For those who are unfamiliar with the Aarone Thompson case, a detailed description of this case would take several blog entries. In short, in 2005 in Aurora, Colorado, Aaron Thompson (the defendant in the case) reported to Aurora police that his daughter, nine year old daughter Aaroné, had runaway from home. The police conducted an extensive search of the residence over the period of several months and found no evidence that Aaron Thompson had murdered his daughter. To this date, Aarone and her body have not been discovered and there is no physical evidence supporting a case for murder. In 2006, an Arapahoe County Grand Jury indicted Aaron Thompson of sixty counts including child abuse resulting in death. (For a more complete chronology, go to: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_9106442 ).
During the trial, much of the prosecution’s case has been built on speculation as to what method Mr. Thompson may have used to dispose of Aarone’s body coupled with an apparant history of physical abuse by Mr. Thompson towards his other children. To that end, the state’s case has included testimony by other witnesses (including the other Thompson kids) about acts of physical abuse towards the children.
The trial of Aaron Thompson has been ongoing in Arapahoe County District Court for nearly two months with five weeks of testimony by prosecution witness. On September 9, 2009, the defense rested its case.
Today, one day after the defense had rested and with the case ready to be sent to the jury, prosecutors dropped a bombshell in the form of 100 pages of evidence which had never before turned over to the defense. The documents contained absolutely new information that police investigators had on August 10 (while the trial was still ongoing!) discovered a vehicle, presumably owned by Mr. Thompson, at his residence. The prosecution has not stated how it the police, over the past several years in which they have been handling the case, did not locate a motor vehicle at Mr. Thompson’s residence. How do you miss something that big?
Now, the case is in turmoil as the defense team will likely push for a mistrial and either or both sides of the case will push for testing and an examination of the contents of the motor vehicle for any physical evidence. Conceivably, evidence in the vehicle could exonerate Mr. Thompson.
Unfortunately, people sometimes assume that the police and prosecutors will always act dilligently to turn over documents and evidence in the case to satisfy their requirements under the Colorado and U.S. Constitutions. The reality can be far from the ideal and raises a bigger issue:
- If such an abuse of process could happen in a high profile case, such as the Aarone Thompson matter, involving hundreds of witnesses, massive resources spent by the county and state, years of work by investigators and experts, and a large staff of prosecuters compiling, organizing and presenting this evidence . . . .what could happen your case?
UPDATE SEPTEMBER 11, 2009
Prosecutors in court admitted that they knew about the vehicle, went ahead and tested it, found nothing and didn’t bother informing the Defense or providing them information until nearly the end of trial. The Defense has not asked for a mistrial at this time but reserves the right to request it at a later date. In the meantime, the court has permitted the Defense to re-open its case.
Filed under: Criminal Cases, Due Process
