A judge has denied the defense’s motion to dismiss the case for deliberate intrusion into Floyd Galloway’s attorney-client privilege, marking the latest update in the Danielle Stislicki case.
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Judge denies motion to dismiss Danielle Stislicki murder case
A judge has denied the defense’s motion to dismiss the case for deliberate intrusion into Floyd Galloway’s attorney-client privilege, marking the latest update in the Danielle Stislicki case.
Oakland County Judge Phyllis McMillen said the motion, in which the defense argued that Galloway’s rights to due process and a fair trial were violated, was denied without prejudice.
This motion was filed over evidence that was illegally shared by James Hoppe, the polygraph operator who was hired by Galloway’s attorney.
The defendant argued that while the Michigan attorney general wasn’t responsible for illegally sharing the information, that she and her staff are responsible for furthering the spread of the information during litigation that forced then-chief of Troy police, Gary Mayer, to reveal Hoppe as being the source of the information.
The motion also pointed to the attorney general to pass the case onto “untainted individuals” to prosecute the case.
McMillen said that if someone who wasn’t exposed to illegally shared information were picked to prosecute the case, then “the taint might be contained,” but she says there is a lot of work that still needs to be done to decide if other illegally shared information needs to be suppressed.
“To properly analyze these issues, it seems clear that the attorney representing the People will have to know what confidential information was received to advocate on whether it had an impact on the discovery of other evidence,” said McMillen in the court filing. “If the Attorney General were to pass the case on to an untainted prosecutor at this time, we would be right back in the situation we find ourselves now, with the prosecutor being in possession of confidential information. It would be more appropriate to pass the prosecution to an untainted attorney after this phase of the litigation has concluded.”
The evidence that has been excluded from the trial:
- Danielle Stislicki’s Fitbit, keys, and telephone, and forensic data retrieved from her phone.
- The testimony of persons working at Tim Hortons.
- Surveillance footage and phone records from Tim Hortons.
- Surveillance footage from a gas station near Tim Hortons.
- Information from the Green Cab company.
Oakland County and state appeals courts have
ruled in favor of suppressing the evidence. In the state appeals case, the decision was not unanimous.
Nessel then filed paperwork with the Supreme Court asking for a writ of certiorari to be granted. Writs of certiorari is a request that the Supreme Court order a lower court to send up the record of the case for review.
The Supreme Court is not required to hear these cases, and usually only considers them if the case could have national significance, might harmonize conflicting decisions in the federal Circuit courts, or could have precedential value. The Court accepts 100-150 of the more than 7,000 cases that it is asked to review each year.
