Defense attorneys are arguing that the prosecution is behaving unethically in the evidence they presented to a grand jury, which resulted in the indictment of an Irish nanny for murdering the one-year-old girl she was tasked with caring for, and have asked that the case be dismissed, as reported by the Boston Globe.
According to defense attorneys the case presented by the office of Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan did not meet the lowest legal threshold of probable cause before A.B. was accused with the crime of murder.
A.B.'s attorneys are thereby requesting that a judge dismiss both a first-degree murder charge and a charge for
assault and
battery on a child causing serious bodily injury on the grounds of "impairment of the integrity of the grand jury proceedings" and for "lack of probable cause."
Ryan has since issued a statement that read, "This motion filing by the defense is the standard course of action in this type of criminal proceeding. We are in the process of drafting our response, and we will be prepared to fully argue the motion at the next hearing."
According to the prosecution R.S. died due to "abusive head trauma" caused by A.B. on January 14 when the nanny was wholly responsible for the child's well-being in the family's Cambridge home. On that date R.S. was discovered, unresponsive in her crib, and taken to a Boston hospital. Two days after the accident she succumbed to her injuries.
A.B., arraigned on April 18 in Middlesex Superior Court, pleaded not guilty. She was ordered to be held without bail and faces deportation back to Ireland. Federal officials have stated that A.B. was living illegally in Boston.
Assistant Middlesex district attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said that R.S.'s injuries were consistent with "violent shaking and direct impact to the head."
Melinda L. Thompson, A.B.'s defense attorney, claims that A.B. did not kill the child and has been wrongly accused by the prosecution.
Docket sheets cite two previous Supreme Judicial Court cases – well-known cases – that defense lawyers have used in the past to challenge the ethics of prosecutors, or their lack of evidence.
Boston-based defense attorney Stephen J. Weymouth, though not involved in this case, said he was surprised that with all that has been made public so far, that the defense is citing lack of evidence.
Weymouth commented, "It seems like a long shot." He felt that the stronger of the two allegations against the prosecutors would be the one of ethics because of the length of time between A.B.'s arrest and her indictment. A.B. was arrested on January 21 and indicted 80 days afterwards.
The murder of a child, intentional or not, is without a doubt a very serious crime. A defense team will seek out everything within their power to have the case dismissed while the prosecution will do the same to make sure the charges stick. Do yourself a favor, and contact a defense attorney today if you have been charged with a crime.
