Evidence delays Rebecca Park case; unborn baby’s remains still missing

• The prosecutor within the Rebecca Park homicide case is below investigation for failing to supply proof to the protection in time.
• The defendants’ attorneys, Cortney and Bradly Bartholomew, sought to dismiss the fees.
• In the meantime, investigators haven’t but situated the physique of Park’s unborn child, limiting the fees prosecutors can deliver.

The prosecution within the high-profile Rebecca Park case is below scrutiny after legal professionals dismissed homicide prices towards two relations due to delays in acquiring the required proof in time – in what a former prosecutor described as an “inexcusable” prosecutorial failure.

In the meantime, a key piece of proof within the case that citizen investigators and true crime influencers proceed to push on-line is the situation of the physique of Park’s unborn child. Investigators are nonetheless trying to find the stays of the unborn child who authorities say died after being reduce from Park’s womb.

Throughout what was to have been a possible trigger convention on Jan. 13 in Wexford County, attorneys for Cortney and Bradly Bartholomew argued that if the prosecution is unwilling to show over the required discovery — together with police reviews, post-mortem reviews or different bodily proof — the Bartholomews ought to by no means have been charged. The couple, Park’s organic mom and her husband, are charged with the homicide.

The prosecutor had 21 days to show over the invention. However the couple’s attorneys, Tracie Dinehart and Harry Mihas, argued in court docket that the one paperwork they reviewed had been the affidavits towards their shoppers, which they first obtained on Fb relatively than by means of the prosecutor. Regardless of repeated requests for discovery, the attorneys stated the Michigan Lawyer Basic’s Workplace informed them the case stays below investigation.

Mihas stated in the course of the court docket listening to that the invention was “held hostage” and “cease enjoying video games with the lives of our consumer.” And Dinehart stated her consumer’s due course of was violated due to the delay. “My consumer continues to be in custody with out bond,” she stated of Cortney Bartholomew.

In a press release to the Free Press, the Michigan Lawyer Basic’s Workplace, which is helping the Wexford County investigation, described the protection’s transfer as an try and put the case within the “court docket of public opinion.”

Each the Wexford County Prosecutor’s Workplace and the Lawyer Basic’s Workplace have been in “fixed communication relating to the invention” with the protection, Kimberly Bush, a spokesperson for the Lawyer Basic’s Division, stated in an e mail.

“As you possibly can think about, the invention on this case is in depth and comprises a variety of delicate data. Sadly, the protection crew has denied our request to guard and protect proof from public dissemination till trial. There was no delay in offering discovery on our behalf, and any allegations on the contrary are merely an try to maneuver this case from the court docket to the court docket of public opinion.”

The prosecutor argued in court docket that discovery can be accessible quickly, and that it’s “inappropriate” for attorneys to imagine that the Division of Lawyer Basic has “dug its heels.”

Extra: Suspects informed police that Rebecca Park’s child had been put within the cooler and thrown within the trash

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Attorneys for the Bartholomews have declined requests from the Free Press for remark.

“It’s completely inexcusable that there’s now a show-cause listening to … during which the District Lawyer’s Workplace explains why it failed to supply data to attorneys in what could also be one of the vital horrific instances and horrific truth patterns that I can consider,” John Freeman, a Bloomfield Hills legal professional and former federal and state prosecutor, informed the Free Press when requested in regards to the delay in discovery.

“I am unable to consider a reputable cause… And I am unable to consider a greater option to screw up a seemingly easy prosecution.”

Decide Corey Wiggins of the 84th District famous that the legal professional common’s workplace is searching for a discovery safety order. A show-cause listening to is now scheduled for 10 a.m. on January 30.

The legislation requires prosecutors to make discovery early within the proceedings in order that the protection has sufficient time to arrange. If that does not occur, judges can impose sanctions they deem acceptable – together with exclusion of proof not turned over in time, or in excessive instances, dismissal. Freeman stated the request to dismiss the fees from Bartholomew’s attorneys is what you’ll anticipate, though these requests are not often granted on this state of affairs.

“Any dismissal could be unconditional, that means the prosecutor might refile the fees,” Freeman stated.

The prosecutor can have a chance to elucidate himself in the course of the show-cause listening to scheduled for late January.

The search continues

On the identical time, the absence of the unborn child’s physique might restrict the fees prosecutors can deliver.

Underneath Michigan legislation, homicide prices particularly involving the kid require proof that the child was born alive exterior the womb — a typical that’s tough to fulfill with out bodily proof.

That proof often comes from medical proof – corresponding to proof of respiratory, a heartbeat or different indicators of life – usually decided by means of an post-mortem.

With out an post-mortem, it will be “very, very difficult” to show that Park’s baby lived exterior the mom’s womb, Freeman stated.

The Bartholomews are accused of killing Park, who went lacking when she was 38 weeks pregnant, and slicing her unborn child from her womb. Authorities would discover the younger mom’s physique on November 25 within the Huron-Manistee Nationwide Forest. The Bartholomews are charged with eight counts of homicide, together with first-degree homicide, torture and assault on a pregnant lady with the intent to trigger a miscarriage or stillbirth.

The Wexford County Prosecutor’s Workplace declined to remark when beforehand requested about potential homicide prices towards Park’s unborn child.

The Bartholomews gave detectives totally different tales about how and why Park was killed, together with pointing to alternate suspects earlier than in the end blaming one another for the homicide of the pregnant lady and the dying of her unborn child, in accordance with an affidavit detailing police interviews with the suspects.

Cortney Bartholomew informed detectives that her husband deliberate the killing as a part of a revenge plot towards Park’s fiancée, who allegedly initiated an investigation that landed Bradly Bartholomew again in jail for a intercourse offender registration violation, the affidavit stated.. In the meantime, Bradly Bartholomew informed detectives that “Cortney was indignant as a result of Rebecca at all times bad-mouthed her and would not give her an opportunity to be a mom,” and that “Cortney wished the child for herself.”

The affidavit additionally states that Cortney Bartholomew admitted to slicing the child from Park’s womb, and he or she and her husband each admitted to disposing of the kid in a blue lunch cooler that was thrown right into a random trash can, the affidavit particulars.

Within the affidavits towards the Bartholomews, each informed investigators that the child by no means breathed and that they by no means heard the kid cry, the paperwork present. In keeping with the affidavit, Cortney Bartholomew tried to resuscitate the kid.

Andrea Sahouri covers prison justice for the Detroit Free Press. Contact her at asahouri@freepress.com.