Sarissa Montague explains preliminary exam delay in murder case of Rebecca Park and her unborn baby
Markou Montague Levine Defense Managing Partner Sarissa Montague spoke with media following a discovery dispute that is delaying the preliminary examination in the case involving the death of Rebecca Park and her unborn son in Wexford County.
Defense attorneys for Cortney and Bradley Bartholomew said inconsistencies in how evidence is numbered have raised questions about whether both defendants have received the same discovery.
The Bartholomews are charged with first-degree murder, felony murder, torture and other crimes related to the death of Park and her unborn baby. Cortney Bartholomew is the biological mother of Park.
A dispute over thousands of pages of evidence brought the Nov. 9 preliminary examination to a halt. Prosecutors acknowledged a discrepancy in their numbering system but disputed that thousands of pages of evidence are actually missing. Defense attorneys said there is a roughly 3,000-page discrepancy between the discovery materials they've received.
“The court has a wide range of options when it comes to how it's going to handle a situation,” Montague said in an interview with Up North Live. “It could be as simple as the prosecutor turning the information over to the defense. But ultimately, a case can get dismissed if there is a discovery violation.”
Montague is not involved in the case, but she said discovery violations can have serious consequences, depending on the circumstances.
“Keeping in mind that this is a very large case, it sounds like there is a ton of information for the prosecutor to provide to the defense,” said Montague. “Maybe the numbers got misplaced or maybe the documents got misplaced, whatever it might be. But I think whether there is an intentional hiding of information versus just a mistake that's a big factor, I think, that will be considered.”
The judge adjourned the proceedings to give both sides time to work through the issue.
Watch the full interview, here.
