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SPRINGFIELD - A lawyer for Jason D. Strickland, the Westfield man accused of assaulting his stepdaughter Haleigh Poutre, is asking that his trial be moved to Berkshire or Franklin counties.
Saying Strickland cannot receive a fair trial here, Alan J. Black filed a motion in Hampden Superior Court seeking a change of venue for the Oct. 16 trial. As an alternative to moving the entire proceeding out of the Springfield court, Black suggested that jurors could be selected from the other counties and brought here to hear the case.
Black cited the intense pre-trial publicity and the nature of the offenses as reasons why an impartial jury could not be selected in Springfield. The Poutre case, in which the then 11-year-old girl was left unresponseive and brain-damaged, served as an impetus for a major overhault in the state's child care and protection services.
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In a related development, well-known defense lawyer Joseph A. Franco has been appointed by Judge Judd J. Carhart to represent the child's privacy interests regarding medical and psychological information in the Strickland case. Carhart is specially assigned to hear that case................
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"The number of local articles and news stories is staggering," Black wrote. "Because this publicity has been maintained for almost three years, the public has likely been conditioned not only to link the defendant with these charges but to assume his guilt."
Haleigh Poutre abuse trial venue change sought
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