The attorney for 70-year-old Ronald Weiss on Friday filed a brief in support of his motion to dismiss the case against his client, who is facing a possible retrial for the murder of 16-year-old Barbara Bruzda of Tunnelton more than forty years ago.
The motion is based on the legal concept of double jeopardy, after a federal judge last year ordered Weiss released from prison due to prosecutorial misconduct during the trial in 1997. Judge Mark Hornak ruled that the prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General John Scott Robinette, and a state trooper deliberately misled the jury by claiming that two prison inmates who testified against Weiss had not been offered preferential treatment, when clearly they had. After his release, Weiss was immediately re-arrested for retrial.
Last month, Indiana County Judge Thomas Bianco ruled that testimony offered by Robinette at a hearing in January may be considered without restriction in determining the issue of double jeopardy, giving attorney Taylor Malcolm Johnson until May 27th to file his brief. Johnson beat that deadline by ten days.
Deputy Attorney General Gregory Simatic argues that the admissibility of Robinette’s testimony and Weiss’s guilt or innocence are separate issues, and Weiss should be tried again for murder.
Judge Bianco has given both sides until June 10th to file supplemental or reply briefs.
