baseless and inflammatory allegations made” in the defense motion.

“A review of the Defendant’s Exhibits clearly reveals that the Prosecutor routinely refused to answer questions related to the evidence of the case,” Braswell wrote, referring to newspaper articles included as exhibits with the defense request. “All statements have complied with Rule 3.8.”

Contacted Wednesday, Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said, “All of our attorneys understand the rules related to trying a criminal case, and they are adhered to in all cases, including this one.”

Michael Johnson, a former assistant U.S. attorney and now a visiting professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s William H. Bowen School of Law, said attorneys in criminal cases normally do not subpoena each other.

Johnson did not want to comment on factors that could lead to such a subpoena, saying, “That would just be wild speculation on my part.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 18 on 04/20/2013

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