by George Gramlich
Hanme Clark, the alleged Custer County triple murderer had the venue for the trial changed to Fremont County from Custer based on a successful Motion by his defense counsel. The Motion was extensively argued against by the 11th Judicial
District District Attorney Jeff Lindsey.
The defense counsel argued that his defendant couldn’t get a fair trial in Custer County due to negative local, state and national publicity and the fact that Custer County is one of the smallest counties in the state (voter registration is around 4,700 people and as noted by the defense counsel, over 800 of those are below the age for jury duty) and that it would be very difficult to find an impartial jury as the publicity generated negative attitudes in the jury pool.
District Attorney Lindsey noted that there was no evidence at all that the media coverage presented would prevent Clark from having a fair trial.
District Court Judge Lauren Swan was persuaded by the defense counsel’s arguments. She also had some concern that the small Custer County courtroom can be a problem as this is a national level case and there would a lot of media interest in it.
The next Motions Hearing in the case is scheduled for June 23rd and will be held in Fremont County. The trial is scheduled for late
September.