Special prosecutor hands over drowning case
On Tuesday Amanda Grellner told ABC 17 News she has officially handed over the case regarding Brandon Ellingson’s drowning.
She would not say though who she handed it over to.
ABC 17 News called the Morgan County clerk who said she did not have any paperwork on who the new prosecutor is besides there was a motion to appoint one.
She said we will likely not to know who it is until charges are filed.
However in this case, the big question is will charges be filed?
Will Trooper Anthony Piercy be held responsible for the drowning of Brandon Ellingson?
Or was it an accident like the jury ruled at last year’s coroner’s inquest?
The Ellingson’s lawyer, Matt Boles, said he too does not know who the new prosecutor is on Tuesday.
Ellingson was the 20-year-old who drowned while in Highway Patrol custody at the Lake of the Ozarks last summer.
In September, Amanda Grellner who is the prosecutor in Osage County, announced she would not be filing charges against trooper Anthony Piercy.
It was just a couple of months ago Grellner told ABC17 News she was re-opening the case.
She said was going back to interview eyewitnesses again.
Now she said she is handing the case over to a new prosecutor, and the reason being, a conflict of interest.
For the past year ABC 17 News has reported numerous times on the mistakes and even allegations of negligence by Trooper Piercy which led to Ellingson’s drowning.
Some of those include putting the wrong lifevest on Ellingson, driving the boat at an excessive speed, and Piercy changing his account of what happened that day.
Grellner was chosen to look at this case because of the Morgan County prosecutor’s conflict of interest.
But now, almost a year after Ellingon’s death, Grellner is coming forward with her own conflict of interest.
She said, “what I can tell you is that a conflict arose with some of the new information I was seeking and reviewing which required that I remove myself from the case.”
She would not elaborate on the exact conflict. She did say she was close to making a decision.
What decision that was going to be she would not say.
