Richey wants trial moved to Columbus

Richey told The Lima News that Columbus is at the top of the list as a potential site for his trial if his motion for a change of venue is granted.

The motion says intense media coverage over the past 20 years will keep Richey from getting a fair trial in Putnam County. Richey is being retried for the 1986 fire death of 2-year-old Cynthia Collins at a Columbus Grove apartment complex.

Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty, although a new indictment has not been filed. Richey spent 20 years on death row before a federal appellate court overturned his conviction, saying his attorneys at his 1987 trial didn’t do a good enough job.

Richey has maintained his innocence.

 Kenneth Richey says the only way he can get a fair trial is to move it far away from Putnam County.

His attorneys filed a formal request this week asking Richey’s case be moved to Columbus. Whether that happens remains to be told but a long-time judge and defense attorney said having the request granted is rare.

“The courts are very reluctant to grant a change of venue,” said Alan Konop, a Toledo-based defense attorney with 43 years experience.

Konop successfully received a change of venue for a Wapakoneta woman accused of killing her husband who was an attorney in the town. The Kimberly Anderson case in 2002 was the only trial during his career Konop won a change of venue, he said.

“For the most part, courts wait to make a ruling until the jury selection process is completed or mostly completed,” he said.

Richey, 43, is facing a new trial with the prosecution seeking the death penalty. He is charged in the June 30, 1986, fire death of 2-year-old Cynthia Collins in a Columbus Grove apartment.

Former Van Wert Common Pleas and 3rd District Court of Appeals Judge Sumner Walters said a change of venue only occurs when the judge believes the defendant cannot get an impartial jury.

Walters has moved only one case in his 30-year career, not long ago when he sat in Highland County on assignment.

“If they go a day or two and are not making much progress they will change the venue. It isn’t done that often,” he said.

Walters, now a retired judge sitting by assignment, handled the high-profile death penalty case of John Spirko, a man accused of killing the Elgin Postmaster in 1982. He said he has found people sometimes have heard about a case but remember very few facts.

“I think people retain very little of it,” Walters said.

Walters has spent most of his time on the bench in smaller towns such as Van Wert where he always was able to seat a jury, he said.

“I think there are appropriate cases for a change of venue. I can’t speak to the Richey case,” he said.

The decision to move a trial to another county is made by the judge handling the case after a defense attorney has filed a motion for change of venue, Walters said.

There’s no guideline on where a case is moved but for Walters, he said he would consider a county with a similar demographic that is far enough away.

“You want to get out of the media market, which is the foreseen problem,” he said.

Just because a juror has heard about a case does not disqualify the person. If the juror convinces the court he can set aside his knowledge and opinion and hear the case with an open mind, that person could make the jury, Konop said.

In the Anderson case, Konop said the extensive media coverage — which included articles and letters to the editor — was key to having the case moved.

Konop said he has filed about a dozen times for a change of venue during his career and reserves it when it’s deserved.

“You can file whatever you want to file but you have to have some solid reason other than just an article or two appeared in the newspaper. There has to be extensive pretrial publicity,” Konop said.

In the Richey case, his legal team has collected 426 newspaper articles, letters to the editor or editorials about the case written since it began. That does not include any reports television or radio media may have aired, according to court records.

“This case has generated an unprecedented barrage of publicity in Putnam County starting when the fire first happened and continuing through today,” he attorneys wrote in court records.

Columbus also would be a convenient location for the trial since it’s home to one of the prosecutors, one of Richey’s attorneys, and the judge. Columbus also is convenient for Richey’s out-of-state attorneys, they wrote in court records.

Moving the trial to Columbus would allow a jury to try Richey only on the evidence presented at trial. Potential jurors in Putnam County have been overexposed to media coverage, his attorneys wrote.

“They know two facts about the June 30, 1986, fire at the Columbus Grove apartment. First, defendant Kenneth Richey was convicted and sentenced to death for setting the fire. Second, that the fire was the result of arson,” his attorneys wrote.

Read more about the Kenneth Richey case at www.limaohio.com/richey

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