There may have been a setback for Ronald Weiss in his appeal of Judge Tom Bianco’s rejection of a motion to dismiss Weiss’s murder case.
The State Superior Court has ordered Weiss to show cause why it should not quash his appeal, and it appears to be a timing issue. Citing two previous rulings for other defendants in other cases, the court questions why the Weiss appeal should not be dismissed as premature. The order was issued a week ago, giving Weiss ten days to respond. That sets a deadline of Sunday.
The Superior Court got the case last month after Weiss’s attorney appealed Bianco’s August ruling that allows the case to move forward with re-prosecution for the murder of 16-year-old Barbara Bruzda of Tunnelton. She disappeared in October of 1978 after being with Weiss at her father’s bar. Her body was found in March of 1979 and Weiss was finally convicted of the murder in 1997. But a federal judge overturned the conviction based on prosecutorial misconduct by the state attorney general’s office.
Judge Bianco has accepted the argument by Deputy Attorney General Gregory Simatic that the prosecutorial misconduct and Weiss’s guilt or innocence are two separate issues, and has ruled that the legal concept of double jeopardy does not apply.
