Judge won’t delay trial for Moniteau County prosecutor
A mid-Missouri judge won’t delay the trial for Moniteau County prosecutor Shayne Healea.
Judge Rick Tucker kept the Sept. 4 trial date set for Healea’s assault and leaving the scene of an accident case. The multiday trial will take place in nearby Shelby County, with 70 possible jurors called.
Healea is accused of backing his truck into Addison’s Restaurant in downtown Columbia on Oct. 25, 2014, while drunk. The crash injured four people inside Addison’s, and a patron had to flag down Healea as he left the parking lot. Healea admitted to the crash the day after, but denied knowing he hit the building.
Healea’s attorney, Shane Farrow, asked for a delay since he claims he does not have all the information from the Columbia Police Department on a video recording made of Healea in a holding cell the night of his arrest. A special master ruled in 2016 that the video constituted a violation of Healea’s attorney-client privilege, but did not warrant a case dismissal. Farrow said he wanted to know more about an internal review CPD did after a citizen complaint over the issue.
Tucker said he would order the city of Columbia to turn over the internal report, review it behind closed doors and decide if any information within it was relevant to the case.
Prosecutors with the attorney general’s office, whose office is handling the case, said the video no longer exists on city servers, and the department no longer has access to it. Nicole Volkert, an attorney for the city that works primarily with CPD, said only a handful of people were aware of the video’s existence, and she did not know if anyone had viewed the video. Prosecutors have argued that no one has reviewed the video after it was burned onto a CD.
Healea has also brought up possible issues with CPD’s search warrant to obtain blood evidence. Prosecutors claim the evidence shows Healea’s blood alcohol content was above the legal limit the night of the crash. Farrow has argued that CPD did not prepare the warrant properly.
The department told ABC 17 News that it made changes to its holding cells after Healea’s attorney raised the issue in 2016. There is now one cell equipped with only video, meaning the department cannot hear any conversations had within the cell, if a person needed to make a confidential call.
