Posted on 12/04/2002 4:57:13 PM PST by Marianne
James C. Kopp may testify next week before the Erie County grand jury that today was expected to begin considering whether to indict him on an additional murder charge in the sniper slaying of Amherst physician Barnett A. Slepian.
Deputy District Attorney Joseph J. Marusak told Erie County Judge Michael L. D'Amico that he has scheduled a Dec. 11 session of the newly empaneled grand jury to hear from Kopp, providing that he chooses to make an appearance.
Although Marusak told the judge that Kopp's attorneys have notified him in writing that he plans to testify before the grand jury, attorneys Bruce A. Barket and John V. Elmore said Tuesday that Kopp still was undecided.
Also Tuesday, the first witness to contact police about noticing Kopp near Slepian's Amherst home testified that Kopp "drew attention to himself by jogging in a most strange manner" five days before the fatal shooting Oct. 23, 1998.
A 45-year-old East Amherst man told D'Amico that he had no trouble picking out Kopp's picture days after the slaying or during a lineup last August.
The man, whose identify was withheld from the news media, testified that Kopp "was dressed strangely," in a hooded black sweat shirt, wearing "very thick glasses" and holding both his hands up "as though he was training for a fight" as he jogged in the neighborhood Oct. 18, 1998.
The witness, testifying in a pretrial identification hearing that will resume next week, told the judge that he noticed Kopp jogging while he was driving that afternoon.
The man, now studying for a graduate degree, testified that he called an FBI toll-free tip line after he saw Kopp's photograph in The Buffalo News on Nov. 4, 1998.
Earlier Tuesday, Kopp told D'Amico that he wants Barket, a Long Island attorney and former prosecutor, to represent him in both the state and federal murder trials in the case.
Outside County Hall, Barket and Elmore indicated that they are planning to appeal U.S. Magistrate Judge Hugh B. Scott's decision barring Barket from handling Kopp's federal case.
"There is an appellate process, and we will exercise our rights on that," Barket said.
Barket said that both trials are "all about abortion" and that he does not find any legal "conflict" in his representing Kopp and Loretta C. Marra, who will stand trial in federal court in New York City.
5 years back they'd been all over this one, pulling press conferences every day, huffing and puffing, panting, all the nonsense they get into to get attention.
Just what is there about this case that they want to walk away from it?
They need do nothing...this bad guy is doing it all.
Atomic Dog's story is not news anywhere but Buffalo.
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